Always keep an eye out for the midweek shows at the Pittsburgh Improv; they are some of the best of the year.

One of the best minds in comedy, Doug Stanhope, will come to town Oct. 21.

Stanhope, a past winner of the prestigious San Francisco Comedy Competition, has done a Showtime special, has been featured at comedy festivals such as Montreal Just for Laughs Festival and churns out Grade-A comedy material like McDonald's churns out hamburgers.

He has released nine CDs and several DVDs, with the latest being “Beer Hall Putsch.”

Coarse and misanthropic, Stanhope says his material is “all the stuff we talk about in the green room. The stuff that makes comics laugh.”

“I do it until I get sick of it,” he says. “(After) about a year and half, then I go on to something new.”

With a drink or cigarette in his hand, Stanhope “celebrates all his faults.” These days, it's vodka and soda with a splash of grapefruit.

“Am I generally happy? No,” Stanhope says. “But I like being miserable.”

He cites Bill Burr, Jim Norton and Nick Dipaolo as comedians who have successfully “used their bitterness as an asset.”

Stanhope doesn't get caught up in what everyone else is doing. “I couldn't name any of the Improv comics,” he says. “All of my (comedy) friends are in Vegas. That means I'm old.”

Still under 50 and perpetually wearing that “What's wrong with people,” look on his face, Stanhope isn't worried about mining easy laughs from life; he seems to be constantly working out the next great bit in his mind that requires people to think and laugh.

Comedian Matt Wohlfarth is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.

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