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  • Artie Lange Announces Release Date For "Halfway House" Podcast

    Artie Lange Announces Release Date For "Halfway House" Podcast

    The 51-year-old comedian announced his new podcast on Twitter and Instagram. 

    After being on the comedy circuit for the last couple months, Artie Lange is ready to get in the studio and talk it out.

    The comedian took to social media to announce that his new podcast “Artie Lange’s Halfway House” is set to premiere on December 2nd. NJ.com reports that comedian Mike Bocchetti, the announcer on Lange’s previous podcast “The Artie Lange Show,” will co-host “Halfway House.” 

    2019 has been a year of rebuilding and rehabilitation for Lange who has battled addiction for decades. 

    Drug Court Saved His Life

    In June 2018, Lange was sentenced to four years of probation for being found in possession of heroin during a May 2017 arrest. Then in December 2018, Lange tested positive for cocaine and instead of being penalized with jail time Judge Nancy Sivilli opted to send the struggling comedian to drug court, a move which he lauded on Twitter.

    “The judge and Prosecutor were unbelievably compassionate,” Lange tweeted after his court appearance. “I’m not high. So I see it clearly now. They wanna save my life. 10 days ago when I left rehab I had to touch the flame,” he said about his cocaine relapse.

    “I have work to do,” Lange added. “I feel now I can also stop Cocaine. But that’s arrogance and addiction. I’m accepting help. If I fail now I will go to jail. Jail is not for addicts. But I’d be giving them no choice. When I use illegal drugs I have to score them. That’s breaking the law.”

    On January 30, 2019, Lange was arrested after testing positive for cocaine twice in a two-month period. He spent under a week in jail after which he entered long-term rehab. Lange says he’s been sober ever since.

    On The Road Again

    In September, Lange hit the road for the first time since completing his drug rehab program. He addressed his addiction, rehab and past relationships in his new routine.

    “I had three fiancées who left me because of heroin. Heroin saved me a lot of money,” Lange joked. “Divorce would’ve been way more expensive than the drugs.”

    In another joke, he poked fun at himself and Diff’rent Strokes actor Todd Bridges who has famously battled addiction but has been sober since 1994. 

    “I burned all the bridges you can burn in show business, that’s why I’m in Bridgeport. I was in the crack house recently, I was trying to light a crack pipe and I burned Todd Bridges.”

    Lange currently has tour dates set up through January 2020. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Artie Lange Speaks On Addiction, Legal Troubles In Comeback Tour

    Artie Lange Speaks On Addiction, Legal Troubles In Comeback Tour

    In the opening show, Lange touched on past relationships, Todd Bridges, and having a brand of heroin named after him.

    Comedian Artie Lange is on a stand-up comeback tour after completing rehab and being released in September. During a recent show, he opened up about some of his past experiences with drugs and got real when it came to the addiction disorder that has dogged him for decades.

    Lange posted on his Twitter account on September 10 announcing that he was back home and feeling good.

    “Great to be home!” he wrote. “7 months 14 days sober but one day at a time. Lots of new stories to tell. Will announce some new tour dates on Friday. Thanks for the support. Love you all.”

    The First Stop Of The Tour

    Radar Online outlined the most notable moments from the first show of Lange’s tour on October 18, in which the former Howard Stern Show co-host touched on his past relationships, life in prison, and how drugs have affected his life.

    “I had three fiancées who left me because of heroin. Heroin saved me a lot of money,” Lange joked. “Divorce would’ve been way more expensive than the drugs.”

    Lange was in a relationship with Dana Cironi from 2002 to 2006 and was with Adrienne Ockrymiek from 2009 to 2014.

    He also joked about his former use of crack cocaine and “burning bridges.”

    “I burned all the bridges you can burn in show business, that’s why I’m in Bridgeport. I was in the crack house recently, I was trying to light a crack pipe and I burned Todd Bridges.”

    A fellow actor, Bridges struggled with addiction to crack in his 20s. He entered rehab in 1992 and has been sober ever since.

    They Named Heroin After Him

    Later, Lange treated audiences to a story about being sold a bag of heroin that was named after him.

    “Here’s the f—ked up thing, on the marquee where I was performing, they had my name spelled wrong. On the bag, it was spelled perfectly!” he said. As funny as it might have been, Lange didn’t feel all that good about the way he was being admired. “My name was on poison dude. Kids are taking this… I guess I am a famous scumbag!”

    At the end of the show, Lange got serious, advising his audience to avoid the difficult life that he’s had to struggle through thanks largely to addiction while also showing his appreciation to the fans who have stuck with him through the bad times.

    “The fact that you guys come out on a Friday to support me means everything to me. Tell your kids to never touch drugs.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Artie Lange: Out of Rehab & Looking For "Balance" As He Begins Touring

    Artie Lange: Out of Rehab & Looking For "Balance" As He Begins Touring

    “This is when the hard work begins. It’s not one day at a time; it’s really one moment at a time,” Lange said.

    After exiting a three-month stint in rehab on September 10 with seven months of sobriety under his belt, comedian Artie Lange announced his return to the stage with a string of live dates in the Northeastern United States.

    “I’m blessed to be alive,” he told the Times Union in a September 19 interview, where he was also quick to acknowledge that maintaining a sober life and a busy schedule would provide challenges. To counter that, Lange said that one of his priorities was to find what he described as “balance.”

    New Material

    Lange, who spent much of 2019 in rehab facilities and halfway houses, told the Times Union that he used that time to work on both his personal and professional lives. That eventually produced a follow-up to his best-selling 2008 memoir, tentatively titled Rippin’ and Runnin’: Life on Drug Court, as well as 14 hours of new stand-up material.

    “That’s what I do – mine my life for humor, for stories,” he said. Even the darkest moments provided the inspiration for comedy: “There’d be a crazy thing that was happening to me on the road, I would go in my head, ‘Wow, this is a scary situation I’ve got to get out of right now, but it’ll be great for the stage.’”

    Though Lange appeared to be ready to resume his comedy career, he admitted that the challenges are ever-present. “This is when the hard work begins,” he noted. “It’s not one day at a time; it’s really one moment at a time.”

    His Nose Serves As A Reminder

    But as he noted with rueful humor, he had a constant reminder of the dangers inherent to falling back into his old behavior patterns. Every time he looked in a mirror, he saw the wear and tear weathered by his nose from decades of drug use.

    “I will eventually fix it,” Lange told the Times Union. “But now it’s a reminder of what happened to me and the nutty life that I somehow lived through, and hopefully young people will see what can happen. I look like a boxer. I never got a fight in a ring in my life; I fought with drugs and addiction. I want to keep it now as a reminder, to keep me good.”

    For Lange, “good” meant maintaining sobriety and celebrating milestones that he thought impossible to achieve while actively pursuing his addiction. He noted that he will have eight months of sobriety on September 30 and mark his 52nd birthday soon after, on October 11. “I didn’t think I’d make it to 50, that’s for sure,” he said. “I didn’t think I was ever going to be an old person.”

    To assure that those and other milestones are within his grasp, Lange said that his focus for the immediate future was to strike the right balance between all the aspects of his life. “I’ve got to get that,” he said. “Absolutely.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Artie Lange Is Seven Months Sober & Home From Rehab

    Artie Lange Is Seven Months Sober & Home From Rehab

    Lange took to Twitter to announce his return home and his intention to start touring again.

    Comedian Artie Lange is home from rehab, sober and ready to begin touring again, he announced on Twitter. 

    Lange posted a photo on Tuesday (Sept. 10) that showed him looking healthier than he did earlier in the year. 

    “Great to be home!” Lange wrote. “7 months 14 days sober but one day at a time. Lots of new stories to tell.  Will announce some new tour dates on Friday. Thanks for the support. Love you all.”

    Lange, who was a fixture on The Howard Stern Show, has had a long-time battle with addiction. Lange was arrested in February for violating his parole by testing positive for cocaine and morphine. The parole was the result of 2017 possession charges. 

    Sober Living Home

    At the time, Lange’s representative said that he would be entering treatment. “It’s time,” the rep said. In March, it was reported that Lange was in a sober living home in New Jersey. In April, a friend posted a video of Lange working on a garbage truck to Lange’s twitter account. 

    “We heard from Artie this morning, HA! -> “It’s true i’m working to satisfy my drug court program. I work with great people. Nothing wrong with a little hard work. Love you all and can’t wait to be back on stage,” the accompanying post read. 

    In May, Lange posted a video of himself pumping gas at a New Jersey station. 

    “I gotta pump gas for 10 more days and then I’m satisfying the program I think. If this gets back to Howard, tell him I love him. I love him to death and I miss him,” Lange said. “I gotta pump gas! I’ll be back onstage soon, though. I promise.”

    Violating Parole

    However, later that month Lange was arrested for again violating the term of his parole. 

    “Lange is non-compliant. Consequently, he will be taken into custody by officers from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He will be returned to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark,” an official said at the time. 

    Initial reports were that Lange would be in treatment throughout the summer. However, in late August a source told Radar Online that Lange would be in rehab indefinitely. 

    “Artie is doing well and staying sober,” the source said. 

    Radar reported that Lange could still face charges in relation to drug possession or his parole violations. 

    Lange’s former co-host Howard Stern opened up in May about how difficult it has been to watch his friend grapple with drug addiction. 

    “What’s happening with Artie makes me very sad. We’ve lost touch, and that’s my doing,” he said. “I got my fingers crossed for the guy. And it wasn’t a clean break. It was many years of wanting Artie to get help. I know that a lot of fans want me to talk about Artie and feel it’s a cop-out for me not to. I’ll take that. I don’t want to do anything that would rock his boat.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Artie Lange "Doing Well," Back In Rehab After Probation Violation

    Artie Lange "Doing Well," Back In Rehab After Probation Violation

    Lange will reportedly stay in rehab until the end of summer. 

    Comedian Artie Lange, formerly of The Howard Stern Show, is reportedly “doing well” after being arrested for violating his probation following prosecution for heroin and cocain posession.

    Officials told Radar Online that Lange is “currently doing well and following the rules” and will be staying at a rehabilitation facility in Clinton Hill, New Jersey through the end of the summer.

    Legal Troubles

    Lange was arrested in May by the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, who said that he was “non-compliant” with his probation in spite of reports that the comedian was doing great. His most recent legal troubles started in 2017 with the possession charges, which resulted in him being ordered into an intensive six-month addiction treatment program in March.

    The arrests may be the best thing for him, according to individuals close to Lange who reportedly spoke to Radar Online. One “insider” said that Lange was in “self-destruct mode” and was avoiding a drug court program that could have helped him avoid prison time so that he could continue to use drugs.

    “He knows he won’t survive drug court,” the source said. “So he’s going to party as much as he can until he gets thrown in jail or a year-long rehab.”

    This isn’t the first time Lange has been arrested for drug possession and gone to a rehab program. After developing an addiction to alcohol and cocaine early in his comedy career, he attempted suicide in 1995 after running out of the stimulant and entered rehab and counseling.

    Artie’s History

    He then suffered a relapse in late 1996 and was arrested after fleeing an intervention staged by his fellow Mad TV cast members. He swore off cocaine in 1997, but continued to struggle with alcohol and opioid addiction, relapses, and mental illness, including another suicide attempt in 2010.

    Lange’s continuing struggles with addiction resulted in his leaving The Howard Stern Show after 10 years. In a Rolling Stone interview published in May, Stern finally opened up about his concern for his former co-host and friend’s health and state of mind after so many years of fighting an intense drug problem.

    “I’m very dismayed about where he’s at. I do care, but for a whole bunch of reasons that relationship had to stop,” Stern said. “Artie was on the show for 10 years. He’s a fantastic comedian. There’s nobody who could have sat in like that.”

    After his 2017 arrest, Lange often posted happy videos of himself doing his court-ordered community service work, giving the impression that all was well. However, Radar Online sources have said that the comedian’s health has been in decline due to his diabetes.

    “He’s had to have medical assistance several times already for his diabetes,” a source reported.

    Hopefully, the latest reports that he’s doing well will prove to be true.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Artie Lange Gets Another Chance After Drug Court Violation Arrest

    Artie Lange Gets Another Chance After Drug Court Violation Arrest

    The comedian was arrested in May for being “non-compliant.”

    Comedian Artie Lange will be allowed to continue his drug court probation despite having been arrested for violating its terms.

    According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Lange has been held at the Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey and will be held there for a couple weeks before being transferred to another facility. Where to, exactly, is not clear.

    Lange was arrested on May 21 at Freedom House, the halfway house where he was staying. The Essex County Sheriff’s Office said that Lange was sober and “coherent” at the time of his arrest. The manner in which Lange violated his probation terms is not clear. Some reports stated that Lange was caught with heroin, but the sheriff’s office denied this.

    “Lange is non-compliant. Consequently, he will be taken into custody by officers from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He will be returned to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark,” officials said. “All the stories gave the impression he was doing great, but that is not the case.”

    Lange was originally arrested on heroin charges. He received four years’ probation, which he has violated twice before this arrest. As part of his probation, he was required to get a local job as part of his work release.

    “I gotta pump gas for 10 more days and then I’m satisfying the program I think. If this gets back to Howard, tell him I love him. I love him to death and I miss him,” Lange said in a video posted last month. “I gotta pump gas! I’ll be back onstage soon, though. I promise.”

    Lange worked on The Howard Stern Show for eight years before parting ways with the host, the titular Howard Stern, due to Lange’s excessive drug use. But according to Lange, there are absolutely no hard feelings:

    “There’s a million times Howard said to me, ‘Go to rehab, take as long as you want, and when you come back, you got a job.’ What else can you expect, and I shit all over that because I was a drug addict. Howard did me right. I love him.”

    View the original article at thefix.com