Doug Stanhope is the least ingratiating of comedians.

Whereas some comics go to Utah and make jokes about Mormonism, he goes to Utah and attacks audiences who want to see him attack Mormonism. “Just move,” he told a Salt Lake City crowd in his 2012 album, “Before Turning the Gun on Himself.”

Dave Chappelle might be thrown off his game by a bad crowd, but Mr. Stanhope, whose new stand-up special, “Beer Hall Putsch,” was just released on Netflix (with the accompanying album due on Sept. 17), seems to feed off hostile energy. So when he walked onstage in May at the B. B. King Blues Club & Grill in Times Square, it was no surprise that he insulted the club, New York and the Yankees. (“Rooting for the Yankees,” he once said, “is like going to a casino and rooting for the house.”) Or that he predicted that B. B. King would soon die. He was just getting started.

On that spring night, Mr. Stanhope spotted a woman sitting up front, stone-faced, looking away from him. He berated her, saying that she was not at a Broadway show and that he would not pretend that there was a fourth wall. She kept frowning.

The hostility turned into an odd grudge match. He told her to leave and cursed at her. Nothing changed. As minutes went by, the tension in the room turned to slight anxiety. Was he going to do his set? “I will focus in a minute,” he croaked, and then reconsidered. “I might not.”