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Dane Cook
Pseudonym:	Sav McCauley Gene Winterbuck Foreign Guy.
Born:	March 18, 1972 (age 35) Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Medium:	Stand up comedy, film, television
Nationality:	American
Years active:	1998-present
Website:	danecook.com

Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He has released two albums, Harmful If Swallowed and Retaliation, the latter of which went double platinum^[1] and became the highest charting comedy album in twenty-eight years.^[2] Cook performs on many television shows and in the fall of 2006 performed in his own HBO special, Vicious Circle. As an actor, Cook has appeared in fifteen films since 1997, and starred in the 2006 comedy Employee of the Month, with Jessica Simpson.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 2005 to present 3 Free Agency 4 Discography / Videography 5 Filmography 6 The SUperFInger 7 Content 8 Criticisms 8.1 Material 8.2 Yuk-Yuks controversy 8.2.1 Support for Cook 8.3 Tourgasm 9 References 10 See also 11 External links 11.1 News articles & interviews

Early life

Cook was born in Boston, to Donna and George Cook. He grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb and, along with his five sisters and one brother, was raised as a Roman Catholic.^[3] Growing up, Dane worked at Video Horizons and Burger King.

Career

In 1998, Cook was featured on Comedy Central's stand-up comedy showcase Premium Blend. The following year he appeared on the comedy network's Comics Come Home and the straight-to-video Dennis Rodman vehicle, Simon Sez as Rodman's partner, Nick Miranda.

Two years later, Cook pooled $25,000 of his own money from savings and retirement accounts and launched www.danecook.com, his own interactive website, to further his career and stay connected to his fans.^[1] Later, Cook would also become one of the first celebrities to make use of the global networking site MySpace. To date, Cook has over 1.6 million fans listed as friends on his profile.

In 2002 and 2003, Cook was featured as the voice of three puppets on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, which featured real prank phone calls being recorded in a studio and then re-enacted by puppets. Four of Cook's calls were aired between July 2002 and April 2003. He took on the aliases of Sav McCauley, Gene Winterbuck, and Foreign Guy.

Included with Cook's first comedy album, Harmful If Swallowed (2003) was a DVD with the Comedy Central special. Later that year, Cook wrote, directed, and starred in 8 Guys.

2005 to present

In 2005, Cook launched a nationwide tour dubbed "Tourgasm" after releasing his album Retaliation, which debuted at #4 on Billboard magazine's Top Albums chart. That year, he also played a role as a cook named Floyd in the movie Waiting....

During a May 2005 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Cook parodied Tom Cruise's "couch jumping" Oprah appearance and made a "tattoo" of Katie Holmes (actually a picture taped to his back) and barged into the women's restroom to get her.

During an October 2005 appearance on The Tonight Show, Charlize Theron gave him permission to kiss her butt. Cook was re-enacting a previous joke in which Theron kissed Shirley MacLaine's butt at a Premiere magazine tribute to women in Hollywood.

Cook also appeared and performed on Dave Attell's Insomniac Tour.

Soon after, he finished his own television pilot called Cooked, a program in which he will star and for which he will write.

On December 3, 2005, Cook hosted Saturday Night Live. He performed the longest monologue in the show's history (around ten minutes long); the episode was one of the highest-rated SNLs of the season (until the Steve Martin/Prince episode in February of 2006).^[4] However, Entertainment Weekly named it the fourth-worst show of the year.^[5]

Cook hosted SNL for a second time on the premiere of its thirty-second season, September 30, 2006.

On January 13, 2006, after months of keeping a "BIG secret" from his fans, he announced via his website an April 15 gig at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden where his first HBO special, Vicious Circle, would be eventually filmed. His first show sold out during the pre-sale phase of the on-sale, and a second show was added for the same night. In all, Dane Cook's Boston concert drew 36,000 fans in two shows, on the same night. A documentary series and a scripted program are also in the works for HBO.^[6] In the week prior to the televised gig, he performed at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas (April 8) and Allstate Arena in Chicago (April 13), the largest venues he has ever performed in those cities. Aside from airing on HBO, Vicious Circle is also being screened in select theaters and it features an additional 40 minutes of material.

September saw the release of Employee of the Month, Cook's first movie featuring him in the lead role. He co-starred alongside Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard. Response to this movie was lukewarm but made an acceptable box office performance.

At the end of December 2006, Cook released "I'll Never Be You" his first single. In the song, Dane refers to himself as a normal person ("My life stands still, watching where your life goes"), commenting with envy ("sometimes I picture myself beating you up") at a celebrity or otherwise popular person.

His mother died of cancer in 2006.

Free Agency

On February 9th, 2007 Dane was reportedly in talks with fellow comedian Scott Tolbert about signing Scott to Dane's label. Scott was released by Comedy Central on February 9th, for violating his contract. If Scott were to sign with Dane it would make him the first comedian to work for Dane under contract. No word yet if he has signed Scott to SUper FInger Entertainment.

Discography / Videography

• Harmful If Swallowed CD and DVD. Comedy Central, 2003.
• Retaliation Two CDs and DVD. Comedy Central, 2005.
• Vicious Circle DVD. HBO, 2006
• Dane Cook's Tourgasm DVD. HBO, 2006

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1997	Flypaper	Tim
1997	Buddy	Fair Cop
1999	Spiral	David
1999	Simon Sez	Nick Miranda
1999	Mystery Men	The Waffler
2002	L.A.X.	Terrell Chasman
2002	The Touch	Bob
2003	Stuck on You	Officer Fraioli
2003	8 Guys	Dane
2003	Windy City Heat	Roman Polanski
2004	Mr. 3000	Sausage Mascot
2004	Torque	Neil Luff
2005	Waiting...	Floyd
2005	London	George
2006	Employee of the Month	Zack Bradley
2007	Farce of the Penguins	Voice
2007	Mr. Brooks	Mr. Smith
2007	Dan in Real Life	Lowell Ashburn
2007	Good Luck Chuck	Chuck/Charlie

Cook was in Albuquerque, New Mexico filming a new movie called Employee of the Month, a comedy co-starring Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Efren Ramirez, and Harland Williams. He is also currently filming the psychological thriller Mr. Brooks in Shreveport, Louisiana with Kevin Costner. He was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2006.^[2]

Dane Cook's first HBO special, Vicious Circle, was aired on September 4, 2006. The double DVD was released on November 28, 2006. It is a 90-minute presentation which was filmed at TD Banknorth Garden in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts on a circular stage surrounded by the audience. The stage had on it the impression of his Super Finger hand gesture. Cook brought the same set to Madison Square Garden for back-to-back sold out shows on November 12, 2006.

Dane Cook is also an avid supporter of charities in his hometown Boston, Massachusetts. On November 15th, 2006 he attended the "Fun Run for Families" event in downtown Boston as a special guest celebrity runner. The event raised upwards of $10,000 for local families.

The SUperFInger

The SUperFInger or SU-FI is a hand gesture. It consists of raising the middle finger, ring finger, and thumb on the same hand while lowering (or curling) the index and pinky fingers. Cook's website explains his idea behind the SU-FI:

“

One night I did a bit on stage about 5 years ago at the Laugh Factory. I was talking about how the finger is lame now and it's lost its pizzazz. I said I wanted to upgrade the finger and so from now on people should use both the ring finger coupled with the middle finger. I called it the SUperFInger (or SU-FI).[7]

”

In 2005, Cook started his own company to produce his albums and videos, which he named SUperFInger Entertainment.^[8]

Content

Cook's style is principally observational humor.^{[citation needed]} He has commented that:

“

I wanted to create a stage persona for myself that allowed me to really speak on anything I want... So I can be a storyteller, I can be jokey, I can be corny, I can be a little vulgar, I can be a lot vulgar. And I'm not afraid to go anywhere to get the point of the joke across.

”

^{[citation needed]}

Cook utilizes a unique slang vocabulary to match his talkative manner. For example: A bad relationship is a "Relationshit", Walgreens is "The Wall," and a sandwich is a "sangwich".^[9] Similarly, he uses such acronyms as BAMF and SUFI, which are short for "Bad Ass Mother Fucker" and "SUperFInger, respectively." He also shortens words to keep the same meaning. He has even been known to completely change words, like saying "Concernicus" instead of concerned, and "Chicken Sangwich" instead of Chicken Sandwich.

Criticisms

Material

After the release of his CD/DVD Retaliation, similarities were noticed between Cook's work and material recorded on Louis C.K.'s 2001 album Live in Houston.^[9] The bits in question are Louis C.K.'s "Itchy Asshole," "Guy On A Bike," and "Naming Kids." In 2005, Dane Cook performed and released three similar routines on Retaliation.^[10] These are "Itchy Asshole," "Struck By A Vehicle," and "My Son Optimus Prime," respectively. In Cook's episode of "Comedy Central Presents," Louis C.K. receives a writing credit for the use of his stand-up material.^[11] Cook has denied any plagiarism.^{[citation needed]}

In an interview on the Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show in February 2007, C.K. stated that while the jokes are similar, the issue was "overblown" and may stem from a backlash against Cook's popularity. However, C.K. accused Cook of being "bullyish" and litigious towards comedians for having similar material to his. He also stated "Too bad the guy [Cook] can't write enough". C.K. ended the interview by saying, "Fuck Dane Cook, he's a cunt."^[12]

Comedian Joe Rogan has spoken on many occasions (including the December 1, 2006 broadcast of the Opie and Anthony Show) about Cook performing a bit on an episode of Premium Blend that Rogan claims to have performed earlier in clubs with Cook present.^[13]

Rob Sheffield criticized Dane Cook's material in an October 2006 Rolling Stone article.^[14]

Comedian Ron White has criticized Dane Cook for his lack of real material and for his inflated ego.^[15]

At a 2007 Irving Plaza show, comedian Zach Galifianakis commented, “I saw Employee of the Month the other day...it wasn't as good as I thought it was gonna be.” During his closing number he revealed a sign that read “Kill Dane Cook" before leaving the stage.^[16]

Comedian Andy Kindler has been particularly critical of Cook in his stage act, saying "Thank you MySpace for inventing Dane Cook" and that "Dane Cook is a pyramid scheme. 'Tell ten friends who know nothing about comedy about him.'"^[17] He criticized his lack of material by asking a crowd "Do you think people drive home from a Dane Cook concert and go 'Ha Ha Oh my god we've been had! There's not a goddamn joke within a hundred miles of his act!'" In comparing the Dane Cook phenomenon to the spread of Nazism in Germany, Kindler asserted that "Dane Cook is worse than Hitler, because at least Hitler had a point of view!"^[18]

Yuk-Yuks controversy

On July 24, 2006 Cook asked for a guest spot at the Vancouver Yuk-Yuks comedy club. Initially he was set to go up at the end of the night, but upon arriving at the club he requested to go up before the headliner. The club's manager (Pete Johansson)^[19] and headliner (Peter Kelamis) cut off his microphone and tried to "play him off" with music. Cook thought it was simply a mistake and continued his set, but they later cut his mic and blared the exit music again. Cook then dropped the mic and walked off-stage, furious. The show then ended, leaving Cook's fans confused and disappointed. Kelamis then refused to take the stage, and later referred to Cook's actions as "the most arrogant thing that [he had] ever seen in [his] life".^[20]

Support for Cook

Mark Breslin, the founder of the comedy club chain, quickly apologized and blamed the club's manager. Breslin stated in support of Cook, "I'm on Dane's side totally, 100 percent." Breslin also explained that Kelamis was the last show that evening and there was no reason he could not have gone on late, stating "the tradition is that stardom trumps everything".^[21]

Tourgasm

The criticisms of "Tourgasm" are perhaps the most scathing, here is only a brief selection of reviews ^[22]:

"...a half-hour vanity project that proves HBO can not only be TV, but bad TV at that" -Brian Lowry ^[23]

"To understand just how unbearable "Tourgasm" remains from start to finish, imagine a cross between Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedian" (except the jokes aren't all that funny and the comedians involved aren't that interesting or clever) and MTV's "Jackass" (except the teasing and physical pranks aren't that fun or dramatic and they end in angry recriminations, sulking and serious injuries). In short, "Tourgasm" may be the least worthwhile series ever to air on HBO..." ^[24]

"...it's just some guy's tedious travelogue." ^[25]

In the Comedy Central show Freak Show, a character is watching a Dane Cook performance, but instead of Tourgasm, the show was called Boregasm. The show poked fun at Cook's performance style. The creator of the show, comedian David Cross, has openly criticized Dane Cook previous to this.

References

See also

• Vicious Circle

External links

• Official website
• Dane Cook on MySpace
• Louis C.K. / Dane Cook comparison
• Louis C.K / Dane Cook / Steve Martin comparison
• Dane Cook at the Internet Movie Database
• Dane Cook at the Notable Names Database

News articles & interviews

• Casey, Susan. "Everybody Likes Dane". Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 30, 2005.
• Havrilesky, Heather. "Overcooked". Salon, Sept. 3, 2006.
• Kharakh, Ben. Interview with Dane Cook. One Trick Pony. January 2006.
• Macpherson, Guy. "Dane Cook Gets the Hook at Yuk Yuk's". The Province, July 25, 2006, p. B7.
• Perry, Ryan. "Dane Cook: The Gorilla Mask Interview". Gorilla Mask. August 4, 2005.
• Zoglin, Richard. "Dane Cook: Standing Out in the Art of Stand-Up.". Time, May 8, 2006. From Time 100 issue.
• Gladstone, Neil. "Sex, Jobs, and Rock 'n' Roll". AOL Comedy, Nov. 2, 2006.