Tomorrow night, Comedy Central will air the new Dane Cook stand-up special ISolated INcident, which will be released as an audio album Tuesday and as a DVD later this year.
There’s no way around it- if you’re not a Dane Cook fan, chances are you really, really hate him. If that’s the case, it’s time to gather the rabble-rousers and pitchforks, because ISolated INcident is about to be unavoidable- especially if you’re a fan of Comedy Central. But there’s a catch for all the haters out there- the performance actually kinda kicks ass.
Sure, the guy’s under enough public scrutiny to make the Octo-mom jealous, and he’s been relegated to Carlos Mencia’s zone of respectability by millions. Nevertheless, Cook’s self-made domination in the comedy scene is indisputable- just look at the numbers. He’s the highest-charting comedian in three decades, with multi-platinum, chart-topping albums. He gets a half-million hits per month on his website, has just as many Twitter followers and he’s got 2.5 million friends on his MySpace page. He’s got the internet market cornered in a way no other comic has ever come within screaming range of, which is precisely why most of his peers can’t stand him either.
“He built his career leveraging MySpace, but he now has 500,000 Facebook fans, and that’s gone up 200,000 in recent weeks,” said Adam Zbar, chief executive of Zannel, which partnered with Cook on his own iPhone application. Yep, he’s got one of those too. “He’s is the digital-age comedian with the largest online footprint of anyone in comedy.”
Despite his ascension to disputed fame, the past few years have been particularly difficult for Dane, who lost his mother in 2006 after her battle with cancer and then his father the following year. To make matters worse, his half-brother was caught up in a massive embezzlement scandal, charged with siphoning off millions from the comedian’s earnings. The events have certainly affected the man who’s been known for his Carrey-esque physical antics and expressiveness onstage.
Recorded in front a literal handful of people at The Laugh Factory in Hollywood, the intimacy of the show is a stark contrast to virtually anything we’ve heard from Cook thus far. He pounces through an array of timely set-ups, including an opening joke about Obama making white people feel that they can make racial slurs. You’ll recognize the style and comedic pacing, but the off-stage trauma and backlash to his obnoxiously rising star over the past few years has caused the comic to trim the fat and scale back the schtick, with impressive results. The over-emotive shouting and flailing of old is largely replaced with the calculated strength of delivery on the new material- some personal, some political and lots of it graphically sexual.
ISolated INcident will be called a move of cold calculation, attempting to show that Dane can conquer a room where the sheer size of the audience doesn’t dwarf the material. And maybe they’re right. But whatever the angle, one thing is indisputable- this CD is hilarious. He puts the Dane treatment to work on topics covering everything from synchronized menstrual cycles to playing Call Of Duty with his war-vet father.
The most poignant bit of the entire show is the joke about calling his mother’s cell phone- months after she’d died. It wasn’t a matter of a comedian pillaging whatever he can for laughs- there was a genuine relatable humanity behind the joke.
“I’ve been doing this material about deleting my mom from the cellphone,” Cook said. “That moment when I was looking at the number and just as her son and a human being, what it meant that this person was gone and the number was still here. The second thing is the comic mind going, everyone goes through this- a little dual push and pull. So I told it on stage one night, just really authentically and without too much polish. It felt right.”
That process found Cook dropping in unexpectedly at comedy clubs like the Laugh Factory, testing his material to surprised audiences of 20 to 30 people. Now that he’s honed it to a fine point, he’s going bigger than big with it once more, playing venues normally reserved for rock stars and pro-sports teams. But hell, name one other comedian alive today who sold out Madison Square Garden two nights in a row.
ISolated INcident premieres on Comedy Central on Sunday, but don’t assume Dane will be tuning in from the couch, wallowing in the televised glory. That very night he’ll be playing the sold-out Pepsi Center in Denver, to 20,000 of his closest friends.
ISolated INcident
May 19, 2009
Comedy Central Records
1. Intro
2. Obama
3. Self Assassination
4. Vernacular
5. Pissed Off
6. Twat Swatters
7. Banter #1
8. Mom And Pops
9. Haters
10. Adoption
11. Syncing Feeling
12. W.W.Y.D.I.??
13. Interracial Tail
14. Remote Location
15. Push And Pray
16. Big Shot
17. Rigamarole
18. Role Play
19. Hidden Gems
20. Peanut Butter Smack
21. War Gamer
22. Banter #2
23. The ‘C’ Word
24. Novel Ideas
25. Spiritual Comeback
26. Alt Ending Track 13
27. Banter #3
- 01. Intro
- 02. Obama
- 03. Self Assassination
- 04. Vernacular
- 05. Pissed Off
- 06. Tw*t Swatters
- 07. Banter #1
- 08. Mom And Pops
- 09. Haters
- 10. Adoption
- 11. Syncing Feeling
- 12. W.W.Y.D.I.??
- 13. Interracial Tail
- 14. Remote Location
- 15. Push And Pray
- 16. Big Shot
- 17. Rigamarole
- 18. Role Play
- 19. Hidden Gems
- 20. Peanut Butter Smack
- 21. War Gamer
- 22. Banter #2
- 23. The "C" Word
- 24. Novel Ideas
- 25. Spiritual Comeback
- 26. Alt Ending Track 13
- 27. Banter #3
congratulations! right after i submit this comment i’m going to totally unsubscribe from your feed.
Yes! Laughing completely sucks – I understand. But make sure you TOTALLY unsubscribe, because just plain unsubscribing might not do the trick.
HA! Amazing. I’m going to subscribe just because you pwned that wiener aaronG. Well done sir.
this shit was fucking hilarious
do you like my geh avatar? I bet you do since you love DC so much. He’s liek a shitty caveman comedian but popular because of the internet.
yeah, i like how he stole a Russell Brand joke off Russell Brands comedy central show for your LISTED #9. HATERS. dont believe me…look it up and watch both videos of both comedians.
meh avatar is geh<<<
You know, I gotta say, I used to be a huge Dane Cook fan. Then he started to get really popular, then freakishly popular, and I aged up a bit and realized the far majority of his stage antics were stupid noises, the intentional mispronouncing of words, and (supposedly) stolen material. Weather or not any of that is true, I accidentally watched his newest special last night, and it was fucking hilarious. There was no running around taking his shirt off, there were no stupid noises, it was all just really funny shit. And he addressed the fact that so many people hate him, and it was also really funny. So yea, I guess I’m back in with Dane.
i’ve always hated dane cook, for all those reasons ryan just ran through- it’s all schtick, nothing that would still be funny if read off a piece of paper. never made me laugh. i would have just not liked him, but the more everyone else made him out to be the funniest guy on the planet, the more it just pissed me off and made me disappointed in humanity in general.
but i listened to a little bit of this one, and it seems like he really toned down the bullshit, and i actually laughed a couple times. i think i’ll give the whole disc a spin.
@Jai,
yeah, it’s too bad that Russel Brand is a stupid british retard who has NEVER made a funny joke in his life, plus he looks like just about the biggest tool on earth, and I’m not even a huge DC fan
I think Dane Cook is a classic example of people gunning for the person on top. He’s not some overnight success, the man worked terribly hard to get where he is worked the internet like a marketing master and earned pretty much every fan he has.
I enjoyed it, he has obviously grown up
I can recognize he’s got some funny stuff and that he’s ripped off some stuff too. But i mean, look at denis leary.. he was suppossed to rip off bill hicks (and indeed may have done so as i’ve heard many similar jokes used) but it doesn’t demoinish the fact that leary is fucking hystarical
now mencia is just a complete tool though
to all u haters out there… first off hes making a living doing what he loves and your at home on your computer commenting about his live..he doesn’t give a fuck so he probably wont even read this so shut the fuck up…dueces
I use to find this guy extremely annoying, but I actually had to shoot one of his shows and found myself actually enjoying some of his material, not to mention the overwhelming amount of incredibly hot college females that were in attendance.
Dane Cook happens to be one of my favorite comedians. He never lets me down, and makes me laugh over and over again, even if I’ve heard the same joke a thousand times on his tv specials, cds, or dvds. I own this DVD and, absolutely find it hilarious. It made a great gift for me! Everyone I’ve shown it to quotes it over and over, and they can’t do it as good as DANE himself, but just remembering Dane doing the joke brings back the laughter. Dane impresses me every time I see him perform.
I agree that Dane is really funny and rarely lets me down with his humor. I will admit that for a while there was definitely a lull and I was not feeling it for a while but with this new DVD I have to say that I’m back on track with being a fan of Dane.
I like how the people who don’t find DC funny just straight up hate him. I mean, why can’t people just “not be into something” or just “disagree”, why do people have to get all crazy with hate. For the most part, I say fuck haters, if you don’t like it or its not your thing, cool, otherwise if you want to hate, fuck off. Also, fuck off to any people who make “reviews” of CDs, movies, games, or whatever and just make fun of it because they don’t like it. Anyway, in be4 the next post tries to point out that im hating on haters ;)
Does anyone know about how long the show is from opening act to end of DC? Thanks for the info!
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