Stand-up seeks out some cinema stardom

By Jen Colletta
Collegian Editor
October 4, 2006

The nothing fight. The BK Lounge. The Su-Fi. These are just a sampling of the strange, yet hysterical, ponderings that Dane Cook offers to the public in his stand-up comedy routine. The Collegian, along with other student journalists, recently got the chance to speak with Cook about everything from his childhood dreams to his unbelievable popularity on Myspace. Although Cook’s interview was showered with sarcastic and witty comments, he wanted his fans to know that he is looking forward to branching out into a variety of different film and television genres — not simply comedy.

Cook knew from a young age that he had a passion for making people laugh and hoped to one day turn it into a career. He used to peruse the entertainment stores in his hometown of Arlington, Mass., imagining that one day he’d find his own CD on the shelf.

“As a kid, I was hoping that someone had come into my house and secretly recorded me,” Cook said.

After high school, Cook decided to make his dreams a reality. Although he spent a few years doing some local stand-up comedy, he wanted to branch out and have his material heard by a wider audience.

With the help of a friend and his brother, he recorded his first comedy album and shipped out 1,000 copies to local stores. Within months, Cook was shipping out thousands more copies to replenish the empty shelves. Comedy Central got wind of Cook’s fledgling success and offered to partner with him in his production.

“Comedy Central didn’t have much faith in comedy albums, so they told me that if I sold between 25,000 and 30,000 albums within the first year, it’d be a really big deal for them,” Cook said. “Within five or six months, though, I sold about 70,000, and it just kept going strong.”

Cook’s career took off, and in the spring of 2005, he and three fellow comedians challenged themselves to perform at 20 college campuses within a month, in what they dubbed “Tourgasm.” The tour was filmed and aired on HBO, giving viewers not only a taste of the comics’ performances, but also a glimpse into the pressures and challenges that face them on a daily basis in their careers. Although he encountered thousands of college students during his time on the road, Cook hoped to try to forge a more personal connection with his fans as a whole through the tour.

“The colleges I’ve played are the most important in my career, because I learned a long time ago from my father, and then by example of doing it, that the relationships you make in your college years are things you want to take with you for the rest of your life. Those are moments that you really want to capture forever,” Cook said.

“The world is toxic — it sucks. Once you get out of that safe haven of school, even though it’s a lot of work while you’re there, life is never quite the bubble it was when you were in school. But I think that by doing a lot of these college shows, I solidified my relationship with that demographic, that audience, that generation.” One thing that has helped Cook get in touch with his younger audience is his account on MySpace. Today, Cook has over 1.5 million friends, which makes him second only to the site’s creator, Tom.

Cook has thousands of pictures and messages saved on his computer that people have sent him through MySpace.

“Some of the things I get from girls on MySpace are just insane — it’s really nutty. But some stuff is from troops overseas and even some kids, which is really cool,” he said. “But when I started this on the Internet maybe five or six years ago, the goal wasn’t to get 1.5 million friends. I wanted to find people that were into the silly thoughts and the crazy things that have happened to me in my life. And I think that I’m honest with these fans. If I had a bad day, I’m not going to try and hide it.”

Cook’s accessibility to his fans has provided him many opportunities to interact on a personal level with them.

“Somebody came up to me in the mall and whispered in my ear, ‘You’re a silly b***h, Dane Cook,’ and I was just like ‘Well, yes that’s true,’” he said. “I was walking down the street in New York City a little while back, and there was a kid walking toward me listening to his iPod, and he just looked at me and he threw me a Su-Fi, and then he just kept walking,” Cook said, referring to the hand gesture that he created in one of his sketches.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to think that people want to quote ideas and things that I’ve done on stage in comedy. I really enjoy it. I don’t think too much more of it than what it is. I try to just do what I do and be as honest with my audience as I can about what I love, and the fact that people latch onto it and have it become part of their vernacular is quite an amazing feeling of accomplishment.”

Earlier this year, Cook’s career was given an extra boost by Time magazine. Cook was named one of 2006’s most influential people. He was one of only 25 artists and entertainers who were chosen and shared the honor with individuals such as George Clooney, Ang Lee and Meryl Streep.

“When I found out about Time,, I just said ‘wow,’ and then immediately called my mother and father. When I first started comedy, as encouraging as my parents were, for them to hear I was going to forego any kind of degree and any kind of college and do this comedy thing with no back-up plan was really hard. You can be the funniest person in your city, but that’s no guarantee of a career.

I told them, ‘I won’t do this half-assed. If I’m gonna do stand-up comedy, I don’t want to be just another funny guy.’ I really wanted it; everything else in the world I suck at. This is my calling. But my family really got behind me,” Cook said.

“So when I got to the point in my career that Time magazine had me on the cover with all those other extraordinary people with a great picture and a nice write-up inside, I told my mom and dad, ‘You trusted me, and no matter what ends up happening, you’ll always be able to look at this and you’ll always be able to be proud that I kept my word.’ So it was a great moment, and holding that article is something I’ll never forget sharing with my family,” Cook said. “And then I called like every ex-girlfriend who ever broke up with me and was like, ‘Look at this, sucker! You call me an idiot? I’m one of the most influential people on earth!’”

In the past few years, Cook has decided to branch out from comedy shows to dive into the film business, although he carefully chooses which movie offers he accepts.

“I’ve had an opportunity to do movies three, four, five years ago as the lead guy, and I turned them down because they were just God awful. They were really crappy concepts, and sure, it would’ve made me a little chunk of change, but it would have also been giving away any trajectory, because they were just not quality at all,” Cook said.

“I’ve always said I don’t have to do anything; I have a stand-up base that pays my rent for the rest of my life. There are fans that I know are tried and true. That allows me the amazing position to not have to step into television or filmwork that doesn’t get me excited.”

Cook’s latest film endeavor, Employee of the Month, opens Oct. 6. Cook plays a laidback slacker at a discount retail store who steps up to the challenge of becoming “Employee of the Month” to win over a fellow co-worker, played by Jessica Simpson, whom he only referred to as “a good person, a really cool chick,” despite rumors of a possible romance.

“This role is a departure from my stand-up. I think people know my stand-up and they know a certain side of my approach when I’m on stage, with my tenacious, in-your-face, ringleader mentality,” Cook said. “This is a role that shows a lot more vulnerability, and I think that people will be pleasantly surprised. Even though it’s still a comedy, you get to see different elements of my stand-up. So, it’s up to you guys to decide, but I think you’re gonna dig the flick.”

When asked what other actors he’d be interested in teaming up with in a comedic setting, Cook had a rather surprising answer.

“This is going to sound really bananas. I know you’re going to think I’m crazy. I worked with Kevin Costner on a movie once, and he’s one of the funniest people I ever met,” Cook said. “He’s a real looney toon, and you never see the side of him that I got to see when I was working with him. Even though he’s sort of an older, established A-list guy, if I had my dream team, he’d be on it. That dude killed me on the set — not literally, ’cause that’d just be scary. And also Halle Berry — she’d just need to hang out, nod her head and be like, ‘That’s funny.’”

Although he is looking forward to starting many different new film projects, Cook said that once it’s all over, he’ll always come back to the “nitty gritty of stand-up.”

“In some respect, if you’re an entertainer, and especially coming from the world of comedy, a storyteller, you want to tell different kinds of stories in different ways. It seems like as long as my fans are along for the ride, I can check out these different opportunities and have a blast doing them, whether it’s comedy or even drama,” Cook said.

“Everything is a work in progress. You just keep throwing it out there and seeing what people are responding to. So, I’m glad they’re responding and I’m glad my career isn’t a dark, black hole. Off to the next ‘what if?’”

collettaj1@lasalle.edu