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 STANDUP GUY: Cook |
Given Dane Cook’s schedule, the chances of him getting a day off are about as likely as him getting through a gag without dropping an f-bomb.
But shockingly enough, the jokester-next-door had all of 48 hours to spare between gigs on his Global Thermo Comedy Tour this week — 15 minutes of which he spent chatting to us on the phone.
“There’s no rest for the wicked,” Cook, 37, says from his home in L.A.
Word up. The Boston-bred standup and actor has yet to take a break since catching a break in 2001, when Comedy Central gave him a half-hour special and, a couple years later, a recording deal. He has since made five specials and corresponding discs — 2003’s Harmful If Swallowed, 2005’s double-platinum Retaliation, 2006’s Vicious Circle, 2007’s Rough Around the Edges and May’s ISolated INcident — and embarked on four tours.
In Hollywood, Cook played a slacker in 2006’s Employee of the Month, a disposable dude in 2007’s Good Luck Chuck and a faux-jerk in last year’s My Best Friend’s Girl. He can also check hosting SNL off his to-do list — twice — along with dating a starlet, if those Jessica Simpson rumours are true.
Since ISolated INcident’s release, he’s had his eyes on the road, performing for over 400,000 fans last spring. His latest trek kicked off in Regina yesterday, and continues tonight at MTS Centre.
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Amid the chaos, Cook makes a point of reading e-mails from fans (and haters), chilling on the couch he bought for his new house, and calling us for an 8:30 a.m. interview — an unreasonable hour for most comedians and rock stars. Or, as in his case, comedians who tour like rock stars.
You’re up pretty early.
I know. I wouldn’t say I’m normally a morning person, but I am excited to talk about the tour so I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
You’re touring like a rock star these days, performing in arenas for thousands of people. Do you feel like a rock star out there?
I try to. I try to let it in a little bit. Often times I still feel like that young go-getter that just has something to prove. Not in that way like I don’t feel appreciated. I feel very accomplished. But I love leaning back on that. I feel like I just want to go out there and give people a show that they’ll remember 20 years from now. And so part of that is you let a little bit of the rock star thing in, but you let a lot more of the humble in.
Then how would you describe your onstage persona?
I think it’s the heightened version of myself, where I can let my imagination run wild. I get out there and I’m allowed to express myself with every move, with every word. I can take these imaginative ideas and I can be clean, I can be dirty, I can be irreverent, I can be wry, corny — there’s so many things that I can be on stage just to get that point across. I’ll use any tool at my disposal, from physicality to vernacular to movement, words, a great crew that set up a great looking show. I don’t skimp anywhere.
Who are your biggest comedic influences?
My mom and dad, first and foremost. The were both funny people. They made me laugh harder and longer than anybody. My folks, growing up, had me laughing to the point where I couldn’t even see straight. They were just really in-the-moment type of people with their humour. My mom was very physical, very silly and very broad and big, and my dad was kind of like this stoic, very intelligent, subtle type. And so you meld those two styles together and you get me. They’re on stage with me every single night.
Many people think you became famous overnight, but that’s not the case …
On New Year’s Eve it’ll be 20 years of doing standup comedy. I started to break out after the Comedy Central special aired in 2001. I would say since then it’s definitely been some pretty strong bursts of being above the radar. But before that, that first 10 years was the grind of being out on the road, fighting to get paid and crappy little gigs at Chinese food restaurants and laundromats, and doing 3 a.m. gigs in the Village in New York because you weren’t going to get the primetime spots. Plenty of reasons to quit. I gave my 20s to standup comedy, when I could have been looking at trying to start a family or a bunch of avenues that could have been a little bit safer. I took the scary path.
Clearly that’s paid off, but what have the pitfalls of fame been for you?
The more exposed you are to people that have a positive opinion, what I’ve learned, is that there’s always more people that are not fans. In my show now, I tell this story of a person who wrote me a really crappy e-mail (see ISolated INcident’s Haters) and to say it was a low blow was an understatement. That was probably the most difficult thing, experiencing real dedicated hatred towards what you do and people will go to any lengths to pierce that armour.
After being in a handful of Hollywood movies, why go back to touring?
I love live performance. It’s in my blood. I wanted to be a comedian ever since I was a kid and what I found was after doing a bunch of movies, to varying degrees of success back to back, is that I missed the immediacy of that fan reaction. With a movie it’s such a different approach. It’s a directors’ vision and you’re a piece of a puzzle as opposed to being at the helm of a standup comedy crowd. I can’t see myself stepping away from a standup and that glamourous aspect going up on stage and sharing an idea with people without anybody else having to fuss with it or edit it.
What can we expect from this show?
It’s like the 2.0 version of the (ISolated INcident) special with 20 minutes of newer ideas. The show’s been a great mix of the special and the newer versions of the material that I worked on while I was home from the first tour.
You’re coming to Celine Dion’s homeland. I hear you’re a fan.
Yes, there was a time in my life where Celine Dion would come up on the shuffle.
What’s your favourite song?
She did a song that Jim Steinman wrote for her and it’s called … oh gosh … It’s All Coming Back to Me Now. Great song. Epic vocals on that, Celine.
If you were an actual rock star, what band would you play in, and who would you be?
I would absolutely play in … Mötley Crüe. Tommy Lee is a friend of mine and I love drumming. If I didn’t do comedy I think I would have pursued being a drummer. I loved Mötley Crüe growing up. Those earlier, long road gigs were accompanied by a lot of Crüe cassettes. Just not the excess.