Mike is back with his take on the Jim Jeffries and Dane Cook special. This won’t be pretty.
Topics on the day include retard fucking, why Dane Cook tried to make you feel sorry for him then ruined it, how famous comics seem to get worse as they get older, and way too much time spent talking about breast feeding and kosher bbq’s. Picnic fuck that broad! Goodnight!
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com and give us a call on 206-203-4692
I’ve got a couple of out of town trips planned this summer, and I thought maybe somebody on the board might know a club in the neighborhood where I could get a few minutes of stage time… It would be great to get some recommendations.
Hawaii
• Oahu June 27th through June 30th
• Big Island – July 1st through 5th
Santa Barbara – August 7-9
The only part of the Dane Cook special I caught was the part about the email that talked about his parents. I suspected it was going to be a terrible pay off and sure enough he didn’t disappoint or rather he did disappoint as expected. I promptly changed the channel and avoided it at all costs.
What ever happened to the listener submitted jokes? Don’t think I’ve heard one in a while. Then again I do listen at work so I may have just missed it.
We haven’t had one in a while, probably because I stopped offering prizes when the prize closet dried up. I guess I have to get off my ass and invest in some schwag.
When Mike asked why Dane Cook got famous, the first thing that popped into my head was, “Because as many people hate him as love him.”
If you want to get super-famous, I think you really have to be one of those “love him or hate him” type guys… the worst thing that can happen to anyone who wants to get famous is to get a lot of “yeah, he’s ok” responses. You have to inspire passionate reactions in people one way or the other, or they’re not going to bother remembering your name.
For instance, Brian and Mike talked about Jim Jeffries for all of 5 minutes before moving onto Dane Cook, just because they couldn’t wait to lay into his act for another 20 minutes. Jeffries didn’t inspire any passionate reactions… Brian even admitted he’d seen a bit by him before and forgotten. But Dane Cook? EVERYONE knows that guy, and EVERYONE has an opinion about him. Hence, he’s famous. That’s my take, anyway….
I’m still on the hunt for a place in LA to host a regular comedy showcase. Here are some emceeing gig’s I’m doing next month…
Green Room coffee house in Hollywood
Saturday June 6th at 7:30PM
6752 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
http://thegreenroom-hollywood.com/
Acme Comedy Cares, a benefit to support the Midnight Mission
Sunday June 7th at 7:00 PM
No cover charge if you bring a can of food! No drink minimum!
Room 5 (above Amalfi’s Restaurant)
143 N La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA
Comedy Showcase at the Ice House Annex
Tuesday June 9th at 8:00PM
24 N. Mentor Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91106
Dane Cook is famous because there’s nothing about him that doesn’t appeal to the coveted 18-24 year old demographic: looks, clothes, high energy, and his act – which is easily digestible by a media-saturated, ADD generation. No Hicks-like musings or logic. No Carlin-esque word wizardry. He’s “that one friend” every college Greek has.
Second, he was smart enough to reach out to that demographic on their own turf – by doing the college circuit and getting on the online social networking bandwagon early.
Marketing yourself is something I’ve been giving a lot of thought too lately, both in terms of how you pitch your act and how you find that demographic that wants your act. May be a good topic, B-Mo.
Hello Brian and BTB gang,
As the one Dane fan on here I thought I should add my two cents about the Dane special. The joke about AIDS was about “cock blockers” and how he knew one that said “hey Dane, Hows your AIDS?” as he was talking to a girl. I actually wasn’t as impressed as I have been with this special. I have to agree that it’s turning into the Steve Martin effect. I think that one way he became famous was because no comic at the time was doing what he was doing. There were story tellers like Cosby and then slapstick comics like Steve Martin and he combined them. No one at the time he came onto the scene was doing that style and could really impress the college demigraphic. I have also noticed that his fans that really get into that style probably don’t really listen to any other comic. If you were to give them a list of the 10 greatest comics more then half probably wouldn’t even know who they are.
I would have to say I didn’t really agree with the fact that Mike said he didn’t really have a “thing” wrong with him that he could relate to and that he really didn’t have any problems. I think that is sorta the way people were making fun of Kanye West at first. Since he had a decent home and didn’t come from the streets he was a “bad rappper.” I think just because you come from a normal place and don’t have the drug problems doesn’t mean you can’t do comedy. He did an interview with Dillon from Punchline and he asked him why he didn’t have any problems. Dane just replied that he did have some skeletons but just kept it to himself. He also won’t talk about his brother stealing the millions from him as well.
I will say compared to his Vicious Circle HBO special, I would have to give this one a 2 1/2 out of 5. Also, I would like to put in a request to hear Russel Peters. I heard him once before and thought that he is one of the funniest comedians out there right now and isn’t getting a lot of attention.
Thanks
Gilley
Follow-up: I don’t know the history of Dane Cook’s development as a comic, but I have seen one or two short clips from before the time he was Mr. Muscle Shirt, and his act was much more material-driven and not unlike what he tried to do in Isolated Incident. I think the guy just hit on something at some point that worked for him and he ran with it. As far as that goes, good for him. All of us who have done comedy know there are insanely funny people out there that no one will ever hear of or see on TV because they never found their particular niche, or they didn’t exploit it. Sometimes, they’re niche just isn’t what Hollywood or TV wants or thinks it can sell.
Case in point: Jim Jeffries. I agree that the guy’s not bad, but he’s got very little I haven’t heard before, and the first time I ever heard of him was when that clip of him getting punched on stage made the rounds. That was about a year ago, and since then he’s everywhere. I’m not saying the guy doesn’t deserve any TV time at all, I’m just saying I think the guy got branded as some outlaw comic that inspires violence and exploited that. Again, good for him, but there are funnier “edgy” comics out there. But maybe I’m biased because I also have a needle-in-the-dick bit.
I agree with Brian’s take on Dane Cook. He’s a funny guy, and some of his bits on Retaliation and Harmful if Swallowed are pretty great. But he’s not superstar funny, he’s just way overrated. It would have been best for everyone if his movie career had taken off and he could retire standup in his (relative) prime, but alas….
Before I got really into standup (as a fan), Dane Cook, Eddie Izzard, Mitch Hedberg and Bill Cosby were my favorite comedians in the world (and only ones I’d ever listened to, hence the eclectic list). Dane Cook because he had that way of taking a stock joke and taking it a step or two past where you expected it to end. Then I bought a million more standup CDs and caught up and found out that Dave Attell does the same thing but much more smartly, as do many better comedians. So I can still see his appeal, which is where some of his hardcore fans may still be stuck.
Maybe we’re down too much on Dane maybe he should be referred to as a “gateway comedian”, kind of like marijuana is supposed to be a “gateway drug”. He’s not spectacular but he helps spark new interest in the craft and then people move on the the really good comedians.
I think the first few stand up shows I saw were Eddie Murphy Raw, Bill Cosby Himself, numerous Gallagher shows and maybe some of the Carlin specials. I also remember A&E used to run a show I think it was called “A Night at the Improv”. Belzer, Reiser & a lot of the ’80s crowd were on there regularly.
I agree with Lord. Though Dane old special is still comedy gold to me. I recommend the Lois CK chewed up cd, he is a master at work. If you like silly comedy thenDoug Benson is your man he is so uncontrolably out of control.
On other topic I lost my stand up virginity last night. It was a packed house about 250 at miami improv. I killed it and got my first comedy boner. Thank you all for advice and boards . totally worth it.
Hurray for Dominic…..you’ll never look back dude!
thanks Nick! I would also like to request Russel Peters.
My take on Dane Cook, and this is by no means original reading the posts here and listening to the episode but here goes, is that he’s not an outsider…or at least doesn’t have that outsider point of view running through his act.
When I listen to comedy I want to hear the point of view that goes ‘Let’s think about this topic this way instead.’ Or ‘I’m different and I want to tell you why and my experiences with this.’
I don’t want to hear how you can fuck any girl you want, are richer than I’ll ever be and are best looking guy in the room.
Let’s be honest we’ve all had the sand kicked in our faces by the ‘frat’ boy too many times to see one make more money than we’ll ever dream of. Comedy is about the little guy winning in the only way he can – not the fucking SuFi on every asshole’s t-shirt.
I tried out a new open mic on Friday… Instead of a restaurant, club or bar it was in a huge lecture hall in a retirement center … one of those community center type general auditoriums. When we got there was a huge (and I believe gay) AA-type meeting just breaking up. The guy running the show hoped a lot of them would stay, but only a few did. When we started there were pretty much just the comics who had signed up, but as the night went on the audience grew to about 40 people.
The guy who ran the show brought a huge Subway sandwich, chips and drinks to feed everybody. He started by giving everybody 10 minutes, but eventually realized that wouldn’t work with the hard-end time of 10:30PM. It wasn’t just comics… there was a mime troop that seemed to go on for about 20 minutes (but seemed like an hour). He also encouraged the audience to “get involved”, which quickly turned into heavy heckling (“show us your tits” was a common refrain).
It was a weird show, but at least there was an audience and free food… that’s better then some places I’ve been. I’ll have to try it again this week… If anybody is in LA and wants the contact information, send me an email off-line.
—D
Hey guys, check out this new Pet Project of mine:
http://www.myspace.com/iacomedians
It’s an interview show I do with local Iowa comics to let people know about the scene we have here. Just uploaded the first interview with a good friend of mine, Jeff Caudill.
Hope you guys enjoy it!
After hearing the May 19 podcast and having been absent from the site for some time I so wanted to answer the call and watch the Jefferies and Cook specials and give a timely review (Ms. Eakins would ream me for that run-on). However, I ran into a few snags.
As I get all my entertainment from the net I started by Googling Jim Jefferies. I didn’t find the special (perhaps it hadn’t aired yet) but I found enough on YouTube and similar sites to know I had little interest in seeing a full hour. What I saw was loud, drunken, misogyny without the saving graces of fearless conviction (a la Stanhope) or cool characterization (a la Dice). As already pointed out, he had some good bits, but nothing truly original.
Now to Dane. Again I didn’t find the special but what I did find may be even more poignant. This making-of doc http://www.megavideo.com/?v=HOE3AJHP. Watch as Cook actually dissects his humor with a dull butter knife. I’ve never been one of his detractors but this single-handedly cured me of any residual respect. You’d think with all the accusations of his stealing material he’d avoid anything remotely similar to other artists but his bits on abortion and racism seem lifted directly from Stanhope (again) and Louis CK (again again!).
To weigh in on Dane’s rise to fame I think one thing has been overlooked. Brian is correct about his marketing skills but take note of where that marketing was done…the internet. The net, along with reality television, has completely changed the nature of celebrity. Our value system has been altered. Pop stars are now chosen directly by the populace and they’re choosing people just like them. Or just like they’re buddy. Cook is just the most popular of a group that includes Jimmy Fallon, Andy Samberg, and Horatio Sanz as well as non-comedians (not to be redundant) Susan Boyle, Perez Hilton and Johnny Fair-Play.
Oops. Forgot to put in my request for Stewart Lee.