AST member SicSemper (Jason Scavone) recently interviewed Dane Cook for dailyfiasco.com on the occasion of Cook's new CD/DVD/TV special "ISolated INcident." (Not sure what significance, if any, the odd capitalization choice has: do the letters "ISIN" amount to an admission of sin against the comedy gods?) It's a fascinating read, especially for those among us who have been critical of Cook's stand-up in the past: Scavone, a self-described "comedy nerd," presses Cook on the sources of the backlash his success has caused, going so far as to post audio clips of the interview so that we might gauge Cook's defensiveness for ourselves. While accusations of joke theft are not explicitly addressed, Cook takes on the haters -- even calling out AST's own Andy Kindler at one point -- but talk of jealousy and bitterness aside, he insists the negativity doesn't affect him.
All this has re-ignited a lively debate on AST about what to make of Dane Cook's success, especially given that "ISIN," recorded in a relatively small space, is part of a conscious effort on Cook's part to scale back from the arena shows and ostensibly return to his roots as a club performer. I, for one, would love to see a return to Cook's "Harmful If Swallowed" days, when solid writing was accentuated by physicality, instead of his more recent habit of using physical antics to distract the audience from a dearth of actual jokes.
[ READ + DISCUSS ]
