During a recent sabbatical from stand-up, Dane Cook lent his voice to the animated hit Planes, spent time with family and began to focus on a biographically based book project he has been developing. Cook talked to Las Vegas Magazine’s Matt Kelemen about his current approach to comedy in advance of his Venetian gigs, Oct. 11-12.
Q: The Los Angeles Times reported, near the end of 2011, that you were taking a break from stand-up. At what point did you start itching to get back onstage?
A:When I hit 2010, I was like “I’m going to take a break … I feel like I’ve been in some ways wonderfully overexposed, and I’d love to be that guy that can disappear, and have an Act II, if I may.” At 40 years old and 21 years into a career, I could take a break, spend some time with my family. I was always traveling for shows and never to just hang out and have a good time. I got to do all that, then two years later get things up and running again when I started to work on this tour.
Q: It looks like you’re documenting things with images (on Instagram) rather than with social media posts.
A:Yeah, having built a fan base with tech, always having used whatever the latest incarnation of websites or social media or instant messengers was at the time, I find that I’m really into Instagram. I like the photo apps now. I like that you can capture something, give it a cool look and create a memorable moment image, then hundreds of thousands of people can see that or “like” that.
Q: What’s your process for writing comedy, and has it changed with different phases or directions in your life?
A:Ten years ago and then for a good chunk of time after that, it was a lot of discovery onstage. I loved getting up onstage with an outline or framework, and then I would just sandbox it with a small crowd here in L.A. until it was ready, say, to go back to New York in front of an even more hostile and gritty crowd. Ten years ago it was a lot of observational humor about how I see the things happening around me, and I think now there’s a little bit more care taken because a lot of the things are coming through me—how things affect me, or how I’m moved by certain situations.
Q: Are your audiences growing with you?
A:Every night, as I pretty much have for most of my career, I leave these theaters, and on any given night there could be 150-200 people outside. Every night since we’ve started this tour, I’ve met every single one of them. I’ve taken every picture, I’ve signed everything and I’ve spoken to them because I want to hear that this is their sixth time, or their first time, or they’re 16 and just found out about me. … Nothing’s changed except I’m a little bit older, but everything feels exactly the same—enthusiastic, nonjudgmental people that are there to just feel effervescent and alive, have a little escapism, have a great time.
