This Past Weekend - Dane Cook | This Past Weekend #178

Episode Date: February 28, 2019

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/ThisPastWeekend_ Sitting down with Dane Cook. This episode brought to you by… SkillShare https://skillshare.com/theovon Get 2 months of Skillshare for free Grey Block Pizza 1811 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica, CA http://bit.ly/GreyBlock Music “Shine” - Bishop Gunn http://bit.ly/MakinIt_BishopGunn Gunt Book Gunt Squad www.patreon.com/theovon Aaron Jones Aaron Rasche Aaron Stein Adam White Adriana Hernandez Aidan Duffy Alaskan Rock Vodka Alex Hitchins Alex Person Alex Petralia Alex Sideris Alexander Contreras Amanda Sherman Amelia Andrea Gagliani Andrew Valish Andy Mac Angelo Raygun Angie Angeles Anna Winther Anthony Schultz Arielle Nicole Ashley Hall Ashley Konicki Audrey Harlan Audrey Hodge Ayako Akiyama Bad Boi Benny Baltimore Ben Beau Adams Yoga Ben Deignan Ben in thar.. Ben Limes Benjamin Streit Big Easy Brad Moody Brandon Hoffman Brian Martinez Brian Szilagyi Bryan Reinholdt Bryant Combs Bubba Hodge cal ector California Outlaw Campbell Hile Carla Huffman Casey Roberts Casey Rudesill Cassandra Miller Cassie Wilson Chad Saltzman Charley Dunham chris Christian from Bakersfield Christopher Becking Christopher Stath Clint Lytle Cody Cummings Cody Kenyon Cody Marsh Corey Ashmore Cory Alvarez Dan Draper Dan Ray Danielle Fitzgerald Danny Gill Dave Engelman David Christopher david r prins David Smith David Wyrick deadpieface Deanna Smith Dirty Steve DoMoreKid Donald blackwell Doug Chee Dwehji Majd Dylan Clune Felicity Black Felix Theo Wren Gabriel Almeda Garrett Blankenship Ginger Levesque Grant Stonex Gunt Squad Gary Haley Brown Hayden Chighizola J Garcia J.P. J.T. Hosack Jacob Ortega Jacob Rice Jamaica Taylor James banks James Bown James Hunter Jameson Flood Jason Bragg Jason Haley Jason Price Jeffrey Lusero Jenna Sunde Jeremy Johnson Jeremy Siddens Jeremy Weiner Jeremy West Jerry Zhang Jesse Witham Joaquin Rodriguez Joe Dunn Joey Desrosiers Joey Piemonte John Bowles John Kutch John Slade Johnathan Jensen Jon Blowers Jon Ross Jordan R Joseph Wuttunee Josh Cowger Justin L justin marcoux Karen Sullivan Katy Doyle Kelly Elliott Ken Comstock Ken Melvin Kennedy Kenton call Kevin Best Kevin Fleury Kevtron Kiera Parr Kirk Cahill Kishalin kristen rogers Kyle Baker Lacey Briesemeister Laura Williams Lauren Cribb Leighton Fields Linsey Logan Yakemchuk Lorell “Loretta” Ray Luke Danton Mark Glassy Matt Eckenrode Matt Holland Matt Kaman Matt Leftwich Matt McKeen Matthew Azzam Matthew Price Matthew Sizemore Matthew Snow Max Bowden MEDICATED VETERAN Megan Andersen-Hall Megan Daily megan Wrynn Meghan LaCasse Michael E. Ganzermiller Michael polcaro Michael Senkpiel Micky Maddux Mike montague Mike Nucci Mike Poe Mike Sarno Mike Vo Mitchell Watson Mona McCune Natalie Stanley Ned Arick Nick Butcher Nick Rosing Niko Ferrandino Nikolas Koob Nyx Ballaine Alta Old McTronald Old Scroat Mccrackin Owen Lide Paddy jay Passenger Shaming Patrick Gries Paul Flores Paul Lococo Peter Craig Peter Shea Philip James Qie Jenkins Ranger Rick Rashelle Raymond Renee Nicol Roar Hanasand Robert Doucette Robert Mitchell Robyn Tatu Ryan Alves Ryan Crafts Ryan Forrest Ryan Garcia Ryan Hawkins Ryan Jordan Ryan Walsh Ryan Wolfe Sam Illgen Sarah Anderson Scoot B. Scott Scott Lucy Scott Swain Sean Scott Season Vaughan Shane Pacheco Shannon Schulte Shawn-Leigh henry Shona MacArthur Sonja Prazic Stacy Blessing Stahn Johnson Steez Stefan Borglycke Stepfan Jefferies Steve Corlew Steven Stoody Sungmin Choe Suzanne O'Reilly Taylor Beall thatdudewiththepaperbag The Asian Hamster Thee shitfaced chef TheGremlin Cafe Tim Bonventre Tim Greener Tim Ozcelik Timothy Eyerman Todd Ekkebus todd vesterse Tom Cook Tom in Rural NC Tom Kostya Tom Reichardt Tommy From England Tommy Redditt Travis Simpson Travis Vowell Trevor Fatheree Troy Ty Oliver Tyler Harrington (TJ) Tyler Shaver Victor Montano William Morris William Reid Peters xTaCx Stretch Zak Stufflebeam Zech JohnsonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You can get tickets to see him and I'm happy he's here in studio today. It is Mr. Dane Cook. For me to set that parking brake and let myself on wild. Shine that light on me. I'll sit and tell you my story. What was, was Daneiac? What was like a name that fans, because fans pick up like kind of name sometimes. Yeah.

And I feel like that what they call themself. I feel like it never kind of turns out well. Yeah, I had Daneiacs actually. They tried to do that and I killed that. I was like, yeah, no, no, no, no. And then the Dane Train is what I coined one day. And I was like, okay, that sounds kind of cool. Yeah, get on the Dane Train, get off the Dane Train.

It's like a fucking Doobie Brothers song or something like that. I was, I was, and I'm glad that caught for a little bit. And a train, it gives a fan something to get off of like your support or something to get, you know. Right. Right. We're going to bring it into the station. Yeah. Go home, you have yourself a nice meal. Yeah. And then get back on the Dane Train and we'll head to the next destination.

Yeah. And at least it's open to like, if people are like, hey, you know, I've been on here for a couple of years. I'm ready to step off and then, you know, I'm ready to get on. You know, it like gives the opportunity because otherwise, yeah, what if somebody gets a tattoo that they're a Daneiac and then six years later, they're like, ah. People have gotten tattoos. I mean, I've seen people with my face on their inner thigh, which is like such a weird. If I was going to get your face anywhere in my body, I don't know if I'd go thigh.

Yeah. You know, maybe you just go back and you kind of make it like a, you know, just a presentation if you're, you know, down by the local pool. It's like a little bit of the past then. Or then it's like, yeah, something in the front, the thigh. Right in here. A man or woman. It was a dude. Yeah.

Yeah. It was a guy. He actually had a lot of comedians on his body. It was like a tribute to all things comedy. Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah, man. It was awesome. Wow. I think all the fans call you or call themselves.

Do they, do they try to come up with like a. Do we have anything Nick? I got one. Okay. What about this? Ready? The crispy Vauntons. Okay.

Hey, what's up? All the crispy Vauntons out there. Especially your Chinese fans would really, really play into that. That's actually pretty good. We only have, I think one Chinese fan by. All right. Well, you know what? You're the crispy Vauntons.

You're at the start. Yeah. Cause that seems kind of, yeah. Like it gets kind of crazy when you start having like fans and supporters, you know. Yeah. I really, when I turned a corner of being absolutely, you know, out of any kind of conversation to having people, you know, want to like know more about me beyond comedy. That's when it got a little funky.

Cause I was like, oh, I'm really different from, you know, the persona. So that's the only part that was tricky. I love the correspondence with fans when we were talking shop, talking comedy, talking bits, talking, you know, whatever is coming up next when they were like, um, what makes you sad? It was like, uh, I don't know if I can share that information. Oh, that's what our whole podcast is based on. My whole podcast is based on like, you know, just things that I've thought or felt or.

Yeah. Yeah. Well now, like now I'm like the opposite. Now I can dig super deep and I've kind of been through every incarnation of a career. So it's like now this is perfect because I've, I've 29 years later grown into the idea of like being introspective is actually way more exciting than just being observant of behavior. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because I was reading like some people, cause you're definitely like a performer, you know, and I've always been big on, I'm never been a, like I respect joke writers, but I like why I personally enjoy watching a performer. Right. You know, it's why I love like Sebastian Maniscalco. Yes. You know, it's like, it's one of the reasons why I like watching Crystal Lea like I like

watching something occur. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it seemed like, um, but performers, it seems like don't get as much credit from the media at all. Yeah. It's similar to like how most of the time like bombastic movies that are like action oriented doesn't get the same kind of, um, uh, critical acclaim as something that's

just, you know, a little dour and modeling and dramatic. It's bonkers. It's like the same amount of effort, energy, uh, creativity, um, impact, all that stuff needs to come together in order to make an act like that. And I, I'm the same way. I grew up Jerry, you know, Jerry Lewis, uh, Steve Martin, um, Dice, you know, people, uh, Martin Short, I just like people that went for it, you know, and, but as I got a little bit older, started to realize, ah, if you can, um, if you can work this craft

and try to, um, build yourself up, there's a way to actually have that and then bring something that's, uh, written or more introspective to it, which is kind of cool now. And do you feel like, so do you feel like you're doing that more with your new tour, with this new tour that you're going on now? Yeah. What's different between it? Like if you're a fan coming out, that came out, you know, that was on the Dane train in the beginning, you know, that was on, because it was really like a rock.

I mean, was that like a rocket ship when you, cause I mean, it, it really wasn't because it was a slow burn. It probably felt that way for a lot of people that, you know, suddenly were like smacked in the face of like, who's this name, Dane Cook, I keep hearing, but the college market I had for all of the nineties been just like, you know, just like partying after with everybody and just trying to ingratiate myself and, and, and, and also it was just fun, you know, cause I was a kid, you know, making a little money, having some fun, but I always understood the, the campaign element of it, which is if I want to, you know, be elected a comedian

of the year until my service is over, like I'm going to have to get as many people on board without a TV show, without, I didn't have a lot of, I didn't have like the just for, I was talking to Bruce Hills at just for a while, I said, you never had me on one new faces. Wow. I just didn't have any of the Industry support. Access support early.

And it's probably good because it just made me have to cultivate my own means. They don't get, it seems like, yeah, it's like, I wonder why they don't, I think a lot of them yet, like scares them or something to believe that it makes it feel like it's not about the entertainment anymore. It's just about what the industry kind of wants to push sometimes. Right. Right. It's, it's what's relevant right now today and it, and I, I'm probably, I'm not going

to be hypocrite, I've been guilty of it myself where it's like, you just glom on to something because everybody's so enthusiastic about it. But with time and you're going to learn this as well, and I've talked to people before me that turn this corner, there's a, there's a moment, there's a process during your career where you start to earn a pedigree, where you start to, you're seasoned. And that's actually when a performer, I think is more interesting, you know, the trajectory, it's great, shiny, new, exciting. What they do with that and how we evolve and how we communicate with each other and then

to the crowd, I feel like a 30 years in almost that I'm just getting good. I'm just using all the tools in the arsenal to tell the kind of stories that I've always hoped to tell and we need to answer your question directly. What's different about the tour now is, yeah, there's more introspection because I have more hindsight to play off observationally, but it's my hindsight. It's my story, my ups, my downs, and the thing that was probably the trickiest about this tour and this time was I just didn't want it to be a one man show. I love one man shows, but I didn't want my show to be something less than what people

had seen before. I wanted the same LPMs last per minute with all the new tools that I had in my arsenal, which took a little time to get around that turn. But comedy is a one man show, when you say you don't want it to be a one man show, what do you mean by that? Yeah, I didn't want it to be introspective to the point where it wasn't great for comedy. If you saw me 20 years ago, the greatest compliment I've gotten this last weekend when my tour just recently started is people saying, seeing you eight times, was that Madison Square Garden,

was that this? This is my favorite show I've seen you do and people saying, honestly, I didn't know you could do that. I wasn't sure if you could exceed my expectations again, but the show is as good, if not better than other shows I've seen you do in the past. That's the greatest as a comedian, except for people quoting your shit and saying it back to you, which is always fun. You feel like Mark Twain for a little bit, right?

It's really, it's kind of one of the coolest aspects of still being able to do it at the level that I've been doing. Yeah. It's cool. Do you feel, you've always seemed to me like kind of to be like a lone wolf kind of, do you feel that? I think that in, I don't feel that in life, I feel like if anything, it's an embarrassment of riches with how many great mentors and friends that I have in and out of comedy.

But when you're 28 years old and you hit the stratosphere, nobody can talk to you about that. Nobody understands it and perception takes over because then people start to believe that maybe you're not accessible and who is accessible to you. You don't find out two years later. Bullshiters. People want to make a little scratch. Right.

People that see something to gain. They see a path, scoundrels, fucking, it's like most Icelandic cantina from Star Wars, like all the scum and villainy wants to seek you out because they want a piece of the sparkle, man. Yeah. Everybody wants some of the sparkle. You see somebody with sparkle, it's like, oh fuck, I want to, I want to glimmer with that person.

But now what happens like, but it's always seemed like you, do you have this thing where it's like, I have to do this myself because it always seems like you are this different kind of, like you're like Pluto kind of a little bit. Not that you're out pushed to the outside, but that you choose to kind of be in this, you know, like. Yeah. You don't know if I'm a planet or a ball of ice kind of thing or just like a rumor that science made up, you know?

Like, yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like, yeah, you don't really know. It's like, is this guy a planet, is this guy a ball of ice? You seem like that. You seem to just a regular comedian coming up. Yeah. It's like, who is this? Like everybody else seems a little bit more accessible, a little bit more. You feel that?

I don't feel that with a lot of comedians. Yeah, and maybe, and that could just be my perception. You're graduating class in my, in my graduating class, I wouldn't feel that way about the comics I came up with in and around, but I think it, maybe it's generational. Right. And when I met people ahead of me, I was intimidated to go up and talk to them. You know what I did? I did the same thing people kind of put on me, which is they don't want to talk to me.

Why would that person care about me? Why would I'd see David Spade or Chris Rock when I was young in New York? Why would they care about talking to me? So what did I do? I projected they're probably too cool for school. Yeah. Until finally you're at the comic table with somebody or we're John like this and you're like, oh, shit.

No, that's. It's not that crazy. Yeah. No, it's definitely, I don't feel like the warden of the North. Like some Game of Thrones thing where I'm, I'm Pluto or something on the far outside. I do like that. That's part of the interpretation of what I am because it's a whole hell of a lot more interesting to be somebody who, where people want to put their hand on their chin and go,

what's going on? Then somebody was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got it. We got it. I never wanted to be that. I thought I was that. I actually thought I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. You move around a lot on stage and you're trying to write some stuff. We get it and dismissed.

But if anything, the polarizing was like, oh, good. Yeah, I'm not milk toast. I'm not fucking boring. Right. I'm interesting. I'm almost like a little bit of a good guy, bad guy. You don't know how I'm rolling. Yeah, that's what I feel like with you.

It seemed like the anti-hero. Yeah. And you know what? It was fun. It's been fun. But has that been a goal? It seems like, because I feel like you, you definitely seem like obviously super aware, especially comedians are hyper aware of who we are and what's going on.

I think anyway, a lot of... And super sensitive as well. And super sensitive. Yeah. Which is one of the reasons you have to be hyper aware because you have to know, or those things kind of go together because it's like, you're so aware that it makes you overly sensitive because you're taking in so much that there's so many ways that you could feel that we could feel offended easily.

Right. And so we're so aware and then so sensitive at the same time. Yeah. I think that we're a lot of comics. I think what we do is we, you know, we ruminate and we're seeing 10 different incarnations of what could be. And what does that do? That, that, that then makes you start preparing for what if A happens?

What if B happens? Yeah. We exert a lot of energy. Even in our stillness. Oh, it's exhausting. Dude, it is exhausting. Yeah. Being hyper aware.

Yeah. Exhausting, having to constantly like protect yourself from like seven different ways of feeling uncomfortable. Right. You know, you ever hear those stories about Jim Carrey early on in his career when he would, he had this and... Did you ever work with him? No.

I never had the opportunity to work with him, but I've worked with people that have collaborated with him. And I, I usually don't just on hearsay, I need like a few different people to validate. And I started hearing from a few different folks that like back in the day when he would go to a party, if he thought people were going to fuck with him, doing what we're doing, thinking up so-and-so is going to be there. What if she says this? What if he says that, that he would sit and pre-plan some stuff to, you know, roast you

or haze you. So you couldn't hurt him. Some eight mile shit, man. He had like it already on tap. He'd practice, you know, imagine the energy that that took. Cause what if you see one of those people, you know what I mean? He's fucking cheddar bobbin people. Yeah.

He's like, yeah, you're fucking neck. You right? Yeah. That's the neck you wore? Yeah. I could see him. Yeah. He would go, he would go deep cuts on that shit.

And, and I understand a little bit of that. I, I think that, um, I think that the, the, you know, if you're thinking about a career in comedy, what you got to realize is, um, it's, it's an amazing community. It's a brotherhood. I mean that guys and girls, but it's also really cutthroat and it's also, um, sometimes it's very participatory and sometimes it's very isolating, you know, and you got to know what you need to be at what point. Right.

Um, and that's hard to know. And I, I had to learn the hard way, which was pretty much on my own, but then meeting mentors along the years that, uh, were, um, the knowledge that they passed on to me helped me to figure out what a career really is. And there's going to be a crest and you're going to dip and it's going to come up. And then it did, there's so many more elements than just what we do on stage, you know. When you, so when your career like blew up, you know, cause I mean you had what I, I mean, I, I've talked about this even in discussions about you when you weren't around, um, that

you were like kind of the Steve Martin of our time in the way that some are of, you know, that somebody, no one has that. I mean, that's such a rare thing that somebody has, you know, has that trajectory. Yeah. It's just a rare thing. It happens to someone, you know, and it happened to you. And not saying that you're, you know, obviously you did the work, but what happens like with your ego in that part, that's something that we always talk about it.

Cause one of my scariest things to me is my own ego, cause it's such a, it's me and I know that I'm crafty and that I'm cunning and so I know that my ego is that as well. Right. Like what happened? Like what do you, like did you find for yourself? What I found was, um, maybe a little different because I had grown up so, um, uh, as an introvert, I had grown up with a lot of fear. I grew up as a, as a self loathing, um, you know, I was in an environment of, um, there

was alcoholism in my family. Yeah. And I felt like I grew up fast. Um, so the years that I spent doing standup leading up to what would seemingly be an overnight sensation 15 years later, the ego stuff really wasn't, um, uh, like a, uh, a bravado or some kind of cockiness. It was really more of, oh, I'm, I'm finally starting to feel like I can love myself because I obtained something in life or where I didn't really know what I would, um, get to, you

know, I pipe dreamed a lot of stuff. Yeah. Steve Martin and dice and seeing these guys. Um, yeah, definitely. You always have those in your head, especially if you're in the business and you're seeing other people have those things. Yeah. And so I think that if I'm, if I'm understanding correctly, it's like, to me, like ego was

like, I'd be at the cellar when I was still new and Chris Rock would come in. He bumped me. He bumped anybody. And that was, that was like, that was part of it. That was kind of like a rite of passage as a comedian, like, okay, some big star, bigger star is going to come in. And so when I made it, I was like, Oh, I can do that too. You know, I can walk into the laugh factory, which is primarily where I would just go and

feel like I can do what I want. This is, I've arrived. So that was something I needed to get through the rotating door about to realize like, no, there's still actually like, it's still procedural and you can still have respect for your peers. And there's a way to do that, that's more appropriate than just a barnstorming a club and then like, go, you know, so I, I, I got my knocks and learned some lessons earlier. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And only because certain names and some of my names, you know, would reach out and be like, can't do that man. You know, you don't want to, you don't want to do that. You want to try to play it like this or, um, and so I, you know, I learned as I went and now I try to kind of what we're doing here, pass on to whoever the next girl or guy is coming up to say like, you know, when people say, stay humble, that's no bullshit. You know, really try to, you know, keep yourself as modest and, um, you know, it's nice to

be self affirming, but you gotta, you gotta, you gotta be able to like, if, if you're gonna get a huge level of, um, of power in, in any industry really, like how you manage that and how it, it reverberates off you to others. That impacts you years later when that person says, Hey, thanks for being cool to me. Yeah. You know, thanks for being, I remember one time like Tosh, he got really mad at me. Uh, we were, I never was really close to him and we were in the Laugh Factory lobby once and I didn't usually talk out of school, but like this is one of those stories that, and

I think I had put my hand out to him and he was like, no man, no, I don't need you in my life. He said something that was really kind of harsh and I was like, dang it, I'm just, you know, congrats on the success and all that and he, he, he was not interested in having that conversation because I had not been, um, I had not been cordial to him coming up. I probably didn't take the time on many nights at the factory to, to hobnob or just, yeah, just to, I, I had not realized that the level of, um, influence that I had that, um, that younger comedians at that moment, um, not now, but at that moment, like that would hurt

them if I were to walk by and not acknowledge them, but I wasn't doing it to hurt anybody. I was just still an introvert in many ways, right? You know, it's, it's, man, it's a fucking, it's perplexing and a paradox sometimes even, you know, for me, we had a very deep conversation, um, off pod and, and, you know, we're, we're complex. Yeah, we're complex means that you and I have never been like close, but we just seen each other in clubs, talked a few times and, um, and yeah, and then I came up to your house and, and, and we hung out that time.

Yeah, it was definitely interesting because I didn't know, yeah, it's like, I feel like other comedians, uh, you kind of get a vibe from and you kind of get an understanding of and you kind of seem like that, like that rare element that's kind of like, well, what's going on with this guy? Like is this guy, this guy's out, this guy's kind of seems like a lone wolf to me. Yeah. I guess that in terms of how I came up in comedy, that's a, a fair assessment because I wasn't in a pack that was all doing arenas and, um, and billboard charts and top selling

platinum albums. I was alone. Yeah. I was really alone. There wasn't, uh, another person, Dice was 25 years ahead of me having done Madison Square Garden 1990 and I bumped into him at Mulberry Street Pizza when I was like, it was like 0506 and everything. I was by myself just having a slice, just fucking sitting there, you know, napkins on

my face and he sat right in front of me and I, I got to, you know, have this conversation with an icon, somebody I looked up to and, and I felt like finally I was talking with somebody who really understood when I was talking about, uh, the hardships that were with in the loneliness, you know, there, there was some loneliness. I was like, I got here because I wanted to be in the community and share, but I didn't know I was going to seemingly skyrocket to where people felt, um, uh, like a disappointment. I wanted to, I thought that was good for the business of all comedy, right? You know, because in the nineties, comedy albums were dead.

Everybody was telling me comedy was kind of like, you know, after the boom of the eighties, everybody told me that like comedy isn't like, you know, it was oversaturated. Comedy Central wasn't putting on people that were really, uh, seasoned and ready. And so there was a period of time where comedy was a little bit bottom of the totem pole. And I felt like, Hey, I'm, I think I'm helping to shed light on a new generation of comedy fans. Yeah. So outside perspective, very different about what people felt of me to what I was hoping

that I was emulating out there for others, you know, and jealousy probably was huge. I mean, I can only imagine that like, cause everybody was a little bit jealous of Dane cook, I think, you know, I think that what happened was a lot of comics would say to me, man, I'm so sick of DJs and people that are interviewing me for my show. I'm trying to build saying, literally saying, why don't you do what Dane does? Yeah. Why are you? And, um, it was frustrating.

Well, I heard you say on stage one time, this one of the most interesting things I'd ever heard someone say on the stage, you said, yeah, I've been going to therapy a lot recently and it's interesting that I'll sit down, I sat down in the therapist's office for the first time and they're like, Oh, Dane cook. I've heard a lot. I've heard your name a lot in here from other comedians. Yeah. And that was like such an interesting, I just remember hearing that man and that was

such an interesting thing. Yeah. It was, it was weird. You know, I remember that moment and being like, because he had worked with a lot of comedians. Yeah. He was recommended by. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. The comedy community. Like you should talk to him because he, you know, he gets it. He knows the world of comedy. His opening line literally was, your name comes up a lot in here, man is like the vulnerability in that moment of being like, and then wanting to know what are they saying? Of course.

Of course. It was so bizarre because then it's like, there's so much of you going on outside of you. Right. There's such a view and such a conversation of you outside of you. Right. And it wasn't till some time that certain comics had, you know, come to me and said, one comedian, she was, she was so, I don't want to name drop her if she wants to come

forward and say. It's probably Whitney Cummings, but it was not winning. But I love Whitney, but this comedian came to me and just said, you know, I, it took me a while. I was one of the people that bashed you. I misjudged you. And she's like, a lot of that was my own feeling of not getting to, you know, what I was hoping, the fear, you know, it's really like everything comes back to love and fear, man.

What drives us? Oh yeah. And what we, you know, what we want to hold on to and what we want to pass up on. Why do you think you were like easy to hate if that's a okay question? Well, look, I was like young and wearing fucking cool jeans. Fur. Not fur. Did you ever wear fur?

Be honest, dude. I never wore fur. I never wore fur. Not, not faux fur. Is that what you call fake fur, faux? Is it hawks? First, hopefully I would assume being from Massachusetts, you go with real fur, dude. That's Paul Revere country.

You guys have earned the real fur. But did you ever wear fur? No. I did not. No, no, we didn't. But my mom had some fur coats. So I probably did throw one of my mom's fur. Fuck yeah.

But not once you got it popular. No. Once I, once I made it, I was, it was like, you know, tight shirts. And, you know, the image that I was trying to create, Steve Martin, the white suit, the dichotomy of being like, hey, I'm dressed up really nice, but I'm being like wacky. And then dice, of course, the element of, of like bad ass and cool Eddie Murphy and the leather outfit. I was figuring out, hey, you know what?

My thing is like I'm, I'm coming up with this next generation and dudes are more fashionista in many ways than, you know, in the past. So I just found my niche and I played up on that. And then I could understand years later, looking back like, oh my God, I wouldn't have liked that guy either. Wow. You know, it's, it's, you know, hindsight is an incredible, incredibly prolific thing. And you don't know what the time you just think you're, you know, I don't know, just

you're doing the best you can to try to create an image that, that resonates. Yeah. And you did a great job. So at a certain point. Cause when you say like, you know, the jealousy and did it a feel, I wasn't, I wasn't looking at that. I was looking at 20,000 people. I wasn't looking at the one guy in the comment section who was like,

Right, of course. Yeah. You know, so it's. You're looking to the master square garden. You're looking at the, the proof that was in front of you. Yeah. Was that everything I'm doing is right. Yeah.

It was like, I was just looking at the love from the fans that I had found or who found me. And it really didn't hit me until many, many years later of like, Oh wow, there's really some genuine animosity. And it's just up to me to have conversations like this with my peers, with the brotherhood of comedy to say, I'm accessible. And you know, you know, if you're a fan, I'm accessible. You could DM me.

I write everybody back. Sometimes people write me and say, Hey man, I'm having a shitty day. And I go, Here's what you need to do. Yeah. Cause I'm super sensitive and I'm empathetic to that. So the perception of me very different than who I am when I'm just, you know, at home kicking it. Yeah.

Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. Cause that's what I mean. Yeah. If I'm real candid, it was just like, yeah, what is it? Like Dane seems like this. I don't know.

Yeah. Like this kind of like this Pluto kind of like this thing where people don't know, but for some reason people have felt rubbed the wrong way, you know, but then also has probably had the ability to garner a huge amount of jealousy over time as well. So yeah, there's a lot of factors in there. I bet it was probably hard to sift through some of that if you even wanted to look at it. It was, it was like, uh, because it, it didn't, it wasn't, even though it wasn't affecting

me directly in terms of like business, it affected like my fans didn't like feeling like they were, uh, Yeah. Then if you were a Dane fan, then it was like weird. Right. Right. There was a period where it's like people were like, Hey, am I, I say I like you and then I get attacked by other people.

Yeah. But we used to, I'm in a wheelchair because I was, yeah, at your Madison Square Garden 20,000 C show. What you start to realize. What's going on, bro? Here's the, here's the breakthrough breaking news in what everybody learns when you become successful and what you're learning. You know, right now you're in the pink cloud phase.

Everything's, you know, everybody's finding you and discovering you and passing you around. Everything is mediocre. Everything, every single thing is mediocre. Aerosmith, I love them. There's somebody going, eh, I don't, it's not my thing. You can't name a book of a magician. Nobody. Definitely can't name a magician.

No, you can't name magicians. No. And can we just admit magicians are comedians arch nemesis? Are they really? I mean, that should be a movie. Who else is it? Yeah. It should be a movie, dude.

And it definitely should be a movie. Who else could our arch nemesis be? Um, uh, no, that's it. You win. That's it. That's it. That run right there. But I interrupt you.

But everything, no, everything is, you find out, uh, success introduces you to, uh, mediocrity because then everybody outside of your realm, um, is going to tell you why you're not that great and what sucks about you, you know, you can, we're watching careers right now of people, let's just say in the last five years and what do they do? They get white hot and then, um, you know, and then it's like the spanking machine. That is going to get tagged and we're going to find things out that we don't like about them. And then what happens is your, your fan base, the bottom of the V right here, they're still,

you know, pretty much rock solid in place, most of them. And then everybody out here is, um, in the business of telling you, yeah, we don't care. Right. And they want to tell you and they're going to reach out to tell you all we can do. Just come up with the next set, next joke, get up on stage, try to have a few more laughs with our friends, family, and then, um, do one more show and that's, that's what I'm doing. Yeah.

We definitely seem to be really fearless, you know, that's for sure. Like just to, to grow up in fear, to continue to keep your head down and keep going, grew up in fear, when you grew up in fear based, which I was, then man, just, you know, once I, once I found this, um, conduit comedy, once I had that, it was like the dilithium crystal. I had fucking superpowers. I had this ability to actually be, um, present and important to people. When I didn't even feel important to myself, it took a long time for all those things to

equate, um, uh, a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle, both on and off stage, you know, to be able to have great conversations like this. Yeah. You know? Do you, um, did you have an idea what you thought, like being a star was or something like that before you, like hit like a level of a stardom popularity? Oh, what a great question, man, that, that, um, I remember, um, Rob, you know, seeing guys like Robin Williams playing, uh, like Garp and, like a world of Karina Garp.

Yeah. Oh dude, that's one of my favorite books of all time. Love it. Book. Amazing. The film, you know, awesome. He was awesome. I was looking at a lot of comedic actors, um, and admiring that they could tell different

kinds of story. They could make you laugh. Maybe they could make you cry. To me, that was like, uh, an, an interesting, um, route for a career. So what I did and where it plays into the question is like, I, I took my foot off the gas of what I knew people had, um, discovered me as and was like, I'm going to downshift and try to go in that direction so I could have some more credibility and outside of comedy.

Um, deconstructed myself really in the mid, you know, 2000 year, you mean like with films and stuff like that with that kind of work? Yeah. Yeah. Cause then I started getting some opportunity to do things that were very different from standup based on my standup. Kevin Costner was a fan of my standup and then said, do you want to play a serial killer in this movie with me?

And it was like, suddenly that was when I felt a certain level of stardom when I was um, not so much from the comedy ever, but from the, um, being received in a, this all comes back to inclusion and feeling isolated as a kid. You know, Kevin Costner's and Demi Moore's and Julia Benoche and Steve Carell, people that I, I love to watch them do things that were so drastically different. We're now saying, Hey, you, you know, you're one of us. So that's when I started to feel a bit of, um, oh wow, I, I'm, I'm in a, I'm in a different circle.

Right. I'm in an inner circle. And do you, do you feel like then you start treating people different? Like, like, was, was there ever a point you felt like, like looking back like, oh, I was an asshole, you know? I never felt like I was an asshole. I never felt like, uh, I had never gotten to a place where I, like I had seen some other comedians in some other behaviors.

Um, you know, there was Eddie Griffin is who he was talking about. There were some magicians out there actually who were fucking assholes. Um, Siegfried and tiger face, whatever that guy's name was. I saw that, uh, I saw some behavior and other, um, not even just comedians, but just in other celebrities, you know, having been in LA for a bit. And I thought it was really deplorable. And I wanted to be a person that, uh, if, if you could approach me, if you felt like I was approachable that, uh, you know, there was something to be gleaned from both my success

and failure. So I, I never felt like an asshole. I, I would listen to people talk about me, you know, Joan Rivers, I'd never met and she called me an asshole on stern. I never met her. I never made a Joan Rivers joke. I respected that woman. Yeah.

She, you know, built it in, in cool and funny and always funny. She used all the racial slurs once on TMZ and it's still one of my favorite clips. I'll watch it at nights and that's for bed, bed time regimen is like put on some creams and then you'll watch it. She's like, somebody's of this and somebody's of this and somebody's of this and somebody's of this and people just need to get used to it. Well, Joan, you know, called me an asshole and I remember I was, you know, never met her, never met her.

Never met her. And I was, man, I was like mortified. Why did you think that? Oh, either a, I'm such an asshole that it's reached Joan Rivers, like the rumor of it. No. Or that what is going on that people think this or just that I've become a name that people for some reason associate with this. You know what, if I was going to get really, if I was going to go deep into like the, the

human element, the id, super id, what's going on with this, I would say I, the one thing I didn't realize how to do was reach out early in my career when I broke through to, to celebrate some of the comedians that came before me. If I met you, I would, I would, I met dice at the pizza place and I can only, I'm guess, I'm guessing, but maybe it, maybe it hurt her that I had arrived and maybe didn't shout her out. Right. You know, because we're all so fucking sensitive.

And what I've learned about her from other people was, hey, man, she was, she was very sensitive too, see, we're all, we're all that. And so the, having people call you an asshole from time to time is, it was actually kind of, it was confusing. Was it uplifting in a weird way though? Was there a part of your ego or a part of you? I mean, part of any of our ego or like, at least they're talking about me. Well, the, the part that you, cause you've had, and I ask you this, cause you've had

some, I mean, you know, there's not anybody else that I could think of that's had this same story that you've had in the past 20 years. The best part about being, being considered, you know, being ostracized in a way where people think you're like the bad guy or an asshole or whatever is for me, I can only talk about my experience, but for me, it was like, good, this is an armor to keep the people that have hurt me my whole life away. Cause they're a little scared of me because they think I'm something beyond just a regular guy, which I'm just a regular dude.

I'm just funny for an hour and a half on stage. And otherwise I'm pretty basic, you know, I'm jeans and T-shirt kind of guy. And you know, so that to that extent, I didn't mind, I didn't mind everybody having an opinion on me and I didn't really mind if it was harsh. It just started to hurt when my fans were really included in my family, you know, even my family like, why this tabloid say this about you or that's when it started to get a little confusing. Yeah.

Cause I was like, oh, I'm just here to make people laugh and you know, I get it, nobody loves everything. Right. People don't love you, but it was a little weird, you know, even looking back and talking about it now, it's still like, what did I ever do to anybody except just try to get laughs. The greatest thing that we can do is try to get laughs, you know, it wasn't like I'd get laughs and people would be withering and dying and it's like, give me all the power of laughs to where it's like you would leave an empty fucking theater of just corpses and

you're like, I'm an asshole, I steal souls. It was just like, no, I just want to make you forget about your fucking hardship for a little bit. And if people take issue with that, then that's what other people think of you is none of your business. Yeah. You know, I try to, I try to implement that. Yeah.

I don't know why. I wonder why that thing, why that thing surrounded you so much then that it was like, I remember the first time, yeah, I just wonder why that surrounded you so much. But it doesn't now, which is kind of funny because if you talk to people now or even somebody talks to you, it's like, no, once you talk to me and once you hang with me, you'd be like, oh man, he's pretty levelheaded, you know, I'm not a person that has a lot of foibles otherwise, man. Right.

I'm pretty, you know, I'm a Boston kid and we say it like it is and wear our heart on our sleeves and I'm not into playing a character. I'm into my journey for the next many years of my life is like, how can I be more present? How can I be more real? How can I be more authentic, you know, organic? That's my journey now. Wow. Yeah.

It's interesting, man. It's such a, yeah. Cause after we hung out, I was like, I don't know what, I don't know if, you know, I didn't know what thing I was like. It seemed so like normal and it had, I had never. And I told you my preconceived notion of you. Yeah. I was very honest with you about saying, hey man, I prejudged you as well.

I thought like, oh, this is a guy that's like trying to make it out of some other career and is he really a purist and I was, you know, I wrongly did the same thing. I took that kind, you left my house that day and I was like, I could grab a lunch with that guy. Yeah. You know, you're really, you're deep, you're a deep guy and you're fucking funny. You know, you're, you're, you're funny. You deliver on stage.

Everybody knows it. Everybody's chatting about it. Um, so I admire that, but I like that you can do this, right? You know, I wish in some ways I had more of this, maybe around that time where the fuck were you Theo? You could have helped. Yeah. I don't know.

Dude, I was probably doing cocaine. Come on. Crispy Vontons. Let's go. Hashtag Crispy Vontons. Um, let's go to, uh, we have fans have submitted questions this week. I love this. Okay.

So, um, and I actually had one too. Okay. Uh, you talked about, or you've never drank or smoked or done a drug at all. Fact. Yes. Like when you were at your darkest, did that even cross your mind as like a something to turn to? No.

Pussy dude. Why not? No. I just never, uh, it was not, it truly was not something that was on my radar and growing up as a, you know, I'm an adult child. I'm an alcoholic. Alcoholic. Yeah.

So I watched. You would be an alcoholic. And you might beat us a dry one. I'm not, but I'm not addicted. I don't have an addictive personality outside. So I don't know if I would, but I'm intense. Yeah. I'm intense, you know, competitive with myself.

Um, I think I say years ago, if I did drink, I'd probably need to be the drunkest person in the room because it's like, I know I just have to. You want to win. I want to win. I want to show myself that I can do more. Um, but it never, it never, uh, was very interesting to me. You know, wasn't, wasn't my thing. Even sometimes people with alcoholic parents, they, they end up repeating the same patterns.

I think it's like impressive. Well, my, my mom said to me one day, your dad was really brilliant. He was a brilliant guy. He was a BC graduate and a businessman. She said just, and she goes, and he fucks up because he gets in his own way and he, he breaks everything down that he was building up. And so I was like, if I don't imbibe, maybe I can build up and not have the breakdown portion. So, you know, but I might start doing heroin, man.

I've been thinking about it. Oh dude, I've been, you know what? I'm at that age where I'm sure will probably help. Oh yeah. I could see you taking a little hit. I mean, you take a little weight off though. I don't know if you're prepared for that. I wouldn't mind that.

That would be, but do you find, do you have, do you have like an obsessive, do you have an addiction you think with working out or like an obsessive like, uh, cause you always are like, you definitely seem jacked. No, I don't, uh, I mean, I don't have, uh, some, I didn't have like a regiment. I do love working out because it's good for my brain. I think a lot of when I'm like doing cardio and coming up with ideas, you know, I do have a lot of energy. I'm, you know, the energy people see on stage is not to put on that.

That's love of the game energy when I get up there. Um, I have to temper it sometimes cause I'm so excited. Yeah. I think maybe that's one thing that makes you like confused or has made you confusing to people. I think your energy is just different. It's very frenetic. It's like, you know, it's very different than a guy you would think maybe see a guy

doing comedy. It's like an anomaly in a way. Yeah. I don't know. I guess I, I watch other comics that, you know, have energy and I guess maybe cause how I came up, I, I can look at somebody else and go, Oh, this is, this is, um, this is organic. This is like, uh, the, they love the movement and stuff, not as a, not as a, a, a character

or a layer, um, but they're just so enthused to be, um, you know, and then the whole, uh, you know, ego of having people around you, love you and care about what you're saying on top of the artistry of performing, man, it's, it's, uh, it can be very, um, it could be elusive and it could also be very addictive. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Let's hear this.

Cool. Dio, Dan, what's going on guys? Had a quick question for you. What is your most proud moment as a comedian? Wow. Uh, just a moment that might stand out to you or, uh, give you the most joy. That's it. Thank you.

Gang gang gang man. You've had a lot to pick from. I'll let you choose first. Let me go first. Okay. Um, I think it would probably have to, no, I know. It would be, uh, the, I've hosted twice, but the first time I hosted Saturday Night Live.

Yeah. Um, because what happened was that I'm going to give you the, the, the abridged version because it's actually more convoluted, but I wanted to be on the show for years, saw it when I was a kid and was like, that's where I belong. This circus of freaks and whatever these weird characters and wigs, people wearing wigs at work. Who doesn't want to wear a fucking weird wig and go to work and like do a voice like that for like five minutes, right?

I was like, I love that. Whatever that outlet is. I need to plug into that. So usually that's a lunch lady usually, but I love how yeah, that's a skit we should ride. It's definitely a Saturday Night Live too. I would, uh, I would watch the show and, uh, I would dream about doing the show. And then years later, Lauren Michaels came and saw me at, uh, the comic strip in New

York city. My career was already starting to really roll. We were talking about maybe potentially doing like a Billy Crystal one season thing, right? Come in and just be like a comic for one year on there and do skits and stuff. But that kind of fell through. And so then I said to Lauren that night after we talked at the comic strip, I said, uh, Lauren, I, I'd love to host. And he said to me, he's like, yeah, that's not going to happen.

And I was like, why? And he goes, cause that's not, that's not how we do it anymore. I go, yeah, but Carl and in, in prior and all these guys, like they would do the monologue and it was different cause it was standup, not a skit. And he's like, yeah, that's, it's, it's passe. We're not doing it. And then four months later, retaliation came out. Number four on the billboard charts.

I'm in a hotel in Vegas for the comedy festival, Lauren Michaels. He called me up. Hello. Hey man. You're hosting. And he gave me a date right there. So. Wow.

What did you do after you hung up the phone? Be honest. Did you jerk off or not? Fucking. Four times in a row. I didn't even have anything in it at the end. The last one just air came out. Dude.

Confetti came out of my cock hole. Oh yeah. That's called Apollo 17. And dude, when just fucking there's nothing at the end, that's the one that blew up. I like that where you got the Apollo 17 Pluto. It was kind of a whole astrological and astronomical. But did you honestly, do you think you jerked off or not? No, I, I, I flipped out, man.

Have you ever jerked off? You seem like maybe it was never. I'm not a big jerk off guy. You know, I, I, you know, I pick my moment and then it's like, when I do, it's, it's a party, you know, but some guys are like, I got a buddy's like, dude, I got a jerk off every day. Sometimes two, three times. Oh yeah.

That's too much, man. That's how far listeners. That's how far listeners. And I'm like 80 days off of pornography right now. So I'm, dude, I, this past weekend, I had the first weekend on the road where I didn't jerk off or didn't think about it. Wow. The first weekend.

Yeah. In 15 years doing stand up. So that's how I know that there's positive stuff and not watching pornography. Oh my. Yeah. I think that's smart, man. That's an interesting, are you talking about that in your stand up too? No, I just, well.

Oh, man. No, not yet. And we were talking about it on the podcast a lot. We have a lot of guys who jerk off and are trying not to, so. Yeah. No, it's never been my prime directive. I don't know if that would be like, Oh, most of my life goal is trying not to jerk off.

So it's already, I was more like, no, I actually want to meet a beautiful woman and like try to, you know, actually have sex with a woman that was for many years. That was my goal. I want to touch myself. Oh, I had that goal. And then I would jerk off and just ruin that goal, you know, I was just sitting there ruining my own goals. You ever just get with the girl and then jerk off and just have it like, you know, a two-fer?

My thing now is, I don't, if I have sex with a girl, I'm not coming. That's for, I do that by myself sometime, you know, because women want to play hardball. I'm playing hardball. You know, that's how I feel, dude. I'm not doing that. You're not getting that baby girl. Oh my God. This is where you would go to a commercial break.

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So Lord Michael's Calls, you have that conversation in Vegas. You must have got off the phone and felt pretty... I was emotional, you know, I was emotional, because it was really, you know, the kid in seventh grade, and yeah, yeah, the kid from seventh grade that dreamt the whole thing. It was like validation, boom, that day. I've had a few moments in my career where I felt like really embraced, but that standing backstage at SNL, hearing the band play, being in that dark back area, looking through the beveled glass and seeing the crowd a little bit warped and then, boom, opening that door

up and knowing I'm here because I did it. I did it all myself and I'm not on a hit show, I'm not on a hit anything. Yeah. I'm just a dude who gets up there and slings some ha-ha for a little bit and I made it all the way to SNL, you know? It shows you anything is possible. Really anything is possible, man. It's like just, you know, whatever you want to come to fruition, it's all hard work.

Anytime you fail, anytime people don't make it to where they feel like they want to get to, I feel like a lot of that is self-imposed. Really? I think we put the obstacles in front of ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that sometimes we, just the human condition is like we want to, you know, human beings were not exactly programmed to be just love, support and caring or else

we wouldn't have money. We'd just be like making things for each other all the time. I built a hut, feel, live in it. It'd be dream catchers, things like this. Somebody sent me this neck brace for somebody who's, you know, because I always want to have a little bit of a longer neck. I got a limited neck. That looks like my grandma's tampon.

Well, she's obviously been through some tough times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She had a huge vagina. Dang. She must have. That is a real hitter. Yeah. And that is a unique flow.

She had, somebody had going, wow. Did you still feel then, even when you're getting on stage, that these people aren't going to like me because I came, I did it my way or I took my own path? Really? I mean, around that time, then like, then it was, you know, a hundred arenas in a row over many years. So that was just, I call that like portion of my career was just like the parade. You know, it was, it was just every day waking up and literally going, who called today and

what do they want me to do and how can I, you know, how can I play in the sandbox for one more day of, of, you know, entertainment? It wasn't till, you know, everything finally hit that upper, upper crest right around like 2010. And then as it started to come down the other side, I remember feeling like, okay, so I had my moment and now it's literally going like, like our act after a certain amount of time, it's passe and we're a new comic again. And I was a new comic again.

I was ready for the next chapter and I didn't mind that it wasn't going to be as white hot for a little bit. Did you have a moment at the top at the, when you started to come down the other side, where you're like, did you feel like you had friends? Did you feel like you had people around you? Like, you still feel like you still had like comedians that were on your side or at that point was it? I mean, I had the guys that I, you know, Eddie Murphy came to see Good Luck Chuck.

He came to support my movie and I felt like maybe not again, my graduating class, yeah, very tight, very made, I made it with a lot of guys, you know, fortunately, like a lot of guys in our group has had and continue to have really wonderful success. And yet the guys that were in front of me, you know, Richard Lewis and Jerry Lewis and you know, Dice and all these people that I had wanted to emulate made me feel like, hey, man, it's okay. This is part of it too. This is actually the part of the career that gets interesting because then all that I was

just talking to Dice last night or texting back and forth. I said, you know, this is the stuff that makes roles like when he was in Blue Jasmine or Star is Born. The vulnerability comes from these years, comes from the stuff that happens on the in-between. You know, if I want to go back and play Madison Square Garden, I know I can do it. I know exactly how to put myself right back in that. But where I'm at now in these beautiful theaters and connecting with people in a really unique way 29 years in is, is more, I'm more enthusiastic about that than thinking about what I, what

I did, you know, 10 years ago or 12 years ago, you know. Now when you say that you can, when you say that like, so you just said like doing those roles and being vulnerable, was there, was there a moment like on the come down part, like on that, you know, when it, because you can only get so high, you know, there's only so many. And stay there for so long. Yes. Right.

So, was there a moment on the come down part where it was like, because it became like people would say like, like you, it became like, yeah, it wasn't just like, oh, where's Dane Cook been or that sort of thing or what's going on with Dane Cook. It was like, people kind of turned against you. Well it was the exact opposite of how much of a spectacle it was when I arrived. The pendulum always swings. Exactly, huh? Yeah.

So it was like, I'm not going to be just called like, oh, he's done. It's going to be like, he never was, he doesn't exist in the, in, in the anals of stand-up comedy. It's like, you know, or the anals, the anals or the anals, either, either way, trust me, you get fucked a lot. Well, there is, yeah, there is anals of this industry as well. There's some fucked up stuff in this industry where it's like, if you're not just like a joke writer and you don't fit into this certain formula that, you know, that a lot of people

who run the industry think is like, this is what's funny, then you're not funny. And I hate that shit. Yeah, me too. Because the funniest guys are the people that make people laugh the most. That's what I think. And that's what the ruling always should be. And now it's gotten even worse. Now it's like, you have to be not funny and politically correct, which has just led to

basically people just reading Thoreau on stage kind of. Well, it's because comedy has become so corporate, you know? It's because it used to be a dark thing in a basement where everybody would go and sneak into and it was like, here's where you're going to hear the things that we're all thinking and somebody needs to say it. And now it's sponsored and it's Viacom and it's a business. It's a whole different thing. I'm a purist.

I like the idea of coming into the club and, you know, no phones. You know, I like, Chappelle does that thing, no phones. Yeah, the bags. You know, it's a bastion. I love that, man. It's like, this should be a place where we can all come in and hang out and air some stuff out. It doesn't mean that it's a place to go in and be racist or be fucking a little racist.

I'm chill with, you know? Well, maybe you. I mean, look, bro, I'm not racist unless you are. You know what I'm saying, brother? What do you got? No, I didn't know. We'll save that for later. But wasn't it fun when you used to be able to be a little bit racist and even if you

knew as a comedian, as an entertainer, you were going to be able to get people of that race on board. People still listen, there is still is room for that. The whole thing is not everybody can do a joke that's so beyond the line of what a decency. Not everybody's going to get away with that. But there are people out there because they don't have malice in their heart and you know, they're not coming at it from a place of being derogatory. They're coming at a place of being expressing something we're all kind of feeling, something

that's running through all of us. That's a great comedian, you know? But I don't. I don't. That's fucking hogwash all this stuff about. And I had it so much growing up all the alt comics, you know, for a period of time that I was mainstream and then I'm moving around and I'm not David Cross and everybody had something to say about it.

And then when I would try to do something different, of course, it was like an outrage. Who is he to think he could do a dramatic role in people's smashing you with a sweater in it? What are you doing? That was an alt comic. An alt took us a sweater and a beard. Yeah. Get the fuck out of here.

So I don't know, man. All that stuff comes at you and you just go, hey, the only thing that really matters is how you're being received by that crowd. I've said a couple of times recently, people ask about my career and the good or bad, there's only one thing that keeps you relevant in comedy. One word keeps you around. And if you're not that word, we're not going to see in a little bit. Funny.

Funny fills rooms. Nobody's coming to go and I'm going to go see Dane show again because it's not funny and it wasn't funny. But this time I want to see if it's still not funny. Nobody is doing that. People are going to support you. People are going to smash you. I think that a gifted performer can can move around.

Karlin and every comic should be going, we're all Karlin, political, irreverent, physical voices, sound effects, farting, smart. That's a comedian. He's the architect. He's one of the architects prior. Same thing. Who are we to like put each other in boxes when it's really all about just getting a message across using every facet of what we are as people?

Yeah. You know? Wow. I got really like, I felt myself get really interesting, man. Now look. Emotional. Here, let's take another question that came in here, Nicholas. Cool.

Yo, what's up, Theo? What's up, Dane? This is Cy from Minneapolis, Minnesota. What is your guys' thoughts on, you know, that whole Robert Kraft, you know, Dark Arts, Witchcraft, whatever you want to call it? What, him doing that? What do you guys think of that? Anyway, I love the podcast.

Gang, gang, gang, man. He's talking about that suck off of it ever before to the chief's game. Oh, his name was Cy? Yeah. Is Cy like SAI or Cy like, I don't know, I was a good question. Like, sad? Did his parents name him after a, she gave birth and she went, oh, I thought he was going to be, and they just named him Cy?

Anyway, thanks for the question, Cy. Listen, if you're 77 and you want to get a little rub and tug, I think that should be your prerogative. Yeah. The mistake he made is he shouldn't have gone to Florida, he should have gone to Europe, where they don't give a fuck. Yeah. Yeah, in Europe, man, you, as part, that's an appetizer, dude.

You know, that come with the water. But yeah, look, everybody's been jerked off somewhere by somebody they didn't know if they wanted them to or not. Well, I have, I mean, it's most of my childhood, probably. Did I remember the first time I ever, some girl jerked me off, first time it ever happened to me into a stream, like a little kind of still water by our house and the fish came up and ate it right in front of me, dude. And I had these crazy dreams after that for probably maybe four years.

So your semen became chum. Oh, dude, you know what I'm saying? And I thought there was going to be like, what happens now? I was so scared. I was afraid to tell anybody. Like, what if like, like fish vans came out of the water, right? Just a little fish with your fucking head on them. Yeah, I mean, just saying little jokes, right?

Because he couldn't stop chumming. Yeah. But yeah, so everybody goes through a tough time. I think, yeah, look, Robert Kraft is a champion. If those ladies, as long as they weren't being held against their will or something and they want to perform, do that type of business, I don't see anything wrong with those women doing that type of business if they need, if they're doing it to survive and they want to do it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The whole human trafficking element, that's not we're talking about. That's pretty fucked up shit. Yeah. Somebody's locked in a, yeah, somebody's under the influence of drugs to be kept in an alley or something like that.

If somebody chooses, like, if Theo and I said, hey, you know what, for a buck, you can suck our cock, you know? That should be like, we're grown men. We can, we should be able to make that offer. Yeah. I mean, that's for a buck. Yeah. I would say 99 cents because that always gets more enticing.

Look at him, dude. It's a businessman. Neat marketing right here. Yeah. And I would probably raise it to about 20 bucks, you know? Yeah. Maybe it comes with a hoodie. Yeah.

It's a merch at the end of the day. Yeah. Now we're going to Chris Delia. It comes with a doesn't make a dent hoodie. Is he selling a lot of money? He doesn't. Oh, dude, somebody. Yeah.

I love it. I made a dent hoodie on the other day at the airport. I love that, man. And I was like, wow. It's very, very cool. I saw a homeless guy wearing one of my shirts that I always donate like extra merch at the end of tours. And I have a picture with this, the grimeist homeless dude and he's wearing a Dane Cook

shirt. I was like, that's me. That's my shirt. And he was like, I don't give a fuck, man. But we took a picture and it's in my office. That's awesome. What was the question? Oh, the Robert Kraft thing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, I mean, the guy's a champion, you know, and sometimes you have to relax before the big game. Right. And sometimes during. Yeah. That's true. And his wife, I think is 78.

What do you bother that woman? You're going to bother a 78 year old woman. She passed away like six years ago. Oh, she did? Yeah. Yeah. Then way fucked up. Right.

Imagine you have him masturbating in a graveyard instead, because that's the alternative. Man, masturbating in a graveyard should be the name of your book someday. I don't know why. I could just see you on the cover and maybe have some fish in a little creek that are also like watching. Yeah, it wouldn't be bad to just on the edge of the graveyard, but still, you got to think about that. If that's the alternative, then look, man, I say we started go a go fuck me campaign

for fucking Robert Kraft and get him when he needs to do that. That's a great idea. Man, you are entrepreneurial, man. Well, look, I'm doing what I can. I'm doing what I can, man. What else do we have? What do we got? Hi, Theo.

Hi, Dane. My name is Alex Chinlay. I'm from Port Perry, Ontario, and my question today is pertaining to age and getting older. I recently just had a birthday at the beginning of February, and this was the first year where I was dreading it. And I Googled it and I saw that you guys actually have birthdays coming up and they're back to back if Google is correct. So I'm just curious as your thoughts or as to your thoughts on getting older and aging

and if it's something you enjoy, if it excites you, if it gives you anxiety, like it gave me anxiety this year, I'm just curious as to what you think. My favorite part of that question was when she said if Google was correct, that spoke to me more than anything because a lot of times Google is is not correct. Wikipedia, yeah, don't believe everything you read on the internet. Yeah. Now, I believe everything I read on the internet, but you're right. I agree with you.

You're both right. So you got a birthday coming up? Yeah, March 19th. 18th. Really? Yeah. Fellow Pisces, man. That's crazy, dude.

Cool. How old are you going to be? I'm going to be 39. Dude, you look great, man. Really? Yeah. I don't feel great, man. You look 39.

Really? Yeah. No, you're good, man. I had. You got a good quaff, man. I've had some work done. I had hair taken out of the back of here and put it into here. Oh, OK.

Well, it looks great. A lot of people do that, man. That's really, that's not uncommon. It looks awesome. Yeah. I've seen other people that have and then I've also now seen other comics ask me about it. Right.

Yeah. Why not? Right? It's like if that's available, then hell yeah. Would you ever do that? Would you ever do anything you think? I would do that. Yeah.

I mean, I, you know, for me, it's like getting older. I think we're lucky as men because, you know, we can be distinguished and it also adds to like, OK, this is, I'm 46. This is the, the roles that I want to play now and the kind of parts that I, you know, hope to, you know, you know, inhibit it's like or inhabit is it's, it's good. Age actually helps. Right. I've never been concerned about aging, but at the same time, it's like, yeah, I feel

like if I used to have a huge acne scar right here and I would go and I would get filler. I'd have them do some collagen in it because it was like, I hated it. I didn't like my face. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I was like, and it took years to finally be like, fuck it. You know what I mean?

It's part of me. It's part of character. So I'm, I'm in the, I'm in, I'm fully behind doing whatever it is that you feel like you need to do to, to better health and wellness, you know, whatever that is. Somebody said you got calf implants. Was there a rumor that went around? Did you ever hear that? Dude, I don't, but look at these.

Let me see them bitches. Look at my calves, bro. Oh my God, bro. It looks like my friend Ben. Look at that. I'm like a Clydesdale. Let me see that. Yeah.

I've never had calf implants, but I've always had huge calves. Jesus Christ, bro. In fact, I'm holding up all that stress a bit. My mom, I remember years, you know, years and years ago I said, uh, what was it like when you gave birth to me? She goes, your calf ripped the shit out of my pussy. Dude, you probably had to have one come out first and then one come out after, huh? There's no way you were breached, dude.

Nobody could have fucking handled that. I actually, uh, I think it was one of those things where she, she, she wanted to do like a C-section, but they were like, your cat, either way, these things are going to fucking hurt. Something's going to get stretched. Take four of your ribs out, lady. You're going to be the next Marilyn Manson up here. People, people, yeah.

People ask me. Did you ever hear that? Did you have calf implants? Yeah. Man, I've heard a lot of crazy shit. You know, people think fucking, everybody has like that thing where they'll write you and be like, Hey, the rumor going around that you tweeze your eyebrows and you, you get them like, whatever they call that, you know, oh, I would maybe, I mean, I, I, I,

yeah. I mean, I guess at some point I would look into some of that. I got some long ones. Yeah. It's threading or yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What, what people don't realize is like when you're 46, and this is the stuff you learn

as you get older, the hair on the, um, they call this, uh, the crown part like starts to diminish. Yeah. So it's not that like, I'm sculpting my, it's like, I'm fucking aging. Yeah. I'm 46. Hey, guess what? Someday fucking, I might not have any eyebrow.

I'd be like, whoopie Goldberg, right? Do you, um, yeah, I guess aging, I get a little bit scared. I realized that I need to do like, I want to get in shape before I do a special now because I just want to be able to move a little bit better on stage and be at my most fluid. Sure. So I can, you know, like physically do things better. I noticed my body will do more for me and we'll take me to new places. Like sometimes I'll do something.

If I'm in really feeling good, then I'll do something and then it'll create some with my brain or brain's like, Oh, you can do this idea. Right. And so I'm learning that a little bit that they help each other out of, try to do a lot of yoga. Yoga is great. Yeah. Keeps, keeps you so limber and, you know, cause I've always been very physical.

I don't throw my body around and I'm not doing like fucking drop kicks and Ooma Pilates anymore on stage and some of that insanity because it, it, it would hurt. But, um, but just, you know, go into the gym and keep yourself healthy, man. That's a, yeah, that's another tool to your performance. Yeah. If you can do that. Some people go the other way, gain fucking 150 pounds and that's funny. Me too.

Yeah. You know, greatest part about aging is that as a comedian, it's all funny, right? It's all funny. If you're, if you embrace it, if you don't mind being like, got the little punch go and it's like, it's all, it's all funny. Well, I got that limited build. I'm built like a kind of stoke of wagon and people, and we've talked about this before. You know, I don't have that really, I wish I had kind of wider shoulders have limited

neck range. So I've always, you know, had different things I want to do. I used to wear a neck brace at night all the time, try and get my neck longer, you know, try to get longer. Yeah. You try to elongate yourself. Yeah. A little, not much.

I mean, I'm not trying to fucking wait, was it like, I'm not trying to have to hold my fucking head up. I was going to say, you put it on and was there like a winch that you would turn and it was like almost ready for the dance. Oh, no, it would just kind of, you know, it would make you really be a taught. Right. More rigid. I like to get a little bit taught to let it know that I mean business.

That was kind of my goal. I noticed that about you. You get kind of a terminator thing that's, that's happening. Yeah. Well, I just have limited family comes from, you know, people weren't really looking around staying fucking focused, staying local. They were just looking straight ahead all the time. Yeah.

There's no fucking hindsight. There's no foresight. That's good, man. No side sight. See, I like that. Zero peripheral vision. I like that. My family, my whole legacy was they were looking into a fucking glass of ale for most of it

and, you know, just can't wait to get that in their belly instead of fucking looking out. I hate to interrupt the episode because it's a good one, I think, but is your home like mine cluttered with stuff you don't even use anymore? What's that? A toy train. I'm in my thirties clothes and shoes. You don't wear taking up valuable closet space, a tennis net for some reason, indoors, old

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It's M-E-R-C-A-R-I, Mercari, the selling app. Let's take one more. Thio, this is a question for Dane. I wanted to ask you why you got kicked out of the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. And Thio, if you had any close calls to getting booted out of the Laugh Factory, I know that's a big comedian area for comedians in Los Angeles, gang, gang, gang, man. Is that true? That's where Google gets it wrong a lot because I don't know if people realize this, breaking

news. Anybody that posts anything on Google that says they're a reporter, it finds a place and it stays up there. And if a lot of people click on it, the algorithm goes, that must be reality. It says on my Wikipedia that my father was a potato farmer. Was he? No. Never.

But if people kept voting it up or, I think there was a mob of people that was like, let's put some misinformation in there. They validated it. Let's live Dane's life up to some veggies. Laugh Factory thing, I wish it was an exciting story. It was not all the hullabaloo of getting banned for life and all that. I'd known the owner for 17 years. We had a falling out, it literally was like, it was what men do kind of moment.

It was just like guys, the way guys sometimes fight and then our relationship is actually enhanced by the fact that we both allowed each other to vent and fucking have the swagger. Two years went by, talked to Jamie, the owner, Jamie Masada. He's like, I love you buddy. I'm like, I love you too. I was there that Saturday night and it was just two guys that after many years of business together, successful business together, had a difference of opinion. Our philosophies man, that's the thing that people don't realize, philosophies change.

Your constitution is different from mine. What we're trying to do is find a place that we're, where we are both being received and understood for what we're trying to put into say our careers. That's something a common ground, but away from that. It's our differences that are actually, I think, even more interesting. They're very vastly different from me and good. That should be the way it is, right? Yeah.

What are you most excited about with the upcoming tour? You said that obviously people are coming out and they're saying, oh, wow, I didn't think that I would have a new experience with you, but I had that. Yeah. I think that, well, first of all, what feels entirely, I haven't, people say like, oh, is it a comeback? I never, I was still touring, but I just wasn't doing a live nation. Put a name on it, shoot a special during it.

I hadn't had one of those years since Troublemaker, which was four years ago. Being out there now, the thing that's the most, that I'm most enthused about, the show is an amazing show. The show is one of the best shows that I feel like I've put together in terms of the bullet points I want to hit as comedy, but I'm so present, Theo. It took a long time to not be a person who was encumbered by the past and the things about my youth that made me feel so maligned and outside and different and bad about myself. Yeah.

We talk a lot about that stuff. I did that a lot of years, man, even with success, looking back, why do people hate me? Why did this situation happen to me? And then there were years where it was like, all I'm doing is looking ahead. I'm not even enjoying the now, the here and now. What do I got to do next? Why?

Because the expectations when you make it in this business is like, now you're paying my mortgage, kid. So get out there and fucking do more of whatever it is that you're doing. You feel that responsibility. I had a company with 25 people working for me. I want to make sure everybody is winning. That's a lot more than just being a joke slinger. Yeah.

Yeah, it's different when it starts to become a business. It's way different. Yeah. And then finally, it settled into about 10 years ago at being something where I felt very present, but this tour in particular, because of the content, it's really about the content, because now I can celebrate all of it. I talk about some pretty dark moments in my life, I think in the funniest way possible. I talk about some of the high watermarks in a way that's self-effacing, take the piss

out of myself. I can fuck with my success and I can tell you why that wasn't a failure. And I can do that in a funny way, tell it like it is tour, and that's the name of the tour, tell it like it is, because that's what I'm doing. Yeah. Do you feel, what do you think is helping you get more introspective over the time? Therapy, did some great therapy. Did you do EMDR or anything like that?

No, I just did like, you know, standard. The old one-on-one? Yeah. After my parents died, I didn't know how to grieve, I didn't know what that was. I ignored it. I just did more shows and just kept trucking. I was just like Forrest Gump when he just ran for two fucking years. Yeah.

I just didn't stop. And then one day I was really sad and I was like, I remember I was like real broken and it just hit me. It was almost just like the flu, the way it just entered my body and I was like, I miss my parents. I lost them too soon. They're not here. I couldn't call them anymore to be like, what do I do with all this backlash or all this

adulation? I couldn't call them anymore. And that really hurt me deeply. Yeah, that's heartbreaking. Yeah, it really was. And I lost my brother. You know, essentially my brother died because of all that, you know, all that craziness. So it was like, I went through this period of my life where I needed help.

I need somebody to help me connect the dots. So I actually found a therapist who was an agent many years ago. So we got it. He understood the business. Not the comedy guy. Right. I didn't go back to him. What about, did you feel like you had, like at a time when your career got so busy that

did you feel like disappointed yourself that you hadn't spent more time with your family during that? Well, I still had an amazing connection with my mom. And even if I couldn't, you know, physically be with her, we talked all the time. Right. You know, and she came to a lot of shows. If I had seven shows in New England, she was at all seven, you know, drinking Kahlua sombreros, man, and fucking heckling me.

That's what I'm talking about. She used to heckle me from the back of the room. Wow. She would literally yell things out like, talk about the night you walked in when I was having sex with your father. And then another person in the crowd would go, hey, shut up. And then I'd go, no, you shut the fuck up. That's my mom.

She can say whatever she wants. It was like an act. You know, my mom got into this, this whole thing. So that was, that was brutal, but the, the, the gift of therapy, you know, some people think like, ah, no, it's, it's hooey, it's hokey, it's, it is not as a person who sat in that seat week after week after week or on the phone if I was on the road to be able to purge yourself of some of those negative thoughts. Yeah.

Man. It was life changer. Oh yeah. I got therapy today at five. I'll go with you. And I'm excited. Let me just tag along. You're like, oh, we've heard a lot about you in here.

I'm like, oh, this really runs place to place for you. I won't say we're, but every once in a while, you just hear me go like this. Yep. I know that me too. Did, um, man, I had a question for you. We were just talking about, uh, your mom, you were talking about therapy. Yeah. Um, just getting, getting present, you know, being in the moment, being, being, you know,

in that onstage and off, yeah, you know, where it didn't, who I was offstage didn't matter, um, it, who I was onstage didn't dictate my importance in life offstage and my insignificance in life didn't, I didn't take that onstage to impede on my act a healthy balance of both, you know, it takes a while. Yeah. Takes, takes, takes a good long, it's, we're on this road for a long time, man. And look at Gary Shanling, you know, that, that, that documentary was so fucking powerful. I haven't seen it yet.

I need to watch it. You should watch it, man. Yeah. So the other one, you talked about the documentary, not to interrupt you, I don't want to forget. You talked about the documentary about the dude that saw the UFOs. Hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah.

It's on, um, Netflix right now. No, iTunes. It's on iTunes. Um, UFOs, uh, I gotta get the exact name of it, but blew my mind. Greatest documentary about UFOs that I've ever seen. I believe in all that stuff and this, like I already believed it and now I super believe it. That's even a term.

Yeah. You really seem like a reliable source. This man. Yeah. Cause the documentary isn't, uh, that's it. Uh, wait. No. Is that it?

Nope. Nope. Now this guy's name is, I think it had his name in it. Yeah. It did. It was, um, uh, it's, uh, on iTunes. It's like the number one documentary right now. The aliens arrived, UFO TV, I'll check the rankings.

See all these other things are kind of like the narrators like this. They were tall and they had eyes that were like onyx stones and you're like, oh, this is, this is about Egypt. Just hokey. No. This is like a real guy who did all the research, talked to the right people. Dan Mullins or something. What was his name?

I can't remember. Oh man. You were so fucking amped about it when I saw you at the comedy store. I was like, I need to watch this. I just can't believe that his name, Ray, I can't remember it. Um, sorry. No, it's all right. They'll find it.

Uh, let's play one more question and then we'll, uh, we'll wrap it up. Hey, Theo. Hey, Dane. Um, I have a question for both of you. When was the moment that you two found out about each other and then also maybe the moment that you two met? I want to hear your first stories and first impressions. Thanks gang.

Hey, real quick before we answer that, uh, we never, you never got to respond to, I told you, you know, SNL, what about you and your comedy career at this point? What's been a moment that was, will impact you for the rest of your life? Where you felt you turned to corner? Um, okay, uh, let's just take this, you know, I don't know, actually, that's a good question. I think for me, it had a lot to do with starting to get accepted by other comedians and it wasn't something that happened on stage. It was probably more stuff that happened like offstage.

And what do you think ingratiated you with people? What was it about you that you felt like you were connecting in terms of like, was it just conversations you were having with comics or were you spending time like bowling with them? Like what was, I think it was just doing comedy, you know, and, uh, and earning their respect is a consistent performer. Yeah. Yeah.

Cause I never, I always didn't like it when guys, like there's a lot of guys who seem like they were glad hand and like leeching on people and stuff. And that was never my way. I never, in fact, I wanted to, I would not communicate with comedians. I were doing well because I didn't want to be that person. Um, and because I felt like I couldn't hide the fact that that's what I was trying to do. If I was trying to do it.

So I just kind of naturally, uh, would meet people, um, you know, actually start getting into some podcast and really helped like getting on the fighter and the kid and being able to be a guest on their podcast for me made me feel like, Oh, wow. I get to, you know, joke around with these, in these fun groups and then one night, Rogan texted me or sent me a DM in his podcast is, you know, probably the biggest one. And, and he just said, Hey man, I'd love to have you on the podcast. And I remember that night just feeling like, fuck man, this is crazy. Yeah.

Like we're gonna write him back to write him back now. I'm like texted like my friends would do us to like, do I say thanks and then say something or do I not say something and then just say thanks? What am I doing, dude? I jerked off, bro. And I'm like, I waited till the morning. Of course. Into a, into a creek.

Yeah. I know you man. It's time to feed the fish. Well, that's a, that's a huge moment, you know, that, because you know what that is, that's, that's, but I felt accepted the community saying, you know, you're, and I had moments like that very early in Boston where I finally felt like, Oh, they, they know that I'm really here to work. I'm, you know, I, I love this, the art of standup comedy.

I'm, I'm a student of it. You know, it takes a long time for your peers to, because we're all a little suspicious. Oh yeah. You know, who's the, who's the new guy or girl coming in, especially if they come from any other background. Oh wow. I've been a little weird about it. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's nature. Some of that's just nature. If this person were a different background, you think that, oh, how could they be funny? They're not from the same ilk. Like one time David Arquette came in and was like, I'm going to stand up now. And he was doing all these spots at the factory and we're all like watching, going like, you know, we love scream, man, but what the fuck are you doing?

That's a spot that somebody who really wants to do this, you know? So what did, did you ever have, in my impression, just I can answer very quickly. I heard about the offer, you know, quite some time. And I think I saw you one night performing at one of the clubs. And I remember feeling like, oh, this guy really, I've heard a lot about him. And I remember thinking to myself, oh, this guy, he gets it. He really gets it. Like, because I always see the gears turning with, I can watch and, you know, I kind of

like, we're a little bit soothed there because we know, all right, I see what he's trying to get to or what he's trying to, and, and still I had that preconceived notion until we finally actually chatted for a little bit at a couple of clubs and then really got to know each other at my house to where I could go, okay, this is a well-rounded guy who's trying to, you know, figure it all out and then put it all back into his comedy. So that's, I think we started off a friendship. I'm no Rogan. Yeah.

You don't text me in the middle of the night, you know? He's never texting and saying, what do I say to Dane? That's true. But that's okay. But that's okay. I think, yeah, for me, I would see you at the clubs and like, I always got to, I always feel like too nervous to talk to some guys or I'd feel nervous around them, just insecurities about myself, even just be myself.

So, you know, I probably felt like that sometimes you were friends with other guys that I knew pretty well. And, and so, you know, we bumped into each other. We would talk a little bit at the improv here and there had a couple of conversations. And then, and, but that was it. But the first time I ever saw you at Dublin's actually, I mean, years ago when the first night I ever came out and watched comedy in LA. Oh, wow.

That's a great for sure. And you were crushing it there. Yeah. And it was cool. That was, that was the whole, that was where everything was starting to change. Yeah. And it was really like, oh man, okay. That was a world.

That was a place in its own. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great memories. People still talk about that. Yeah. Bublin and Dublin's man.

Yeah, dude. That was crazy. Great, great memories. Um, was there ever a chance since you're from Boston and Wahlberg is from Boston that there was a chance for you and Mark Wahlberg to do a movie? Um, no, I've never, I mean, I've met him several times. The closest I ever came to ever performing was he was in the new kids on the block back when I was starting stand up in a comedy group and we did shows together.

Wow. So we would open for new kids on the block at like sober clubs. Yeah. We play sober clubs. We were too young. So we play, you know, in these non-alcohol venues. And so Joey McIntyre was like fucking 11 or whatever he was. And probably fucking.

I got to, and chicks were, no bullshit, man. Chicks were lining up for those guys. I was lining up in a wig. We just wanted, we just wanted to, uh, you know, whatever, whatever fell off the side of the stage for them. We were like, you know, hoping that maybe one girl would, would like us and want to touch our pain. Did you ever, were you ever offended that they didn't reach out to you because you're

both from the same place? No. I mean, I, I, the first film I ever did was, uh, in a movie with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It was called School Ties. I didn't have a significant role in it, but those guys were like, I knew, I knew in and around Boston they were emerging. You know, I didn't know you were in that.

Me neither. I mean, I'm in it literally for like that much too. Kurt Fox is in the Patriot. Did you know that? Yeah. Yeah. I see. He's in, um, one of my favorite movies, Wyatt Earp.

Wow. He's in Wyatt Earp a lot. He's really great. He's really great, man. Um, but no, I never felt, uh, I've worked with many Boston guys that, you know, I, I've admired and, and come up like him. So if, if they called you go great and if not, then, you know, it's okay. I'm still a fan.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool stuff, man. Um, anything else guys? Are you shooting a special? I'm going to film a couple of things this year. I think that, uh, I got two, two specials that I want to do and if I can do it back to back, um, then I'm going to do that, but I don't want to give up where I'm going to

do it yet. I'm talking to directors now and it's getting exciting. And I'm, I'm planning on doing one and doing it myself with a, with as a director and, uh, and maybe even doing it at the main room at the comedy store because that feels so comfortable there. Of course. Um, do you think it matters like venue size and that sort of thing? I mean, for me, some of it seems a bit to be about comfort, like the last one I did

was in a place, it was in a theater and it was okay, but it wasn't really that comfortable. I'd never even been on the stage. So it didn't feel, I was very nervous, but, uh, I don't think it matters whatsoever. I mean, honestly, I feel like comedy is as long as it's, you know, got great sound, you know, even more than lights or anything, as long as it sounds great, you know, if you're in a place that you're comfortable hometown, of course, that's a legendary room and an amazing room, just a room that embraces comedy. So I think that's a smart moving your part playing it there.

Um, but I don't, I don't think that, you know, it's not like saying, Hey, because you played, uh, a 5,000 cedar that, that, that, uh, you should have a more of a validation or less. It's like, no, if you're funny, that should be wherever that you want to do that is going to work out. Funny wins. Funny wins. Tell it how like it is. Tell it like it is.

Tell it like it is. Yeah. Yeah. Man. Dude, I'm going to Medford actually in two weeks. Are you serious? Yeah. Oh shit.

I'm so excited. I'm nervous. I've bought, you know, Boston. I'm just, yeah, I'm excited and nervous. Right next to my, my, uh, town that I grew up in. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Born and raised in Arlington, Massachusetts. And used to hang out at the Medford mall. Really? Yeah. Look for chicks. They were coming out of fucking parade of shoes. And I would just sit there on a bench eating Brigham's ice cream, going like girls. They wouldn't look at me for another 10 years.

But you were ready. I was. I was ready, man. Yeah. We used to camp out at the mall. We used to drive to Slidell, Louisiana. We'd go stay at the mall, get a tent, camp out outside and go to the mall again the next day.

Oh man. What was it? Do you have a store that was like your spot that you always had to go like, I got to go to the Sharper image or something? Oh yeah. Yeah. We went to, um, the place that have like, uh, panties, but also have like lava lamps. What is that?

Uh, oh. Spencer's gifts. Yeah. Yeah. We'd steal a bunch of stuff and then get arrested even sometimes they'd arrest you and then let you go. Yes. And then you go down to like electronics boutique.

Yeah. And look at what the new fucking Nintendo 64 games were. Just imagine. Oh man. If anybody cared about you, you'd have one. Those fucking good times. Uh, Dan Cook, best of luck on your new tour, man. Thanks Theo.

Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it. Really, uh, I was excited for this. I appreciate it. Would you ever do a podcast of your own you think? Have you considered it? Or does that seem like something that everybody else is doing? So you're going the other direction.

I love this. I love, uh, being a guest and coming in and, um, having come up and created my own early version of a pot wasn't even called a podcast. I had something called the voice of doom and the voice of doom was a little jukebox that I would upload mp3 and I would do like a rant every couple of days. I just put on like some stuff that I knew wouldn't be funny as much on stage, but like I could kind of riff on, um, and I felt like for me, I, I, I, I'm enjoying watching so many people embrace the entrepreneurial side of getting their voice out there way more

than even if I was doing it at this point, because I'm like, I did that when it was not cool, when it was not in vogue and you're a lot of shit. And now it's the template right now it's a must calling card. So I'm just, uh, I'm grateful that, you know, I could come in here and hang out. Hopefully you'll have me back. Yeah. We'd love to, man. Thanks for coming in.

Cool man. Yeah. Oh, but when I reached that ground, I'll share this piece of mind. I can feel it. gonna take a little time for me to set that parking brake and let myself on one. Shine that light on me. I'll sit and tell you my stories. Shine on me and I will find a song. I will sing it just for you.