Dane Cook Biography

Dane Cook (born on March 18, 1972 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an American stand-up comedian and screen actor. Dane grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts, and attended Arlington High School. Cook was raised Roman Catholic with Irish and Italian heritage.

Biography

Dane Cook comedy material is mostly observational humor. His recent routines include such diverse topics as car accident mayhem, Dane's time spent working at Burger King and assorted geek humor. Cook often refers to specific places or things using his own slang terms. For instance: Burger King is the "BK Lounge" (a phrase first used by De La Soul), Walgreens is "The Wall" , and a sandwich is a "sangwich". Dane Cook also popularized the acronym BAMF, short for Bad Ass Mother F---er, a slight variation on the more-common and widely-used "BMF", or "Bad Mother F---er". Among Cook's numerous television credits are performances on Comedy Central Presents and Comedy Central Bar Mitzvah Bash.

Dane Cook is often referred to as 'the most popular guy on MySpace' (next to Tom Anderson, the creator of the service), because at one time he approved every friend request he received -- recently hitting one million.

When Dane Cook was a teenager, Dane discovered his comedic talent when his father, former radio personality George Cook, gave him a tape recorder and microphone. Dane was inspired by watching and listening to a variety of comedians, including Bill Cosby, Johnny Carson, George Carlin and even Red Skelton.

In seventh grade Cook watched Saturday Night Live one night and saw Martin Short's character Ed Grimley. He suddenly realized a goal in life: to be on the show.

Dane Cook started performing stand-up comedy in 1990. By 1995, Cook was performing stand-up comedy every night, usually in Boston and later at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. He stated in a 2005 interview with Entertainment Weekly that he "never walked toward a stage and felt heavy. Ever. Even in bad places, I always learned something." Also in 1995, Dane Cook made his television debut as Kyle in five episodes of the short-lived ABC series Maybe This Time, starring Marie Osmond and Betty White.

Dane Cook made his first appearance in a major motion picture as "The Waffler" (a superhero who uses a waffle iron and "truth syrup" to fight crime) in Mystery Men (1999). A year earlier, Dane was featured on Comedy Central's stand-up comedy showcase Premium Blend and, the following year, Comics Come Home. It would begin a partnership with the cable channel that would help launch Cook's career to new heights. A half-hour feature segment on Comedy Central Presents followed in 2000.

1999 also saw Dane starring in the straight-to-video Dennis Rodman vehicle, Simon Sez. Often thought to be a sequel to the mildly successful Jean Claude Van Damme film, Simon Sez actually has nothing to do with Double Team. In the film Cook plays Rodman's partner, Nick Miranda. The film was directed by Kevin Elders, previously known as the screenwriter for Aces: Iron Eagle III.

Two years later, Dane Cook pooled $25,000 of his own money from savings and retirement accounts and launched DaneCook.com, his own interactive website to help further his career and help stay personally connected to his fans. Although other comics mocked him, his website, along with his MySpace account, turned out to be a success.

In 2003, Dane Cook released his first comedy album, Harmful If Swallowed, which also included a DVD of his appearances on Comedy Central.

In 2003 Dane Cook also released the film 8 Guys, which he wrote, directed, and starred in.

In 2005, Dane Cook launched a nationwide tour dubbed "Tourgasm" (highlights from which aired as "Dane Cook's Tourgasm." It debuted on HBO June 11, 2006) as a follow up to his second album Retaliation, which debuted at #4 on Billboard magazine's Top Albums chart, the most successful comedy album debut since Steve Martin's A Wild and Crazy Guy in 1979. Cook wore a T-shirt depicting Steve Martin and "A Wild And Crazy Guy" at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.

The album's success launched a slew of public appearances and magazine articles that fall, including a three-minute routine on the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28. He also performed three sold-out shows in two nights at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, a 2,500 to 5,000 seat venue, in mid-September without any press but his own website.

During a May 2005 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Cook parodied Tom Cruise's "couch jumping" Oprah appearance and made a "tattoo" of Katie Holmes (actually a picture taped to his back) and barging into the women's restroom to get her.

During a October 2005 appearance on The Tonight Show, Dane Cook kissed Charlize Theron's butt after she allowed him to do so. Cook was re-enacting a previous joke/act in which Charlize kissed Shirley MacLaine's butt at a Premiere magazine tribute to women in Hollywood.

Cook also appeared and performed on Dave Attell's Insomniac Tour.

Dane Cook finished his own television pilot called Cooked, which he is writing and starring in, soon afterwards.

On December 3, 2005, Dane finally realized his dream of hosting Saturday Night Live. His appearance was unique because he was one of the few stand-up comedians (as opposed to actors) to appear as guest host for the show. He performed the longest monologue in the show's history while using a handheld microphone, another rarity for SNL. The episode was one of the highest-rated SNLs of the season.

On January 13, 2006, after months of keeping a "BIG secret" from his fans, Dane Cook announced via his website an April 15 gig at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden where his first HBO special was eventually filmed. A documentary series and a scripted program are also in the works for HBO. In the week prior to the televised gig, he performed at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas (April 8) and Allstate Arena in Chicago (April 13), the largest venues he's ever performed in those cities.

His mother, Donna Cook, passed away after a long bout with cancer on July 3rd.

Dane Cook was recently in Santa Fe, New Mexico working on a new movie called Employee of the Month, a comedy co-starring Jessica Simpson (who he's been linked to romanticly by the tabloid press), Dax Shepard, Efren Ramirez and Harland Williams.

Dane Cook is also currently filming the psychological thriller Mr. Brooks in Shreveport, Louisiana with Kevin Costner. In 2006, he was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2006.

Dane Cook plans on touring the country with other comedians including Steve Carell.

While shooting a movie in Vancouver, Dane Cook made the local papers for his behavior in a comedy club. His actions were called "very immature"[2]. Dane Cook has yet to make comment on this event.

The Super Finger or Su-Fi (pronounced su-fai) is a hand gesture. It was not created by Dane, although he has adopted as such.

In 2005, Dane Cook started his own company to produce his albums and videos, which he named Superfinger Entertainment.

It's also been claimed that Dane stole material from comedian Joe Rogan. Proof of these allegations are yet to surface.

On Saturday, July 22, 2006, Cook was played off the stage at Yuk Yuk's comedy club in Vancouver. Dane was in town for six weeks shooting a film with Jessica Alba and his agent had requested a slot for him, after that night's headliner.

When he arrived Dane Cook wanted an earlier set, so he was given the slot before the headliner with the understanding that he do less time. He either could not see or ignored the red light so the club's manager cut his mic and tried to play him off with music. Cook was quite surprised by this but continued his act, until the manager cut his mic and tried to play him off again; this time it was successful, resulting in Cook dropping his mike in a fit of anger and walking off the stage.

Discography / Videography

• Harmful If Swallowed DVD and CD. Comedy Central, 2003.
• Retaliation DVD and two CDs. Comedy Central, 2005.