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Dane Cook is a popular comedian known for his stand-up routines and an actor. He has three comedy albums: Harmful If Swallowed, Retaliation and Rough Around the Edges: Live from Madison Square Garden. Retaliation was quite successful as a comedy album, being the highest charted comedy album in twenty-eight years.
Cook performs on lots of television shows and has also had his own special on HBO in 2006 called Vicious Circle. He has been in fifteen films since the late nineties including Employee of the Month with Jessica Simpson and Waiting. In 2007 he appeared in a thriller Mr. Brooks to show that he was confident in handling a diverse amount of roles. Cook has proved himself as a talented performer in so many ways. It is clear that he can be both funny and dramatic in a diverse variety of film and television roles.
Cook was born in 1976. He first lived in Arlington, Massachusetts. He lived with his parents George and Donna Cook and his brother and five sisters. Cook attended the local Arlington High School for education. While at Arlington High School Cook first discovered his strong creative theatrical and comedic talents. He starred in a school production of Grease. Cook’s father was a radio personality George Cook who likely also inspired his career. Cook Senior gave his son a microphone and a tape recorder. Cook watched many comedians on television learning to develop his comedic abilities. Some of his favorites include Bill Cosby and George Carlin. It soon became clear that this was not just a passion but it was his chosen career goal.
He graduated from Arlington High School in 1990 and started doing comedy right away. His first breakout comedy show was at Catch a Rising Star located in Times Square in New York City. Cook wound up performing because someone else did not show up that night when their name was called to appear on stage. Cook said that he was actually that person (when he wasn’t). This evening only fueled his desire to do more and more comedy shows. For the next several years he did as many comedy club evenings as he could at clubs or on the college show circuit.
Soon Cook was performing stand-up nightly. In 1995 Cook was typically performing in Boston as his home base. He would also go to The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, California. In 1997 Cook appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. But Cook received his big break finally in 1998 by appearing on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. It was by appearing on this that Cook developed a strong relationship with Comedy Central. This relationship lasted for many years and was beneficial to them both.
Cook’s career continued to skyrocket into the end of the 90’s as he appeared on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. He also appeared on several television and movie roles during this year. In the year 2000 Cole won the prestigious Pixie Award for Best Actor in an i-Feature called Spiral. He also performed on a special on Comedy Central Presents. Cook’s Comedy Central specials have been so successful they have won the Comedy Central Stand-up showdown twice in a row. It is clear that he is a leader and a great performer in his field. In 2001 he appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Cook has appeared on The Tonight Show many times since that first appearance. He continued to appear on television specials during the year, building his successful career.
Cook released the well-known and popular Harmful If Swallowed CD/DVD in 2003. This album has appeared on eight different Billboard charts and is a certified platinum album. Cook was then given a record contract with Comedy Central Records. During this year he also wrote a short film 8 Guys. He directed and starred in 8 Guys also. Cook had a variety of other movie and television roles during the year to keep him busy.
In 2005 Cook released his second very popular CD/DVD Retaliation. The album became double platinum. Cook became the first comedian to have an album at #4 on the Billboard charts in a 28 year history. Because of the album’s success Cook performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. He did a comedy set and then helped to present the award for Best New Artist with Snoop Dogg. During this year Cook also performed in his first HBO special Vicious Circle which was filmed at the TD Banknorth Garden. He also hosted Saturday Night Live on December 3, 2005. It was one of the highest rated SNLs of the season and he is one of few comedians to host the show. He also appeared in the movie London with Jessica Biel. He did another movie called Waiting, an independent film. Cook this year was called one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, listed at #34.
In 2006 Cook starred in the movie Employee of the Month. He also hosted the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. In November he performed at Madison Square Garden, becoming the second comedian to ever perform there. He had two sold out shows for his event at MSG. Cook won several prestigious awards during the year including: Big Entertainer Award at the VH1 Big in ’06; Rolling Stone Magazine’s Hot Comic of the Year; Coolest Comic of the Year from Stuff Magazine. He was again named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, this time reaching the high number of #4 on the list.
2007 was a busy year for Cook as he did a voice over for the popular mockumentary Farce of the Penguins. He also co-starred in the dramatic Mr. Brooks. He also starred in Good Luck Chuck with Jessica Alba. He also co-starred in Dan in Real Life. Cook performed in the playoff/World Series commercials for Major League Baseball. Cook did the commercials as a tribute to his father who died during this year. Cook also released his third popular CD/DVD Rough around the Edges. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Comedy Album chart.
Also check out Jessica Alba bio.
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January 18th, 2008 at 9:47 am
OMG! Dane Cook deserves all those awards. He is the perfect combinaton. Extremely sexy and extremely funny. Dane makes me laugh like no one else can. Dane is the funnisest guy I have ever heard and I hope he releseses another album soon.!!
January 29th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
dane cook, to bad your almost old enough to be my son. your the kind of person that people should have in their lives,especially this day and age. damn, to bad i wasn’t younger (dreamer) sign: almost old enough to be your mother
January 29th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
oops, i believe my website is msn sign: old enough to be your mother
February 17th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Dane,
I don’t know if you actually check anything on this site or not but I figured what the heck. I think you are a BAMF! Definitely would like a ticket for the “Dane Train”. I am a 36 year old single mom and life on a daily basis can be pretty serious and stressful in my situation. My niece asked me to listen to your “Retaliation” cd and I have not laughed like that in a long, long, I am talking a REALLY LONG LONG TIME! You made me remember that laughter is good for the soul and took me back to a time in my life when laughter was a daily part of life and so much fun! I love being a mom now, but it is hard to tow the line by myself. I am now a really big fan of yours and every now and then, when I am having an off day where things seem a little stressful, I will listen to one of your cds at work or in the car and somehow, things don’t seem so bad off. You do your job well. You not only make me laugh, but have the power to change my mood from sad, mad, angry, scorned, bitter, hurt, and tired to happy and can make me smile throughout the day when I reflect on the content of one of your comedy cds.
Thank you Dane. I love you! Sign: Not old enough to be your mother.