Have you all listened to this guy??? He intense!!!

                   Succeed Like This Joker
Sure, Dane Cook
is funny. But his approach to career building is anything
but.

    Dane Cook has a lot in common with the Honda
minivan I bought last year. You know the phenomenon: Before
you buy a car, you never see it anywhere, but once you're
behind the wheel, you notice that every-damn-body is driving
one. Ditto the Dane Cook phenomenon. And yes, he is a
phenomenon. Suddenly, the dude is everywhere.




Flipping channels, I catch him in Torque, that goofy
motorcycle flick. Friends are now dropping references to the
"superfinger" -- Cook's trademark ring-and-middle-finger
double bird, to be used when the middle finger just won't
do. In L.A., his face is plastered all over the Laugh
Factory, which I happened to jog by when I was out there to
meet him. Oh, wait, looks like Jessica Simpson may be caught
up in the hoopla, too -- the tabloids say she's dating
Cook.

 

All aboard the Dane Train, folks.

 

In
person, Cook seems like just another guy. We meet at a
family-style joint in L.A. -- a holdover from his starving
future comedian–actor–entrepreneur–Web phenom days. It's a
Saturday night -- hey, where's Jessica? -- but his look says
Sunday hangover (even though he's never touched booze or
drugs): ball cap, jeans, and a T-shirt that my wife would
have tossed long ago. A hard hat and leather gloves would be
more appropriate. After about 4 minutes of conversation with
the guy, you learn that he knows a heck of a lot more about
laying a career foundation than you'd think any comedian
would. He's building a brand: Superfinger Entertainment,
Inc. If more guys had his career savvy and approach to
handling pressure, they'd see their own prospects multiply
like Honda minivans.

 

Cook, 34, grew up in Arlington,
Massachusetts, with five sisters, one brother, and a family
turntable constantly spinning comedy records -- Bob Newhart,
old Cosby LPs. His parents never censored the material. "We
were allowed to watch anything," he says. "Carlin, old
Pryor, clean, dirty, it was all cool. I loved watching my
family laugh. I remember the first time we all sat down and
watched Andrew Dice Clay together. We were just losing our
minds." But it was Martin Short's turn as Ed Grimley on
Saturday Night Live that finally set off the homing device
in Cook's head. "I saw that and told myself, I'm going
there. That's my destination."

 

Though every kid has
career dreams, few of those dreams ever make it out of bed.
But this is where you realize that Dane Cook is more than
just a jokester. At 18, when most guys are prepping for dorm
living, Cook started hitting comedy clubs. Every single
night. He didn't perform every night, but he always watched
and learned. This career jumpstart required "a lot of will,"
he says. "When you're in those first couple of years, you've
got a lot of people saying, 'What are you going to fall back
on?' I refused to answer. I told myself, I'm going to die
reaching these goals. I had to go full-tilt boogie, or I'd
suck."