Director:
Marty Callner
Cast:
Dane Cook ………. Himself
The Show
Dane Cook is one of the hottest comedians around today; his popularity has soared over the past two or three years. He has two comedy albums to his credit, Harmuful if Swallowed and Retaliation. The first one was pretty successful, but Retaliation, released in 2005, made Dane a superstar in the world of comedy. It became the best-selling comedy album in the last 28 years!
Dane lauched himself as a successful comedian on Comedy Central, appearing in a few specials and shows there. He has also been in various movies including Simon Sez, Mystery Men, Torque, and Waiting. Following the release of Retaliation, he launched a nationwide tour called “Tourgasm” and documented it for a HBO TV show called Dane Cook’s Tourgasm. But despite all of his success in recent years, he had never actually performed by himself on HBO in a comedy concert special. That was until he went back home to Boston to perform at the TD Banknorth Garden on April 15, 2006.
HBO Dane Cook: Vicious Circle is the first HBO solo comedy concert special for Dane as I have implied. He performed two shows that night and it drew 18,000 fans for each show. It debuted on HBO on September 4, 2006. Dane performed on a circular stage that was surrounded by the audience. Hence the name of this special. He would bring the same set to New York City at Madison Square Garden just this past week and had back-to-back sold-out shows there.
Dane’s comedy style is mainly observational humor. He’s a great storyteller and is not afraid to be vulgar to get the point of the joke across. He also has his own slang that he uses on stage. This includes “BK Lounge” for Burger King, “The Wall” for Walgreens, “blasty blast” for a fun time, “sangwich” for sandwich, “relations**t” for a bad relationship, “SUFI” for the “SUperFInger”, which is basically taking the middle finger and adding the ring finger to make it the new…well you know, for the 21st century. Also, “BAMF” means “Bad Ass Mother F*****. Yes, Dane takes-no-prisoners and his fans love it.
This DVD includes the original broadcast version on HBO, which lasted 90 minutes. But there also is the extended version, which lasted 2 hours. Thirty minutes were cut from the HBO version, so you can see both versions here. To be honest, some of the funniest stuff was cut from the HBO version, which is odd since it’s HBO. Dane comments on everything including how lying makes him feel better; the art of crying; aetheists with attitude problems; committing crimes; the relationship with his future kids; bad relationships with the opposite sex; cheating; going to the movies; and one night stands, among other things.
Critics of Dane Cook have said that he has ripped off material from Louis CK among others. That may be true, but no one can tell a joke like Dane Cook. It’s not always what he says either. Sometimes the stuff he does on screen is just as funny as what he is saying. Any fan of Cook will absolutely love this special as it’s mostly fresh material from him. And those who hate Cook will find this as another reason to hate him, but the man is on a roll, and there appears to be no stopping him for years to come.
The Video:
The video is given in widescreen color with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The same quality as presented on HBO. Nothing wrong with that.
The Audio:
The audio included is in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stero sound. It’s an HBO comedy special, so that’s the sound you get here. No problems with that, though.
The Extras:
DANEgerous Edition of the Concert Special –
This is the two-hour version of the special as I mentioned earlier. Some funny stuff here that wasn’t shown on HBO, so you definitely want to watch this.
The Boston Cook Party Featurette –
This is the standard behind-the-scenes featurette for the taping of this comedy special. We start out hours from when the concert starts and go right up to showtime and beyond. We hear from fans and Dane himself. It’s pretty interesting to watch and worth your time after you have seen both versions of the show.
Fans of Dane Cook will want to get this DVD. Even if you saw this performance on HBO, the special extra of seeing the extended version of the special, with some funny stuff that was cut out of the HBO version, is worth the purchase alone. If you don’t like Dane Cook, then you obviously won’t want to get this. But if you have never seen any of his comedy on TV, this is probably as good as a place to start as any.
