eMusic

Start Your Trial

ISolated INcident

by

Dane Cook

 
  • Deal
ISolated INcident
view larger image View Larger

Rate it!

Avg: 2.5 (144 ratings)

The brash king of frat comedy on top of his raunchy game

  • We Say...

    Review by James Sullivan

    Comedy, famously, is hard. Dane Cook, with his savvy self-marketing yielding blockbuster sales, makes it look easy. And he's paid for it with the kind of backlash usually reserved for sad-sack arena rockers who name their children Apple. For his fifth album, the Gen-X comic seems determined to prove that he brings his own goods. Detractors — and he has no shortage, as he notes in a funny segment called "Haters" — might not come around. But fans, who number in the platinum figures, will be tickled that he's on top of his raunchy game.

    Recorded for an intimate audience at the Laugh Factory (where an unknown Cook once did one of the most hysterical bits I've ever seen, involving a childhood memory of his father in an open bathrobe), ISolated Incident is heavy on the R-rated, with hunks on porn sites, self-pleasure and the proclivities of old girlfriends. But there's also a bit of topical stuff ("I'm not racist — I've got a black president"), some sick-puppy material (such as a suggestion that the suicidal spruce up the dreary business of hanging themselves by using Christmas lights) and examples of Cook's strongest suit, the witty, energetically retold anecdote — dropping his cell phone in a public toilet, for instance. If bits about linguistic redundancies and deleting names from electronic address books are uncomfortably Carlin-esque, those, mostly, are isolated incidents.

  • They Say...

    Review by David Jeffries, All Music Guide

    In the liner notes to Isolated Incident, Dane Cook thanks "all the people that stayed by me when my world was collapsing." Most would think he is referring to the ongoing accusations of joke stealing from his peers or maybe some Hollywood vehicles that bombed, but the thick-skinned comedian is actually talking about something truly difficult, the deaths of both his mother and father in a two-year span. As a result, Isolated Incident is, to a degree, the "darker" and "more personal" album the pre-release hype trumpeted, one that draws laughs when it goes gross or mean and becomes a little unsettling when the elephant-in-the-room issue of Cook's "Haters" is addressed. The track comes after a very moving "Mom and Pops" and then gives way to "Adoption," with Cook thinking about a family-oriented future. That's a soul-searching whirlwind in just ten minutes, and as the routine moves on to some hackneyed topics, it seems a great missed opportunity that this caring, sharing, and most of all genuine Cook wasn't explored further. His material about the recently elected President Obama was already hackneyed as the CD was being released, and if you haven't heard a routine about the voodoo doll-type joy of deleting people from your cell phone, you didn't attend your local comedy club during the 2008 season. Speaking of comedy clubs, Isolated Incident was recorded at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, an intentionally small show for the stadium-sized star Cook. Not the album to start with but the loyal fan gets a very different, revealing kind of show, plus a bonus DVD featuring the "making of" this rare gig.

  • You Say...

    Write a Review

    I would like to say...

    Artist: Dane Cook

    Album: ISolated INcident

    Review Title: (maximum 50 characters)

    Your Review: (maximum 1,000 characters)

    Cancel

    Please keep your comments to the recordings themselves, and be courteous and respectful. Thanks! For further info, read our Community Guidelines.

“ The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.”


Rolling Stone
Start Your Trial

Recently Viewed

Back
Forward

© 1998-2009 eMusic.com Inc. eMusic and the eMusic logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks in the USA or other countries. All rights reserved.

All Music Guide © 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC

Facebook®, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia® are registered trademarks of their respective owners, Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Neither Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. nor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. are partners or sponsors of eMusic. eMusic uses the Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia API but is not endorsed or certified by Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia. eMusic does not pre-screen, monitor, endorse nor assume any liability for websites, contents, products, services or claims made by Facebook, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia®.

Legal or copyright question regarding Facebook, YouTube, Flickr or Wikipedia content on eMusic? Please email us.