Dane Cook Banned From Laugh Factory For Being ‘Vulgar, Offensive’ Toward Waitress
Dane Cook, the stand-up comedian who came to prominence during the early 2000s while riding the first wave of viral internet marketing, added to his already damaged reputation when he was banned from his “home” comedy club, the world famous Laugh Factory in Los Angeles this week, reports Ethan Sacks of the New York Daily News.
Cook, a regular performer at the club, allegedly used “vulgar, offensive language towards a waitress,” according to an unnamed source, which resulted in a heated shouting match with Laugh Factory owner and founder, Jamie Masada. The Interrobang reports that while the outburst with Masada — whereby Cook was alleged to have screamed, “I own this place!” — was the final straw, it certainly wasn’t an isolated incident that led to Cook’s ban.
Cook had apparently grown increasingly difficult to deal with as his fame ascended, leading many to feel that Cook had lost control of his ego. Cook developed a reputation for “bumping” comics, a term used in stand-up nomenclature to describe a courtesy generally granted by a club to its more successful progeny to be able to show up, unannounced, and take the stage whenever that comedian so desired.
Several big name comics from Jerry Seinfeld to Chris Rock have employed this practice, but usually with a level of consideration that include such steps as checking with the comics that were due to go on, offering to go on last, and usurping only a short amount of time. Cook, however, made it a regular practice to “bump” comics often, with no consideration to the other comedian. He would routinely perform for periods of over an hour, burning out the audience while also making the rest of the comics on the card wait or come back on another night.
Cook also has garnered a reputation for addressing people in demeaning, disrespectful terms. In 2012, comedian and star of HBO’s Silicon Valley, TJ Miller, live tweeted about a set Cook performed at the Laugh Factory whereby Cook bumped several comedians, including Miller, and spent over an hour berating the audience and allegedly generally saying cruel and insulting things to them. This led Miller to call Cook, “vicious, misogynistic, cruel, and arrogant,” according to Matt Wilstein of Medialite.
The incident led to a mini comedy feud of sorts with Cook taking the defensive and questioning Miller’s status and criticism, claiming he broke the “comedy code” on the Ice House Chronicles podcast while Miller aired his version of the story on Pete Holmes’ You Made It Weird podcast.
Pictures of Cook that once adorned the outside of the Laugh Factory have been removed, and while Cook’s bio still appears on the club’s website, he has no booked dates on their calendar. Cook, however, has suddenly been putting in large amounts of time at the nearby Hollywood Improv. Both sides have thus far remained refused to comment on the situation.
