Comedian Dane Cook brings stand-up to Riverside Casino & Golf Resort

Kerry Louise laughed when she recalled a night a generation ago when she and three other fledgling comics bombed during an open mic showcase in Boston.

None of the young humorists had much material. Each of the first four comics crashed and burned, but a young standup killed.

"That was Dane Cook," Louise said while calling from New York. "Dane came up after we didn't do well. He sang Christmas songs (in July). You would think that would be death for a comic but the place went crazy. They loved him. You knew he was on to something. He has that special certain something."

Cook, 53, doesn't remember the gig.

"But I believe it's true if Kerry said that's what happened," Cook said while calling from his Beverly Hills home. "I'll do what I have to do to make it work onstage. On March 18, 1965, Johnny Carson said, 'You have to use everything you have.' That's what I do when I perform. I'm the son of an athlete. I do what I can to win a game. If something isn't working, I'll call an audible and do something the audience doesn't expect."

Don't expect Cook to croon "Silent Night" when he performs Friday, Feb. 13 at Riverside Casino & Golf Resort. But the son of George Cook, who played basketball at Boston College, will do what it takes to score a laugh.

The high-energy comic appreciates old-school comedy, which he embraced as a child coming of age in Boston.

"It goes back to Carson," Cook said. "I remember how the center of my universe was 'The Tonight Show.' I remember turning on that old Zenith television that had terrible picture quality and the tiny wicker speaker. Somehow when I turned that on it sounded like I was in the most incredible concert hall when Carson came on. That show was my portal into comedy. It was so inspiring."

Cook has enjoyed considerable success. The star of a number of films, such as "Good Luck Chuck," "Employee of the Month" and "My Best Friend's Girl," has released five comedy albums and sold out Madison Square Garden.

"It's been an amazing career," Cook said. "It's still going on and I love what I do."

What Cook does is avoid the topical. His humor is an escape from the headlines.

"I avoid the heaviness and vitriol out there," Cook said. "We live in a world in which there is an onslaught of 24-hour news. It all hits us at once. I offer a respite from that. That heaviness is even on the late night talk shows. I remember back in the day Johnny Carson would have Burt Reynolds and they would talk up his latest movie. It would be something like 'Cannonball Run 2.' Burt knew it was schlock and so did Johnny, but they had fun with it. It was great because what they did was make people laugh. I think with all that is going on now people want to just go out and laugh and forget about everything else."

Count on Cook to riff about his life. Some of his set is about getting married for the first time at mid-life.

"I'm not doing things like, 'Oh take my wife, she's a nag and I'm a piece of garbage,’" Cook said. "I'm going a different route. I talk about how much I love being married. For years I joked about how great it was being single and how you're a fool if you're married. Now I joke that the morons, the losers are the people who are single."

Cook will also joke about technology.

"I talk about how we lose ourselves in the tech world," Cook said. "I think everyone can relate to that. I have so much to talk about since my life has changed so much over the years. I take what I have and run with it."

That includes making a documentary about how his half brother, who was Cook's former business manager, embezzled $12 million from the humorist.

"It's a true crime sort of documentary," Cook said. "It's about how I put my brother in prison."

Cook is negotiating a deal and believes the doc will be released at some point this year.

"It's a wild story," Cook said. "But it happens in entertainment. So many entertainers have been robbed by members of their family. So I have the documentary coming out and then there's stand-up, which I've been passionate about ever since I was a kid.“

Cook was an introvert who finally found himself in high school theater productions.

"I was the wallflower," Cook said. "But I loved reading plays and when I started acting in high school, I disappeared into characters. I found my calling. I surprised people that I grew up with. I have this incredible career. But people have said, 'I didn't think you had it in you.' But I did have it in me. It's so great all of this worked out and I get to continue doing this."