Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · Ed Mylett

Above It All

Dane Cook

Vimeo · 2022 · 58 min

Dane Cook jokes about his age-gap engagement from his front porch.

Watch on Vimeo(opens in a new tab)

or watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Above It All finds Dane Cook trying to neutralize his biggest public-relations headache by turning it into a punchline. Standing on the front porch of his own Hollywood Hills mansion, he talks directly about the 27-year age gap between himself and his fiancée, Kelsi Taylor. It is a self-deprecating pivot for a comic whose massive early-2000s fame was built on high-energy, arena-sized bravado.

Director Marty Callner returns to film the 2022 performance, utilizing drones to capture the sprawling Los Angeles backdrop while a small audience sits on Cook’s front lawn. The setting is intimate, but the material varies in momentum. He opens with a laborious 20-minute narrative about a stalker that builds high tension but offers a fairly flat resolution. Elsewhere, Cook slips back into classic observational routines, including a bit about craving Chick-fil-A on a Sunday and another on the absurdity of legal jargon.

Released on the streaming platform Moment before moving to other digital storefronts, the self-funded special represents a veteran performer attempting to age gracefully in a climate that has mostly moved past him. While the arena-scale hysteria of his youth is gone, Cook’s physical delivery remains practiced, even if the writing does not always keep up with his charisma.

The set list

4 bits

  1. A harrowing multi-month encounter with a violent female stalker

    Details how an Instagram DM escalated into a stakeout outside his home, consulting a police friend who gave extreme advice, and reacting with a deadpan question of whether she had moved on to Kevin Hart's house.

  2. Addressing the 26-year age difference with his fiancée

    Jokes about public internet blowback and remarks that when wondering where she had been all his life, he realized she was not alive for 26 years of it.

  3. The only time he contemplated quitting comedy early in his career

    Recounts a rough early road gig in Florida performing stand-up on top of a hot-dog stand while dodging thrown wieners from hecklers.

  4. Hypothetical courtroom defense based on love of true-crime TV

    Outlines how he would attempt to win over a jury in court using pure charisma.

How it plays

Tone
Caustic, conversational, and defensive.
On stage
More grounded, laid-back, and caustic than his early energetic persona; planted and conversational while recounting personal events.
Pace
More relaxed and restrained compared to his peak physical comedy and youthful gusto, at times interrupted by outdoor airplanes and helicopters overhead.
About
encounter with a female stalker, relationship and age gap with his younger fiancée, early career struggles and performing on a hot dog stand, true-crime TV and courtroom defense, attending weddings, the Citizen app and smash-and-grab robberies

What the critics said

Decider recommended skipping the special, finding that while loyal fans might stick by him, the material lacked the bite of his earlier work and that general viewers would likely deliver a hung jury.

In the room: An intimate, casual outdoor gathering of guests in Cook's yard; streaming viewers engaged in mixed reactions and online debate in the live chat during the premiere.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, variety.com, rottentomatoes.com, decider.com, chrisvanvliet.com, podcasts.apple.com, podcast.chrisvanvliet.com.

Backstory

Self-funded special performed outdoors at his Hollywood Hills home overlooking Los Angeles and distributed via the direct-to-consumer platform Moment; comes amid public online discourse and scrutiny surrounding his engagement to a woman 26 years younger than him.

Details

Released
Taped
Dane Cook's Hollywood Hills home (front porch / backyard amphitheater), Los Angeles
Runtime
58 min
Where
Vimeo
Director
Marty Callner
Topics
Before
Isolated Incident (2009)

More from Dane Cook

If you liked this