Don’t Wake the Bear
Prime Video · 2017 · 75 min
High-energy cynicism about bad parenting, historic medicine, and dead squirrels.
How do you write a children’s book about three happy rabbits meeting a butcher? Dan Cummins has the answer, and it is exactly as grim as his audience expects. Throughout this hour, Cummins works in a zone of high-energy cynicism, leaning into a theatrical delivery that makes his deeply dark tangents go down easy. Whether he is explaining how to dodge jury duty by reacting to a defendant’s facial tattoos or mapping out the terrifying realities of 19th-century surgery, he maintains a manic, intensely detailed rhythm that sets him apart from standard-issue club comics.
The special was taped over two sold-out shows at The Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah, and released by Comedy Dynamics in 2017. At this point in his career, Cummins was pivoting into his hugely popular Timesuck podcast, a move that perfectly matched his obsessive research habits and morbid curiosity. That same fascination with historical weirdness shines through in his stand-up, particularly in a long bit about civil war medicine and another involving a collection of dead squirrel puppets.
Rather than trying to charm the crowd with relatable domestic pleasantries, Cummins targets the absurdity of modern parenting. He details the escalating battle of wills over a pacifier in “The Binky Queen” and admits to the quiet terror of raising kids who are clearly smarter than their father.
The set list
-
Working out at an outdated YMCA with elderly members
Frames himself as Hercules among geriatric gym-goers, contrasting his frontal mirror profile with his side profile and boasting over an old woman who cannot lift his weights.
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Sidewalk and door etiquette
Rants about pedestrians who lack basic manners, detailing his aggressive game of 'sidewalk chicken' against oncoming people refusing to yield their half.
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Gun control and identifying mental illness
Observes that dangerous gunmen can often be diagnosed simply by looking at pictures because they look 'photogenically insane.'
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Girlfriend complaining about his listening skills
Argues that his inattentiveness stems from her needing to tell better, shorter stories, while calling out mixed messages over healthy eating.
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The closer (spoiler). Show it
Daddy Bear explaining the real world to his cubs
An analogous, dark children's story about Daddy Bear teaching his cubs about harsh and unsatisfactory realities.
How it plays
- Tone
- Lighthearted yet subtly dark, candid, and irreverent.
- On stage
- Branded by his unusual yet pointed observations mixed with a slight twist of delusion, adopting an exaggerated self-importance and faux-arrogant superiority.
- Pace
- Fast-paced, conversational, and excitable delivery that leaves him breathy at times.
- About
- gym culture and physique, manners and pedestrian etiquette, relationship dynamics and communication, parenting and raising smart children, gun control and mental illness, dark societal realities
What the critics said
Praised for rapid-fire conversational pacing, potent and inventive word choices, and the ability to find lighthearted humor in sensitive, uncomfortable, or dark subject matter.
In the room: Filmed across two sold-out shows at The Depot.
Backstory
Taped as Cummins was transitioning out of Los Angeles back to Idaho, wrapping up his hosting duties on The Playboy Morning Show, and fulfilling the final installment of a five-album record contract.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- The Depot, Salt Lake City
- Runtime
- 75 min
- Where
- Prime Video
- Director
- Adam Rothlein
- Topics
- After
- Get Outta Here; Devil! (2020)
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Get Outta Here; Devil!
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