Dane Cook's
Retaliation is a fantastic combination of this hyper, cutting comedian's talents and the
Comedy Central record label's fantastic attitude toward packaging. Here, fans get "100 minutes of new material" on the audio portion (new to CD anyway, as some of these routines are already
Cook classics for bootleg-trading fans) and just about every appearance the "Dane Train" has made on the
Comedy Central network. The network's handling of the late
Mitch Hedberg was a little better since the CD/DVD combo barely overlapped at all, but ingesting
Cook's ramblings on his car crash fetish twice is no big deal since listening to him and watching him are entirely different experiences. He treats the stage like the
Mick Jagger of comedy, strolling back and forth, flailing arms, and shaking his hips. His intense energy overshadows some of his most stinging verbal darts, making the two CDs included just as vital as the DVD. He's shocking, sometimes gross, sometimes cocky to a fault, but he's incredibly brilliant and takes observational humor in a vicious, cathartic direction that few comedians have attempted. The jokes seem like they're erupting out of him like the chest-buster in
Alien and with so many stinging lines flying past the listener,
Retaliation not only stands up to repeat listening, it demands it. Sometimes he repeats especially witty lines twice in a self-congratulatory way that undermines the punch, but this slight annoyance is miniscule when you realize 100 riveting minutes of one man barking just passed by like it was ten. The creepy guy at work with fat in all the wrong places, the one person in your group of friends that nobody likes, and the people you don't know who turn around in your driveway all get their due in a stinging way that should have them helplessly twitching on the floor for days. The audio would earn this collection a recommendation on its own, but add a DVD of
Cook's appearances on
Crank Yankers,
Shorties Watchin' Shorties, and various other
Comedy Central productions and you've got a fan's dream.
Cook's in-your-face style is love-him-or-loathe-him, but if you love him,
Retaliation is everything you could ask for and more. ~ David Jeffries
