Two days ago, Dane Cook appeared on Joe Rogan’s UStream podcast. If you have two hours to spare you should surely check it out. Go!

Dane Cook’s latest movie project will straddle between two genres. He’s set to co-star along side Josh Hutcherson – who you may know from the latest Journey to the Center of the Earth – in a horror comedy titled Detention. Variety reported the film is about “…teens who must survive their final year of high school. Standing in their way is a slasher-movie killer who has seemingly come to life.”

Filming begins this month in Los Angeles. Cook recently wrapped filming the upcoming movie Guns, Girls and Gambling, a crime thriller about the chase for an American Indian artifact. It stars Christian Slater and Gary Oldman.

If you watched last night’s episode of Tosh.0, you may have noticed it was a re-run. But, the folks at the official show blog blessed us with an extended version of Tosh’s bit “If Daniel Fought Celebrities,” which is about twice as long as the originally aired version. And, dare we say, twice as funny.

So, without further exposition, watch the clip below, wherein Tosh predicts the outcome of hypothetical fights between him and the likes of Dane Cook, Zac Efron, Betty White and more!

I just listened to Marc Maron’s incredibly enlightening Dane Cook interview from this week’s episode of WTF with Marc Maron. It got me thinking about my own experiences getting into comedy under the shadow of Cook.

Shortly after I started doing stand-up, I was talking shit about Dane Cook. It seemed, at the time, a rite of passage for new comics. It seemed that people, who, when they were 14 or 15 had seen his 30-minute Comedy Central special and loved it, had to – with the coming of adulthood – distinguish themselves as having matured, having moved past the high-energy style-over-substance salesmanship epitomized by Dane Cook.

Basically I was taking potshots at a silver-back because a critical part of the development of new authority is the challenging of the old guard. I also talked shit about him because I didn’t know who I was on stage, and it helped me carve out a sense of who I wanted to be, by making clear about who I wasn’t.

Dane was at the forefront when or the early aughts comedy boom. Along with Carlos Mencia, Larry The Cable Guy, and Jeff Dunham, Dane was one of the four horsemen of “Big Comedy,” people who had corporate sponsorships and fanatical devotees, and could fill stadiums.

Mass appeal is a tricky thing. Of course there’s always The Beatles or Steve Martin (one of Cook’s comedy heroes), artists who simultaneously appeal to both committed enthusiasts and the casual consumer. But more often than not, mass appeal equates to Britney Spears or Two and a Half Men—artistic representations that are so broad it’s deemed offensive by so-called artist snobs.

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Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada knows it’s never too early to start your stand-up career.

Which is why this Saturday marks the 26th year he’ll be running the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp— a free stand-up comedy program for underprivileged kids. Youngsters aged 9-16 are encouraged to audition for the Comedy Camp this Saturday, June 19 at 11 am at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.

The camp’s “counselors” feature well known comedians like Chris Tucker, Shawn Wayans, Jamie Foxx, Bob Saget and Dane Cook (who is taking part for the 12th time) – and all of which are featured in this promo for the camp:

The camp will be held every following Saturday for 8-10 weeks, and culminates in a final performance by each camper. Those interested are encouraged to RSVP and call or email with any questions: 323-656-1336 x1 comedycamp@laughfactory.com

Dane Cook was in a movie called The Touch in 2002. You probably haven’t seen it, since you probably don’t live in Lithuania or Egypt or Taiwan or any of the other dozen or so countries that showed the comedy in theaters. But Dane, himself, just twittered that some dude on YouTube posted a video of all his funny scenes.

According to IMDB, the movie goes like this: “A sister and brother, the last heirs of a family of acrobats, are called upon by a Buddhist monk sect to retrieve an artifact that their ancestors have protected throughout the ages.” Honestly, it sounds better than this.

I just watched video. I found it fucking funny. So there. And now, I’m sharing it with you. You’re welcome.

Eddie Izzard says there's nothing wrong with performing stand-up comedy in arenas.

In a new interview on WalesOnline, Eddie Izzard, in addition to asking us in the States to please believe that he’s a transvestite – despite his many manly roles in Hollywood the last few years – defends his decision to perform stand-up comedy in large arenas, as opposed to more intimate venues. Many comedy purists believe that stand-up comedy should always be presented in a room with no more than 300 to 350 seats, with excellent sight lines all around and where you can see the beads of sweat form on the comics brows.

Others, however, feel that there’s nothing wrong with “rock ‘n roll” comedy, wherein a comedian has a big enough audience to fill arenas, where, there’s a good chance a large percentage of the crowd will be watching most of the show on big screens flanking a giant stage, not unlike what you might see at a Dane Cook or Larry the Cable Guy show.

Izzard defends arena comedy thusly:

Six years ago, I did the first arena tour of the UK and that was a little scary because I didn’t know what I would be dealing with. People will say it’s not intimate, but … if people don’t want to watch it there, then don’t watch it there. But I definitely think it’s a good thing. It makes it more of an event. And why should rock and roll get all the arena shows? If you think of the first ever arena gig, when The Beatles did Shea Stadium in 1965, it was a crap gig. Great band, great event but a crap gig because you couldn’t hear anything.

People have had to learn how to play stadium gigs in music. And comedy has to go through the same thing, we just have to work out how to play arenas. No-one bats an eyelid when bands play arenas and if it’s a good thing for bands it’s a good thing for comedy.

So what do you think? Can stand-up comedy be performed effectively at an arena? Have you ever been to an arena comedy show? Did it suck? Was it awesome? Please share all of your experiences in the comments section.

They say the days of success in stand-up leading to big time deals could be on the decline. However, Comics on Screen, a new documentary airing on the Starz network, tells the stories of a handful of comedians who got their lucky breaks in Hollywood through live comedy.

The film features interviews with Tim Allen, Dane Cook, George Lopez, Rosie O’Donnell, Cedric the Entertainer, and many others. It premiered September. 8, but there’s still time to catch it on September 16, 24, 25, 28 and Oct. 5, 7 and 21. You can check out the times on the Starz official site here.

It was just announced that Dane Cook, Andy Samberg, Artie Lange, Mike Epps, Bill Burr, Patton Oswalt, and Mike Birbiglia have been added to the 2009 New York Comedy Festival lineup. These big names are joining an already impressive list of hitters, including Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher, and Tracy Morgan.

The New York Comedy Festival is taking place throughout NYC from Wednesday, Nov. 4 through Sunday, Nov. 8. For more info on lineups, venues and tickets, visit nycomedyfestival.com.

Beating out the likes of Tori Amos and Busta Rhymes, Dane Cook’s new album Isolated Incident has debuted on Billboard’s Top 10, landing at a very respectable No. 4. His second Top 10 release of his career, Cook sold 61,000 copies of the CD/DVD in its first week. His 2005 double album and DVD, Retaliation also debuted and peaked at No. 4, selling 86,000 copies in its first week; it went on to spend 84 weeks on the list.