Dane Cook Returns to Comedy

Ready or not, world, Dane Cook, standup comedian is back. It's been four years since the controversial comic went on tour. In the middle of that drought, in 2011, he told Amy Kaufman at the LA Times that he'd essentially retired. (Though apparently, he did get on stage long enough to offend everyone last year.) Now, he's back on the road, for a tour that will wrap up in Boston next weekend. He opened up to Kaufman about why he dropped out of the game, and why he came back. Some highlights:

• Why he left: He was reeling from the deaths of his mother and father, who died within 10 months of each other, and from the discovery that his brother had stolen $12 million from him. "I was in a very fragile time."
• On his last tour in 2009: "I was just spent. I remember one night on the road like it was a Bon Jovi song or something. My head was in my hands and I was like, 'I just want this to be really fun again, and it feels like I’m chasing or running away from something.' … I felt like, 'I have to do this, but why do I feel so heavy?'"
• How he got back: "I had a great therapist. … It's outlandish the amount of pain I was in, because I loved my folks. I had to remember that I'm still the same person they raised me to be, and they're still with me in a different way."
• His first night back on stage: "I stood up there for 35 minutes and it felt like I had never left. I had worked on myself enough that things were funny again."

For the full interview, click here. (More Dane Cook stories.)