An upcoming documentary on comedian Dane Cook revisits a disturbing chapter from the height of his fame two decades ago.
Cook was one of the first comedians to figure out how to turn the internet into a path to stardom. In the early 2000s, when most entertainers still regarded online file sharing as piracy to be stamped out, Cook embraced it, putting his stand-up on services such as Napster, LimeWire, and Kazaa while cultivating fans through his website and later MySpace.
‘How does this end?’
Trending: He asked his father for a hug. Moments later, the dad was allegedly running for his life.
Secret ingredient
Fans passed his routines around as audio-only clips, and Cook painstakingly cultivated that audience online. By 2005, his second album, “Retaliation,” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 — the highest-charting comedy album in nearly three decades — as Cook graduated
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