Patrice O’Neal in studio, featuring a phoner from Dane Cook. Dane and Patrice were good friends who came up together in the Boston comedy scene. When Patrice passed away, Dane paid homage and acknowledged the impact Patrice had on his life and in comedy where he was quoted saying, “When you talk about somebody who is in that Pryor-esque place where you connect across any audience, Patrice had a blunt force trauma about him, where he was so hilarious but at the same time so painfully truthful. Not only did Patrice bring incredible laughs to people, but he had insight. There are moments that I had sitting with him at the back of the old Nick’s Comedy Stop in Boston, that I felt like direction-altering moments with him.” While Patrice was alive, he was one of the only comedians who openly defended Dane at the height of his fame and success.
In this hilarious 2006 interview, Dane calls into the show and they immediately pick up where they left off exchanging jokes about each other’s careers, appearances, subject matter and much more. After catching up with each other, Dane promotes the movie "Employee of the Month" and addresses reports that he’s been canoodling with Jessica Simpson. He also gives the backstory of his success with Myspace, while Patrice gives him credit for changing the game by becoming famous through the use of social media without having to rely on Hollywood.
Patrice breaks down positivity and negativity and why positive thinking only works for Dane as opposed to other comedians because Dane does it righteously, which leads into the funny analysis of Bobby Kelly and Gary Gulman who he says need to be on the dark side of the force to be successful. This is the same reason Patrice felt he could never be successful with that approach because pain is the basis for his style of comedy.
Dane also talks about what it was like working with Jessica Alba, and they briefly mention Bill Burr and how he’s doing after the Philly incident. Lastly, they discuss how compromising your integrity in the short-term to ultimately gain fame in the long run isn't always beneficial for your career as Dane explains why he decided not to appear in the movie “Transformers” after Michael Bay changed his scene, which Patrice says he should have done with his role as “Hector” in the movie “In The Cut.”