Comedian Dane Cook is returning to stand-up comedy with a two-month, 20-date "Under Oath" tour. This will be Cook's first time returning to stand-up since his four-year break, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The funnyman said he was quitting comedy two years ago after going through an extremely difficult time.
"I don't want to say I've retired, but this is an important time to shift my energy into something new," he said at the time.
When he made this decision Cook was "promoting a dark independent film" and was dealing with the deaths of both his parents to cancer. His mother and father had died within then months of each other. Around this time he had also found out that his half-brother - who was his business manager - had stolen $12 million from him.
After getting hit with blow after blow Cook dropped the mic and began to see a therapist. He opened up about his parents' deaths and for the first time began to grieve for them.
"I was in a very fragile time then - and I did stop for a year. I had to take time to say 'Ok, this stuff happened to me' and find the humor in it," he said. "I needed to realize that everything I did moving forward was mine - not shared with people who are toxic, or people who aren't representing me properly. This was a complete do-over. I'm going into a new era of my career and professional life."
Cook slowly started to get himself together and was presented with an opportunity to perform. While at the Laugh Factory, Jamie Masada the club owner convinced Cook to get onstage for a few minutes.
"I stood up there for 35 minutes and it felt like I had never left," he said. "I had worked on myself enough that things were funny again."
