Dane Cook says a scripted series on his life is in development

Dane Cook told Bobby Lee on TigerBelly 580 that a scripted series dramatizing his life story is in development with a big production house. Cook will executive produce, and he described the style as "Succession meets Breaking Bad." He also said a companion piece to his documentary Funny Money is in the works.

Funny Money lays out how Cook's older brother, Daryl McCauley, stole millions from him over 12 years using forged financial statements. Cook said he never checked his bank account because his brother produced fake consolidated statements that looked professional. He calls the theft "the Empire Strikes Back moment" of his life and career.

The brother, again

Cook has been telling this story on podcasts for weeks, including earlier on Bertcast. On TigerBelly he went further on who his brother is. McCauley was a former prison guard who was stabbed in the head by inmates, and he later worked for Cook's comedy operation. Cook says he is "definitely" a narcissist with "megalomania" and possibly schizophrenia. Cook also spent a chunk of the episode praising his own kindness to his brother and the rest of the family, who he brought into the business and covered with health insurance.

The investigation detail is the part that sounds invented and is not. Cook says FBI agents and Boston state troopers called him while it was ongoing, some of them illegally, to pass along findings like cash hidden in drywall.

The rest of the episode

Cook and Lee go back to Dublin's on Sunset Boulevard in the early 2000s, where both did free shows. Cook credits that stretch with teaching him to treat comedy as "rock and roll" instead of New York style standup. He also walks through the MySpace era, when he uploaded MP3s and WAV files of his act to forums and posted links on his own site with a weekly rant he called "the voice of doom jukebox," before podcasting existed.

There is a Joan Rivers story, too. Cook says Rivers called him an asshole on Howard Stern without ever having met him.

Cook says people have been offering him money since the documentary came out, including a high roller in Reno who handed him $5,000 to gamble with at blackjack. He turned it into $8,000.

After the Funny Money promo tour, Cook says he is doing a two week Grand Theft Auto 6 marathon. A big comedy tour and a special are coming next year, though he would not say where. He did promise Bobby Lee will appear in the scripted series somehow.