Video: A Phish Crowd Threw Shoes and Lighters at Dane Cook
Comedian Dane Cook recounted a tale some of you may or may not be familiar with last night on The Tonight Show as a part of their web series where comedians tell the story of their worst bombing. Cook recalled his time in a comedy group (they don’t like to be called “troupes”) in Boston in the early 90s. The group, made up of several local comedians, was asked to perform at the Rock of Boston held at the Boston Garden featuring Phish, Spin Doctors and many more. Unfortunately, the group was slated to go on right before Phish–it didn’t go well.
“For about 20 seconds, we felt like we had the room completely on our side,” Cook says. Then it went horribly wrong. Once the crowd realized what was going on, fans began launching shoes at the group (“a lot of sandals, because it was Phish”) and then moved onto lighters following an impassioned speech by one of the members of the group. The beating took an emotional toll on Cook as well, who said he didn’t want to show his face ever again.
After some brief sleuthing, the show is actually from October 30, 1992, Phish’s first appearance at the Boston Garden (they would play New Year’s there in 1994). The show was just one set but I imagine the crowd was pleased having chased the comedy group off stage. Check out Cook’s story below.