Fatboy’s DJ skills are far from slim

In keeping with the eclectic spirit of his most recent album, “Palookaville,” Fatboy Slim (real name: Norman Cook) has been setting up shop at unconventional venues across the U.S. It’s hard to imagine, though, that Cook could find a more perfect setting than L.A.’s Natural History Museum, where he was DJ Wednesday night before a capacity crowd of 1,500.

A museum representative said the show was the biggest event ever held there, and at 11 p.m., when Cook was scheduled to go on, the line to get in appeared to be well over 100 people long. One fan said he’d been waiting for 2 1/2 hours.

Once inside though, the mood was entirely different. Attendees moved between different exhibits waiting for Cook to man the DJ decks in the North American Mammals room. Additionally, two video screens were placed in the foyer, as well as across the way in the Hall of African Mammals, where fans could watch and listen to Cook’s set and have more room to dance.

Cook made sure the fans danced. Largely eschewing his own music for club anthems, though he did spin the extended mix of “Palookaville’s” “Slash Dot Dash” and his remix of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” -- he reminded listeners what a credible DJ he can be.

Unlike so many DJs, though, Cook also knows how to play the rock star. After coming out to a roar worthy of the grizzly bears in the back of the room, Cook exhorted the crowd on, dancing, mouthing the words to songs such as Spankox’s “To the Club,” and communicating by writing notes on record sleeves that he then flashed to onlookers.

For the fans who treated this like a concert rather than a DJ set, packing the front of the stage area, Cook was the perfect showman to bridge the pop and dance worlds, as well as thousands of years of history.