“Do what you fear, and the death of fear is certain.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Name: Dan Nainan
Age: 29
What exactly do you do for a living?
I travel the world doing only 100 percent clean comedy. I perform in theaters, private parties, charity galas, corporate functions, casinos, cruise ships, and comedy clubs.
What state do you represent?
I live in New York City most of the time, and Los Angeles in the winters.
Did you go to college? Where?
The University of Maryland at College Park! Go Terps!
What did you study there?
I received a bachelor’s of science in general business and management. While I was at The University of Maryland, I participated in the co-op program, in which one takes a semester off from school to work full time. I worked at IBM for three semesters, which helped me pay for my college (I paid for it myself).
Why on earth did you choose this career path and how did you get involved in it?
Working at IBM in college enabled me to get a job with Intel when I graduated. At Intel, my job was to travel the world with the company’s Chairman and Cofounder Andy Grove, demonstrating the latest technology on stage. Although the technical part was easy (I am Indian and Japanese after all), speaking on stage was extremely terrifying. I took a comedy class to get over the fear of speaking, and the comedy kind of took off.
What are your future plans for your career?
I love touring and traveling, so my future plans are to continue to tour doing comedy. Comedy is wonderful because it allows one to branch off into other professions such as acting, voiceover, hosting, movies, and television. I’ve dabbled in each of these fields, so of course I want to try to continue to get more roles in those areas. For example, I appeared in a Get a Mac commercial for Apple along with Justin Long and John Hodgman, and it was absolutely incredible.
What are in love with about this profession? What are you not so in love with?
There is quite a bit to love in this profession. Many comedians despise travel, but I absolutely thrive on it. I love traveling, exploring new places, and meeting new people all the time. For example, this year alone I have been in Hong Kong, Thailand, Dubai, Trinidad and Tobago, in addition to many places in the States. When I’m on the road, I only have to work a maximum of an hour a day, so that leaves plenty of time to explore. There’s nothing like relaxing on a blazing hot beach in Thailand, or jet skiing in Tobago while everybody back home is freezing in the middle of winter. I loved traveling before, but now it’s particularly invigorating because I’m always upgraded to first class on flights since I have elite status on my airline, and I love staying in four-star hotels and hanging out in the first class lounge at the airport, and the best part is my clients pay for everything. My life is like George Clooney in Up in the Air, just without the sex. LOL.
There’s almost nothing that I’m not in love with. I guess if I had to choose something negative, it’s the number of bitter, angry, drug-addicted, alcoholic comedians in the business who call me a sellout for doing clean material. In truth, they are just jealous because they can’t make a living at the craft, and I am. Sometimes I earn more in one show than what many of them earn in their entire careers.
Give us an example of a day in the life of you doing what you do?
There are two types of days that I have – it’s the days at home when I’m off the road, and the days that I’m on the road. When I’m off the road, of course it’s a lot of preparatory and background work that supports my shows. Things such as travel arrangements, contracts, e-mail, promoting myself, editing video, keeping my social networking sites in order, working on my webpage, and so on. And of course any auditions I might have – for example I have an audition this afternoon for a possible print casting for a pharmaceutical company.
When I’m on the road for my shows, that’s a different animal entirely. I take the subway from right underneath my home in Manhattan to the AirTrain, take the train to the airport, hang out in the airport lounge with the free Wi-Fi and a cubicle to work in and all kinds of free food and drink, then I get on the plane (the best part is no matter how long the line is to get on the plane, I get to cut in front because of my elite status), sit back and relax in first class and when I land, going to the hotel, going for a workout and a swim and then getting ready for the show. Then I do the show, and afterwards I sign autographs, take pictures and sell my CDs and DVDs. Usually I’m in bed no later than midnight.
What steps do you recommend to someone who is planning to pursue this career?
If somebody wants to become a comedian, I would strongly recommend that they start writing down jokes now. Everyday, someone says something funny, or you think of something funny – this is fantastic raw material that can one day become a comedy act.
What is the single-most important piece of advice you can offer a person pursuing this career?
I would say that if you are pursuing doing stand-up comedy, never get discouraged when you have a bad show, and trust me, you will. Many people who could have been great comedians give up because their first show doesn’t go well, or maybe they’ll have ten great shows in a row and then one bad show. Nobody’s going to be fantastic at this in the beginning – this business is all about persistence.
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
The best piece of advice I have ever received was from none other than Jerry Seinfeld himself. I was performing at my local club in New York, and he showed up to do a practice set for his upcoming David Letterman appearance. I’ve been told many times by other comedians that you’re not supposed to talk to Jerry, but I boldly walked up to him and asked him if he had any advice for a beginning comedian. As the seconds ticked away, I thought I’d made a terrible mistake, but he said to me “You should work clean – you will work everywhere!” He was extremely nice, and those words of wisdom have always stayed with me, and I have followed his advice. 99.9 percent of the places I perform would never allow comedian who does dirty material.
What can we look forward to seeing from you next?
I’m continuing to tour extensively around the States and the world. No matter where you live, it’s more than likely that I will be in your city soon making people laugh! I’m also talking to some people about a possible reality show about my comedy career, as well as collaborating with a well-known actor to possibly open a comedy club of my own.
What professional or community volunteer organizations are you currently a member of?
I frequently perform at charity events all over the country–comedy has been very good to me, and I like giving back by doing so. I also frequently donate my CD/DVD sales when I’m performing at charity events.
What’s a funny or significant memory from your college or high school days you are legally allowed to share?
Since I was a nerd (and still am), I was a complete social outcast in school. People ask me if I was ever in any fights—I was in a number of beatings. There was one boy in particular who tortured me physically and mentally every day—I absolutely dreaded coming to school because of him and others. He was really good looking—all the girls were after him, and in addition to being really smart and really good looking, he was also very athletic and on the football team. At the graduation party (to which I was not invited, of course) he was drunk and drove his motorcycle into a parked car and had to go to the hospital. He was never quite the same, he was disfigured, mentally slow and had a permanent limp. He shot himself to death a couple of years later. I guess there really is such a thing as karma.
I recently went to my ten-year reunion, and it was amazing to see how all of the football players have gotten fat and bald, and I still look the same. It was really quite cathartic.
What book are you reading write now?
I’m reading Moonwalking with Einstein, which is a fantastic book about how memory experts are able to memorize decks of cards or thousands of random numbers.
What’s playing in your MP3 player right now? Coldplay, Beethoven, Chopin.
{ 2 comments }
How frigging arrogant is this guy?! That story about him punching a critic makes sense now.
The story about the high school bully who got disfigured and shot himself? Hilarious! Wow, this guy IS funny!
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