Here are some clips for the new Late night talk show I write for "Late Net with Ray Ellin" on AOL's Asylum Site. The Show is great and Ray is a great guy to work for and a talented host. The writing team I am a part of is top notch as we consisting of fellow Stand Ups Dan Naturman and Russ Meneve. We where recently mentioned in the Comedy Matters Column in this month's Punchline Magazine (Read it by clicking here.) Check out the clips and if you like em please leave us a comment on the site.
I'm returning to the Keith and the Girl show Jan. 12th
www.katg.com
TUNE IN!
Keith and the Girl do a great show and I'm really happy to be back on their show it's always interesting when we get together tune in and hear what happens!
If there is one thing I am best known for it's all the charity work I do and while that's compleatly untrue I was honored to be asked to cover the recent fundraiser that Bob Saget held at Carolines. Bob's sister died of a skin disease called Scleroderma 11 years ago and it's really a nice thing that he honors her memory every year by raising money to help fund research for others suffering from the disease that killed her, he's a classy guy. The event was beatiful and they had a gourmet chef from the Food Network prepare the meals that followed the red carpet, then Saget and a bunch of others performed and auctioned off cool shit to raise money from the crowd, all together they raised $525,000 by the end of the night!! Now if you would have told me when I was a kid watching Full House at Danny Gober's house after a long day in Hebrew School that Bob Saget's Sister is going to die and not only that, but because of this occurence 11 years after the fact I am going to be the recipent of a free gourmet chicken dinner and a gift bag containing a best of Amy Poher DVD in it I would of said, What are you smoking and let me get a hit of that!
The highlight of the show for me was the always very funny Colin Quinn, my favorite moment was his opener when he said the name of the event "Cool Comedy, Hot Cuisine" and then asked the crowd "What was Scleroderma's no laughing matter already taken?!" No one laughed at that but me, just classic Colin, very honest, funny and quite often very awkward. Anyway, it was insiping to see that Bob Saget as big of a star as he is puts his family in such high esteem and even more than a decade after his sister's death still goes to great lengths help others and pay tribute to her memory, it's just a really sweet thing and I was glad to be able to contribute to it in whatever way I could and help publicize this great charity that is doing so much to help suffereres of this aweful disease.
For more on the event check out the full article at:
Matty's Roast
When I first started doing Stand Up in New York City I was 19 years old (I'm not talking about the occasional set Id do in the city when I was 16 and 17, I mean when I decided I'd go out every night and make it my life). I went one night with my friend Mike Lazar to the New York COmedy Club after having bought tickets on the street and saw one of the worst and longest shows of my life (as an audience member). The show that had started at 9pm with a full crowd was still going at now 1am with just me and Mike drunkenly in the back. This short neardy looking guy came on and did some jokes and me and Mike Drunkenly heckled him, I told him he looked like Buddy Holley. He was the last one on the show and after wards I went over to tell him that I thought he was funny, many years later he told me that had I not told him I liked him there and then he was planning on punching me in the face. That was the first time I met Matty, he was working at that club for free in exchange for the last spot of the night on the show, a spot I soon after became very familiar with. It took us a long time but we eventually became best friends and then when I was 23 I moved in with him after his roommate moved out in Brooklyn and now we have been roommates here for almost four years. Well, they say all good things come to an end and sadly for me Matty has decided that the NY Comedy scene has not given him the opportunities he needs and is moving to LA. For me this is more than just loosing a best friend and roommate, it represents the end of an era of my life, Matty was the last of the New York Comedy Club comics from back then to leave. Most of them have quit comedy by now and got "real jobs" and one moved to Costa Rica and one to Texas and one other moved to LA but in order to understand how I came up in comedy you'd have to speak to someone from that "class of comics". The N.Y.C.C. is a real hole and back then it was worse even, a dark, depressing, mean and harsh place to spend every night of your life and some where that once I got in all the stage time I needed to develop there I planned never to return to, but last month I did; for Matty's goodbye roast. Matty asked me to host the roast and a bunch of comics (half of whom I had no idea who they where) came out and made fun of Matty, it was a beautiful night but bittersweet cause I knew it was because I'm loosing my friend. To here's to you Matty G. hope LA delivers all the good things you deserve.
DL
Here is a pic from the night:
Here is a video that Matty and I made based on our true experience from one of our many adventures in the time we've been friends.
enjoy.
Hangin with Mr. Carlin
A few times a year I head up to headline the Gloversville Funny Farm (upstate NY) it's an intimate little club in the back of a restaurant and the people out there really appreciate the fact that we (the comics) make the trip all the way up there to entertain them. I am really grateful to have had in my lifetime the opportunity to meet and become friends with some of my heros in comedy. Jackie Mason, Pat Cooper and George Carlin are three of the legendary old time comics that over the years I had really gotten close with, so when George died it was really very devastating to me on so many levels. I called his house to wish my condolences to the family that week and wound up speaking with his older brother Patrick and so began my friendship with Patrick Carlin. We had been speaking on the phone every now and then since then and so when the opportunity to go visit him in Woodstock on my way up to Gloversville came around I felt I had to take it. So along with Graham Kaey and Kase Raso (the two very funny comics I took up to the Funny Farm to open for me) I payed a visit to ol' Pat.
Patrick Carlin, just like George is one of the coolest guys I have ever met, he is a writer and does a weekly radio segment of funny news that he writes from tons of newspaper clippings that he seeks out each week. His stories of him and George and of his days in LA as a limo driver had us all rollin and he and George had one of the greatest and closest "brotherships" I have ever seen. Here are some cool pics from the trip:
In this pic me and Patrick, behind us are some old pics of him and George and the newspaper of when George went to court over the famous "7 dirty words" hangs framed behind us you will notice that my chest hair forms an attached undershirt on my chest.
After completing the movie "Jersey Girl" Kevin Smith had this statue made and sent to George (It's George as the Cardinal in Dogma) it now resides with Patrick.
The sign outside the Funny Farm with my name on it "Steak and a show only $22.22" what a great deal and what an odd price (you don't see prices that end in 22 cents often)
Here is a clip of George on my radio show, he was just here a minute ago, he will always be missed and he's not looking down on anyone!
My Interview w/Chris Rock is in Punchline Magazine
Most would agree that Chris Rock is a living comedy legend. So, why does he have such a hard time believing it?
When you get a chance to sit down with one of stand-up comedy’s biggest names and most influential comics of all time, you take it– especially when you catch him outside of the roar of arena crowds. We recently chatted with Chris Rock at the Comedy Cellar in New York City, where he was working out new material.
Rock opened up about everything from how he writes jokes, his wife’s reaction to his material, to his place in the history of stand-up comedy and much more.
How has your idea of humor changed as you’ve grown—how has your writing changed? I don’t know if the writing’s changed, you know. I’m older. I’ve got a wife, I’ve got kids, bills, you know. I have grown-man concerns, so you end up with grown-man jokes for the most part.
Read The Rest at :
Rise Of The Radio Show
Been working on a new Web Series I created based on my radio show. I write most of the episodes with a guy named Liam O'Neil who's not a comic but has a solid understanding of what's funny and is a great writer. He also directs the episodes along with another very talented guy named Jason Koburov. Here is our first episode starring the hilarious JB Smoove from Curb your Enthusiasm, you will be able to see more at Http://www.RiseOfTheRadioShow.com. Hope you like it and tell all your friends, okay?
Paul Giamatti on my Radio Show!
Paul Giamatti is one of my all time favorite actors, he starred in the movie American Splendor (The Harvey Pekar Story) which was a movie that really changed my life. After that movie I called Harvey Pekar who wound up pushing me into following my idea to start a Comedy Magazine: Comical Magazine which I worked on for 3 years during which time we put out 10 issues and circulated 500,000 copies around the Tri Stare area. It was something that wound up paving the way for allot of what I do today. Recently Paul came by Comical Radio to hang with me and the crew. The full interview is up on YouTube but here's a snippet for you:
The 2009 Magners Glasgow Comedy Festival
I headlined a bunch of shows at this years Glasgow Comedy Festival. It was allot of fun and I got some sweet reviews. This one (In the Scotsman) is one I am particularlly proud of.
"LIVE IN PARIS"
I wanted to do Stand Up at LE COMEDY CLUB in Paris but it's an all French Speaking crowd so I had to find a way to get my jokes across considering that I don't speak French. Lucky for me I found Waheed, m exact replica. Only difference being He's a French Muslim and I'm a American Jew.
"LA TRIP PART 1- Meet The Cobra"
I got flown out to LA by my friend Aryeh Teplow-Phipps to film some skethces with his friend The Cobra and some people he works with. It was a very strange trip, one in which I wound up living 3 places in 2 weeks and
filming some real out there shit. I thought an
appropriate start to this would be by introducing you to the Cobra
since he was the first one I saw (he picked me up at the airport) when I got to LA. So here goes...
"Road Gig"
As a performer you are often forced to travel a lot, At my stage in the game that means a lot of one nighters
on the east coast. I thought this gig would be a good example of what it can be like t
o show you guys and gals out there. Hope you like it.
NOTE: I include a lot of driving footage upfront to try and give an authentic feel of things.
"My Hood"
I thought in this entry I'd show you a little bit of my neighborhood and show you what I see every day. Hope you like it. The music is a favorite of mine Sean Lennon...
"Editing"
I have been filming my day to day life and will start posting them up here for anyone interested in the behind the scenes of what it takes to make it as a comic in New York City. This one is a look at what it's like for me to go edit the web series I'm working on...I hope you enjoy! best, Danny
I wrote a show with my friend and fellow comic Wil Sylvince, its an animated comedy show that we are gonna pitch around. I can't tell you too much more about it right now because I can't have people taking the idea from us and then doing it themselfs and killing any chance of having a decent life that I might have had, but I will post a video blog soon about what the process is like, so stay tuned.
