Dan Dion's Blog

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Tim Minchin, Reggie Watts and Bo Burnham

I’m posting one comedian portrait every day of 2013 on Facebook and Twitter, with weekly digests on Flickr, Google+. The entire project can be viewed as a gallery on Pinterest.

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/dandionphotography

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/dan.dion

Twitter : http://twitter.com/dan_dion

Pinterest : http://pinterest.com/dandion/365-days-of-comedian-portraits/

Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dandion/

Tumblr : http://www.tumblr.com/blog/dandion

Google+: https://plus.google.com/photos/114032239291810006657/albums/58367761 01890837473

Website: http://www.dandion.com

Blog: http://www.blog.dandion.com

Paul Provenza

W. Kamau Bell

Al Madrigal

Mike Birbiglia

Jen Kirkman

Natasha Leggero

Demetri Martin

Graham Elwood

Paul Mecurio

Arj Barker

Adam Ferrara

Dylan Brody

Rick Shapiro

Ngaio Bealum

Eddie Izzard

Pete Correale

Rick Overton

Jim Jefferies

Felicia Michaels

The Smothers Brothers

Scott Adsit

Paul Mooney and Dick Gregory

Chris Hardwick

Blaine Capatch

Weird Al Yankovic

Rich Hall as Otis Lee Crenshaw

Damon Wayans

Eric Idle

Julia Morris

Nick Thune

Nick Kroll

Sharon Mae

Bobcat Goldthwait

Matt Kirshen

Tom Papa

Neil Hamburger

Scott Capurro

Sherrod Small

Brendon Burns

Artie Lange

Cast of “A Mighty Wind”

Jimmy Dore

Jay Leno

Berkeley Breathed

A. Whitney Brown

Rory Albanese

Mitch Fatel

John Poveromo

Robert Klein

Jordan Rock

Paul Gilmartin

Bob Saget

John Leguizamo

Eddie Pepitone

James Adomian

Martin Mull and Fred Willard

Larry Wilmore

Richard Belzer

Lizz Winstead

Judd Apatow

Garfunkel and Oates

Jason Sudeikis

Tracy Morgan

Robert Smigel and Triumph

Cheech and Chong

Charlyne Yi

Dana Gould

Steven Wright

Stephen Merchant

Patton Oswalt

Norm MacDonald

Matt Walsh

Judy Gold

Lily Tomlin

Dave Hill

Ron Lynch

Mo Rocca

Dame Edna

Jim Bruer

Carol Burnett

Culture Clash

Rhod Gilbert

Robert Hawkins

Steve Hughes

Noel Fielding

Jake Johannsen

TJ Miller

Ian Bagg

Mary-Lynn Rajskub

Jerry Seinfeld

Rex Navarette

Jesse Joyce

Andy Borowitz

Will Forte

JB Smoove

Tim and Eric

Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler

Tig Notaro

David Sedaris

John Hodgman

Todd Barry

Lee Camp

Cast of Childrens Hospital

Dana Carvey

Sandra Bernhard

The most historic comedy club in America that exists today won’t in October. The building that contains the Purple Onion’s 60-year-old subterranean stage was recently sold and will be gutted; taken with the red booths and faux-brick walling will be the legacy of The Smothers Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, and Phyllis Diller.  I have a personal history with the club that goes back almost twenty years now, and its passing is truly awful-  personally, to the comedy community, and San Francisco as a whole.

In 1994, the Onion was showcasing garage bands under the psychotic stewardship of a local victim described by the SF Weekly as “Crispin Glover after two weeks of intravenous double-lattes.”  The club where I was on staff, my beloved Holy City Zoo, had just closed down and a couple of comics and myself had formed a production troupe staging shows at alternative and DIY venues, and we pitched the return of comedy to The Onion. It did not go well. When the guy in charge of the room is drunk and heckling the show, sends rookie comics offstage in tears, and needs physical coercion to cough up the door split, that’s not good. But for a while I had the honor of saying I put on the first comedy show at the Onion in over a decade. It closed soon after- an entire trust-fund spent by a managerial lunatic on 3-chord surf music and kegs of PBR.

The space itself was taken over by the Ascione family, who operated Macaroni Sciue Sciue upstairs, and it was ignominiously used as a storage area. At the time I was living in North Beach, and would walk by the shadowy staircase and envision a time when I could once again put on shows there. Ten years after our first debacle, while arranging a photo shoot with Don Novello, I learned that Mario had restored the place and was planning a re-opening. Mario had great intentions, but little knowledge of our local comedy scene, so I offered to start off booking the club for him. Opening night of “Jim Short and Friends” will forever be a homecoming, a triumph, and now a bittersweet remembrance.

Jim became my partner and whenever he was in town, Jim Short & Friends were the likes of Greg Proops, Will Durst, Tom Rhodes, Arj Barker, Robert Hawkins, Greg Behrendt- national headliners playing a 99-seat basement club because of the love of the room.  There were other great shows, too- with Paul Krassner, W. Kamau Bell, Will Franken, Mike Birbiglia. All of them unique, honest, and brilliant comics.   It also allowed me to reconnect with the amazing young talent of which San Francisco always seems to have a bumper crop.

After a year or so, the birth of my daughter, and tons of great shows, I handed the reins of the Onion over to David Owen, a truly professional producer and co-founder of SF Sketchfest, who proceeded to up the ante by bringing in the likes of Judah Friedlander, Doug Stanhope, the return of Mort Sahl, and a DVD production for Zach Galifianakis.

Then in 2007, I partnered with Crackle/Sony Entertainment to film “Live at the Purple Onion,” a stand-up web series that allowed me to present Paul F. Tompkins, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Tig Notaro, and other personal favorites. And that’s the thing- I had the incredible privilege of always booking shows that I would have wanted to see. My shows ran on equal parts talent and goodwill, as the size of the place makes a big payday impossible. I didn’t need to worry if my acts had the right TV credits, social media clout, or mailing list. I didn’t have to care if we made good numbers with nachos. My shows were by candlelight, there was no drink minimum, and the comics dressed up.

The ongoing problem at this point was that the club had become a room-for-hire, with a hodge-podge of producers bringing in various showcases, theme shows, and comedy-college graduations. Quality could be amazing or unwatchable, and I started hearing complaints from people who had been coerced into going there to watch their friends’ first time on a real comedy club stage.  I love Mario- he’s honest and has a great heart- which is probably why working in show business was challenging for him. Plus he had the gift and the burden of having an intimate venue.

After years away, I had actually booked a show there for September 6th, when I heard the awful news that the building had been sold and the Onion would be no more. Then I asked for and was given the Purple Onion’s final show, which will be on Monday, September 24th.

This Thursday’s show is Bob Rubin, with Larry Bubbles Brown, Randy Hauser, and more. Tix are available via Eventbrite here: http://onenightwithbobrubin.eventbrite.com/

Plans for the last show are still underway, and tix will go on sale soon. We’re looking to send the place off in style, with a marathon of great comics as- what else?- Jim Short & Friends. If you’re a comic and want to get on, e-mail me privately at dan@dandion.com , or if you want to be notified when tickets will be released to the public, write me as well.

I’ve heard variously that the building is going to be a steakhouse or a strip club, but for me, the most gorgeous prime rib or even the tastiest slab of T&A doesn’t compare to a night of hilarious, smart comedy on a stage steeped in history.

Toast to the club with Bob Rubin.

Twenty years ago, at a dingy nightclub on a block of Clement Street in San Francisco's Inner Richmond District, the aging comedy boom of the 8o's gave birth to the snarky, cynical, over-educated meta-child that would come to be known as Alt Comedy. (Like most nicknames, it was not chosen, but given.) Cable shows had oversaturated  the market; genuine wit and brilliant absurdity had been replaced by annoyed populist observations. Hollywood had once again siphoned off some of The City's most promising performers, and was trying desperately to figure out how best to vampirize native daughter Margaret Cho. But SF was still a mecca for stand-ups, and a peak was imminent with the ascension of a few bright locals, and the immigration of several others- locals Greg Behrendt, , Brian Posehn, and Arj Barker broke out. Fiery journeymen Marc Maron and Tom Rhodes hung out their shingles from our hills, and from the Baltimore/D.C. area came Jeff Hatz, Blaine Capatch, and Patton Oswalt- a comic triumvirate  raised on Monty Python, Alan Moore, and The Pixies.   "The Class of 1992″ had arrived.

Laura Milligan, Greg Behrendt, Brian Posehn, Blaine Capatch, and Patton- 1994

I was a part of that class, too. albeit with a different function. I'd put my Jesuit philosophy degree to work as a staff member of the Holy City Zoo, San Francisco's most historic and legendary comedy club, where 80's celebrities like Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, and Bobcat Goldthwait earned their stripes, and utterly unique and brilliant talents such as Bob Rubin, Warren Thomas, and still prowled the stage, fighting the thumping live music from the Last Day Saloon upstairs.  Capacity: 79 not counting the roaches. It was here that I married my love of comedy with my photography career and started shooting portraits of these most dynamic artists.

Patton Oswalt in my vintage Volvo.

Patton Oswalt stood out in any show's line-up. He had a different kind of energy, material that never seemed contrived, and a distinctive vocal timbre that projected confidence, even when the joke was on himself. He can be self-deprecating, but he's never a loser.  He was early geek-chic, and proud to be a comic book nerd way way way before it was mainstream. He's never seemed concerned with being "cool," as cool requires acceptance by and admiration of the majority. Patton's comedy consoles you that it's ok not to be.

There's a bit of a Dennis Miller in him; he throws references around like you ought to know them. But I got all of Miller's and maybe two-thirds of Patton's. But I never had any desire to research Miller's rantfrences, whereas Patton led me to read The Man in the High Castle and tipped the scales as I browsed the racks at Amoeba Records. His comedy can be a hyperlink, whereas Miller's was arrogance plugged in to a bit. It annoys me when comics use pop culture references as the punchline, and the audience laughs in self-congratulation at getting it. Patton uses them to frame his context, to let you know who he is and where he's coming from.

In an ad for Dark Horse Comics

Early on, I can recall someone in the industry saying he was "very ambitious" which was intended as a patronizing insult but I took as the opposite. He may have been insubordinate to the timeline ladder, but he was headlining and producing his own theme shows in short order. His impeccable taste in comedy and respect from his peers has allowed him to gather amazing people. (I look back on his "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" show flyer that reads like a time capsule of the city's best.) Many years later this talent would manifest itself as he created The Comedians of Comedy with Posehn, Maria Bamford, and not-yet-household-misspelled-name Zach Galifianakis.

Patton in SF

One great thing is that he's always writing. Even if you see him just six months apart you can bet that half his set is going to be new, or at the very least material you haven't heard before. Can't see him live? Check out his blog. Or watch Ratatouille with your kids (or without) to see one of the few Disney projects that doesn't involve a woman being rescued. Or read his interview in ¡SATIRISTAS! Or see Big Fan for a film about obsession (with a brilliant climax). Or see him in Young Adult with Charlize Theron and tell me what it's like to see a film in a theater. (My two young kids have constricted this activity for me.) And he still finds time to appear in his friends' webisodes, get arrested on Reno 911, write a book, and give a graduation speech to his high school.  The fucker is prolific.

Patton and David Cross at Cobb's Comedy Club

There's a great example of his comic worldview in his closing note as guest editor of the "The Funny Issue" of Spin Magazine. If anything, I think he's an example that you can be very smart onstage and off-  without having to prove that you are smarter than everyone else.

Class of 1992 Revisited- 2009

ALL PHOTOS ©DAN DION

One of my favorite new clients is Goorin Brothers- a local hat company that is exploding all over North America. Established in 1895, it's been family-run for four generations, but only recently has it opened its own retail stores. Check out this recent piece in the Chronicle about them.

We wanted to do a project with real people- not models- that had some kind of local/ neighborhood connection. The result below is a collection of bartenders in North Beach- my favorite neighborhood in San Francisco, and the site of Goorin's flagship store in the city on Washington Square.

Ana at Sodini's

Gigi at Sotto Mare

Devon at Tony Nik's

Romina at Cinecitta

Janet at Vesuvio

Deirdre and Kat at O'Reilly's

Mike D. at Amante

Yao Ming on Set with Noel Lee

Just back from temperate Houston Texas where my fellow Monsters and I did a photo and video shoot with the towering Houston Rocket Yao Ming. Monster has launched a massive line of Yao Monster products being sold throughout China, and we were there to get video of him speaking Chinese directly to Chinese retailers and consumers for his headphones, power, HDMI, and other products.

Yao Ming with iSport Headphones

Yao arrived on the dot at 2pm at the studio we’d rented, which is Houston’s best- Ralph Smith Studios. He’s a real pro when it comes to this kind of stuff, and he was soon correcting our Chinese script in what was apparently a slightly awkward translation we’d brought. He was calm and friendly throughout, and he and head Monster Noel Lee have a good relationship, it seems, as they were frequently cracking each other up.

Yao Ming Correcting our Chinese Script

Video guys got their retail shout-outs, and I got some nice portraits of a legendary athlete. That night Noel got to sit courtside to watch the Rockets stomp our hometown Warriors, while the crew, hungry from a long production, got to strap on the ‘ol feed bag for some Texas steaks.  Monster Cable Home PageMonster Cable Facebook Page Dan Dion Photography Facebook Page

Yao Ming Between Takes

Yao Ming and Noel Lee with Beats Headphones