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Daniel James Dion (born December 11, 1970) is an American photographer and comedy producer. He is best known for his location portraiture of comedians, and was the house photographer of the legendary San Francisco venue The Fillmore for twenty years.
Dion grew up in Kenwood, California. He attended Santa Clara University, where he was the campus comedy director, producing shows such as The Second City, P. J. O'Rourke, and Greg Proops. Upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco to work for political satirist Will Durst at his comedy club, the Holy City Zoo.
In 1993 he was an assistant photographer for the San Francisco Giants, and became the house photographer for The Fillmore and The Warfield venues as a staff shooter for Bill Graham Presents. His location portraits of comedians have spawned ongoing exhibitions at Gotham Comedy Club, The Punch Line San Francisco, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Hollywood, as well as an annual show at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival. In 2004, as a producer, he brought comedy back to The Purple Onion and later produced a stand-up comedy web series there for Crackle, a division of Sony Entertainment. In 2012 he produced the final show at the Purple Onion, when the entire building was sold to a restaurant concern. From there he became a comedy producer for Audible.com, bringing such talents as Lewis Black, Jonathan Katz, and Maria Bamford to the platform and producing live shows for the SF SketchFest. In 2019 he moved to Nashville, TN to become Head of A&R at 800 Pound Gorilla Records, the country's biggest comedy record label. In 2022 he opened an art gallery and photo studio next door to Third Man Records in Nashville.
In May 2010, Dion's book ¡SATIRISTAS!, co-authored with Paul Provenza, was published by Harper-Collins. It features interviews and portraits with Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, George Carlin, and other satirists.
He was the photographer for the book Tuesday Tucks Me In, written by Luis Carlos Montalván and Bret Witter and published by Roaring Brook Press. It was voted by the editors at Amazon as the "Best Children's Nonfiction Book of 2016". He and Montalván published a sequel, "Tuesday Takes Me There" in 2018.
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Tony Clifton is a character created by comedian and performance artist Andy Kaufman in the late 1970s. An absurdly foul-mouthed and domineering lounge singer claiming to hail from Las Vegas, the tuxedo-clad Clifton often led unsuspecting audiences through awkward yet elaborate lounge singer performances. Kaufman appeared as Clifton on stage and on television programs ranging from The Merv Griffin Show to The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show.
Bill Graham was a German-American impresario and rock concert promoter.
Andy Borowitz is an American writer, comedian, satirist, and actor. Borowitz is a New York Times-bestselling author who won the first National Press Club award for humor. He is known for creating the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the satirical column The Borowitz Report.
Will Durst is an American political satirist. He has been likened to Mort Sahl and Will Rogers.
The Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion, released May 1, 1961 on Mercury Records, is the first album released by the Smothers Brothers and established their reputation as folk music satirists. The Purple Onion was a celebrated comedy and music club in the North Beach area of San Francisco that also launched the careers of The Kingston Trio and Phyllis Diller, besides the Smothers Brothers. The album's full cover text is: The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers! Recorded at the Purple Onion, San Francisco, and is Mercury catalog number MG 20611 (monaural), and SR 60611 (stereo). It is sometimes referred to as Live at the Purple Onion.
Steven Craig Banks is an American actor, musician, comedian, and writer of television, plays, books and cartoons, including CatDog, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, and SpongeBob SquarePants.
The Fillmore West was a historic rock and roll music venue in San Francisco, California, US which became famous under the direction of concert promoter Bill Graham from 1968 to 1971. Named after The Fillmore at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it stood at the southwest corner of Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue in the Civic Center district. In June 2018, the top two floors of the building reopened as SVN West, a new concert and corporate event venue.
Paul Provenza is an American television presenter, actor, radio panelist, stand-up comedian, filmmaker, and skeptic based in Los Angeles. He has appeared on several podcasts and in recent years has interviewed other stand-up comedians. In 2005 he became a director, in 2010 an author and in 2011 he started producing for comedy festivals and television.
Thomas Richard Martin, known professionally as Dick Martin, was an American comedian and director. He was known for his role as the co-host of the sketch comedy program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973.
Tom Rhodes is an American comedian, actor, host, and travel writer.
Larry "Bubbles" Brown is a San Francisco based, deadpan, self-deprecating comedian and actor. He is a regular at the San Francisco Punch Line, Rooster T. Feathers, and The Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley. His debut album, "It's Gotta Get Better", was released on March 3, 2020, by You Lucky Dog Productions and FastLayne Comedy; exactly 39 years after his first open mic set at the Holy City Zoo.
George Richard Yanok was an American screenwriter, television producer, actor, and jazz drummer. He is noted for winning Primetime Emmy Awards in 1974 and 1976.
The Purple Onion was a celebrated cellar club in the North Beach area of San Francisco, California, located at 140 Columbus Avenue. With an intimate, 80-person setting, the club was a popular influence in local music and entertainment during the Beat era of the 1950s and 1960s.
Gotham Comedy Club is a venue for stand-up comedy in New York City. The comedy club is located on 208 West 23rd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Chelsea, Manhattan.
Mark Moshe Kasher is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in the Los Angeles area. He is the author of the 2012 memoir Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16. In 2009, iTunes named Kasher "Best New Comic" and his comedy album Everyone You Know Is Going to Die, and Then You Are! was ranked one of the top 20 comedy albums on iTunes that same year. He was also named "Comic to Watch in 2010" by Punchline Magazine.
The Green Room with Paul Provenza is a talk show on Showtime, hosted by Paul Provenza. Each episode featured a panel of guests discussing comedy.
Tony Camin is an American standup comedian and television writer living in New York City.
Walter Kamau Bell is an American stand-up comic and television host. He has hosted the CNN series United Shades of America since 2016, and hosted FXX television series Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell from 2012 to 2013. He is the host of the live radio show and podcast Kamau Right Now on KALW, and also co-hosts the podcasts Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor Of All Time Period with Kevin Avery (comedian) and Politically Re-Active with Hari Kondabolu. In 2022, Bell directed and produced the documentary miniseries We Need to Talk About Cosby.
Kelly Marie Carlin is an American radio host, producer, screenwriter and actress.
Kat Evasco is a queer Filipina American stand up comedian, performing artist, playwright, writer, and producer living in San Francisco, CA. She holds a BA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University.
