Dan Schlissel

Last updated
Dan Schlissel
Born (1970-11-09) November 9, 1970 (age 51) [1]
Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupationrecord label owner, record producer
Years active1992-
Known for Stand Up! Records, -ismist Recordings
Awards Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, 2006 (Lewis Black, The Carnegie Hall Performance )
and 2 nominations

Dan Schlissel is an American record producer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founder of the record labels Stand Up! Records, which specializes in comedy, and -ismist Recordings, which focused on punk and alternative rock from Nebraska and nearby Midwestern states. Schlissel won a Grammy as producer of Lewis Black's 2006 album The Carnegie Hall Performance , [2] and was nominated for his work on Black's two Grammy-nominated albums, Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues and Anticipation . He is known for his work with Black and other comics including Doug Stanhope, Maria Bamford, Marc Maron, and Mitch Hedberg, and helping release the debut record of Iowa metal band Slipknot.

Contents

Comedian and actor Marc Maron, who released his first three albums on Stand Up!, described Schlissel as "a guy who loves comedy, and is very attentive to the process of recording comedy," and, referencing the large number of noteworthy comics who were given important exposure in their early careers by the label, joked that "you've done everybody's first two records." [3]

Early life

Schlissel was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to Israeli immigrants [4] Sam and Helena Schlissel. [1] His father, born in Poland, was a Holocaust survivor who worked in the textile industry, and his mother was a native Israeli. [5] [6] His first language was Hebrew. [7] His family moved up and down the East Coast when he was a child, living in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, [8] and frequently visiting relatives in the Bronx, where Schlissel first discovered comedy via Saturday Night Live's first season and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Another early comedy influence was Monty Python-esque Israeli group HaGashash HaHiver, who performed in Hebrew, [8] as well as the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Abbott and Costello, Buster Keaton, Eddie Murphy's Comedian, and Woody Allen and Jackie Mason's standup albums. [9] He cites Rodney Dangerfield's No Respect as his favorite comedy album. [6]

In 1982, his family moved to Kearney, Nebraska, where he spent his teenage years. In 1988, he enrolled at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. [1]

-ismist Recordings

In 1992, inspired by the success of indie music labels such as Sub Pop, he founded the label which would eventually become -ismist Recordings, at first basing the business out of his dorm room. Over the 1990s, -ismist released nearly 80 albums and singles by Midwestern bands including Killdozer, Season to Risk, and House of Large Sizes, beginning with Nebraska indie-rock bands including Such Sweet Thunder. [10] Schlissel, via -ismist, also distributed other Midwestern indie labels and organized two music festivals in 1996 and 1997. Schlissel helped then-unknown Iowa metal band Slipknot release its first album, Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat , which it had originally self-pressed. [11] [12] Schlissel and -ismist distributed the last third of the 1,000-copy run of the album, and helped the band get its first significant notice from music critics and radio airplay.

Slipknot later moved on to major label Roadrunner Records, and Schlissel became disillusioned with running a music label; he moved to Minneapolis in 1998 to take a job at a software company. [4] He considered folding -ismist, but instead found new focus after convincing Lewis Black to work with him after meeting the comedian after a show. [6]

Schlissel recorded Black's The White Album in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1999, with John Machnik, who would be his production partner for many years. [13] Released on -ismist, the album was an immediate success, eventually selling around 60,000 copies, more than the entire previous -ismist catalog combined. [9] The label would go on to release several other comedy albums, including two by Doug Stanhope, Sicko and Something to Take the Edge Off , and Jimmy Shubert's Animal Instincts, while Schlissel launched a new label, Stand Up! Records, in 2000. By 2002, -ismist had effectively closed down and been replaced by Stand Up! Records. [11]

Stand Up! Records

Stand Up! has released more than 200 comedy albums and videos since its founding in 2000, including albums by Black, Stanhope, Patton Oswalt, Greg Proops, David Cross, Maria Bamford, Hannibal Buress, Judy Gold, the Sklar Brothers, and Eddie Pepitone. [14] [15]

A relatively small operation, the label is run almost entirely by Schlissel, who also served as recording engineer and producer on many of the label's albums. [16] The label has been praised for bringing an independent approach to the comedy genre, inspired by Schlissel's roots in punk and indie rock. Henry Owings, founder of humor magazine Chunklet , stated that Schlissel "has done a great job trying to reintroduce some fresh blood into comedy albums. … If anybody's trying to bring back the idea of comedy albums being something that should be looked at in the same light as a music album, it's him." [17]

Other work

Record producing

In addition to being Stand Up!'s label head, Schlissel was also producer and recording engineer on many of the label's releases. He has also produced albums for other labels.

Even after Lewis Black moved to the larger Comedy Central Records label, he continued to work with Schlissel, who produced or edited four more Black albums in the mid-2000s, Rules of Enragement , Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues , The Carnegie Hall Performance , and Anticipation . [18] Of these, Carnegie Hall won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, while Luther Burbank and Anticipation were both nominated in that category. [19] Stand Up! also released the vinyl editions of Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues and Rules of Enragement.

Also for Comedy Central Records, Schlissel was the recording engineer on Mitch Hedberg's last album, Mitch All Together , which was recorded live in 2003 in Minneapolis, [5] and produced Hannibal Buress' Animal Furnace and Ryan Stout's Touché. He was also recording engineer on Mitch Fatel's Miniskirts and Muffins, Dan Cummins' Revenge is Near, and Nick DiPaolo's Funny How?, and edited Ben Roy's I Got Demons. [20] [18]

Akumal Comedy Festival

From 2012 to 2015, Stand Up! hosted the annual Akumal Comedy Festival in Mexico, a nonprofit event held in Tulum, Playa del Carmen, and Akumal which raised money for the Mexican Red Cross. The festival featured comics performing in both English and Spanish. Headliners included Darryl Lenox, Maggie Faris, and Derek Sheen. The festival was co-founded by Schlissel and Twin Cities comic Gus Lynch, who also acted in the films Saving Silverman , North Country , and I Spy . [21] Lynch died after an accidental fall at the Mayan ruins at Coba in 2014; the final festival was held in his honor. [8] [22]

Scottish tartan

In 2018, during the label's first visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Schlissel registered a Scottish tartan with the National Records of Scotland in the name of Stand Up! Records. Designed by Edinburgh kiltmaker Gordon Nicolson, the tartan blends the colors red, black, and tan (from Shepard Fairey's Stand Up! Records logo), blue (from the Israeli flag, symbolizing Schlissel's Jewish heritage), and silver-grey (for -ismist Recordings' 25th anniversary). [23]

Personal life

Schlissel is married and has a daughter. He lives in Minneapolis. [6]

Related Research Articles

Marc Maron American comedian, podcaster, writer, and actor

Marcus David Maron is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, and musician.

Glenn Wool Canadian stand-up comedian

Glenn Wool is a Canadian stand-up comedian now living in England. He has released six albums, including 2020's Viva Forever, produced by Dan Schlissel for Stand Up! Records.

Comedy Central Records

Comedy Central Records is a record label based in New York and owned by Paramount Global. The label specializes in stand-up comedy albums and is distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Stand Up! Records American comedy record label based in Minneapolis

Stand Up! Records is an American independent comedy record label founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Grammy-winning producer Dan Schlissel. It has been called "the country's most respected indie comedy label." Stand Up! has released more than 200 comedy albums and videos since its founding in 2000, including albums by Lewis Black, Patton Oswalt, Greg Proops, David Cross, Maria Bamford, Hannibal Buress, Judy Gold, the Sklar Brothers, and Eddie Pepitone. Comedian and actor Marc Maron, who released his first three albums on Stand Up!, described Schlissel as "a guy who loves comedy, and is very attentive to the process of recording comedy," and, referencing the large number of noteworthy comics who were given important exposure in their early careers by the label, joked that "you've done everybody's first two records."

-ismist Recordings American record label founded in Nebraska

-ismist Recordings was a Lincoln, Nebraska-based independent record label founded in 1992 by Dan Schlissel. Over the 1990s, -ismist released nearly 80 albums and singles by bands including Killdozer, Season to Risk, and House of Large Sizes. It is most widely known for comedy albums by Lewis Black and Doug Stanhope, as well as Iowa metal band Slipknot's 1997 debut/demo, Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat. By the early 2000s, after Slipknot had moved on to major label Roadrunner Records and Schlissel had found greater success with comedians like Black and Stanhope than with indie rock, he changed his focus to comedy albums on a new, Minneapolis-based label, Stand Up! Records, which eventually replaced -ismist entirely.

Mary Mack is an American comedian, musician, and writer. Mack currently stars as Jesse in the Justin Roiland-produced animated sitcom Solar Opposites, which debuted May 8, 2020 on Hulu. She has released five albums of her stand-up.

Rory Scovel American comedian and actor

Rory J. Scovel is an American comedian, writer and actor from Greenville, South Carolina. He released his first stand-up album, Dilation, in 2011. He has since released two hour-long stand-up specials, Rory Scovel: The Charleston Special in 2015 and Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time in 2017 on Netflix and one 75 minutes long special Live Without Fear in 2021 on YouTube. Outside of stand-up comedy, he is known for acting in the TruTV show Those Who Can't and in the 2018 movie I Feel Pretty, as well as writing for The Eric Andre Show. Since 2021, Scovel has been starring in the Apple TV+ series Physical.

Schlissel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Amber Preston American stand-up comedian

Amber Preston is a stand-up comedian originally from North Dakota and Minnesota and now living in Los Angeles.

Derek Sheen American stand-up comedian

Derek Sheen is a stand-up comedian from Seattle. He has released four albums on Stand Up! Records, most recently 2020's Macho Caballero.

Jimmy Shubert American stand-up comedian

Jimmy Shubert is a stand-up comedian from Philadelphia now living in Los Angeles. He is known for being part of Sam Kinison's "Outlaws of Comedy," as a 2014 finalist on Last Comic Standing, and for acting roles on shows such as The King of Queens, Entourage, and ER, and movies including Go and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Dante Powell is a stand-up comedian from Bernice, Louisiana now living in Des Moines, Iowa. His 2020 album The Squirrels Get Fat, produced by Grammy winner Dan Schlissel and released on his label Stand Up! Records, reached No. 1 on the iTunes and Amazon comedy charts. Paste Magazine called it one of the best albums of 2020 made by a black comedian.

Dave Williamson is a stand-up comedian from Miami, Florida now living in El Segundo, California. Williamson was named "best comedian in Miami" in 2012 by Miami New Times, which called his comedy "unpretentious, genuinely interesting, and, most important, atomically funny" and "like the stand-up version of a great sitcom."

Dylan Mandlsohn is a stand-up comedian, impressionist, and actor from Toronto, Ontario. He is known for appearances on TV series including 12 Monkeys and Nikita, and released a 2019 album produced by Grammy winner Dan Schlissel for his label Stand Up! Records, A Date With the Devil.

Robert Baril is a stand-up comedian and radio talk-show host from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has released two albums on Stand Up! Records, Sex and Politics and TMI, both produced by Grammy winner Dan Schlissel. He was the host of Laughing Matters on AM950 in Minneapolis.

Chris Maddock is an American stand-up comedian from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has released two albums and a DVD on Dan Schlissel's Stand Up! Records, most recently 2020's Country Music Legend, which reached No. 5 on the iTunes comedy chart.

Ryan Patrick Cownie is an American stand-up comedian originally from Lincoln, Nebraska. His album I Can't Die, which includes a theme song by Riverboat Gamblers' Mike Wiebe, was released by Dan Schlissel's Stand Up! Records in 2019. Comedy site Laughspin called him "a future superstar."

Corey Adam is an American stand-up comedian from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has released three comedy albums on Stand Up! Records, including 2018's Jokes.

Daniel Lobell is a Los Angeles-based American stand-up comedian, podcaster, and comic-book writer best known for his podcast Modern Day Philosophers. Comedian Marc Maron credits him with creating the first podcast focused on stand-up comedy, Comical Radio.

Dwight York is an American stand-up comedian and writer originally from Wisconsin.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Mate Feed Kill Repeat: IsmIist Recordings". Archived from the original on 2018-08-16. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  2. ↑ "Winners: 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards (2006)". The Recording Academy . Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  3. ↑ Marc Maron (2018-09-03). "Episode 947: Dan Schlissel". WTF with Marc Maron (Podcast). Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  4. 1 2 Roth, David (2019). "The Art of the Laugh with Stand Up! Records and Dan Schlissel". TPT Originals. PBS. Twin Cities PBS. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  5. 1 2 Snyders, Matt (2008-05-21). "Indie comedy label Stand Up! has produced the edgiest comedy in the country". City Pages. Minneapolis. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Wood, Drew (2018-07-12). "Q&A with Dan Schlissel of Minneapolis Label Stand Up! Records". Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Minneapolis. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  7. ↑ Smith, Rod (30 September 2007). "A Man Walks Into A Bar". City Pages. Minneapolis. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  8. 1 2 3 Lara Smith (17 April 2019). "Dan Schlissel: For the Record". Comedy Wham (Podcast). Comedy Wham. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  9. 1 2 Austen, Jake (August 2013). "Slissel". Roctober. Chicago.
  10. ↑ Birchmeier, Jason. Review of Such Sweet Thunder, Redneck/Burning Ditches at AllMusic . Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  11. 1 2 Matteson, Cory (2013-08-03). "Comedy record producer learned the ropes in Lincoln". Journal Star. Lincoln, Nebraska. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  12. ↑ Joel McIver (7 March 2012). Slipknot: All Hope Is Gone. Omnibus Press. pp. 53–. ISBN   978-0-85712-772-3.
  13. ↑ John Machnik at AllMusic . Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  14. ↑ Hendrickson, Tad (2016-09-28). "Meet the Minnesotan who helped launch the careers of Lewis Black and other comedy stars". Star Tribune. Minneapolis. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  15. ↑ Joe Randazzo (2 June 2015). "An Interview With Dan Schlissel". Funny on Purpose: The Definitive Guide to an Unpredictable Career in Comedy: Standup + Improv + Sketch + TV + Writing + Directing + YouTube. Chronicle Books LLC. pp. 159–. ISBN   978-1-4521-3559-5.
  16. ↑ Schaust, Sam (2018-05-10). "The Long Play: Why Stand Up! Records' Dan Schlissel Won't Stop Printing Comedy on Wax". Twin Cities Business. Minneapolis. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  17. ↑ John Wenzel (December 2009). Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny: Easyread Large Edition. pp. 209–. ISBN   978-1-4587-4742-6.
  18. 1 2 Dan Schlissel at AllMusic . Retrieved 2020-02-28.
  19. ↑ "Artists: Lewis Black". The Recording Academy . Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  20. ↑ Wenzel, John (2012-04-09). "Review: Ben Roy, I Got Demons (Greater Than Collective)". The Spit Take. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  21. ↑ "About the Akumal Comedy Festival". Akumal Comedy Festival. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  22. ↑ Walsh, Paul (2014-12-02). "Twin Cities comic dies after fall from ruins in Mexico". Star Tribune. Minneapolis. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  23. ↑ "Tartan Details - Stand Up! Records". The Scottish Register of Tartans. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.