Meet Dan Machanik

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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Dan Machanik. Dan was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Jayson Johnson.

Dan , can you walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Dan “Gonzo”Machanik and I am Stand Up Comedian based in the Bay Area with 37 years professional stage experience. I was brought up around show biz as my aunt was a TV producer with Ed Sullivan and Dick Clark and at the age of 3 did my first stand up gig for my extended family at the Fairfield Hotel in San Francisco. I was later brought up on Long Island and attended the Long Island School for performing Arts. I never really considered Stand up as a Career but at 20 I had taken a year off of College at CU Boulder to live in Aspen and get ‘in state tuition.’ Unfortunately, I was unsuited for much work and got fired off a Number of construction sites. I was dead broke when I heard an ad for an amateur comedy contest with $200 grand prize. That night with no material planned I went to the club with a fake ID, won the $200 grand prize and then went back and won it 14 weeks in a row. These days, flash forward I have worked from New York to Taiwan, Las Vegas, Hollywood and all over the Bay. These days I specialize in headlining nightclubs, yacht clubs and wineries and am in the midst of my third major comeback of my comedy career.

Alright, so we’d love to hear more about your comedy career. What else should we know?
My Comedy Career always surprises me and is currently in a very active condition for both producing and performing. I’m most proud of having been in the Aspen Comedy Festival, Comic Relief University Tour, Smirnoff All Star Comedy Tour of Asia and having opened for Tommy Chong, Garry Shandling and Mark Curry. I am also a pioneer and Godfather of English Language Stand Up in Asia and was basically a comedy/ rock star in Taiwan from 2004–2007. What I’m working on is getting to my own Netflix or HBO Special and gaining some professional management so I can spend less time producing my gigs and more time on stage, writing and telling jokes. These days my bread and butter gigs are Yacht Clubs, Wineries, a handful of NightClubs and reoccurring Gigs on the Las Vegas Strip. There’s much I love about comedy; all things show biz related, writing, getting feedback on jokes right away, having cool show posters, hanging in the green room, seeing my name in lights, making people laugh and that post-show adrenalin rush you can’t get any other way.

Jayson Johnson and Strike Five Films have been great to us and I know you’ve got a great relationship with them as well. Maybe you can tell our audience a bit about Jayson Johnson and Strike Five Films and your experience with them.
These days much of the ‘work’ of comedy is having on-line materials together to send booking agents and festivals, etc. And, as comfortable as I am on stage for 45 minutes telling jokes my technical internet skills are less so (I’m 58) then my 20 something year old counter parts. So, I needed a little ‘hand holding’ at an affordable rate to at least get ten high quality clips up that I could send out and attach to my website, etc. I also wanted to work with someone who’d seen me live and who understood my sensibilities and vice versa. So, with his film background and strength of editing skills, plus local location Jayson was a good fit for my project. Jayson delivered at an affordable rate and the clips looked great with sound and poster bumpers on each side of clip. I still have a long way to go with things like Tik-Tok, etc, but that’s just part of the game that older comics are not as adept with — so it’s important to have some good people, like Jayson, whom I can work with and trust as my career moves forward.