Dan Chopin
written by Ken Carlson
“I had one incident that was disrespectful,” says Dan Chopin, in recalling a corporate event that he would rather forget. Chopin, a veteran road comic, has specialized in these types of shows, in which his experience, ability to keep it clean, and respect for the audience play a big part in building trust from those whose job it is to make an otherwise dull conference fun, yet appropriate. “It was a show for the Corn Growers Association about ten years ago in Nashville at Opryland. I did 25-30 minutes for 5,000 people. It was great! We were having a ball. Near the end, I made a remark, like, ‘Oh, I’m going to hell for that joke. But, it’s not like I’m not going to know anybody there.’ People laughed. But, some Christian woman who was high up in the organization went out into the hall because she was offended by it. She spoke to the president. Later, I was about to close the show. A band had come out, it being Nashville and a big to-do, then I was coming out to thank everyone and say good night. The president of the company went up instead and apologized for me being there because I had offended this one woman. What, she was that worried about my soul? She was just a crazy Southern Baptist whack job. I had a great set, and this guy is telling the audience that they need a filtering process before they book their acts! They paid me, but I was humiliated,” says Chopin, smiling and shaking his head in disbelief. “It was just weird, that knee jerk reaction, to see him apologize like that.”
Dan Chopin is thoroughly enjoying life. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and three step kids. His wife’s a court reporter and he does about two weeks a month on the road. He’s worked out of the west and Midwest his entire career, picking up plenty of corporate stuff, voice-over work, and writing projects around town. But, while he is more in demand than ever, headlining in more A rooms, he’s feeling the pinch like everyone else.
“There are fewer corporate gigs now,” says Chopin, “I lost two recently because they cut them. I would’ve had a huge AT&T corporate gig at St. Regis at Laguna Beach, California. It would’ve been three weeks as an MC for a lot of money. It’s kind of different than a stand-up show. For corporate, you’ve got to be squeaky clean. Their sphincters are so tight... but, it’s good money. The energy level’s never as high than at a good comedy club. It’s tougher to make a room full of people who know each other laugh. They’re looking over to see if the boss is laughing. It’s weird and not as much fun, but you make what you make in a week otherwise, in just a hour. A lot of the time, having a comic at corporate events is a bad idea. Three weeks ago, I was at a huge fundraiser, great cause, in a huge converted warehouse with a horrible sound system. People were milling around, didn’t even have any seats. There were just cocktail tables for folks to lean on. It’s hard to hold their attention when it’s like that. In the back they couldn’t even understand what I was saying. There was a constant murmur during my set, but, I did my whole 45.”
“Then, there’s the early morning shows,” he says. “Save it for the awards assemblies when there are some cocktails and people are a little looser! Doing comedy before a morning breakout session for AT&T, you know, it’s just not as fun. It’s too early for comedy at 8:00 in the morning, but I do it all the time.”
“If you can headline in A rooms like this (The Funny Bone in Manchester, CT),” says Chopin, “the money’s great. I play a lot of The Funny Bones, a lot of the Improvs. Then other times, it will be shitty little one nighters one night and a corporate gig the next. Hey, I take whatever gigs come down the pike. I don’t change my sets that much. At corporate gigs I won’t drop the F-bomb like at a shitty one nighter. My act can stay pretty clean. I don’t have to change that much. I also act a little more professionally at corporate gigs.”
“If I had to describe Dan Chopin,” says comedian Mark Sweeney, “in one word it would be...delightful. His act is a playful mix of sarcasm, devilishness and likability. He’s the guy next door with a fantastic sense of humor, an eye for the absurd and sometimes, a guitar. What sets him apart is his charm, his gracefulness on stage and his genuine personality. No bollocks with Dan Chopin, just the real deal!”
“Dan can bring so much to the table,” says comedian Joe Marlotti. “He’s got years of experience, has really great material, and has impeccable timing. Dan does hilarious musical comedy with ORIGINAL songs - not just parodies, and he can work clean. He’s the complete package.”
“I started doing it 30 years ago; got up on stage May 29 at an open mic in ‘79. I was 22, in college,” recalls Chopin. “I started making a living at it four years later. I had been in an improv groupe, The Easy Street Players, with some other comics. We found our own place, a bar called Cleo’s. You won’t find it now. The Funny Bone actually took it over in ‘84. We kind of trail blazed comedy there. That was the first full time comedy room in St. Louis. We did skits, freeze tag, that sort of thing, in an hour and a half show. We were pretty good for beginners. I’ve watched some of the video tape and some of the sketches were pretty funny. Then, when the comedy boom came, we all went to do stand-up.”
For Chopin, that move to full time stand-up included a move to L.A. ]in ‘85. He quickly became a regular there at the Improv and appeared on stand-up showcases on Showtime, MTV, and A&E.
A lot has changed since that time. A dollar certainly doesn’t go as far. In 1985, a gallon of gas was $1.24 and a gallon of milk was $1.98. But, according to Chopin, the pay in stand-up has basically remained the same.
“From ‘85 to 2005, says Chopin, “you made $1,500 to $2,000 for headlining a week. The supply and demand changed. The boom ended, it’s hard to pinpoint when, but it seemed like in the early 90’s, clubs started closing and the cream started rising to the top. Door men and bartenders in the boom turned into comics because there weren’t enough comics to fill all the places. But, the shitty clubs went by the wayside. The good ones stuck around. The guy that does this chain, The Funny Bone, does a really good job. He comes into these suburban malls where there are restaurants. I think he approaches these malls with the message that these clubs are going to generate some foot traffic that will benefit everybody. Columbus, Kansas City, these ‘lifestyle’ malls, they work in the burbs. Downtown clubs don’t really thrive unless you’re in New York or L.A. Even L.A. is tough because people want to park for free!”
While many in the business as long as Chopin fall back on a layer of cynicism, he remains energetic and enthusiastic. “There’s a crop of young comics coming up that are good,” he says. “There are a lot of opportunities for young comics. There’s a lot of TV. It’s amazing. I’m kind of coming from the old guard. I’ve been around since the 80’s. I’ve had a bit of a resurgence, lately, with more gigs. I’ve done the Bob & Tom Show a couple of times. It’s about hounding the bookers in clubs. Once I get a foot in the door, they want me back. It’s about building a nice list of clubs, like Zanie’s in Chicago later this year. It’s good to get into the A rooms more.”
Maybe part of the positive outlook comes from his time away from it full-time to reflect. Chopin took a five year hiatus from touring. He took a day job at an ad agency, J. Walter Thompson, as a writer and producer. He was still doing local gigs here and there, but it got him off the road and off a lot of people from the industry’s radar. “So, I’ve been fighting my way back up since then,” says Chopin. “It was a nice change. But it was the corporate world and I decided to get back into stand-up. It was nice earning some money while transitioning back to stand-up too, but I haven’t done any in a while. You really have to choose to do one or the other. It’s a completely different style of writing. I’d rather writer jokes than persuasive copy for a brochure to convince people to buy stuff. Some of the clients I’ve worked with are pretty tough. A company that was hiring nurses for prisons was one of them. I had to make that job look good. That was difficult. But, you focus on the positive; Hard work but huge signing bonuses and not as dangerous as you think....”
“It’s been a climb since then, in ‘04,” he continues, “to prove myself to a lot of bookers, who can be rude. Age can be a factor but I don’t want to make excuses why I work or don’t work a place. There are so many people out there doing it, they just assume that when you call up, you’re just the average dickhead off the street.”
Chopin is comfortable in his role as a road comic, on his terms. “I have a family now, which is really nice,” says Chopin. “I was on the road a lot in my 20’s and 30’s, then spent part of my 40’s on hiatus. Now two weeks a month is plenty. I love the road, getting to be my old self. I work on material, take care of business. I stay in touch through email and work on freelance writing projects. I also do voice-overs. The advertising business is taking their hits just like everyone else right now. The president of my agency is handling the day-to-day calls for scheduling voice-over work. I’ve done other projects recently where the writer/producer is the president of the company. They’re firing all their writers. So, I’m not getting any freelance work. They don’t even have work for their staff. I’m also an actor. If I don’t end up on the cutting room floor, I’ll be in a George Clooney film this fall, Up In the Air. They shot it in St. Louis. I had a scene with him and had a chance to shoot the shit with him a little between takes.”
Within the first couple of years of doing it, Chopin thought he could make a living at stand-up. He got a string of good gigs which became a full calendar. “It’s a great life to be a comic,” he says. “Here, I’m selling me, selling jokes. I use my personality. You have to sell yourself. When I got back into it, I hit some frustrating patches, but I took every shitkicker gig down the pike. I’ve got this feeling that I haven’t peaked yet. At my age, 52, to have that feeling is great!”
To Chopin, success in the business is simple and uncomplicated. It just has to be silly. You make some observations, catch them off guard, make them laugh. He hopes the crowd walks away being entertained, hopefully to the point of losing track of time and wanting more. He’s not trying to make a statement or say anything political. He relies on himself and doesn’t let the noise from the crowd dictate how well his set is going.
“It’s about dynamics of the room,” Chopin says. “Sometimes the planets are in line and you have a great show. Sometimes you can’t hear the laughter. For so many years, I would judge how well I was doing by the sound of the laughter. SO many comics shoot themselves in the foot because they don’t think the crowd isn’t laughing enough. But some nights, even after a show I didn’t think went so well, I’ll sell a ton of CD’s. You never can tell. Never assume they hate you.”
“There’s a nobility to making people laugh, to entertaining people,” Chopin says. “It’s a gift to do it. To get paid to do it, and enjoy it is remarkable. To be able to pull it off and contribute, you’re doing something for somebody. It’s the equivalent of sand-bagging to ward off high waters and save their house. If you can make someone’s shitty day better, get them to laugh, I think there’s a lot to that.”
To see where Dan is performing, visit DanChopin.com.