Daniel Nainan is a half
Japanese, half
Indian comedian. He is the
son of an Indian father and Japanese mother. Nainan says memories
of being ragged, harassed and bullied because of his appearance and
heritage sadly propelled him into this
career.
As a senior engineer with the
Intel Corporation in the late 1990s, Dan Nainan
designed and presented highly technical demonstrations on stage
with Intel Chairman Andy Grove and other senior executives at
high-profile events all over the world. Nainan took a comedy class
to help get over the fear of public speaking at these events, at
which the audiences numbered in the thousands or sometimes in the
millions on television. His first comedy performance at the
Punchline in San Francisco was a resounding success, and his
coworkers, upon viewing the videotape, invited him to perform at a
team dinner for 200 employees at the
Comdex convention in Las Vegas. Upon seeing that
performance, the organizers of Intel's annual sales conference
asked Nainan to perform for 2,500 salespeople from around the
world. His dead-on impressions of Andy Grove and
Bill Clinton had the
audience rolling in the aisles at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning. Many
in the audience thought that Nainan had been hired as a
professional comedian, in what was only his third comedy
performance ever.
Over the next two years, Nainan performed at
various Intel functions, including the company’s annual holiday
party, where he was introduced by Dr. Grove himself, whereupon he
proceeded to mimic the Chairman’s distinctive accent for 20
minutes. In 2000, Nainan was promoted to Strategic Relations
Manager for the East Coast, enabling him to move from
Silicon Valley to
New York
City. Restless in his stationary new job and anxious to use his
creative talents, he was fired from Intel in 2001 and decided to
pursue standup comedy full time as of January 2002.
In April of
2003, Nainan won an open mike contest at the
Washington, DC Improv,
and the chance to open for the headliner of his choice. He chose
noted comedian Robert Schimmel in November of 2003, and over that
weekend he convinced Schimmel to let him perform at Schimmel’s
Hawaii shows. Nainan flew
to
Honolulu at his own
expense, and Schimmel was impressed enough with Nainan's
performance to invite the young comedian to tour with him as his
feature act in 2004. As a result, Nainan was exposed to some of the
country’s top comedy clubs, and Schimmel took him under his wing to
teach him about the finer points of the business.
In November
2004, Nainan was fortunate enough to be at the New York Improv when
Canadian comic sensation
Russell Peters was headlining, and after
Peters' performance, there was extra time available, so Nainan
begged to perform, as he has been commonly known to do. Peters
subsequently asked Nainan to tour with him in 2005. Beginning in
January of 2005, Nainan and Peters toured both the USA and Canada,
performing at theater shows for audiences averaging at least 1,000
per show. In April 2005, Nainan both produced and performed in
Peters’ show at the
Apollo Theater in
New York City, a show
which was completely sold out.
Nainan continues to tour with
Peters, and the exposure has allowed Nainan to headline his own
shows, earning as much as $7,500 in an evening. A 100% clean
comedian, Nainan has performed at charity events, corporate
functions, weddings, private parties, colleges and of course at the
top comedy clubs in the country. He has performed at events with
Hillary Clinton (who he has made derogatory and misogynistic
remarks about in his act), Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Howard Dean and other
celebrities, and has performed with noted comedians such as Jerry
Seinfeld, Bob Saget and Garry Shandling. He has been seen on NBC's
"Last Comic Standing", on A&E, Nickelodeon and on various
television commercials. Nainan also does character voices on radio
stations all over America, and is best known for his Bill Clinton
impression.
Nainan, the son of a South Asian nuclear physicist
and an East Asian child psychologist, is an accomplished musician
who started piano lessons at the age of two. He sings and plays
guitar, bass, drums and cello, and plays the cello in “The Hoax”, a
2006 movie with Richard Gere. A former touring musician and
employee who was fired from Capitol Records, he is also working on
an album of original music. A world traveler/adventurer, Nainan
enjoys learning languages and extreme sports such as bungee
jumping, scuba diving, skiing rollerblading and skydiving. He is
also writing a computer book. An early riser, Nainan eschews the
bar scene (which means he chews it up and spits it out), preferring
to focus on creative and athletic pursuits. He prefers public
transportation, does not own a television and does not drink coffee
or alcohol, smoke, or do drugs, as boring as that may sound. This
summer will find him vacationing or performing in Singapore, Hong
Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Ireland, Scotland, England,
Iceland, France, Spain, Tunisia, India and Morocco. This boastful
display of self aggrandizement was written by none other than
Daniel Nainan, who appears to be a legend only in his own mind and
quite the relentless and completely shameless
self-promoter.