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 The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California. Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper F ...

for twenty years.

Early life

Dion grew up in

Kenwood, California Kenwood, California is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Sonoma County, California, located on Sonoma Highway (State Route 12) between the cities of Santa Rosa and Sonoma. It lies east of Sonoma Creek in the ...

. He attended

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic M ...

, where he was the campus comedy director, producing shows such as

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

, P. J. O'Rourke, and

Greg Proops Gregory Everett "Greg" Proops (born October 3, 1959) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his guest appearances on the U.K. and U.S. versions of '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?''. He has also voiced th ...

. Upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco to work for political satirist

Will Durst Will Durst (born on March 18, 1952) is an American political satirist. He has been called a modern mix of Mort Sahl and Will Rogers. Early life Durst was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went to 14 different schools before graduating from W ...

at his comedy club, the

Holy City Zoo The Holy City Zoo, which called itself "the comedian's clubhouse", was a small but influential comedy club in San Francisco that operated from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. Description The Holy City Zoo was located at 408 Clement Street between ...

Career

In 1993 he was an assistant photographer for the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

, and became the house photographer for The Fillmore and The Warfield venues as a staff shooter for

Bill Graham Presents Bill Graham (born Wulf Wolodia Grajonca; January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991) was a German-American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death in 1991 in a helicopter crash. On July 4, 1939, he was sent from Germa ...

. His location portraits of comedians have spawned ongoing exhibitions at Gotham Comedy Club, The

Punch Line San Francisco Punch Line San Francisco is a comedy club located at 444 Battery St in San Francisco's Financial District. It has a sister club in Sacramento, California, and is also associated with Cobb's Comedy Club, now in the North Beach neighborhood of ...

, the

Upright Citizens Brigade The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, ...

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 The Purple Onion was a celebrated cellar club in the North Beach area of San Francisco, California, located at 140 Columbus Avenue (between Jackson and Pacific). With an intimate, 80-person setting, the club was a popular influence in local musi ...

and later produced a stand-up comedy web series there for

Crackle Crackle or crackling may refer to: Foods * Cracklings, the tissue remaining after lard and tallow have been extracted from animal fats ** Pork rinds in American English, pork scratchings in British English when served in small pieces as a snack ...

, a division of

Sony Entertainment Sony Entertainment, Inc. is an American entertainment company established in 2012. It focuses on most of Sony's motion picture, television and music businesses. It is a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony Group Corporation, managed by Sony's Americ ...

. In 2012 he produced the final show at the Purple Onion, when the entire building was sold to a restaurant concern.

Author

In May 2010, Dion's book '' ¡SATIRISTAS!'', co-authored with

Paul Provenza Paul Provenza (born July 31, 1957) is a 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. ...

, was published by Harper-Collins. It features interviews and portraits with

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program '' The Colbert Report'' from 2005 t ...

Bill Maher William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show '' Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar ...

George Carlin George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercul ...

, 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 A roar is a type of animal vocalization that is deep and resonating. Many mammals have evolved to produce roars and other roar-like vocals for purposes such as long-distance communication and intimidation. These include various species of big cat ...

. 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. From 2016 to 2018 he was a producer at Audible's comedy division in San Francisco, producing live performances for recordings, in-studio audio projects, and working with comedians and writers to develop long-form audiobooks and scripts. 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.

External links

San Francisco Chronicle: After the Laughs

San Francisco Chronicle: Visions of FIllmore Musicians

L.A. Times: Killers – Comics on What They Do and Why

Boston Phoenix: Interview with Paul Provenza

The Onion: ¡Satiristas! Review

Santa Clara Magazine: Dan Dion Profile

Santa Clara Magazine: ¡Satiristas! Review

7x7 Magazine: Dan Dion Profile

Dan Dion Photography
1970 births Living people American photographers American male comedians Artists from San Francisco Comedians from California 21st-century American comedians {{US-comedian-stub