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 Fil ...

for twenty years.

Early life

Dion grew up in

Kenwood, California Kenwood 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 upper part ...

. He attended

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...

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

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has b ...

P. J. O'Rourke Patrick Jake O'Rourke (November 14, 1947 – February 15, 2022) was an American author, journalist, and political satirist who wrote twenty-two books on subjects as diverse as politics, cars, etiquette, and economics. '' Parliament of Whores'' ...

, and

Greg Proops Gregory Everett Proops (born October 3, 1959) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his work on the British and American versions of '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?''. He has also voiced the titular ch ...

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

Will Durst Will Durst (born March 18, 1952) is an American political satirist. He has been likened to Mort Sahl and Will Rogers. Early life Durst was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went to 14 different schools before graduating from Waukesha South ...

at his comedy club, the Holy City Zoo.

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. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

, and became the house photographer for The Fillmore and

The Warfield The Warfield Theatre, colloquially called The Warfield, is a 2,300-seat music venue located in the Theatre District in downtown San Francisco, California, United States. It was built as a vaudeville theater and opened as the '' Loews Warfield' ...

venues as a staff shooter for Bill Graham Presents. His location portraits of comedians have spawned ongoing exhibitions at

Gotham Comedy Club Gotham Comedy Club is a venue for stand-up comedy in New York City. The comedy club is located on 208 West 23rd Street (Manhattan), 23rd Street between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth avenues in Chelsea, M ...

, 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 (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, ...

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, a division of

Sony Entertainment Sony Entertainment, Inc. is the umbrella entertainment division of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation and managed by its American subsidiary, established in 2012 to oversee the corporation's ventures in film, televisio ...

. In 2012 he produced the final show at the Purple Onion, when the entire building was sold to a restaurant concern. From there he became a comedy producer for

Audible.com Audible is an American online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken-word content. This content can be purchased individually or under a subscription model in which the user re ...

, bringing such talents as

Lewis Black Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion and cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series ''Lewis Black's ...

Jonathan Katz Jonathan Paul Katz (born December 1, 1946) is an American actor and comedian best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom ''Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist'' as Dr. Katz. He is also known for voicing Erik Robbins in the UPN/Adult Sw ...

, and

Maria Bamford Maria Bamford (born September 3, 1970) is an American actress and stand-up comedian. Her work often uses self-deprecating and dark topics, including her dysfunctional family, depression, anxiety, suicide and mental illness. Her first comedy alb ...

to the platform and producing live shows for the

SF SketchFest SF Sketchfest, or The San Francisco Comedy Festival, is an American comedy festival founded in 2002 by Bay Area actor-comedians David Owen, Janet Varney and Cole Stratton. It takes place every January and February in a variety of Bay Area venues ...

. In 2019 he moved to

Nashville, TN Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

to become Head of A&R at 800 Pound Gorilla Records, the country's biggest comedy record label. In 2022 he opened an art gallery and photo studio next door to

Third Man Records Third Man Records is an eclectic, vinyl-focused independent record label founded and owned by Jack White, Ben Blackwell, and Ben Swank. The company operates out of three locations—Nashville, Detroit, and Soho in London—with multiple entitie ...

in Nashville. In 2024 he left 800 Pound Gorilla and founded comedy record label Goat Song Records.

Author

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

Paul Provenza Paul Provenza (born July 31, 1957) is an American 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 c ...

, was published by

Harper-Collins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the " Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is ...

. 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 to ...

Bill Maher William MaherStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', January 12, 2016, PBS; on a series that lists "Jr." and "Sr." distinctions, Bill Maher's birth name was listed simply as William Maher, while his father was William Aloysius Maher Jr., and his pa ...

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

, and other

satirists This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Early satirical authors *Aeso ...

. 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 loud, 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 ...

. 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.

External links

San Francisco Chronicle: After the Laughs

San Francisco Chronicle: Visions of FIllmore Musicians

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 San Francisco 21st-century American comedians {{US-comedian-stub