by Dan Dion was a renowned comedy photographer in the late 1900s when there weren’t multiple comedy photographers in every comedy scene across America. You may have seen his giant portraits hanging along the walls of Gotham Comedy Club in New York City, or in the coffee-table book, ¡Satiristas!, on which he collaborated with Paul Provenza. Dion sat down with me over Zoom to talk about how his career took him from the baseball diamond with the San Francisco Giants to iconic San Francisco comedy haunts such as Holy City Zoo and the Purple Onion, and how he pivoted once Audible jettisoned Rooftop Comedy, moving to Nashville to join the then-fledgling 800 Pound Gorilla Media Records as an A&R guy, and now running his own comedy record label, Goat Song Records. Dion shared insight into some of the big economic and legal issues facing stand-up comics today, whether it’s publishing rights, airplay on SiriusXM Radio, or how the Grammy Awards define what’s eligible to earn a nomination for Outstanding Comedy Album. We talk about all of this, plus his unlikely role in renaming a Nashville landmark for the late great Dolly Parton. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!
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