Dan Newbower began his comedic career in Junior High as a member of a
traveling improv troupe called The Mad Hatters. He thought it was cool
at the time, but in retrospect it was totally lame. After graduating
with honors from Duke University, where he received both a degree in
economics and a national Telly Award for his humorous college
television show, Dan moved back to his hometown of Boston to try his
hand at stand up comedy.
Success in stand up came quickly. After only six months of performing,
Dan was chosen to be one of ten Boston semifinalists in the nationwide
Comedy Central Laugh Riots stand up competition. The next year Dan was
once again chosen to be a Boston semifinalist. This time around, he
won! Two weeks later, Dan was flown to LA to represent his city at the
El Rey Theater as one of only 10 national finalists out of a pool of
thousands.
Following the above success, Dan became the hot young comic on the
Boston scene. Soon he was opening for such luminaries as David Cross at
the fabled Comedy Connection, and hosting Friday nights at the
legendary Comedy Studio in Cambridge. Dan also regularly performed
sketch and made short films with the groups WAKKA and Piston Honda.
Both groups had stupid names.
In addition, Dan was profiled in just about every Boston magazine and
newspaper in existence, including: The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald,
The Boston Phoenix, The Improper Bostonian, Boston Magazine,
Stuff@Night Magazine, The Weekly Dig, and on and on and on. He was also
featured on Boston radio and TV, on programs with names like Chowda.
Yes, Chowda. Dan was on that particular one twice.
Dan was also selected to participate in the Boston International Comedy
Festival, and the Cambridge Fringe Festival, and was even discovered as
a fashion model and had many photos taken of him wearing leather pants
and eyeliner.
Soon Dan had had enough of Boston and moved to New York City. He
immediately began performing at comedy clubs such as Gotham, and at
premier alternative venues such as Eating It at Luna Lounge, Pianos,
and the UCB Theater. Dan also used his new contacts in New York to
create and produce the Regattabar Summer Comedy Series. This yearly
comedy series took place at the world-renowned, 300-seat, Regattabar
Jazz Club and had an annual budget in the tens of thousands of dollars.
The series lineup featured New York comics such as Todd Barry, Demetri
Martin, and Leo Allen, as well as Boston ex-patriots such as Gary
Gulman, Mike Birbiglia and Christian Finnegan. After two years of tons
of press and sold out shows, everyone involved was sick of doing it.
Since moving to New York, Dan has appeared on VH1's Best Week Ever, NY1's The Call, Howard Stern TV, and he just taped an episode of The Whitest Kids U Know on Fuse Network... so watch out for that. In addition, Dan has written two screenplays, one of which was optioned for production, and has several more screenplays in the works. Dan can be seen performing stand up regularly at the super-hip, alt-comedy club Rififi on the Lower East Side and in numerous other venues around town and around this great nation.