Dan Bingham Comedy| Stand-up Comedian, Humour Writer, Actor

Comedy Now puts Eman, Dan Bingham & Mike Paterson in TV Spotlight

Dan — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:49:29 +0000

MONTREAL - The buzz around the Montreal comedy scene – anglo division – has apparently spread all the way down the 401. Three – count ’em – Montreal wits have been selected to each let loose for half-hour shows on Comedy Now!, to be broadcast both on the Comedy Network and CTV.

Read full article here

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4 Reasons Not to Watch Spy Kids 4

Dan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:38:54 +0000

This was a big year for superhero films. We had Thor, Captain America, X-Men: First Class. But I think when people look back on 2011 they will remember this as the year Spy Kids 4 came out. When I first saw the preview for it in theaters I felt the same way I felt when Justin Bieber announced the release of his autobiography: “Finally!” Lord knows I haven’t slept a wink since the chilling conclusion of Spy Kids 3. Sylvester Stallone, the star of the film Cliffhanger also starred in Spy Kids 3, which is easily the greatest cliffhanger of all time. Coincidence? I think not.

Now, Spy Kids 3 was in 3D, which means I wasn’t “legally” allowed to watch it. According to the conditions of my parole there needs to be at least 30 feet between me and a Spy Kid. If I sit in the back row of the theater I’m fine. But once I put on those 3D glasses Spy Kids are all up in my grill, my parole officer finds out and I go back to prison.

But that’s another story.

So when the producers were coming up with concepts for Spy Kids 4 they were racking their brains:

BIG BOSS: “How can we get people to enjoy the Spy Kids experience more than they did in 3D?”

BIGSBY: “Impossible!”

PHILLIPS: “Write a decent script?”

BOSS: “You’re fired.”

MARKSWORTH: “Be like James Cameron or Peter Jackson, inventing new and innovative film technology to enhance the viewer’s cinematic experience?”

BOSS: “You are also fired.”

JOHNSON: “ummm…scratch ‘n’ sniff?”

BOSS: “Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.”

Yes folks, not only will you be able to see and hear the new Spy Kids movie, but you’ll also be able to SMELL the movie. Again, finally! Haven’t you always wondered what movies smell like? I remember when I watched Lord of the Rings, as amazing as it was with all its realistic creatures and characters, the beautiful costumes and detailed landscapes, the revolutionary special effects, the epic soundtrack, the perfect casting followed by the incredible acting, the 30 Academy Award nominations and the subsequent 17 wins, despite all that I couldn’t help feel that something was missing. It was the smell. I realize now that I couldn’t be fully transported to Middle Earth because I couldn’t SMELL Middle Earth.

Until we can smell the Balrog, this shall not pass as a Balrog

They’re calling it Spy Kids 4: Now in 4D. They’ll be giving out AROMA-SCOPE cards as you walk into the movie theater. Right, cause you don’t already have enough crap walking into a movie. You’ve got your popcorn in one hand, drink in the other, you’ve got napkins sticking out of your pockets, the movie ticket in your mouth, 3D glasses on your head…

“Um, you can go ahead and put that card in between my butt cheeks. Actually on second thought, I wouldn’t want to cross contaminate the aromas on the Aroma-Scope card. Just roll it up like a dollar bill and shove it up my nose. Let the smelling begin!”

When is this going to end? What will happen when movies start playing in 5D and 6D?

“Okay, here’s your 3D glasses and you’re aroma-scope card. Don’t forget your Lick-a-Stick, your Toe-Tickling Feather Slippers, your Audio-Activated Nipples Twisters, and of course, your cinematic butt plug. Whatever you do, don’t mis up the scratch ‘n sniff card with the butt plug.”

What’s even more hilarious is that adding smell to a movie isn’t even a new idea. It was actually invented back in 1960 by Hans Laube for the film Scent of a Mystery, whereby smells would be released into the movie theater via vents underneath the viewer’s seats. Only back then it was called Smell-O-Vision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlD6ST_BrG4

Like I said, they’re calling it 4D, which makes me wonder: since when is the 4th dimension smell? I never remember learning about the smell of a cube. Length, height, depth and smell.

Some would argue that time is the forth dimension. I guess the fact that this film most certainly wastes it, you can still go ahead and call it 4D.

But if the executive producers really want to give viewers an authentic Spy Kids movie experience, every single time you scratch ‘n’ sniff the Aroma-Scope card, it smells like crap.

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Adopt This! Wins Best Comedy Award

Dan — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:38:31 +0000

My greatest fears have come true: When you quit drinking booze for six months, you will acquire super powers.

On January first of this year (I spilled coffee on my laptop keyboard and can no longer type the number one or exclamation points) I landed in Los Angeles California. Here I would spend the next 30 days living with Barry, my biological father and his girlfriend April. I took the month off work and jumped on a plane because I needed to figure out what the next chapter of my life would be. I had been writing articles for a web marketing company for 3 years at this point, and the 40-hour a week creative brain drain was seriously hindering any process in my comedy career. My head was too tired to come up with decent material, and my bills were too paid for me to go out and work harder. Things had to change.

And holy shit did they ever.

While in LA I decided to take the month off drinking. By day 9 I swear I heard my liver whisper “thank you.” At first it was one of those “I got way too hammered over the holidays, I just want to give the body a one month detox” type of things. But by week 2 something strange started to happen. I started to feel amazing.

Since I was no longer cramming endless booze into my face I was waking up early every morning, and I started to develop a pretty sweet daily routine consisting of learning to play guitar, writing, exercising and trying to tan my pasty Canadian body. But most importantly, I started to write Adopt This.

Every morning I would go down to my new favorite coffee shops called Gary’s and I would force myself to write for at least 2-3 hours. This may not sound like a lot, but when you’re in sunny Southern California and you’re on vacation, it feels like an eternity.

Gary’s: Where it all started

By the end of the month I had reached a new decision. If Adopt This was going to get the chance it deserved, telling the story properly would require my full capacities. After one month without alcohol I felt so amazing physically and mentally that I figured hey, why not give up drinking between now and the first show in June. Six months with a clear head and all my wits and energies about me, what’s the worst that could happen?

Well, I’ll tell you what happened.

I not only lost fourteen lbs, saved hundreds upon hundreds of dollars, learned how to play 5 songs on the guitar (from not knowing how to play the guitar at all), gained a super positive outlook on life and the brightness of the future, but I finished writing, rehearsing and promoting Adopt This on time for the opening night at the Montreal Fringe Fest.

By closing night I had performed to nearly 6 sell out audiences; picked up a 5-star review in the Charlevoix Post; stood awkwardly and overwhelmed in front of full house standing ovations; received nominations for the Chapter’s Best Script Award, the Centaur Theater Best English Production Award, and the Just for Laughs Best English Comedy Award. And during my last show, Barry, who had flown in from LA, not only got to participate in the final standing ovation, but he was at the award ceremony when I won the JFL Best Comedy Award. Oh, and did I mention it was father’s day?

Barry @ Gary’s: First night I tried any adoption stuff in front of an audience

It feels a little weird to receive an award when there are people without whom you could have never delivered the final product. A little weird, but mostly amazing.

So that’s six months without drinking. Let’s see what going another six can do.

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The Charlebois Post Gives Adopt This! 5 Stars

Dan — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 03:59:31 +0000

Adopt This! is the hilarious and heartfelt account of Dan Bingham’s dysfunctional life. Adopted as a baby by a couple who divorced 18 months later, Dan had to face obstacles such as a strict Catholic mother, her abusive overweight boyfriend, a pathological liar father and lots of teenage mischief. Later, he meets his biologic mother and her family, a gang of hard-drinking, hard-partying Scotsmen. Read full review here.

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Review in Montreal Mirror

Dan — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 03:51:59 +0000

As you must do to make great work, comedian Dan Bingham risked a lot in his autobiographical show Adopt This! And it’s lovely to be able to say it paid off huge. Bingham’s “meta-stand-up” looks at the man behind the microphone and the one-liner, taking us into the funnyman’s less-than-funny childhood spent with adoptive parents, and his eventual meet-up with his birth mom and family.

Growing up as an adopted kid, says Bingham, made him feel like a different species, with anyone a potential relative: “Dear God, please don’t let this toothless prostitute be my mother!” It’s funny, as you’d expect, but between laughs there’s a lot of vulnerability. More than that, it’s a polished, well-acted story.

Read full article here.

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Review from the Rover

Dan — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:16:49 +0000

Dan Bingham delivered a powerful, side-splitting script. Given the subject matter and the autobiographical nature of the piece, I sometimes felt weird laughing at what he was saying. But as Carol Burnett famously said, “Comedy is Tragedy plus time.” Dan told a great story, albeit a sad one, immersing the audience in the story of his upbringing. Read full review here.

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Baby Bingham makes an appearance in the Montreal Mirror

Dan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:56:17 +0000

Dan Bingham is on his way to a career in stand-up—he’s just really funny, sharp and destined for better things. Adopt This! is Bingham’s tragi-comic (mostly comic) story of growing up as an adopted child in Pierrefonds and what happened when he met his unruly Scottish family, The Biologicals. See full Montreal Mirror post here.

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Interview with NIGHTLIFE.CA

Dan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:52:39 +0000

Written by Isadora Melluzzoli

Local comedian Dan Bingham unveils his latest show Adopt This! at this year’s Fringe Festival. “This show is all about the subjects I’m reluctant to speak of. After six years of standup I’ve almost never talked about adoption, or my childhood, or my new Scottish family. I’ve always kept my comedic lens pointed outwards at the world around me. This will be the first time where I take a look inwards and flip myself inside out for the world to see. That sounds grosser than I intended,” he says. Read full article here.

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Sitting with Dave Bronstetter from CBC Radio

Dan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:49:01 +0000

When Pierrefonds native Dan Bingham talks about his childhood it’s painful, moving - and funny. Adopt This! hits the stage at this year’s Montreal Fringe Festival.

Listen to full interview here.

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Adopt This! Premiers @ the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival

Dan — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:52:44 +0000

A comedy club owner told me recently that I wasn’t “balls to the wall” enough, that he didn’t feel he “got to know who Dan Bingham was”. I really hope he comes to Adopt This!, my one-man show which will be premiering this summer at the ST-AMBROISE MONTREAL FRINGE FESTIVAL from June 11th until the 19th at the Portuguese Association of Canada.

Oh he’ll get to know who Dan Bingham is, and depending on where he’s seated, he may even see my balls.

I’ve always believed that comedy is about making people laugh, as often and as hard as humanly possible, without injuring themselves or staining their undergarments. Nearly six years into my comedy career this is all I have ever strived towards, and as much as I’ve succeeded in doing so, something doesn’t feel right. Yes I’ve crafted a few stories and observations into comedic material most folks can relate to, but when I rest my head at night, I still don’t feel as though I’ve fully expressed myself. I still haven’t shared how I really feel about the world, still haven’t focused my observations inward, still haven’t done what most of my comedic idols have done which is transform tragedy into laughter: the ultimate form of alchemy.

All this time my balls have come nowhere near a wall.

It is within these walls where Adopt This! will take place

Another thing the comedy club owner told me after watching my 5-minute set was that I try to please the crowd too much. Part of me finds it strange that he would consider this a negativism, considering the crowd pays money to be pleased.

But an ever larger part of me feels he was right.

When I watch comics like Louis CK, Doug Stanhope, Ricky Gervais, Bill Burr, Mike DeStefano (may he RIP) or Jim Jeffries, there is not one iota of their personalities that says “I hope you like me”. Their subjects are edgy, their perspectives are dark, their material is hilarious, and they couldn’t give two shits about what an audience thinks of them. The result: Wall to wall laughs in full theaters around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRUU6Ln9b-U

During my first paid writing gig at MontrealMagazine.ca I interviewed the bass player from the acid Jazz band Kobayashi. I asked him if he wrote music for himself or for the audience and he told me something six years ago that I still remember word for word:

“You have to write music for yourself. You don’t know what the audience likes or wants, so if you try to write for them, guessing what they’ll enjoy you create this compromised version of something that doesn’t have any heart. If you stay true to yourself, you might create something that goes over the audience’s head. Don’t throw it out or dumb it down for them. Keep at it. Let them grow and rise to understand. Only then will they feel they truly experienced something special. That’s how you develop real fans.”

This is true for music, but I feel it holds true to every art form across the board. Bill Cosby once said “I don’t know the secret to success, but I know the secret to failure and that is trying to please everybody.” This is coming from arguably the funniest, the most relatable and most beloved comedian of our generation.

I have many dark secrets that I would like to share. Many stories that I haven’t had the courage to tell because I fear what people will think, or worse, they won’t find them funny. For my entire life I’ve been making people laugh, and yet now that I’m a comedian I still don’t feel like I’m making people laugh for the right reasons. How stupid is that?

This is what Adopt This! is all about. I’m sharing my story of growing up adopted in a household with a strict and highly medicated Irish Catholic mother along with her fat, hoarding and abusive boyfriend. It’s about divorce, depression, and rage. It’s about my fears and insecurities, especially around women, it’s about my love for drinking and my recent decision to stop, it’s about the most incredible thing in the world which was reuniting with my rowdy Scottish biological family. It’s about balls.

Missing: 2 uncles, 1 aunt, 2 grandparents, 1 bio-dad, and 1 million cousins

It also needs to be a 45-minute show and right now it’s still at 600, so it’s about editing and making choices.

But above all else, it’s about transforming tragedy into comedy, it’s about laughter.

So come see the show, I will try really hard to not give two shits about whether people like it or not (God I hope everyone loves it and consequently loves me). It will be Dan Bingham with his balls to the wall, whatever the hell that means.

Buy your tickets here.

Showtimes and Location

Portuguese Association of Canada, 4170 rue St. Urbain, Montreal, Venue 7
Saturday JUNE 11 @ 10pm
Sunday JUNE 12 @ 6:30pm
Wednesday JUNE 15 @ 8pm
Thursday JUNE 16 @ 3pm
Friday JUNE 17 @ 10:30pm
Sunday JUNE 19 @ 6:30pm

Tickets: $10

Box Office: (514)849-FEST

www.montrealfringe.com

You can also read the official Adopt This! Press release

Baby Photo by Darren Curtis

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