A hearty laugh can be a welcome distraction from life's challenges and the state of the world, and after a 20-year absence from Chico, Comedian DNA is here to help.
This past January, he returned to town and reunited with the place that gave birth to his career as a stand-up comedian.
“You know, it's very familiar. I feel like a time traveler,” DNA said. “I just blipped back into this town. You know, I hadn't been in for 20 years. I don't know who's alive and dead.”
DNA is a multifaceted figure in the North State comedy scene. He's a comedian but also an organizer, promoter, host and a great example of hard work paying off over time.
From sitting on the Board of Directors of Comedy Day in Golden Gate Park in the Bay Area, to keeping it weird at his Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz, to returning to Chico, he is an essential figure in the comedy scene wherever he goes.
"I'm not a person who looks backward a lot because I'm fighting dementia, and so anyway, I'm a comedian,”— DNA, comedian
"I'm not a person who looks backward a lot because I'm fighting dementia, and so anyway, I'm a comedian,” he says jokingly. “I want you to know upfront that these are jokes. I do comedy."
Currently, he’s teaching stand-up classes at Blue Room Theatre with The Nerve and has two shows scheduled for next month. He's at the Mulberry Station Brewing Company on March 2 and is launching and hosting Comedy Night Meriam at The Barn on March 15.
The comedian's history with Chico dates back to 1987. After graduate school, he landed here. He said Chico State was known for being a party school, but by 1987, the reputation was beginning to fade.
The end marked when Chico made national headlines after its annual festival, Pioneer Days took a turn and the two nights of rioting that took place in Chico, during which more than 200 police officers helped restore order and end the riots.
"But like in 1987, frat boys still had Bob Marley and John Belushi on the wall," DNA said. "And we would have parties with Electric Circus and The Mother Hips and huge frat parties, and the freaks would come out."
These are his stomping grounds. Chico is where he spent two decades promoting shows, creating festivals — and where he told his first joke on stage.
That night, the network Showtime was hosting a College Comedy Laff Off event at Chico State. He mustered up the courage to step on stage and try a set in order to avoid paying the cover charge of $3.
“Never did comedy before, went on stage in front of 600 people in the old BMU, just going crazy,” DNA said. “I won the Showtime show the first time on stage, and it freaked me out so bad. And I just started hosting shows, but I didn't understand stand-up comedy, living in a little rice town in the late 1980s and 1990s.”
Next month he will be recording his first comedy album with Punchline Records in Santa Cruz at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on March 21.
“For me, it's like full circle to have told my first joke in Chico,” DNA said. “Now I'm returning, I’m signed to a label, and I'm about to record my album. That feels pretty cool to me.”
