Paul Provenza and Tim Robbins

We had another sold-out house at The Actors’ Gang Theater for our monthly ¡Satiristas! night as part of the Axis Mundi Series curated by Tim Robbins. In honor of black history month, we celebrated White Guilt Night.

Following cocktails on the patio, Billy the Mime, performing in whiteface,  kicked things of with his history of the African American Experience in America- incarceration and exploitation capped with a triumphant cigarette outside the White House.

Mark Silverman sang about the word white people can’t say, and cartoonist Keith Knight presented a slideshow of his racially themed one-panel cartoons (th)INK.

This was followed by a game Paul calls “RACIST or NOT RACIST” wherein he projects imagery gathered from around the world of questionable taste and intent and the audience comments on its effect. But within our audience were comedian friends and SATIRISTAS galore- Kevin Kataoka, Ngaio Bealum, Jim Jeffries, Rick Overton, Matt Kirshen, Kumail Nanjiani,Gary Shapiro, Suzanne Whang, Troy Conrad, Chris Pina, Emery Emery, and Franklyn Ajaye.

Everyone was encouraged to comment without reservations, but egregiously racist comments, even if hilarious, required a cash donation on the spot for the Southern Poverty Law Center, the civil rights organization that successfully sued the Imperial Klan in Kentucky for actions of its militia members.

This lowbrow high-mindedness seemed to be lost on Eddie Pepitone- as evidenced here in this video.

But even the Satiristas have their breaking point- and it apparently comes in the form of a woman yelling out racial slurs in fake accents. Thankfully, we had our own comic ninja  Dylan Brody available to forcibly eject her, for which he earned a punch in the nose before subduing the the heinous heckler.

The show itself had its proponents and detractors, with a glowing review on Buzzine, and a he’s-just-not-into-us open letter to the Actor’s Gang by Brian Kim Stefans, which he also posted to the Satiristas website. Our reply is here.

During all the laughing, shouting, comedic race-baiting and card-playing, painter Michael Pukac was upstage creating his interpretation of the evenings’ proceedings.

Shana Sosin, producer of Axis Mundi, summed it up better than anyone: “There were times when I was really uncomfortable. THANK YOU.”

Pre-Party at the Actors' Gang

We had our inaugural monthly SATIRISTAS show at The Actors’ Gang as part of their new Axis Mundi series. The theme for the month was Prop 19, so we invited a few Satiristas as well as some other like-minded friends for an herbal comedic summit.

Our thanks to all the performers, producers, musicians, artists, and theater staff who made it happen. Among them, Robert Dubac, Shana Sosin, Barbara Romen, Carmella Cardina, Matt Besser, Gary Shapiro, Tere Joyce, Franklyn Ajaye, Rick Shapiro, Dylan Brody, Jimmy Dore, Tracy Newman, Johnny Dam, Ron Shock, Gary Stockdale, Max Neutra, and Tim Robbins.

Below are some photos from the event.

Next show is Tuesday, Dec. 7th. The first one was jammed full. It’s pay-what-you-can, but RSVP here.

¡Viva Las Satiristas!- Paul Provenza & Dan Dion

Robert Dubac & Paul Provenza

Gary Stockdale & The Band

The Crowd- Sold Out!

Jimmy Dore

Johnny Dam

Matt Besser

Tere Joyce

Ron Shock

Franklyn Ajaye (with Max Neutra)

Gary Shapiro

Rick Shapiro

Tracy Newman

Dylan Brody

The Reveal! Max Neutra's Painting

Shortly after publication, we made an offer to send a print of their favorite satirista to whoever posts a photo of themselves reading the book. And as you can see from a just a few examples, everyone from Santa to Satan has been sending in entries.

We’re extending the original offer, and decided to step it up as well, with a new incentive and some fun categories.  Remember, if you post a picture of yourself reading ¡SATIRISTAS! in public as your Facebook profile and send us the link, we’ll send you a signed mini-print of any portrait in the book. Or just send me the pic and maybe we’ll post it on this site.

Now check this out- whomever is judged the winner of each of the following categories will get a signed 8.5 x 11 print from the book.

CATEGORIES:

Most Inappropriate Photo

Lewdest Photo Involving the Book (Scatological entries will not be entertained.)

Youngest Child You’re Actually Allowing to Read the Book

Worst or Best Politician and/or Pundit Posing with the Book (16×20 print for Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, or any other disgraced, hypocritical asshole.)

Best Computer-Manipulated Image

Best Frazetta-esque Fantasy Image Involving Paul

So hit us up on Facebook    http://www.facebook.com/Satiristas?ref=ts

or send to dan -at- dandion.com

To read, Download the .pdf here

Feature Story on Photographer Dan Dion in A/Journal

Comedians Mark Pitta and Paul Provenza at the Throckmorton in Mill Valley celebrating ¡Satiristas!

Tuesday was perhaps the best show out of the four. Not taking away anything from the comics in our other ones, but this one epitomized what ¡Satiristas! is about. Comic Mark Pitta has built a fantastic following for his weekly show at the Throckmorton in Mill Valley, and we decided to jolt their NPR/Whole Foods/ Yoga-matted world with a massive assholistic dose of Doug Stanhope. There’s a through line in the book about “preaching to the converted”- questioning if there is there any effect of satire on a crowd of like-minded people. Well, nobody is like-minded when it comes to Stanhope, and he had the sold-out, well-heeled crowed alternately howling with laughter and some with outrage. His chunk about Susan Boyle is nothing short of brilliant.

Comedian Doug Stanhope at the Throckmorton in Mill Valley celebrating ¡Satiristas!

But it wasn’t just Stanhope’s set that set this show apart. A surprise drop-in by Don Novello was the perfect contrast to what was to come with Stanhope and Jamie Kilstein. Novello is so gentle and kind in both style and substance- he’s the tickly feather of comedy compared to the sledgehammer rants of the other two. Rick Overton came up for the show, providing a delicious mix of insight and absurdity, and not-in-the-book but smart and subtle Myq Kaplan was in keeping with our charge of exposing people to new, intelligent voices. Many thanks to Pitta and the Mercer family for making the Throckmorton show such a success, and for helping us sell a ton of books.

Comedian Don Novello at the Throckmorton in Mill Valley celebrating ¡Satiristas!

In the audience was Kelly Carlin, who came up from LA to support the show, lending a post-mortem presence of the great one. In the back of the theater was none other than the legendary Mort Sahl, newly transplanted to Marin County after his third or fourth marriage collapsed. He’s a cranky old man, but at 83, he has nothing to prove, I guess. He turned down our request for an interview years ago, claiming “I’m not good in groups,” but which I’ve learned means if the book isn’t about him specifically, he’s not going to contribute. But we included his portrait within Paul’s introduction anyway, since he’s such a giant within the art form. He hates to have his photo taken offstage, and had refused me about fifteen years ago when I asked, but five years ago he let me shoot him before a show at The Purple Onion. That time he was amiable and talkative. THIS time was different. At intermission I reintroduced myself to him and asked if he liked his photo. His reply: “No, now that you asked, I DON’T! And I don’t like the book, either!” I looked at him and gave him my best Hollywood smile, “That’s great, Mort! So nice to hear! Thanks!” If he was going to dick with me, I was going to dick right back.

Later, about halfway through the set, Doug walks Mort. I was outside when it happened and as the Godfather of political satire doddered back to his car I overheard him say to his handler “They have the FREEDOM to, but…”

Wednesday we were at The Booksmith in the Haight, which is essentially my neighborhood. Paul and I have become much better at this than the first time, which is good because it was all captured and broadcast on FORA.tv The audience included fine-art photographer, author, and co-burner Michael Light, as well as comic, agitator, and former producing partner Harmon Leon.

Comedian Will Durst at The Punch Line in San Francisco celebrating ¡Satiristas!

Thursday was our show at the Punch Line, which was packed for the event, and featured book sales by Green Apple, Jamie, headliner Will Durst, and an proper set by Paul, which couldn’t have gone better. We’d kind of piggy-backed on to a show that was already booked, but the fact that Durst was there that weekend was perfect synchronicity. He’s been one of my favorite comics since I dove into the local stand-up scene at 14 (Will once asked me from stage if I’d ever been kissed), and I ended up working for him at The Holy City Zoo when he and Deb bought it in 1992. I’ve probably seen 30 full Durst sets in my life, and each one had a huge chunk of amazing new material. I don’t think there’s a more prolific political satirist on the planet, really. Robin Williams came down for the show, as he seems to be making room under his wing for Jamie, much like he did for Eddie Izzard years ago. The Punch is my home club, with forty of my portraits lining the walls, so the night for me was a triumph of sorts. We also had two killer interviews while Paul and I were together in SF, with Rick Kleffel’s Agony Column on Bookotron and Robert Pollie’ 7^th Avenue Project on KUSP. If you’re a glutton for all things ¡Satiristas! these are essential listening.

Will Durst, Paul Provenza, Jamie Kilstein, and Robin Williams at The Punch Line in San Francisco Celebrating ¡Satiristas!

Friday we were back in Marin at Book Passage, one of the most author-friendly bookstores in the country. They have readings virtually every night, and this was our best-attended store event, with about 50 people spilling out amongst the chairs and bookshelves. Maybe it’s all the Terry Gross these North Bayers listen to, but theirs was also the best Q&A session. And then the whirlwind was over. Three weeks of great comedy, interviews, and support. Now it’s up to Paul and me to push this book without a HarperCollins-funded tour. The next post will cover the Montreal Just for Laughs festival; stay tuned for future shows in the works for Miami, Chicago, and Vancouver. ¡Viva Las Satiristas! Dan Dion

Week two of the ¡Satiristas! tour had us going to New York for a couple of events as well as some national media. Gotham is the Manhattan’s classiest comedy club, and for almost ten years now has had my photos exclusively up on the walls. Owner Chris “Midas” Mazzilli has always been a huge supporter, and agreed to have me to swap out my 80 portraits downstairs to include only photos from the book, twice as many as my new exhibition at UCB in LA.

That evening was our reading and signing at Border’s Books in Columbus Circle, and it was very cool to see the window and register displays they put up for us. The event went well, it seemed, and a crew of us went to Coliseum for an after-thing. Finally got to face-to-face meet a colleague who also specializes in shooting comics- Seth Olenick. A talented shooter with great taste in comedy. Check out his blog here- he’s way more conceptual than I am, so our work is actually pretty complimentary. One of these years I think we’ll do an exhibition together.

Wednesday was our show and signing at Gotham. It was a killer night, with some fantastic talent from the book showing up to support.Colin Quinn (taking time off from his Seinfeld-directed off-broadway show Long Story Short) , Lizz Winstead, Lee Camp, Eddie Brill, and the perpetually satiristical Jamie Kilstein did sets, as well as one from good friend and San Franciscan W. Kamau Bell, who has stepped up his game in a big way in the last few years, was in New York for his one-man show Ending Racism in About an Hour, and whom we’ve promised will be in the next volume.

Wed. Paul and I were on the Joy Behar Show on CNN’s Headline News Network. We both really like Joy for her spitfire personality and say-what-she-wants modus operandi. We’re still trying to get the producers to post our segment online, but if it hasn’t happened yet, it might not. We also did a love-in radio show with Danny Lobell and Comical Radio, which can be heard here.

Paul was booked to do the show Red Eye on Fox News. He wanted to bail, but I pushed him on. If I’d known what it was going to be like I would have agreed with him. The show is quite honestly ridiculous, a train-wreck of allegedly comedic commentary by mostly right-leaning pundits, complete with pompous bashing of progressives, dumb-ass video clips, and – yes- a “talking” New York Times puppet that they use as a straw-man when the comedy gets shallow- and believe me it never gets that deep. The talking points that they gave him with quips and comebacks could only be described as limp and sophomoric, and Paul ignored every one. That said, the staff and on-air talent were very nice and professional. I just don’t happen to agree with them on much- ok, any- thing. Plus Guttfield’s book is going to outsell ours by 100 times, so he doesn’t exactly need our approval.

The best thing, however, was Paul’s panel-mate Ann Coulter. You’ll have to see the segment to get the full effect, but the two of them didn’t exactly hit it off, and Paul nailed her when she claimed not once but twice that England wasn’t part of the EU. Another Fox show aired a clip just to discuss the body language between the two of them. After a commercial break Ann had switched seats with another guest ostensibly to get away from Paul, but in reality everyone discussed that it would be amusing to switch and not acknowledge it, going so far as to misidentify the new seating order. Paul was later voted the second worst guest by a Red-Eye fanatic-site and everyone was congratulating Coulture for having the courage to change seats, but the reality is everyone thought it would be kinda funny.

I hadn’t brought my camera, so had to borrow someone’s cel phone to snap the shot of Paul, Ann, and a copy of the book. She is freakishly thin and avian in person, but indulged us for the photo. What she didn’t happen to notice that on the back jacket was a quote from Robin Williams- “I think they’re using Ann Coultur’s pap smear for anti-venom now.”

Provenz and I kicked off our book tour in Los Angeles on May 11th at the Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood. It was a beautiful day and the store had us set up outside to do our reading, which doesn’t work so well with a projector before dark, but we made do. We had a decent turn-out and the staff seemed happy. It worked as a kind of dress rehearsal for future readings. Nice to have the first one out of the way, with a very casual vibe all around.

Paul Provenza at UCB for SATIRISTAS show

I had an automatic slideshow running and we had a very cool moment. Someone had asked who I’d photographed that meant the most to me, and as soon as I said George Carlin, his photo appeared on the screen. He’s one out of 100 images in the slideshow, so the chances of that happening are like, what? One in a thousand? Or one in ten? Dunno. Not so good at math.

And it so happened that in attendance was Kelly Carlin, George’s daughter and a big supporter of everything Paul and I are trying to do. We all piled in to Provenz’ car and we made our way to the The Steve Allen Theater at The Center for Inquiry, trying but failing to catch any of satirista Jamie Kilstein‘s LA enflaming set.

The theater still had the stench of agent, as Kilstein was drawing a lot of industry attention, but that was offset by the likes of Rick Overton, who I think sees in Jamie a bit of himself as a lad, and seems have his mentor up when it comes to Kilstein.

Jamie Kilstein at the UCB for a SATIRISTAS show

Rick Overton at UCB for a SATIRISTAS show

May 12

The next day was a bit surreal for me, in large part due to the aforementioned Kelly Carlin. May 12th was George’s Birthday, and not to allow a ghoulish marketing opportunity to pass, The Laugh Factory decided to have a birthday show for George, complete with VIP passes, etc. Problem? Didn’t even invite or ask permission of Carlin’s family. Some scumbag publicist who worked with George for a very short time decided he was the guy to bring together such Carlin-esque comics as Tom Arnold, Judy Tenuta, and Tom Green. (Where is Arj Barker‘s “sarcastica” font when I need it?)

In far more of a good karma happening, we were invited to Kelly’s house to give a toast to the man on his birthday. Once there, it was very joyful and celebratory, and Kelly led the toast. I’d brought down a very fine bottle of wine, a 1998 Kenwood London Ranch Cab that I’d been saving for our publication, and it was tre delicious. In attendance were satiristas Lee Camp, Jamie Kilstein, and Roseanne Barr, in addition to several members of George’s family and friends.

Lee Camp at UCB for a SATIRISTAS show

Now for the surreal part for me. Over ten years ago I picked up the phone and on the other line was George Carlin. I’d given him a print of a portrait I’d taken of him at Davies Symphony Hall, and he was asking about buying another copy for his daughter. Now, in the world of celebrity there’s this ass-backwards phenomenon where the richer someone is, the more they expect to get for free. George made a strident point that he absolutely insisted on paying me for it, which is a good indicator of what kind of man he was offstage. As a photographer of the famous and talented, sometimes a personal experience with someone you admired as an artist will forever sour you on that person’s work. Then there’s times like these that only reinforce your admiration of someone.

Three weeks before he died George told Paul that my photo was the one he “wanted to be remembered by” which I consider to be the greatest compliment of my career. This night, a day after my book dedicated to him is published, his daughter tells me that it was the “sweetest” photo ever taken of him. I knew that George had given it to her, and coming over to her house I was expecting it to be in a place of prominence among a plethora of George memorabilia, but on her wall of family photos, mine was the sole representative of her dad, which moved me incredibly. Fuck the Laugh Factory and their exploitative “celebration,” — I was riding a wave of validation for the years it took to create the book– with the people George loved most. Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, Paul Rodriguez does another cucaracha joke.

May 13

Our first post-publication ¡SATIRISTAS! show, and it was at LA’s best venue, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. I’d approached Upright Citizen Matt Besser a while ago about putting up some work there, and he was very into it, paving the way for my newest LA exhibition– 40 prints of Satiristas lining the hallway into the showroom. UCB just has the perfect simpatico with the book, and the idea of artists owning and running the venue is fantastic. The exhibition is ongoing, and after the book comes out in paperback, we’re going to switch the show out to showcase UCB alum instead- in a year or so.

Marc Maron at UCB for a SATIRISTAS show

We were sandwiched in between two shows, so we had to be really tight, and with the people involved my real accomplishment was not that I created this show, but rather that I was able to bring it in only fifteen minutes over. The line-up was amazing, and full of dudes that go long, so we wisely did the book signing first. But really, how’s this for a killer line-up- Provenz, Lee Camp, David Feldman, Greg Proops, Rick Shapiro, Rick Overton, Jamie Kilstein, and Marc Maron. An epic night of amazing talent, doing fearless comedy to an appreciative audience. Big thank you to the comics and certainly to the staff of UCB.

All our pimping and publicizing seems to have paid off, as we made the LA Times both as a piece in their Op-Ed section as well as the bestseller list for nonfiction.

Stay tuned for Satiristas in New York and San Francisco.

Rick Shapiro at UCB for a Satiristas show.

Greg Proops at UCB for a SATIRISTAS show.