Dan Nainan

Early life

Dan Nainan was born in Bloomington, Indiana. His father, a nuclear physicist from Kayamkulam, Kerala, India, and his mother, a child psychologist from Kyoto, Japan, met at Indiana University in Bloomington in 1957. He graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Nainan was an executive trainee at Capitol Records in the early 1990s. In 1996, Nainan began working at Intel Corporation, eventually reaching the position of a senior technical marketing engineer, later being promoted to Strategic Relations Manager.

Comedy

With Intel, Nainan gave technology demonstrations on stage at international events. Nainan found the technical part of his job to be easy, but as the audiences sometimes numbered in the thousands, he experienced stage fright. To get over the fear of public speaking, he first joined a Toastmasters group, then took a stand-up comedy class.

As part of the class, Nainan performed at the Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco. Nainan then performed a technology convention in Las Vegas. His third comedy performance was for Intel's annual sales conference.

Nainan was promoted to Strategic Relations Manager for the East Coast, and moved to New York City. Nainan pursued stand-up comedy full-time in 2007 after losing his job at Intel.

Notable performances

In November 2009, Nainan was one of around 40 participants of the first TED conference in India. He also performed at locally produced TEDx events in Flushing Meadows, New York and in Glastonbury, Connecticut.

Nainan has performed in several countries on four continents. He has performed in Aruba, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, England, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Panama, Qatar, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad/Tobago, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

In 2003, Nainan appeared in the first season of NBC's Last Comic Standing, advancing as far as the West Coast Semifinals.

Other comedy related projects

In June 2008, Nainan opened the Bethesda Comedy Club, a 300-seat venue in the Washington, D.C. area, with the mission of having only clean comedy at the club. The club shut down the same summer.

Nainan's book about stand-up comedy, titled How to Become a Full-Time Standup Comedian, was published by HyperInk Press on April 18, 2012.

Personal life

Nainan is a teetotaler who sleeps approximately four hours a night. Nainan has identified as an atheist and as Christian. For Christmas 2008 he chose not to have a tree or exchange gifts for environmental and economic reasons.

Performance at Palo Alto High School

On March 26, 2007, Nainan performed for students of Palo Alto High School as part of their International Festival. A controversy emerged when students and staff expressed offense and discomfort over Nainan's use of ethnic stereotypes. In the aftermath, Principal Scott Laurence addressed the student body to apologize that Nainan's "style of humor was not appropriate" for a school event. In response, Nainan wrote an open letter to the school newspaper, defending his use of stereotypes and denying that students were offended.

Arrest for assault

On September 25, 2013, Nainan was arrested for assaulting Daily Beast correspondent Josh Rogin. Nainan was performing as part of the DC Improv's "Funniest Celebrity" competition, and Rogin was in attendance. During the performance, Rogin tweeted negatively about Nainan's act. Nainan then sought Rogin out in the audience, confirmed Rogin's identity, and punched him twice in the face.