I Take a Business Approach to My Comedy Career--and It's Paid Off

By Dan Nainan
Dan Nainan left the corporate world to launch a comedy career in 2007. He credits his success largely to his do-it-yourself business model and his choice of material.
Not many professional comedians start out as senior engineers with Intel. But that's what I did. My job was to travel the world with Intel CEO Andy Grove, doing technical demonstrations on stage. The technical part was easy, but public speaking was terrifying, so I took a comedy class to get over the fear of speaking. The comedy took off, and I left my job to do comedy full time.
Leap of faith
When you undertake something like becoming an entertainer or an artist, it can be very daunting. You get a lot of resistance from people saying it's too hard. A lot of the time it's because they don't have the guts to do it, so they discourage other people from trying. You have to be thick-headed enough to believe in yourself, to stay in on a Saturday night and work on your craft while your friends are out drinking.

As an entertainer, there is no formula for success. You can't just go to law school and wait for the recruiters to visit; you have to find your own way. Making a living can seem very far off and difficult. I took a tremendous risk leaving a job with a six-figure salary, stock options and benefits to become a professional comedian.
My experience working at a major corporation gives me a huge advantage over most artists. I have some basic business sense, I know how to use technology, and I wake up at 7 a.m. so I can go to casting calls, take interviews and run my business. Even so, it took me a couple years before I began making any money doing comedy. I did my first paying gig in 2007 for $5.

D.I.Y.
The business end of entertainment is critical, but many artists seem to be born without the gene for it. I have comedian friends who have a whole team of managers, agents and booking agents and they aren't making any money.

If you are business savvy you really don't need anyone else, especially now that so many resources are available on the Internet. For one thing, you can do your own publicity. I put a clip on YouTube a couple of years back and now it has 730,000 views. For an unknown comedian like me, that's amazing publicity.
I do my own travel arrangements and negotiate my own fees. But I recently hired a personal assistant to help me things I no longer have time for: everything from licking envelopes to doing my dishes to changing the locks on my door.

I also have a few virtual assistants overseas that do searches and online stuff for me for about $2 an hour. They search the Internet for universities and business groups and corporations where I can perform, and I can also have them contact them via email. I pay them through PayPal, and they are wonderfully effective.

There are a lot of virtual assistants out there who are absolutely awful; the key is finding the diamond in the rough. I eliminate the ones with poor English skills. Then I start them with a small task as a test. I sent the same test to 20 people, and I chose the two who finished it correctly and got it back to me the soonest.

Big breaks
In the entertainment business, things often start slowly and then accelerate. I went from doing charity events and smaller corporate gigs to performing for Donald Trump, performing at the Democratic National Convention, and acting in a commercial for Apple. These were fantastic breaks, but because my career had been building toward those moments-I had gone to hundreds of auditions and I've taken acting classes-they didn't feel like big breaks. They seemed like the next step. Still, they were all victories.

Last year I made about $250,000 in revenue, and I have almost no overhead. But the entertainment business is very unpredictable. Next year I could make more, or I could make nothing. That's why it's so important that right now, I work out, eat healthy and work as much as I can. Another thing that really helps is the royalty checks from commercials. For the Apple commercial I did, I was paid $3,000 for the day, but have so far received $25,000 in residuals.

Clean and green
Jerry Seinfeld once told me, "Dan, you should work clean and you will work everywhere." He was right. My rule is that I won't tell a joke on stage that I wouldn't want my parents to hear. I'm the son of two conservative Asian parents-Indian and Japanese. To give you an idea of what that means: When I visit them at home and we are all on the couch watching TV, and two people are kissing on the screen, they get uncomfortable and want to change the channel.

As for being green, my parents taught me to be frugal-it's part of their culture. We used to put the water pressure in the shower on really low. Growing up, my siblings and I always turned the lights off before leaving a room. In much of the world, escalators stop running after five minutes of non-use, and hotels don't blast the air conditioner unless there is someone in the room. I try to bring that mentality with me wherever I go. -- As told to Harper Willis

Dan Nainan has performed his comedy routine all over the world, has been profiled by the New York Times and recently had a role in the movie "The Last Airbender," directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which will be released in July 2010.
Resources

• See Dan Nainan's act.
• Watch Dan's Apple commercial.
• Check out where Dan received his comedy training.
• Read about how comedian and former late-night host Conan O'Brien turning to the Internet to promote his brand.
• Learn more about the value of virtual assistants from Timothy Ferris' book The Four Hour Work Week.
• Check out the International Virtual Assistants Association.
• Outsource tasks to VAs abroad.