biography - noun * 1. a good reason to write about oneself, pretending someone else wrote it.

Born in Modesto California, Dean started his life early. At the age of one he...(mercifully edited by staff)...at eighteen, he began doing mime with Bernard Bang, a student of Marcel Marceau's. Imagine Dean as mime on the streets of Modesto California. He continued his silent pursuits until a psychological counselor at the local college gave him an application to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. In a matter of weeks Dean went from class clown to clown class. Along with his new found partner, Michael Davis, Dean juggled, unicycled, acrobated, and shticked his way through several years of the circus.

Tired of the rigors of the road, Dean moved to San Francisco California, where he developed a comedy/juggling street show. He performed for the next three years at the Cannery, Ghirardelli Square, Pier 39, and the San Francisco Renaissance Faire.

With an insatiable love for movies, Dean moved to Hollywood California (not knowing what it really looked like). Having dissolved the partnership, Dean took his solo stand-up comedy to nightclubs such as the Comedy Store where he became a paid-regular. At the Comedy Store, he also helped to develop an evening of improvisation and sketch comedy. He organized his own improv troop, Good Co., which included Andy Garcia. The Comedy Store sent him to La Jolla, California to work on a similar evening of comedy, where he met and trained Whoopi Goldberg.

With street performing still in his blood, (needing the money), Dean continued to perform at the Los Angeles Renaissance Faire, developing the character fondly known as the Obscene Juggler. (Don't ask.) He was then offered the dubious pleasure of being the opening act for the male exotic dancers at Chippendale's, which he did for the next three and a half years.

In 1982, he began his Stand-Up Comedy Workshop. He wanted to spread the knowledge he had collected over the years. Having a steady in-town income, Dean went to film school at Los Angeles City College. There he wrote/produced/directed/ edited a short movie called The Twin, which aired on cable television in '84 and '85.

In 1986, Dean briefly reunited with his comedy pal, Michael Davis, to appear as a special guest on Saturday Night Live and Parade of Stars. Since Parade of Stars was a Vaudeville show, Dean fulfilled the life long dream of playing the Palace Theater in New York City.

Wanting to increase his teaching ability, Dean began studying Neuro-Linguistic Progamming NLP. (Neuro-Linguini what?) NLP is the study of the structure of the human mind. Dean is a certified Master Practitioner of NLP and often co-trains with its co-founder, John Grinder, who trained Anthony Robbins.

In 1989 Dean spirited off to London, England to direct the show Laughing Matters, starring his friend Michael Davis, at the Donmar Warehouse Theater on the West End. Dean learned how to adjust comedy to fit an international audience.

Through his studies and the teaching of his Stand-up Comedy Workshops, Dean noticed that comedy had no basic technique. So, for the past fifteen years he has made it his mission to identify the skills, principles, and techniques used by funny people so as to create an overall method for learning comedy. Most of these techniques are currently offered in his book Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy.

Dean of Comedy

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