Although he started his stand-up career as a college student in Boston, Dan Smith is a proud Worcesterite through and through. And he has a lot of gratitude for Wootown in regards to his growth as a comedian over the course of his 20-plus years in comedy.
That gratitude will be on full display tonight through Saturday (February 21 to 23) at WooHaHa! Comedy Club in Worcester, as the former Us Weekly joke writer makes his way home for a quartet of shows. And while repping your hometown on the stage is a big deal, Smith feels that taking the stage at the newest addition to Worcester’s blossoming arts scene carries a bit more weight than usual.
“I’ve always believed in Worcester,” Smith tells Vanyaland. “There’s a reason I moved my family back here from Hollywood eight years ago, and I just think the city has so much potential, so adding the first full-time comedy club in the history of the city, to me, really helps to round out the cultural beauty of the city.”
While he holds Worcester in the highest regard when it comes to starting his comedy career, it wasn’t until Smith was a student at Northeastern that he first broke into stand-up. His choice to pick up a mic didn’t pay enough to pay the bills, but the decision itself paid its fair share of dividends, as it landed him in the winner’s circle of the Funniest Comic in Boston contest, and with that confidence steering him, he packed his bags and headed west, knowing full well what he was setting out to do.
“I fell in love with stand-up right away, but in all honesty, I kept it as just a hobby for a long time because I didn’t see it as a viable means of supporting myself,” he says. “Then I flew out to LA after winning that contest, and that’s when I realized I was young, and if I was going to fail at something, I would rather do it then rather than when I’m 50.”
That leap of faith has worked out in his favor, as Smith is now more than two decades into the comedy game, with a slew of national opening gigs for names such as Bill Burr, Bob Saget, and Rob Schneider under his belt, and an actively increasing amount of USO tours to his credit. But that success should come as no shock. From a very early age, the stage was bound to be his bread and butter, and quite fittingly, that too leads back to his Worcester roots that were planted long before he picked up a microphone.
“I grew up in show business,” he admits. “My parents founded the first professional theatre in Central Massachusetts, Worcester Foothills Theatre Company. So being around around stages and crowds was always normal to me, and I know that isn’t normal for most people, but it was very normal for me, and was really a big factor in getting me comfortable in show business. Ever since I started doing stand-up, Worcester has given me a lot of support in my career.”
DAN SMITH :: Thursday, February 21 to Saturday, February 23 at WooHaHa! Comedy Club, 50 Franklin St. in Worcester, MA :: Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., $20 :: Advance tickets :: Featured image via the artist