Conversations with Dana Goldberg

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dana Goldberg.

Dana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My kindergarten teacher told my mother I was the funniest five-year-old she had ever met. I’m not sure who my competition was, but I was killing it! I listened to comedians like Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Steven Wright as far back as I could remember. Little did I know I was absorbing and studying for my future career path. When I was 17 I auditioned for my high school talent show with a 10-minute stand-up routine and I won. Years later I digitized that set for my first DVD, and when the image came up, I was wearing a pair of jeans, a button-down, and a tie with polar bears on it. I looked like Paula Poundstone talking about my boyfriends in high school and why it wasn’t working out so well. Maybe it wasn’t working out so well because of my lesbian button-down and tie collection.

I didn’t touch a stage for almost 10 years until I auditioned for a show in Albuquerque (my hometown) called “Funny Lesbians For a Change.” It was a variety show that raised higher education scholarships for women in the community. They gave me a 7-minute set in front of 650 people in a sold-out theater. When I hit my first big joke, I heard the most deafening laughter I had ever heard, and I was hooked. Thus began years of write-ups in magazines, a stent at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh Scotland, The HBO Comedy Festival on TBS and countless other shows that helped to build my resume. I was named one of the top 3 LGBTQ comedians in the country by The Advocate and then came the very hard choice of moving to NY or LA. I chose LA, and I couldn’t be happier.

In 2009 my career shifted a bit. I was headlining comedy shows around the country for The Human Rights Campaign with stellar comedians like Alec Mapa and Jim David. Then I got the call that a live auctioneer had fallen out of one of their galas in San Francisco last minute and did I think I could do that kind of job? I said, “Let’s find out.” It seems I have some strange gift of money-raising and live auctioneering that was just waiting to come out. When people are happy and laughing, they tend to be more generous for a cause they believe in. To make a long story longer, I killed the auction in San Francisco and was asked to do HRC’s largest gala in Washington DC that fall. I went on between Barack Obama, not sure if you’ve heard of him, and Lady Gaga. My mom likes to say, “The President of the United States opened for my daughter.” She’s a very proud Jewish mother, but I don’t think it would matter what I did for a living. I could have a brother that would rob a bank and go to prison and my mom would be like, “Joey? Joey’s good. Came into a lot of money, moved into a gated community.”

Cut to 14 years later, I have worked with organizations around the county including The Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Equality California, The LGBTQ Center of Los Angles, Lambda Legal, The Trevor Project, Planned Parenthood, The Child Rescue Coalition and dozens more. I’ve shared the stage with luminaries in Hollywood, philanthropy and politics across this country. I’m very proud to say that I’ve raised over $40M for the LGBTQ community, HIV education and prevention, and reproductive rights just to name a few. And the work continues…

Now I’m developing a 30-minute pilot with a fantastic production company. At least SOMETHING good came out of the pandemic. Fingers crossed, we can get out to pitch and sell this thing soon and then the real fun begins.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To be honest, it’s been a fun road. I truly believe when you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing in life, doors open up for you. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been working my ass off for almost 20 years in comedy, but it’s been rewarding on so many levels. This won’t surprise anyone, but comedy has been a very male-dominated industry, but I think that’s starting to change a bit. Most of the funniest comedians I know are women and they are tearing up the stages across the country. It was hard to get stage time in the beginning, especially if there was already another female comedian on the bill, so I started paving my own road. I would rent small theaters around the country and do a one-offs in a city. Now the challenge is to find the motivation to keep pounding the pavement. It’s been a lot of years on the road, but more and more it’s starting to pay off. I love what I do, so I get refueled by the crowds when I’m feeling tired.

The biggest struggle was the pandemic. I think a lot of performing artists can agree with this. For most of us, it wasn’t just our livelihoods that were stripped away. A lot of our identities are wrapped up in the art we create, and a lot of us had to figure out who we were and what we wanted to do when all of that came to a screeching halt. You don’t know awkward until you have to do a 45-minute comedy set alone in your living room over zoom to an audience of people who forgot to mute their microphones (Harold, did you remember to take your medicine?!), are eating dinner, cat’s assholes walked across the screen. You name it. I watched someone give their child a haircut through my entire show once. Let’s just say it’s good to be back on the road.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I perform at and host over 20 galas a year now, several right here in Los Angeles. The combination of comedy and fundraising talents have giving me job security with so many organizations around the country. I recently performed at the Los Angeles Human Rights Campaign Gala and then the next day hosted The JQ International Impact Awards at the Skirball Cultural Center. I raise more money for these organizations than any “professional live auctioneer” has, so they keep inviting me back. It’s been an incredibly mutually beneficial relationship.

In addition to my philanthropic work, I still tour around the country doing comedy, as well as work with a couple of LGBTQ travel companies making people laugh all over the world. Olivia Travel and R Family Vacations have given me an opportunity to make thousands of people laugh while seeing some of the most beautiful places on earth. I highly recommend the trips if you are part of the community.

If you follow my career either on the stage or on social media, you know I can be quite political these days. The entire LGBTQ community has been under attack, and it’s been horrifying over the last six years or so. I’m sure you can track back to when things started to get even worse for the community. Right now, it’s our trans and non-binary family who are most vulnerable and under attack. I may not be able to write the big checks yet, but I can stand on stage and raise millions of dollars to help protect the precious gains we’ve made over the last decade. Some people in power are hellbent on trying to weaponize our community for their political gain, and I’m doing everything I can to help the organizations who are fighting the over 400 pieces of bigoted legislation already presented across the country. I’m grateful for the gifts I’ve been given to make people laugh but also to help raise money where it’s needed most. Some people think just because we live in California, we are good, safe, protected, but we can’t get complacent. When they are trying to ban the LGBTQ flag in places like Huntington Beach, then the call is coming from inside the house. We need to make sure we keep fighting not just for the community here in Los Angeles but the ones all around the country.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Authenticity. I need to make sure I’m honoring what I want to be doing in this world, what kind of art I want to put out there. Audiences can pick up on bullshit, and you’ll lose them fast if you aren’t being authentic to yourself and your craft. I’ve seen so many comedians lately doing raw, vulnerable specials and they are the ones I love to watch. Netflix, if you’re reading this, I’m ready for mine!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.danagoldberg.com
• Instagram: @dgcomedy
• Facebook: @dgcomedy
• Twitter: @dgcomedy

Image Credits
Irene Young