Danny Ozark
written by Tabitha Vidaurri
Danny Ozark seems to be living a life full of strange coincidences. Perhaps it’s fate, his laid-back personality, or maybe his starkly honest style of comedy – either way, Danny has done everything from performing stand-up all over Philadelphia, to a regular spot on Kidd Chris’ morning radio show on WYSP, to co-hosting rock and roll shows with a drag queen dressed as Nico.
I met up with Danny at Joe’s coffee shop in an area of the city known as the Gayborhood, where the street signs are appropriately marked with rainbows. I found out his real name is Peter Goldman, but he picked the name Danny Ozark, much as a rapper may take an athlete’s name. “Coming up on the scene here in Philly,” says Ozark, “I was doing a lot of music shows. ‘The Peter Goldman Show’ was just not cutting it.” The real Danny Ozark is an octogenarian and former manager of the Phillies, in case you were wondering.
A native of Philadelphia, Ozark lived in several of the city’s suburbs as a child and graduated from Temple University with a degree in journalism. He got his start writing for The Source, with an editorial cartoon called “The Rap Bandit” which lampooned hip hop stars. From there he wrote for Vibe, Penthouse, and The Philadelphia Inquirer before beginning his career as a comedian. “I started to fall out of hip hop,” says Ozark, “around the time that the Fatboys started to die of heart disease.”
His stand-up career began about six years ago at the South Street comedy club, The Laff House. He recalls, “Even that first night I went to watch, I felt so invigorated. It’s the initial adrenaline and response. I had conquered the fear, some people laughed. You know, it was just the best.”
The transition into stand-up comedy can be exhilarating, but not necessarily easy. Ozark chose to approach the situation with a great amount of optimism. He recalls the path he took to find his voice, “All this stuff I tried to write as a joke, it came out real plastic. One time I was delivering pizza to these high-rise projects. I was thinking ‘projects’ is such a weird name, I just want to apologize to African Americans for enduring thirty, forty years of poorly named urban housing. I think if you name something the projects you’re giving yourself a lot of leeway for failure. You might as well call them the blueprints. “
“My style is mostly one-liners,” he says, “not like Henny Youngman, but more of a quick set-up and punch monologue-type action. I’m so grateful if anything I say is funny enough to get laughs that I ultimately don’t really care if it’s the nicest or meanest thing ever said. To me, it’s all just words, so I never trip out.” It was that approach to comedy that drew the attention of WYSP shock jock Kidd Chris, who was informally scouting comedians for his morning radio show. “Open mic comedy and open mikers,” says Ozark, “as their called, have such a low reputation, and its very undeserved because there was a lot of talent. I thought it was great that somebody was paying attention to us.” Ozark became a regular guest on the Kidd Chris show, telling stories of his sexual exploits and recreational drug use, and has since become a fan favorite.
“Danny is hilarious because he’s so honest. There’s no phoniness, and it comes through on stage or on the radio,” says Ed McGonical, fellow comedian and veteran of the Kidd Chris show.
A.D. Amarosi, a prominent Philly writer and music critic, recruited Danny to help run a show called The Monday Night Club, which has been running for several years. The show combines music and comedy, and is often hosted by Needles Jones, a well-known Philly drag queen. Needles does a particularly good The End-era Nico impression. When I saw him perform it live he cracked me up when he confessed, “Lou Reed made love like a statue.”
The Monday Night Club has moved to several venues around the city, including the Balcony, the bar above the famous music hall, the Trocadero. “When we first introduced comedy to Philly’s music scene, there was a great deal of skepticism and rancor. By the end, everyone really embraced it. It was great the comedy would go on between the acts. It became better because instead of watching one band break down and another set up, we threw comedians in there.” Currently, The Monday Night Club resides at the National Mechanics Bar and Restaurant. (nationalmechanics.com)
Openly bisexual, Ozark has no reserves when it comes to discussing his sexuality onstage, and he’s hosted a number of gay-themed comedy events. Last year, Needles was unfortunately hit by a car, which knocked out his teeth. Danny made it his mission to help repair the situation, and he held a fundraiser called “Teeth 4 Needles” at the Trocadero. He successfully raised enough money to send Needles to the Temple University dentistry school, so Nico once again has a full set of teeth to pout with.
Due to the subject matter that often appears in his bits, it is worth mentioning that while Danny was doing drugs for nearly twenty-five years, he is now sober. Like many great comedians have gotten clean and talked about it at length. “I’ve always been up front. I talk about drugs in my act. At first I was worried that I might not be funny, and I would no longer be edgy. I started doing them for the most simplistic reasons, because nobody thought I was cool. ‘Wow, will I still be edgy enough?’ Not only was I doing drugs, but I was pretty celebrated for doing them. Quite frankly drugs are great, they are a lot of fun. I can still hang out with people who are on them. I’m not that guy. But if I ever was in a position of prominence, I would tell people not to do them.”
Aside from the Monday Night Club, Ozark’s next show is a fundraiser for the Mummers. For those who are not residents of Philadelphia, the Mummers Parade is a strange and wonderful New Years tradition that has been going on for at least a hundred years, and it involves lots of sequins. “There’s a few promoters that work with me in the city somewhat regularly,” says Ozark, “The one I’m doing now is part of the whole South Philly Mummer’s scene. It’s a fundraiser for the uniforms and expenses. I’ve been able to get a lot of work that way. It’s just another vibe. When the big clubs are doing their own things, its up to the individual comics to find different ways to still do it.”
It’s true that Ozark doesn’t always perform in the most conventional environments. Aside from family-friendly events like the Mummers fundraiser, Danny served as the warm-up for an all-female audience at the Chill Spot Lounge, a male strip club. It’s these kind of gigs that have given him many a bizarre anecdote to share later onstage. “If your funny, great. If you’re interesting, that will always carry.”
Most recently, Ozark has been featured as a comic on Comcast TV on Demand, for a show that was taped at the Comedy Cabaret in Doylestown, PA this past February. “I was really nervous about it because I’ve never been on TV,” he admits, “other than related to a crime I may or may not have committed. So I said, ‘I’m going to use this as a learning experience no matter what, and just go with it.’ I battled and my set came out really good. We were told to work clean…and I was battling nerves, and the crowd was really liking me, so I went into my comfort zone which is my edgier stuff. The crowd really dug it. I thought they might bleep out the bad words, so I’d look like a comic from the seventies, but they just made a couple cuts instead. “ The show is available to Comcast subscribers in Philadelphia and South Jersey.
Another twist of fate led Ozark to be featured in the “History of Howard Stern” documentary that aired recently on Sirius satellite radio. “It was a phone call I made to Stern’s show, literally twenty-five years ago. I was working at the Power 99 morning show as an intern for the producer for Carter and Sanborne show. I would get in trouble for listening to Stern while I as working for this Philly radio station. I called Stern one time cause I had the ratings before they came out. He was stunned that somebody else had them. We had like a fifteen minute talk, it was great.”
When I found out that Ozark had allegedly opened for Blondie, I had to find out exactly what had gone down. Unsurprisingly, it was a happy accident. “That was a right place right time thing. I was doing a lot in Philly’s music scene, I was hosting shows, working with bands. I knew a band who was opening for Blondie at the Borgata. And it turned out they didn’t have anyone to introduce them, so I was backstage and they asked me to do it. You go to watch a show, and then ten minutes later you’re onstage. It was early on in my career, but it was important to me. You make our own luck.”
Considering what he’s accomplished, that’s not a bad philosophy to have.
For more information on Danny Ozark,
visit myspace.com/dannyozark.
Tabitha Vidaurri is a writer from Philadelphia. She also provided the photography.