The guy in the video below is named Dan Whitney.  He started doing standup comedy in the 80’s, and this excerpt, although undated, appears to be from the late 80’s-early 90’s.  The Kirk Cameron hairstyle and the waistline up to the boobies pants sort of give it away.  Fast forward to the present, and this guy is probably the most well known and successful comedian in the nation.  Sometimes all it takes to be a hit is finely honed gimmick—along with a total reinvention of oneself.  It’s one thing to play a character, like Robert Goldthwait’s portrayal of “Bobcat” Goldthwait onstage and in film in the 80’s or, more recently, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat.  Everybody’s in on the joke.  It’s a totally different thing to adopt an entirely new persona and actually be able to maintain it with some degree of secrecy.

Then again, perhaps most folks really are in on it, and I’m just an idiot who got to the party late.  This video has been online for nearly a year.  If it was such a big secret, it would be all over the place.  Possibly, just possibly, it’s the willful suspension of disbelief that keeps Dan’s fans from questioning it too much, kind of like people “believing” that professional wresting is real or that Bill Clinton really didn’t inhale.  And there’s nothing wrong with keeping things innocent and uncomplicated like that.  It recalls our childhood, a simpler time when it was easier to believe in things bigger than life, when the jadedness of adulthood didn’t suck the fun out of everything.

Still, since coming across this video a couple of days ago, just about everyone I’ve shown it to has been floored by it.  And Dan Whitney can’t get any more famous than he is in this part of the country.  So just maybe this isn’t as well known as I’m thinking it might be.

I’ve got to give the guy credit.  He seems to be very intelligent, and anyone who could channel the persona that he now inhabits—and do it so effectively—is also very dedicated to his craft.  Now that I’ve finally seen this video, however, I do have to wonder if Dan has ever really performed maintenance on anyone’s television service.  I kind of doubt it.

Video: Dan Whitney, comedian