A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Convention

Dan Nainan is gunning for an invite to the Republican National Convention after a killer performance at the Democrats' big party in Denver.

The New York-based comedian works the club circuit, does corporate events and fundraisers, but performing at a presidential convention was a first. "It was truly the experience of a lifetime," he said of his set for APIAVote.org, which promotes civic involvement in the Asian Pacific Islander American community.

He was initially nervous about performing on the first night of the Democratic convention, but not because he was in the Pepsi Center, where delegates had gathered. Instead, he was at a Marriott hotel ballroom, a standing-room venue where people are more inclined to network and talk during his act.

Luckily, Nainan has friends in high places. Congressman Mike Honda, who represents Silicon Valley, has been a fan of Nainan's for two years. Honda hooked him up with the D.N.C. gig, and got on stage before his performance to quiet down the crowd.

"He was really amazing," Nainan said. "And also he didn't tell the organizers he was going to do that -- it was totally out of order -- but they loved it."

Nainan opened by asking for a moment of silence for the Bush administration, then continued on with Bush impersonations, which got him the biggest laughs.

He got his start in comedy by doing impressions -- of Andy Grove, the former C.E.O. of Intel. When he worked at the company in the 1990s, a couple of co-workers played a prank on him; Nainan retaliated by leaving them voicemails pretending to be a disapproving Grove. He says the impersonation became a company-wide joke.

Soon he was tapped to perform his impressions in front of an audience of 2,500 people at Intel's annual sales conference -- a set that started at 8 a.m., neither an ideal time or venue for comedy. "Normally you want to perform for alcoholics in a club," Nainan says. "And this was only my third time doing this."

One of Nainan's earliest comedy sets was at an Intel holiday party where Grove himself introduced him. "I then ripped him apart for 20 minutes," Nainan says. His wife laughed so hard she cried.

He was even tapped to call-in at a presentation by Cisco Systems in Las Vegas and talk to C.E.O. John Chambers, as Grove.

Nainan credits Grove's Hungarian accent and abrupt style as deserving of imitation. "He's very headstrong," Nainan said, before adding in his Grovian voice: "How do you add value to this conversation?!'"

As for whether Nainan will get to Minneapolis after Denver, that's still to be determined. He's hoping APIAVote.org, the nonpartisan not-for-profit whose event he performed for in Denver, could use him at their event in St. Paul. If it works out, he'll have plenty of Clinton impersonations to use there.

Whether Nainan makes it next week to the RNC, at least there's a chance he could get an invite from former Transportation Secretary Norman I. Mineta, whom Nainan met in Denver.

"[Mineta] told me something hilarious," Nainan recalled. "When he first got elected to the Congress, he got a telegram from Japan. 'Congratulations on your recent erection.'

"He says he has it framed on his wall," Nainan added. "I told him I have to come take a picture of that."

by Andrea Chalupa