Although he’s lived in Los Angeles for the past six years, comedian Dan Levin is a Baltimorean in his heart of hearts.
Levin recently returned to his hometown to headline “Comedy at the Charm,” one of Horseshoe Baltimore Casino’s first stand-up comedy shows.
While Levin was the main act, Baltimore-based comedian Liz King will host the program and Justin Schlegel, a regular on Baltimore’s 98 Rock morning show, and The Gwynn Factor, a D.C.-based comic, were also on the bill.
“There are a lot of comics out there, but I wanted to have Baltimore comedians on this show with me,” says Levin.
Levin, 33, says he didn’t always envision a career as a stand-up comic. After graduating from Pikesville High School and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a degree in communications, Levin scored a job as a producer at WBAL-TV. From there, he took another news station job in North Carolina and wound up working in newsrooms in L.A.
“Within a month of getting out [to L.A.], I took a stand-up comedy class and started performing a bit,” says Levin. “That ended with a showcase at the Hollywood Improv, and I started using the tape [from the showcase] to book shows around L.A.”
Levin’s comedy career started to take off when the pandemic hit.
“March 2020 came and everything died, especially standup comedy,” he says. “For comedy, what COVID brought was these Zoom comedy shows, which were hell. Zoom comedy is not even the same art form, honestly, because comedy is not a monologue. It’s more of a conversation with the crowd. [Zoom shows] were like sitting there talking to yourself.”
Nonetheless, Levin performed on Zoom shows to help keep L.A.’s comedy clubs open and his career on track. When the pandemic ended, he returned to performing in person around L.A. and elsewhere. Lately, Levin’s been booking a lot of shows outside of his adopted city.
Levin describes his brand of comedy as “dry and observational. I like to tell people I’m not going to be Kevin Hart jumping up and down and running around the stage. I’ve looked up to the George Carlins and the Dave Chappelles of the world.”
Since he worked in the news media field for years, Levin’s comedy often touches on current events. He admits that spoofing the news is challenging in a climate where audiences are so divided on social and political issues.
“It can be tough,” he says. “When you’re in L.A. or New York or any big city, you sort of know how the crowd’s going to be. They’re going to be a little more liberal. But when you get out of the cities — I did a weekend run in Grants Pass, Oregon, and before I went up there, I looked at their election results.”
Still, Levin believes it’s possible to make even divisive topics funny.
“What I’ve found is certain people believe in what they believe so hard that they can’t hear anything else. And that’s fine,” he says. “I like to think I’m making everything humorous enough that you’re still going to find it funny, even if you’re supporting [the other side]. And then I do try to touch on both sides because obviously one side is a little crazier than the other at the moment. But that doesn’t mean the other side’s perfect either.”
Levin’s standup routines also reference growing up in Jewish Baltimore.
“One thing I’ve learned living away from the city is the reputation that Baltimore has,” he says. “Everybody just thinks it’s ‘The Wire.’ It’s easy to have some fun with that and not just paint Baltimore in that light. I also like to talk about how great a city it is, how I grew up there and just sort of crack jokes about that.”
Levin, who became a bar mitzvah at Pikesville’s Beth El Congregation, also pokes fun at his Jewish background, which he says can be challenging at times.
“Let’s be honest, there are a lot of Jewish comedians out there and there have been for the last hundred years. That’s nothing new,” he says. “I wanted to find a new angle with it. So I have a whole bit about how I grew up Jewish. But to be honest, I’m probably not the best Jew in the world.”
Levin admits he’s quite pumped about his gig at Horseshoe.
“This is the first time I get to do a headlining show so I’ll get to do 45 minutes to an hour, which is exciting because that’s not something — especially in L.A. — you get to do,” he says. “I’m also very excited that it’s going to be at home, so I’ll have lots of friends and family in the crowd. And casinos are great environments for comedy shows.”
Israeli-Americans Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin talked about the pain of losing their 23-year-old son, who was kidnapped and later murdered in the Oct. 7th tragedy.
A committed philanthropist and community leader, Russel was president of R&H Motors.
The mother of four was a native of Winchester, Virginia, who spent most of her life in Northwest Baltimore.
Rabbi David Wolpe looks at the recent interest in Hollywood productions about King David and why the story is resonating now.