Best of What's Next: Comedian Dan Telfer

HOMETOWN: Chicago
ALBUM: Fossil Record EP
FOR FANS OF: Patton Oswalt, Paul F. Tompkins, science

A year and a half ago, Dan Telfer did a weird, confrontational bit of stand-up comedy now known online as The Best Dinosaur at the Beat Kitchen Rock Club in Chicago. He had no idea that it would eventually become a viral-video sensation, racking up more than 230,000 views on YouTube, and that strangers would recognize him in public based solely on the five-and-a-half minute clip.

“The weekend after it broke big, my wife and I went to see a play and I had three different people recognize me,” he says. “Three different people I had never seen before who were also going to see the play. It was super creepy—more for my wife than me. They knew my name. It was a nerdy play, so that helped. It was Neverwhere, an adaptation of one of Neil Gaiman’s novels. He’s a big comic book/science fiction/fantasy guy, so that explains why we would have a bit of a crossover.”

In “The Best Dinosaur” bit, Telfer challenges the Beat Kitchen crowd to name the best dinosaur and then viciously shoots down every suggestion with a mix of knowledge and “complete bullshit.” For the 31-year-old comedian—who’s been doing improv, writing plays and refining his act since he was 18—it was the perfect opportunity to flex some nerd skills and interact with his audience. In addition to the occasional ego boost during a night on the town, he’s since garnered a few comedy-club bookings, and he’s happy to keep up the momentum as he prepares for his first full-length album. But if folks think of him as a one-hit wonder, no worries.

“That sounds fine to me,” Telfer says. “I’ve always been pretty picky about what clips of mine I let on the Internet. I don’t try to post entire sets, or all my material online. … I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by being the internet-comedy clip guy, so if I get one that gets a shitload of traffic, it’s like, ‘Oh, cool. Great.’ I have zero plans to release another viral video of my stand-up comedy on the internet.”

WHAT’S NEXT: Telfer is co-writing artist Dyna Moe’s Mad Men: The Illustrated World, to be released by Penguin Publishing in October. “[She] did MadMenYourself.com and the cover of my EP,” he says. “Beyond that I’m booking clubs and colleges and putting material together for a full-length album.”