Chad Daniels is an American comedian who has achieved significant success in the world of stand-up comedy. With over a billion total streams of his albums to date, and 22+ tracks that have reached over a million listens on Pandora, Daniels is one of the most listened-to comedians of all time.
One of only 13 comics to be featured on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, he’s lived in Minnesota his whole life while also touring the country for over 20 years.
His albums have reached the top 10 on the Billboard comedy charts three times: No. 2 for 2017's Footprints On The Moon, No. 6 for 2019's Dad Chaniels, and No. 7 for 2014's Natural Selection.
As of 2019, his albums have been streamed more than 700 million times.
Daniels has released seven albums: three with Stand Up! Records.
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He hosts another weekly podcast, Pretend Problems, with his girlfriend and fellow comedian Kelsey Cook.
Daniels started performing standup at an open mic night at ACME Comedy Company in Minneapolis in 1998.
Daniels is divorced, and has a son and a daughter.
In March 2023, fellow comedian Kelsey Cook announced on Sirius XM's Jim and Sam Show that she and Daniels were dating.
His new material reflects changes in his life. Now that he's an empty nester, he's pivoting more to politics, sharing his view of the world from a place where extremists on both sides co-exist.
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During a recent performance in Cleveland, he joked about how he believes kids should get free lunches at school - but should also be subject to corporal punishment.
Some in the audience who may have come expecting dad jokes seemed unsettled.
"If this is the show that kills my career, that's OK," Daniels said from the stage. "I'm already rich."
Fans flocking to his five shows at Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis next month already know he's a unique talent with a knack for making parenthood sound as challenging - and exhilarating - as an Indiana Jones crusade.
He's also wildly popular among those who stream their stand-up.
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"He's going to hate that I say this, but I think he's the best stand-up comedian in America," said fellow comic Cy Amundson, who co-hosts the podcast "The Middle of Somewhere" with Daniels.
But to those who measure success by awards and film roles, Daniels is a relative unknown.
The uninitiated who spot him at Home Depot might think he's a store manager.
Conservatives V.S. Liberals | Chad Daniels Comedy
That's largely because he broke an unwritten rule of comedy. When his career started to catch fire, he refused to relocate to a major city, staying put in Fergus Falls, his hometown of 14,000 people.
Dave Chappelle followed the same path, but his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is just 19 miles from Dayton.
It takes Daniels about an hour to get to Fargo and three hours to drive to the Twin Cities.
"There's something comfortable about it," he said last month while preparing a pot roast in his modest kitchen, wearing a sweatshirt from a local figure skating club and sporting a beard that makes him look like he just spent three weeks in the Boundary Waters.
"Coming off the road and going to an apartment in L.A. or New York seems very sad to me."
Fellow comic Pete Lee said his good friend may have taken some business risks by not making a move to one of the coasts.
But it turned out to be a blessing.
"So many comedians end up living in a bubble, in cities where their material is unrelatable to 98% of the world," said Lee, who performed throughout Asia with Daniels and Tom Segura, a tour that was documented in a 2017 film, "I Need You to Kill."
"But Fergus Falls has kept Chad grounded. He made a decision to put his family first, and it ended up paying off in his standup."
The 47-year-old entertainer grew up preparing to be a professional comic.
He'd perform in front of his sixth-grade class whenever the teacher stepped out.
He pored over TV Guide each week and circled the nights that Johnny Carson and David Letterman would be featuring stand-ups.
He had a running contest with a classmate to see who could whip out the most devastating insults.
When he was 18, he hosted his first comedy show, putting up fliers, securing a conference room at a local hotel and setting up the chairs.
Ten people showed up.
When his then-girlfriend and future wife decided to pursue a master's degree at the University of Minnesota, he followed her, popping up at open mikes when he wasn't bartending at Eagle's Nest Lounge in Robbinsdale.
Daniels entered Acme's Funniest Person Contest in the late '90s.
He's certain he came in last place.
He eventually landed a gig emceeing shows in Grand Forks, N.D., but wasn't making headway at Acme, where he dreamed of becoming a regular.
"I could smell the stink of the road on him," said Acme owner Louis Lee.
"He was always a crowd-pleaser, but when you play those small towns, you can do well just through high energy and moving quickly.
You can end up doing the same act for 10 years without changing a sentence."
But Lee could see something more in Daniels.
He finally gave his stamp of approval when Daniels started to focus on what he knew best: being the father of two young kids, Isaac and Olivia.
"That's when he started relating to a lot of parents and started writing from the bottom of his heart," Lee said.
"That's when the crowd started to get who he is."
Daniels' most memorable routines treat fatherhood like hand-to-hand combat, but with everyone wearing velvet gloves.
There's a lot of graphic language, but you always feel like he's sincerely interested in stepping up his game.
Teenagers tell him after his shows that they wish he was their dad.
"I've always felt that Chad gets the truth about life," said national headliner Jackie Kashian, another comic who cut her teeth at Acme.
"You start out not knowing things. If you're willing, you learn. Then you can judge others. I kid. But I do."
In his 2012 special "As Is," currently streaming on Pluto TV, Daniels talked extensively about Olivia pestering him about how magnets work, how she went through puberty and how he dealt with an incident in which she swore at school.
Olivia, currently a freshman at California's Chapman University, recognized early that it was less about her and more about him exploring relatable truths.
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