Dan Kamin

Dan Kamin was a boy magician who went on to become a renowned theatre artist and physical comedian. On film, he created Johnny Depp's comedy routines in BENNY & JOON and trained Robert Downey, Jr. for his Oscar-nominated performance in CHAPLIN. He also played the wooden Indian that comes to life in the cult horror classic CREEPSHOW 2, and created the Martian girl's weird movement for Tim Burton's horror spoof MARS ATTACKS! Dan performs his one-man shows in theatres around the world, and is a frequent guest artist with symphony orchestras, blending comedy with classical music in his popular series of "Comedy Concertos."

In addition to performing Dan has written two books on Charlie Chaplin. The first, CHARLIE CHAPLIN'S ONE-MAN SHOW, featured a preface by Marcel Marceau and was hailed as a breakthrough work that reveals the secrets of Chaplin's comic art. Dan followed this with THE COMEDY OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN: ARTISTRY IN MOTION, which expands and updates the earlier book and features an account of how he trained Downey for his Oscar-nominated performance as the screen legend. Dan also wrote the extensive annotations for a third book about Chaplin, CHARLIE CHAPLIN'S RED-LETTER DAYS: AT WORK WITH THE COMIC GENIUS, a series of 37 articles written by Fred Goodwins, a member of Chaplin's stock company from 1915 through 1917, the period during which Chaplin's fame and creativity exploded. The articles, which originally appeared in the British magazine RED LETTER, constitute the most comprehensive eyewitness report of Chaplin at work ever published.

Now considered a leading authority on Chaplin, Dan has done commentary tracks on Chaplin film releases by The Criterion Collection and British Film Institute. He also shares his insights in several live presentations, each of which includes the screening of a newly restored Chaplin masterpiece.

Dan returned to his roots for THE MAGIC LESSON, his newest stage show. It's a funny and bittersweet coming of age story, filled with eye-popping magic and surprises, in which Dan reveals how learning to do magic as a kid helped him to find the magic in life.