Danny Rathbun: From A-Material to Zine Material
By Matt Levy
Picture this: A crusty, anarcho-punk teen writing a non-linear, heady, monthly humor zine called Don’t Tread On Me! What do you see? I see a grubby kid with a chip on his shoulder, someone on a mission to change the world. Or maybe just a guy that just loves funny, elaborate jokes. Danny Rathbun, that anti-establishment youngster is all of those things. He’s since moved on to become a stand up comic, web series producer, podcast host and screenwriter. But before we get to that, let’s go back to the mid-2000s and learn more about that curious zine.
In spite of the name, Don’t Tread On Me! was a largely apolitical, humor magazine, made up of a bunch of regular features written by different contributors. These “contributors” were actually almost all Danny using pseudonyms like Ratso, Johnny Misanthropy, and Michael Emasculated. Told you it was punk.
“It was sort of an open secret that I was the entire staff,” says Rathbun. “I never lied if someone asked about it…but I didn’t exactly volunteer the information either.”
In fact, Rathbun remembers many fans tried to compliment him by trashing Cody Parazza (another contributor), telling him he was a better writer than Cody, not realizing Cody WAS Danny. Rathbun also had more than one person ask if his female pen name was single.
Wow.
Early on in his zine career, this writer/editor participated in readings and found he had more stage presence than his peers in the zine community. Rathbun, a Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) alum with a BS in Journalism cracked wise about conspiracy theories, the punk scene, and satirical advice columns from Christian swim coaches who led their team to three state championships using the power of prayer while everyone else read personal essays about abuse, addiction and self harm. As a result, Rathbun quickly started to stand out, and made a name for himself in the zine scene.
Ever the entrepreneur, he toured nationally, hitchhiking to libraries, anarchist communes (more on this later) and radical bookstores. But after a few years, he was understandably burnt out. On the last leg of his final tour, Rathbun spent a week camping in an abandoned subway at Rochester, and took a bus to NYC to speak at the now defunct ABC No Rio, one of the world’s biggest Zine libraries, only to learn they’d cancelled the show without telling him, prompting him to unceremoniously retired from the zine trade. A few weeks later, Rathbun met a comedian who invited him to perform at an open mic, and he instantly fell in love with it.
“Comedy is everything I loved about zine readings, without all the BS,” he says.
He’s been going strong ever since. The Fairfax, Virginia native quickly became a fixture in the NYC comedy scene hustling from mic to show and back. It certainly helps that Rathbun works clean, which he says is “Unusual for comics who aren’t religious or terrible.”
One of Rathbun’s most admirable traits is his willingness to cover subjects no one else is. Danny’s material ranges from historical events to folk heroes and abstract concepts like ‘Forgiveness’ or ‘The Dunning Kruger Effect.’ Understandably, George Carlin is a big influence. Rathbun read his book Napalm and Silly Putty at 15, and became obsessed with the original host of Saturday Night Live, watching his specials as well as seeing him live. Equally important to Rathbun was a quote he heard from the immortal Paul F. Tompkins. Tompkins pointed out that his “stand up started out mean, and I decided I didn’t like how that made me feel, so I started trying to write from the perspective of ‘I love this thing because…” That had a huge influence on Danny as he continually tries to celebrate or mock things he has an affection for like folk heroes. For further reference, you have to see his bit on Boy Meets World. You’ll be sold on his work immediately.
Rathbun also added he, “Loves the feeling of a new joke, that he’s really excited about. I love the suspense when you’re waiting to go on and try this new joke; you’re not sure whether it’s going to destroy and you’ll be walking on air all night, or it’ll bomb and you’ll spend the rest of the night wondering why you ever thought that was funny.” In Danny’s case, it’s usually funny.
Five years down the line, Rathbun sees himself still in New York, working the clubs and going on the road, married with a kid or two. His dream would be a writing job on a sitcom and touring between seasons. This all seems more than attainable for a man of his considerable talents. Audience members (myself included!) describe Danny’s act as smart, which he says makes him uncomfortable because, “My jokes are just as stupid as anyone elses. I just scatter in a handful of facts to trick your brain into thinking you’re watching something smart. It’s the same trick Pawn Stars has been using for years.”
Danny is selling himself a bit short. He comes from a learned household; his dad spent 30+ years working as a Juvenile Probation Officer, and another ten or so working as a truant officer. His mom was a social worker, who took time off to raise him and his sister, then went back to school to become a CPA and work in Public Housing. His sister works in public housing as well; “There’s a strong ‘Hard working public servant/devote your life to helping others unselfishly’ gene in my family,” Rathbun quipped, “That somehow seems to have missed me entirely.”
It’s mostly because Danny devotes all of that energy to creating top notch comedy content. As noted earlier, he takes on a variety of projects that excite him. One of those is his popular web series Unpaid Spot, a mockumentary about a group of talentless open micers in a small, rural Virginia town. Rathbun had had the idea for Unpaid Spot for five years, and after assembling the perfect cast and crew, it was another 18 months of writing, filming and editing before the series premiere. The Unpaid Spot family packed the house and went better than Danny could have ever imagined. If you’d like to see Season One it is online here, and Season Two is on the way as soon as COVID-19 concludes.
Another major passion of Danny’s is his “Horribly named podcast Na na na na na na na na podcast!” (it’s his words that the podcast is “Horribly named;” I think it’s refreshingly silly). The premise of the show is Danny and his co-hosts/collaborators Jacob Wright and Wallace Wilder are watching every Batman movie ever made, from live action, to animated, foreign knock offs, parodies and pornos. Amazingly, the show is about to hit 140 episodes and they’re only now nearing the end. Having been a guest on the show, I can objectively say that this show is a grand time and there’s roughly 125 Batman movies you probably didn’t know existed. Now’s the time to see them.
Once the podcast is a distant memory, Danny will have more free time to spend with his fiancee Karalyn. They were planning on getting married this June, but due to the virus Danny and Karalyn’s nuptials have been pushed back. Fingers crossed they’ll get married in August.
Since the quarantine started, Rathbun’s been busy working on a pilot (details are under wraps) and a screenplay, a few shorter essays and clickbait-type articles as well as Season Two of Unpaid Spot. In addition to that, Danny collects retro video games and has taken up juggling because sometimes women are “Just TOO desperate to sleep with [him], and he needs a break.” Sounds like your typical zine creator.
If you want to find Danny on social media (it’s well worth your while), you can by clicking these beautifully embedded links:
Facebook: Danny Rathbun
Twitter: @DannyRathbun
Instagram: @yakbutter27
Also! It should be noted that Danny thought it was important you know that Batpussy is the worst Batman movie ever made. He’s seen it twice now.
He didn’t clarify how many times were for the podcast.
