Bio

Doug Ferrari is a stand-up comedian and writer celebrating his 25th year in comedy. He was onstage at age four with “Mayor” Art Finley, a popular morning kid show host of the 60’s, doing a musical revue for 1500 people. He performed every day at his day school from the age of seven, and did his first play at college summer school at 16, the year he went onstage at The Comedy Store. He helped found a three-man comedy group, The High Wire Radio Choir, at 17. Their play “Marvin!” got a rave review in the San Francisco Chronicle, getting the Little Man jumping out of his chair.

Doug won the San Francisco Comedy Competition in 1984, and has since played 41 states, five countries, and on 25 national TV shows. He has opened for everyone from Bob Hope to Robin Williams, and has made pilgrimages to meet his comedy heroes: George Burns, Red Skelton, Dick Shawn, Lily Tomlin, Johnathan Winters, Mort Sahl, and Bill Murray.

Doug is recovered from a mental disorder and is in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction (he is clean and sober) and homelessness (eight years ago he spent a year in Tenderloin hotel rooms trying to get treatment).

Doug has pledged to do half his shows for the community in the form of benefits, fundraisers, rehab centers, and comedy talks on recovery for everyone from the Other Bar (lawyers in recovery) to The American Bar Association. He was the keynote speaker and entertainer at the convention of the National Institutes For Mental Health and is the annual comedian for Laughs For Life, a fundraiser for the San Francisco Suicide Prevention Hotline.

Doug’s hobbies include collecting toys from the 60’s (he has over 500), and is a major film freak (he has seen most of the good movies ever made, and all of the really bad ones).  He also knows every TV and cartoon theme song from the 50’s to the 70’s, a completely useless talent, and has passed the audition test three times on “Jeopardy!”

Doug has four shows currently being booked: 90 minutes of stand-up, a “Rock Comedy” show called “Doug Ferrari: Mock Star” co-starring singer and guitarist Lynn Canada, his recovery show, and his new one-man play,“I’ll Tell You When I’m Kidding”, which recently premiered at the Throckmorton Theatre and has been performed at at the Marsh Theatre.  It will run in San Francisco this year and will be made into an independent film.  The play was directed by Chris Meehan of the Meehan Brothers and Mike Meehan was his Script Consultant.  He has very talented people in his crew, including Joshua Raoul Brody as his Music And Sound Designer and CD producer, and Silvia Borelli as his webmaster and graphic and poster designer, among others.  The play is produced by his agent, manager, and business partner, Billy Cohen of Labyrynth.

Doug’s future plans include to be on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno, to finally get on “Jeopardy”, to get a book deal for his memoir, “Blood On The Clown Suit”, and to do a DVD follow-up to his CD, “The Best Of My NSA Wiretaps”.

He is now working on getting his new videos on TV and viral—he has 15 on YouTube.  He sells his CD at his shows along with two books, “The Last Life Instruction Book”, and “Eating, Drinking, Drugging, Quitting: A Jokebook”.

“I’m on a mission from God to make people laugh”, Doug says. “My motto is, if I can keep one person in my audience from getting up in a tower with a rifle, I’m doing my job.”  He always goes on to say, “If I make just one person in this audience laugh tonight, then I have really bombed.  That’s a big failure right there…”

Doug is always available for benefits and community service, and can be reached at doug@dougferrari.com.