DJ Hazard (comedian)

DJ Hazard
New York City May 2, 2012
Birth name	Dennis Joseph Hanard
Born	1953
Nationality	American

DJ Hazard (born Dennis Joseph Hanard in 1953) is an American writer, actor, musician and standup comedian.

Born in New York City, he grew up in the Bronx and Astoria, Queens and attended the High School of Art and Design, where he studied cartooning, animation, illustration and advertising. He graduated in 1971. His family moved to Boston the following year.

In 1979, he became one of the founders of The Ding Ho Comedy Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, along with Barry Crimmins, Steven Wright, Paula Poundstone, Bobcat Goldthwait, Denis Leary and others. Throughout the 1980s, DJ Hazard was active in the Boston comedy scene, hosting shows at the Comedy Connection and Play It Again Sam's. He performed under the name DJ Hanard, but legally changed his name to DJ Hazard in 1984 after frequently seeing misspellings of his name. In the late 1980s, he hosted a show called "The Friday Night Comic Strip" on WZLX and in 1989, he was named Comedian of the Year in a Boston Herald reader's poll.

During this time, he was known for taking time to critique and encourage new comedians. In the interview section of the documentary film When Stand Up Stood Out, which explores the Boston comedy scene in the 1980s and 90s, Dane Cook cites DJ Hazard as being one of the comedians who inspired him to enter standup comedy. In a 2005 interview, Louis CK credited Hazard for being his mentor when he first started out.

After 14 years as a headliner in Boston comedy, Hazard moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1994. He returned to Boston a year later, bought a 1985 Nissan Stanza and set off on a three-year self-booked tour of North America before returning to Boston in 1998. He moved back to New York City in 2006. He has also performed extensively throughout Canada, including Winnipeg,Toronto and Montreal.