Comedians

Dwight Slade

Despite his impossibly youthful appearance, Dwight Slade is a comedy veteran of twenty years. He began his stand-up career at the age of 13 when he and a childhood friend, Bill Hicks, formed a comedy team to amuse their peers in Houston, Texas. A year later, the duo had an eight-by-ten promotional photo, ambition, and an agent. Often times the young performers were asked to wait outside of nightclubs due to their underage status. After circulating in Houston's open-mike scene, the friends separated when Slade?s family relocated to Portland, Oregon.

However, the move didn't hinder Slade from pursuing comedy. After a year in college, Slade reunited with Hicks in Los Angeles in the early '80s. At the age of 18, he became one of the youngest comics to ever perform at the world famous Comedy Store. In 1985, Slade moved back to Portland where he could garner more precious stage time than in the over-saturated comedy clubs of Los Angeles.

"Why should I live in Los Angeles to fulfill my creative desires when I can be just as miserable and unknown in Portland?"

Back in Oregon, Slade finished a Bachelor's degree at Portland State University while evolving into one of the most sought after comedians in the Northwest. He opened shows for Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld and toured with the legendary guitar hero, Jeff Beck, as his warm-up act.

In 1988, with a wife and newborn daughter, Slade was presented with a difficult situation: how to work on the road as a comedian and raise a young family at the same time. The solution was a thirty-six foot trailer, which became the family's full-time home for the next four years while traveling across the U.S. and Canada.

"My son was born in the R.V. But not while I was driving. We pulled over."

The '90s found Slade moving into new areas of performing. Radio station KXL-AM in Portland billed him as "The Northwest's Most Dangerous Mind," and he became a noted talk radio personality who used humor rather than bile to express rage and indignation.

"It's a lot more entertaining than just listening to some blowhard spout for two hours."

During this period, Slade was in demand as a voice talent for radio commercials and earned several industry award nominations for his writing and production of radio ads. He also released two comedy CDs on the Humor Ink label and appeared in several TV commercials. In 2000, Slade's acting ambitions were fulfilled when he made his big screen debut in the Showtime movie "Inconceivable." This led to a co-starring role in the dramatic independent film "My Way Home."

Most recently, Slade has graduated to the comedy elite with a blowout appearance on Comedy Central's Premium Blend as well as victories at the 2002 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and the 2002 Just-For-Laughs International Comedy Festival in Montreal. He was also a winner at the 2001 Seattle International Stand-Up Competition. With his likeable demeanor, goofy grin and wicked observations, Dwight Slade is poised for the next phase of his career, reporting from the trenches of everyday life.