Humber comedy grad Dan Galea — who has been living his dream — released a project that has been in the making for two decades.
“One of the things I do is a musical comedy and it’s all the songs I’ve been writing for the past 20 years,” he said. Galea said this album is like his diary.
“I am super excited about it, the way it turned out,” he said. “Production was great and all the musicians worked really hard.”
Dan Galea performing in front of the audience. Photo credit: Courtesy Dan Galea
Galea’s debut musical comedy album, Inter-Dan-Mensional was produced by Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall. He said he’s thankful for Thompson’s support not only as the executive producer but also as a financier of this project, which was the biggest roadblock.
“He’s always been really supportive and he has produced most of my shows,” he said.
Galea released his album on April Fool’s Day in Toronto during a sold out live show.
“I was so happy with the support I got, and I was very happy with the way it went,” he said.
Galea has always been interested in acting and was named the class clown at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School graduation. He said he used to make his teachers laugh.
For him, the class was more like a performance than an place to learn.
“It was a really fun way to figure out where the line was and not cross it but walk right up to the line,” he said.
Galea said one of his teachers gave him extra marks for the humour, as he was supposed to fail.
“My teacher said some days he just came to see what I was gonna say next and that is the biggest compliment I can get,” Galea said.
Galea said his high school teachers used to give him brochures for the Humber School of Comedy. He applied and never heard back.
“I went to their office and got to know that ten acceptance letters got misplaced and one of them was mine,” he said.
Galea said his experience at Humber was great and he learned a lot. He said his year was the first year of the program too and the professors were figuring it out along with the classes.
“As far as the classes go, the teachers were all very unique and cool people to learn from,” he said.
Dan Galea Photo credit: Courtesy Dan Galea
Galea has also produced multiple shows and has also won two Canadian Comedy Awards.
As a founding member of Sunday Night Live, he’s also been involved with the Sketchersons, The Boom, and Primo, all sketch troupes that have sold out shows in Toronto.
Galea said he tries to focus on making his shows unique as all his shows happen in a place where a person probably wouldn’t normally see a show.
“One of my shows is on the Humber River, you rent a canoe and I have stand-ups on a dock in the middle of the water,” he said.
Galea said he is thankful for the strong support system he has but one should always rely on themself.
“But it’s also important to know that you’re your strongest support network because you can’t rely or lean on anybody too much,” he said.
He said an individual should be the main driving force toward his goals.
“You will almost just want people to accept you for who you are, and support what you’re doing,” he said.