Self-promotion pays off for comedian
Ex-Baldwinsville resident chosen as person most in need of reality show.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
By William LaRue
Staff writer
An aspiring stand-up comedian, formerly of Baldwinsville, has won a Las Vegas newspaper poll picking
him as the person there "Most in Need of a Reality Show."
It's an honor that Jason Dinant, 24, a 1999 graduate of Baker High School, acknowledges he helped to
secure. He recruited friends and co-workers to submit his name over and over to the "Readers' Choice" survey conducted by
Las Vegas Weekly.
"I'm a shameless self-promoter. It's terrible," Dinant said with a laugh during a telephone interview.
"I called my mom up and told her that I won, and I said, 'I feel like I'm in high school and I just won the popularity contest.'
"
In announcing him as a winner last week, the newspaper noted Dinant's resume lists several appearances
on reality TV shows, including A&E's "Inked" and MTV's "Fear."
"But anyone that determined for attention isn't going to stop there," the newspaper wrote of Dinant,
who also calls himself "J.Son Dinant."
Dinant, the son of Bruce and Cheryl Dinant, of Baldwinsville, has a full-time job in the box office
at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he moved in 2004. He also performs regularly at the Funny Business
Comedy Club at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino.
Although he studied improv in college and founded The Got Theatre? Project, a Syracuse theater company,
Dinant said, he never considered doing stand-up until about six months ago, when a friend suggested it.
He's now developing the idea for a reality TV show in which cameras would trail him for a year as he
looks to become the next Jerry Seinfeld or George Carlin.
Borrowing an idea from his newspaper poll success, he's asking people to visit his Web site, jasonreality.com,
which has instructions on how to lobby VH1 or Comedy Central to pick up his show. He also wants people to ask Ellen DeGeneres
to make him a guest on her talk show.
In January, Dinant appeared on an episode of "Inked" during which he was shown getting "78784867" tattooed
on his right wrist. He said these are the numbers you get when you punch S-U-R-V-I-V-O-R on a telephone key pad.
"My mentality this year is live and conquer. I want to live life with laughter and conquer the comedy
world. And I want to do so in less than one year," Dinant said.
© 2006 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.
