Comedic Talent Runs High in 'Wild and Crazy Guy'

By Jonathan Foerster

In a quiet apartment in the Outer Richmond District, Daniel Dechi rehearses a most peculiar musical instrument for a regular Thursday performance at the "Brainwash Cafe." Dechi can play any song, from classical to rock, drumming on his face with a number two pencil.

His outlandish stand-up routines underscore the just plain silly, and Dechi's humor is anything but ordinary. Once he dons his cape and wild glasses and grabs a handful of yellow number two pencils, he transforms from mild mannered Daniel Dechi into the extraordinarily odd Mr. Blinkey. Before long, he reveals a quirky sense of humor that even he admits is "off the wall."

At what he calls an immature and young-looking 42 years old, Dechi has benefited from his experience. In addition to his regular performances around the City, Dechi was awarded with the opportunity to debut at San Francisco's "Punchline" in June.

Taking his comedic talents to audiences beyond San Francisco's nightclubs, Dechi has just accomplished writing his first book, "I Didn't Want to Pay For a Rent-A-Car." The book, currently in publication, is an adaptation from Dechi's comedic screenplay describing the imaginative antics of two men returning to San Francisco in an automobile tethered to an airplane.

In what Dechi's friend of more than 15 years, Stanton Puck, called "Danny's own Wizard of Oz," the protagonists, Myron and Eugene, "drive" across the United States in a matter of hours, filming the entire trip from a video camera mounted on the dash board. Along the way, the surrealist Laurel and Hardy pair careen through Pittsburgh and Bloomington, encountering John Cougar Mellanchamp and lisping extra-terrestrials called "Marthians."

Beneath the comic exterior lies a very different Daniel Dechi: a man deeply concerned with fairness. Troubled from an early age by the way he felt people tend to judge each other, a young Dechi turned to the core values of fairness and justice, learning to solve problems through his own ingenuity. Dechi extracted these tenets from comic books for conscientious guidance and they are still central to his philosophical perspective of the world.

Dechi admits his principles are universal, but they are expressed in a less judgmental way in comic books. While he occasionally pokes fun at his Jewish faith in his act, Puck says "the culture is more with him than he might think."

Dechi's journey began in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but at the early age of six brought him to San Francisco's Richmond District. He lived much of his life here until he followed a work opportunity to Connecticut that allowed him to focus on writing and developing his performance. But four years in Connecticut left Dechi yearning to return to San Francisco. He readily admits that Connecticut has its advantages, but for all its beauty, it left him unsatisfied.

"Sure, Connecticut is beautiful - so is Golden Gate Park - but would you want to live there?" Dechi asked. His 1998 return to San Francisco was the homecoming that inspired his book.

Though writing is his most recent endeavor, he is better known for his role as the percussive Mr. Blinkey in the travelling comedy troupe "Pop Corn Anti-Theater."

"It all started in grammar school," Dechi said. "I would play 'The Lone Ranger' when I got bored. Later I just picked it up again and eventually turned it into an act."

A Renaissance Man of peculiar order, Dechi operates professionally on a completely different side of the brain. Picking up the highly technical assignments as an electrical draftsman, copier repairman and elevator repairman, Dechi has invented himself out of seemingly contradictory cloth.

But Dechi draws most of his inspiration for his routine from the greatest source of comedy - his self-described "weirdness-prone" life. From run-ins with the wait staff at his local pizzeria to his romance with a longshorewoman, his life is filled with coincidences that provide him with plenty of laughs.

His audiences are the fortunate beneficiaries of his unique take on life.

To see Dechi perform, visit the "Brainwash Cafe," located at 1122 Folsom St., where he regularly performs Thursday evenings or at "Java Source," located at 343 Clement St., on Fridays (at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.). Dechi will also be appearing for a book signing and performance Monday, Aug. 20, at the "Bazaar Cafe," located at 5927 California St.