- Daniel Nardicio
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Daniel Nardicio (born August 8, 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American radio personality, Nightlife promoter, entrepreneur, and creator of the social network Dlist.com, and has often been referred to by the media as the “Gay Howard Stern.” He has over the course of the past decade obtained substantial notoriety for his extensive nightclub, radio, online TV, and social media work. He is best known as one of NYC’s most prominent party promoters and has established himself as one of NYC’s nightlife heavyweights. In 2004, Time Out NY named him one of the 50 reasons to love New York and 2006 HX Magazine gave him “The Spirit of New York” award. [1]
Contents
Early Life and Education
Nardicio was born on August 8, 1966, into a working class Italian American family. His mother was alcoholic and schizophrenic, and he spent many childhood years in orphanages and foster homes. He left his final foster home at 17 and bounced around as an actor between San Francisco, Berlin (where he worked as an Opera singer and principal actor at the esteemed Bregenz Festspiele for two seasons) before settling in New York City with his then best friend, cabaret singer Justin Vivian Bond.
Early Media Mogul Career and DList.Com
In 2002, Daniel opened the now notorious Slide Bar on the Bowery, making it into one of NYC’s top ten gay destinations (according to Village Voice’s Best Of Issue, 2004). At this time, he commenced work on various social media sites, including originating what would eventually become Dlist.com (from “Daniel’s List” his original promotional email list), which at its peak, was ranked the 6000th most popular site on the web. Eventually, Daniel would complement Dlist.com with a weekly podcast called Dlist Radio that presently has approximately 40,000 downloads on iTunes. In fact, on 2005 his weekly Dlist Radio podcast, was voted as “Best Party Posing as An Internet Radio Show” by Village Voice Best of Issue in 2008, and was tied with Kathy Griffin’s Dlist TV show downloads for listeners. [2][3]
Vice President of Marketing for Playgirl Magazine
In 2008 Daniel was brought on to the defunct Playgirl magazine. His first idea was to convince Sarah Palin’s daughter’s babydaddy Levi Johnston into posing, which resulted in such a media frenzy that the magazine was brought back into print and is now still in print and profitable today. He then approached Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel” standout castmember Ronnie Kroell, who agreed to pose nude and resulted in another big success for Playgirl. He later got male supermodel Tim Boyce, and most recently MTV reality star Joey Kovar to pose nude for the magazine. In July 2011, Nardicio left Playgirl to focus on a Television concept and Media Company.][4][5]
Europride Involvement
Daniel was the very first American to produce official Europride events at Europride Warsaw in 2010. He brought over transsexual singer Amanda Lepore, Lady Bunny, Whitney Biennial artist Julie Atlas Muz and a party with Boy George djing. The events were disastrous. Nardicio was quoted saying “The homophobia in Poland was palpable- it was absolute chaos”.[1]
NYC Promoter and Nightlife Fixture
With nearly a decade of substantial media work that includes radio, Dlist.com, Online TV, Social Networking, Parties, has led to him being best known as one of New York City’s most well known party promoters and nightlife fixtures. Personally responsible for producing nearly 1000 events, including for instance the well known The Saint at Large, Peaches and Sandra Bernhard in Concert, his longtime collaboration of events with punk singer Nina Hagen his events have been described thusly by Noize Magazine “You haven’t done New York Nightlife until you’ve done Nardicio”. In addition, he has thrown some of NYC's most talked about and scandalous events, such as XXX with Dean Johnson, his Night at The Playgirl Mansion parties, and his notorious Tigerbeat the The Slide. [6]. These events and the nature of these parties have earned him the moniker "The Gay Hugh Hefner" by gay media source Next Magazine and "Sleaze Impresario" by New York Magazine. [7]
He is credited for introducing international comic sensation Pam Ann to the United States, and his Road Trip reality show was an internet sensation in 2007. His current creation is titled Sh*tshow, which is a TV/Online talkshow with NYC’s most formidable nightlife personalities and currently airs on Channel 34 in Manhattan. His current segue into Lifestyle Architecture finds him working often in Atlantic City, New Orleans and Fire Island.
Personal life
Daniel currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his boyfriend (and former Playgirl model) Chris (Gogo) Harder, a rising star in the Boylesque revival movement.
References
External sources
Categories:- 1966 births
- Living people
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
