Daniel Frischman (born April 23, 1959)[1] is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, playwright and magician. He is best known for his roles as Chris Potter on the Nickelodeon sitcom Kenan & Kel and Arvid Engen on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class. He is noted for playing socially inept "geeks" and "nerds". Frischman is a member of The Magic Castle, who belongs to the Academy of Magic Arts in Hollywood.
Dan Frischman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel Frischman April 23, 1959 |
| Other names | The Great Houdanny |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, comedian, writer, director, magician |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | www |
Early life
editFrischman was born and raised in the Whippany section of Hanover Township, New Jersey. His father Joseph was a CPA and his mother Florence was a second grade teacher.[2] His family is Jewish.[3] He attended Whippany Park High School, graduating in 1977, before attending Penn State University. After university he moved to New York City to become a stand up comedian.[4][5]
Career
editFrischman developed an interest in magic as a child after seeing an ad in Boys' Life magazine.[4] Before Frischman's television breakthrough, he often worked as a magician in the Los Angeles area under the pseudonym "The Great Houdanny" (in reference to Harry Houdini) performing at, amongst other things, children's birthday parties and charity events. He brought his brand of comedy to his magic shows and was a popular hire in the mid-1980s.[citation needed]
Frischman performed at several comedy clubs in New York City, including the Comic Strip, Catch a Rising Star and Dangerfield's, before moving to Los Angeles.
Early television career
editHe was first noticed in a March 17, 1982, episode of the NBC television series The Facts of Life. In the episode, titled "Kids Can Be Cruel" Frischman played high school student "Carl 'Rocky' Price" who was picked on by his peers because of his acne and nerd-like personality. The students in the episode referred to Frischman's character as "Pizzaface", because of his pronounced acne blemishes and scars. In the episode the character Natalie Green, played by actress Mindy Cohn, gets angry at her roommate Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel) and sets her up with Frischman's character "Rocky" as a cruel joke.
In 1983, Frischman appeared in the comedy film Get Crazy as Joey, a nerdy (and virginal) stagehand. Also in 1983, he starred in the "Things your Parents Used to Say" sequence in Good-bye, Cruel World.
Frischman appeared in both these projects alongside his sometime roommate, comedian Andrew J. Lederer, who played smaller roles. Frischman and Lederer also appeared together as two of the "Schlongini Singers" in the Andrew "Dice" Clay horror comedy, Wacko and (with Adam Small and Felice Seiler) in the comedy group, The Ding Dongs.
Head of the Class
editFrischman's first co-starring role was that of Manhattan-based high school student Arvid Engen on ABC-TV's late 1980s/early 1990s series Head of the Class. Though playing a teenager, Frischman was 27 as the series started, and 32 when it concluded.
Arvid was a bespectacled geek who was an early connoisseur of computer culture as well as a budding scientist. Arvid and his classmates were considered possible geniuses and were placed in the "I.H.P. Individualized Honors Program" for advanced and gifted students.
On December 20, 1986, Frischman and the cast of Head of the Class were the celebrity guests on the urban music series Soul Train. On July 15, 1987, Frischman appeared as that evening's guest on NBC-TV's talk show Late Night with David Letterman.
Kenan & Kel
editFrischman's second co-starring role was the character of Chris Potter in the 1990s Nickelodeon TV series Kenan & Kel, a spin-off of Nickelodeon's All That starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Once again Frischman played a socially awkward nerd, this time as Chris Potter, Kenan's boss at Rigby's, a small grocery store.
Chris often informs customers and other guests that he has a radio in his car in an attempt to make conversation. One of Chris' anxieties was a recurring dream that he was being chased by a giant bunny.
Cameos
editFrischman made a short appearance on the 1990s series Seinfeld. In episode 93, titled "The Mom & Pop Store" (which originally aired on November 17, 1994, on U.S. television network NBC), Frischman plays a man who phones Jerry Seinfeld to tell the comedian that he has found his stolen sneaker collection at a yard sale in Parsippany, New Jersey (located just north of the town Frischman grew up in); Frischman asked to change the name of the place in the script from Parsippany to his hometown of Whippany, but Seinfeld declined, saying "No, 'Whippany' doesn't sound like the name of a real town."[4]
On October 24, 2005, Frischman was a celebrity panelist on I Love the '80s 3-D, a television program on VH1.
Playwriting
editFrischman wrote and starred in the play About Faith, produced by Beverly Hills Playhouse. He played a Jewish stockbroker who falls in love with a Catholic girl. It was renamed Sex, Faith and Jason Wexler.[6][7]
Personal life
editFrischman announced on his Facebook page in 2019 that he had recently discovered he had a biological daughter Emily, and a grandson Roy. Frischman briefly dated Emily's mother when he was 22 years old. He lost contact with her, unaware that she was pregnant and that she later put her baby up for adoption. Frischman learned of his daughter's existence in January 2019 through the DNA testing web site 23andMe. He soon met her along with her husband Neil and their son Roy, describing them as "a beautiful new family that I’m building a relationship with."[8]
Filmography
editTelevision
edit| Year | Title | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981; 1989 | It's a Living | Frankie | 3 episodes |
| 1982 | The Facts of Life | Carl 'Rocky' Price | 1 episode |
| Making the Grade | 1 episode | ||
| Newhart | Mortician | 1 episode | |
| Archie Bunker's Place | Mime | 1 episode | |
| 1983 | Voyagers! | Waiter | 1 episode |
| 1984 | Double Trouble | Walter | 1 episode |
| 1985 | Alice | Lester | 1 episode |
| Brothers | Froggy | 1 episode | |
| Webster | Skippy | 1 episode | |
| 1986 | The Paper Chase | 1 episode | |
| St. Elsewhere | Technician | 1 episode | |
| 1986–1991 | Head of the Class | Arvid Engen | 114 episodes |
| 1989 | It'z Fritz | 1 episode | |
| 1994 | Melrose Place | County Records Clerk | 1 episode |
| Seinfeld | Guy on Phone | 1 episode | |
| 1996–2000 | Kenan & Kel | Chris Potter | 62 episodes |
| 2007 | Passions | Animal Control Officer | 1 episode |
| 2013–2014 | Sam & Cat | Director (3 episodes) |
Film
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Straight at Ya | Waldo | Short film |
| 1982 | Wacko | Schlongini Singer | |
| 1983 | Good-bye Cruel World | segment: "Things Your Parents Used to Say" | |
| Lone Wolf McQuade | Emilio Falcon | ||
| Get Crazy | Joey | ||
| 1986 | Night of the Creeps | Alien Zombie | |
| 1995 | Mickey: Reelin' Through the Years | Telefilm | |
| 2003 | Masked and Anonymous | Eddie Quicksand | |
| Lessons for an Assassin | Dr. Legoy | ||
| 2007 | The Trip | Doctor Friedman | |
| Hard Four | Bernie Yak | ||
| 2010 | Tramps and Ramblers | Kenny | Telefilm |
References
edit- ^ "Facebook". www.facebook.com.
- ^ "May 26, 1989 - Image 59". The Detroit Jewish News Digital Archives.
- ^ "Florence Frischman Obituary (2014) - Pompton Plains, NJ - the Star-Ledger".
- ^ a b c Lent, James. "Magic was Dan Frischman’s first passion, then came comedy stardom; he uses both in new book", Hanover Eagle, April 24, 2009. Accessed December 11, 2019. "Dan Frischman did, but he also knew waiting until he got older to do it was not for him: He wanted to perform in front of audiences, and he wanted to start now. It was the art of magic that first drew the young Whippany boy in and convinced him of his destiny. He had found a catalogue of magic on the back of a Boy' Life magazine and was immediately hooked.... After graduating from Whippany Park High School in 1977, Frischman attended Penn State University where he stayed for a couple of years acting in college plays until the restlessness to perform on a bigger stage got to him."
- ^ Johnson, Janis. "PLAYING A NERD IS 'TOO EASY'", The Miami Herald, February 16, 1987. Accessed December 11, 2007. "But is the 23-year-old Whippany, N.J., native, actor and stand-up comedian a nerd."
- ^ "ABOUT FAITH".
- ^ Citron, Cynthia (March 10, 2016). "Love in the age of religious diversity". Santa Monica Daily Press.
- ^ "The PRETTY HUGE announcement..." Facebook. May 22, 2019. Dan Frischman's public announcement of discovering his daughter. Retrieved April 20, 2020.