A West Coast guy who moved to New York City to get serious about comedy, Dan Soder has been entertaining fans at comedy clubs, podcasts, television and radio since the 2000s. Soder is playing the Helium Comedy club this Thursday, March 19, to Sunday, March 22, for the first time in his career.

Soder is a regular on the YKWD Podcast with fellow stand-up Robert Kelly and has been featured on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham. He’s also appeared numerous times on the Opie and Jim Norton Show (formerly Opie and Anthony) on Sirius XM radio.

He’s performed on the Conan O’Brien show and is a cast member of MTV 2’s Guy Code.

Soder will be playing six shows at Helium this Thursday, March 19, to Sunday, March 22. You can purchase tickets for the shows here.

Luckily for us, Soder is a huge sports fan and decided to waste his time answering our idiotic, and quite frankly, pointless questions.

Go see Dan this weekend, or check out his website for future show dates here.

The CT: Dan, tell me about your sports fandom? I’ve heard you talk about your love of the 49ers, how’d you come to find yourself rooting for them? Is football it for you or do you keep tabs on other sports?

Dan Soder: Yeah, I’m a die-hard Niner fan even though I never lived there. I was born in Hartford and moved to Denver when I was kid but my Dad is from the Bay Area so he basically let it be known when I was a baby that the 49ers and the SF Giants were our teams. The only team I got to choose was the Denver Nuggets and most of my life that’s been a terrible decision, but I still love the Nugs.

The CT: True or false. Joe Montana Sports Talk Football was the pinnacle of sports talk football video games? Before you answer, just take a listen to this.

It doesn’t get much better than that. 

Dan Soder: Joe Montana Football was a great video game but only because it had Joe Montana’s name on it. I have to give Tecmo Super Bowl the best because it was the first game that everyone agreed was awesome. Plus the 49ers team on there is ridiculous. (Editor’s Note: The Joe Montana, Jerry Rice connection in that game was unstoppable)

The CT: What the hell is with so many 49ers retiring this offseason? First Patrick Willis, then Justin Smith, and now just this morning Chris Borland? They’re going to have to coax John Engelberger out of retirement to field a full defense next year.

Dan Soder: Yeah the Niners are losing everyone this offseason but that tends to happen when a head coach leaves or gets fired (even though it’s never usually THIS many people.) It reminds me a lot of ’02 when Mariucci was fired and we lost a lot of players, but still it wasn’t this much.

The CT: I love asking this question. This site was created in honor of an irrelevant Philadelphia Phillies pitcher that appeared in like 23 games for the Phillies in the early 2000s, David Coggin. Are there any irrelevant athletes that you grew up watching that you still find yourself thinking about every now again? That you were a fan of despite of their ineptitude? Dig deep.

Dan Soder: I don’t know if I would call him irrelevant, but I loved William Floyd when he was with the 49ers, and LaPhonso Ellis from the Denver Nuggets. He was awesome.

The CT: You’re a big professional wrestling fan. Who was the best random mid-carder from the 1990’s? Personally, I was a big Duke “The Dumpster” Droese fan back in the day. A garbageman moonlighting as a professional wrestler, who would bring a garbage can to the ring before a match? Fuck and yes. 

Dan Soder: Ahmed Johnson. His power bomb was so great. Plus, he once teamed up with Legion of Doom and that made me like him even more.

The CT: Was Jeff Garcia gay? He’s got a smoking hot wife and did some pretty solid local car commercials when he was in Philadelphia, but like T.O. said, “If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.” On a separate note, Fuck T.O.

Dan Soder: Haha that sentence just proves how shitty of teammate T.O. must have been. I don’t know if Jeff Garcia is gay, if he isn’t than I hope he just blows his wife’s back out regularly and they think it’s hilarious that everyone thinks he’s gay. If he IS gay, then I hope he learns to live with it and enjoy it.

The CT: You’re playing at the Helium Comedy club from Thursday, March 19 to Sunday, March 22. You’ve played Philly before, how do the crowds treat you here? Any interesting stage stories during a performance here?

Dan Soder: I’ve done shows around Philly but this will be my first time doing shows in the city. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a smart city with blue-collar roots, which usually means good shows, or at least I hope it does this week.