DANA Brown’s charm is best known in written form or when he has taken his hand to editing magazine pages with aplomb. So Deena invited him for a conversation on the record (podcast-style) to prove character leaps beyond the page. Naturally, we asked Dana Brown to Take Ten Qs too, to gain pithy insights into his soul (dramatic, much?). First, allow us to roll out the digital red carpet and describe his career path in a 60-second read, before you get to know him better in our quick-fire character quiz.

In the early ’90s, Brown left college after a few weeks and became a barback in a restaurant in NYC while living in the East Village. With a self-confessed trajectory that involved cameoing in punk bands and merging one late night with another, the next moves of Brown’s career and life were not expected. A series of chance meetings with then Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, changed his world. Brown served drinks, and inevitably revealed sparks of his charisma, at the infamous hotspot Forty Four and as a bar-hand at events in Carter’s home. In a twist that could only belong in the cultural epoch of 1993, these short stints in hospitality jobs resulted in him being offered a job as an assistant at the storied magazine working directly with Carter. Within a matter of years he rose to the influential role of Deputy Editor at Vanity Fair, accruing bylines for the most agenda-setting stories on luminaries and social mores of the ’90s. (This was at a time when printed publications held court over a world of readers. RIP glossy magazine dominance.)

After twenty-five years at Vanity Fair, Brown then launched his debut book, a memoir, Dilettante: True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster in 2022 and this week joined Deena on her podcast series, Firsts by Deena. But how does Brown fair with our list of questions? Find out below:

#1 If you could have any famous writer (past or present) pen your biography, who would you most love to commission?

A.A. Gill or Christopher Hitchens, so I could bring them back to life.

#2 There is one song that defines your energy when you enter a room, what is it?

“Death or Glory,” by The Clash.

#3 You don't collect this item but you could so easily have indulged in building a museum of...?

Ceramic bowls.

#4 It's 11am on a Sunday morning, what are you most often doing at that time?

Sleeping.

#5 You've decided to have a dinner party with friends, and the first thing you organize is:

The menu.

#6 Which motto defines your way of being?

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.” Melville. Moby Dick.

#7 Do you play to win at chess or play to enjoy the game?

Play to win, expect to lose.  

#8 What would no-one ever expect you to think before you enter an event, but you often do?

Get me out of here.

#9 What emotionally moves you more than anything else?

Animals.

#10 Describe yourself in one word.

Bemused.

Dilettante: True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster by Dana Brown is available on Amazon

LISTEN to the podcast conversation between Deena and Dana Brown on the rise and fall of magazine culture as king and living in NYC during the ‘90s