Post photographer who moonlights as DJ Dennis the Menace to open for Steve Aoki on Long Island

It’s an image good gig for this Post photographer.

A paparazzo for the paper who moonlights as a DJ goes from breaking information to breaking out the hits this weekend opening for Steve Aoki on Long Island.

“I photographed weddings for 30 years, and in most cases, I would say the DJ stunk,” Dennis A. Clark stated of what sparked his second profession as DJ Dennis the Menace.

“The vibe wasn’t there, the DJ had his head down the entire time, doing nothing.

“I wanted to go change that. I dance with people in the crowd and make everybody have fun. DJs forget it’s our job to make sure people are having fun, not just playing music.”

Clark’s up-tempo fashion is a perfect match for Aoki, whose schtick is throwing cakes into the high-octane crowd.

The dessert and dancing will happen at a free Nassau County live performance at Eisenhower Park, the place doorways open at 5 p.m. on Friday, and Clark will go on at 6:30 p.m.

“My stage name is DJ Dennis the Menace, and I live up to it,” stated Wantagh resident Clark, 59, who prides himself on mixing stay and by no means pre-records his units.

“I’m going to give the audience a sugar rush before Aoki takes the stage.”

Clark has been capturing for the New York Post for greater than twenty years, documenting tragedies just like the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults and the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens — whereas mixing in celeb pics of big-name stars like Danny DeVito, Shaquille O’Neal, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan.

“As a photojournalist, I’m always chasing after people — but as a DJ, they’re coming to me,” he laughed.

Clark branched out to open an leisure firm as a aspect hustle in 2021, the place he acquired a crash course on trendy digital DJ tools, having solely casually spun old-school data on vinyl as a excessive schooler within the Nineteen Eighties.

“After my third lesson in 2021, my instructor said, ‘you don’t need me, you’ve got this,” he boasted.

Quickly, Clark’s popularity for large vitality and enjoyable for all preceded him.

By 2022, swanky Hamptons golf equipment began calling, whereas he was additionally spinning in big marriage ceremony and occasion venues, such because the overwhelmingly elegant 620 Loft and Garden at Rockefeller Center.

Adrenaline is not any difficulty when it comes time to take the stage, as Clark has beforehand flown with the Blue Angels, dove with sharks, and was suspended from a helicopter to {photograph} Trump’s Mar-A-Lago marriage ceremony.

“Still, you never get used to it; each rush is different in its own way, but you learn to thrive on it,” Clark stated, including that this weekend would be the largest crowd he’s ever had, because the 2024 present drew 30,000.

“If I ever wanted there to be a snapshot taken of my life, it would be Friday night.”