# Donovan Strain

Donovan Strain (born November 22, 1985) is a stand-up comedian and skateboarder living in Los Angeles, California.

## Biography
### Skateboarding

Strain started the skateboarding-based comedy segment titled "Buttery Ass Mondays" on The Berrics, where he was credited for inventing the skateboarding tricks Grape Flip, and Double Grape Flip. The series ran until 2010 when it was cancelled and removed from the archives. In October 2013, Strain's "Buttery Ass Mondays" returned to The Berrics' archive, suggesting new episodes of the series would be made for 2014. On April 1, 2014, Donovan's series made a return to The Berrics with the newly titled series "The Donovan Strain Show".
In 2008, Strain participated in his first professional skateboard contest for the original "Battle at the Berrics" where he won his first round match against Sean Malto, only to be knocked out of the contest in the second round by Eric Koston.
He received his first signature skateboard with the brand Sk8mafia in 2008 before a split with the brand and receiving his next signature skateboard with City Skateboards in 2009.
In 2010 Donovan got involved with the Make-A-Wish foundation when he was able to help grant a wish for a kid from Florida named Alex that requested to meet him.
In 2010, he moved to New York City, where he hosted a video series on his own site MurkAvenue.com

### "It Was a Good Day"

In 2012, Strain wrote a post on the website Tumblr breaking down the lyrics to Ice Cube's 1993 classic "It Was a Good Day" deducing that everything in the song actually happened on the date January 20, 1992. This was picked up by news outlets including CNN, Daily News (New York), and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where Ice Cube commented "It doesn't make any sense at all, but it's cool". On January 20, 2014 Goodyear invited both Ice Cube and Donovan Strain to their Goodyear Blimp airport for a charity event to witness the blimp fly over south central Los Angeles reading "Ice Cube Says Today Was A Good Day".

### Stand-up comedy

Strain started performing stand-up comedy in 2013 at Flappers Comedy Club located in Burbank, CA.

## Sources

* ↑ "World Grape Flip (Flat) Flip Tricks Skateboard Trick". Skater Evolution. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
* ↑ "World Double Grape Flip (Flat) Flip Tricks Skateboard Trick". Skater Evolution. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
* 1 2 "Buttery Ass Mondays Return to The Berrics". Junkie Monkeys. October 23, 2013. Archived from the original on March 18, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
* ↑ "CURVEBALL « Hubba Wheels". Hubbawheels.com. March 23, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ The Donovan Strain Show Archived April 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
* ↑ "Battle At". The Berrics. November 30, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ "Battle At". The Berrics. January 18, 2009. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ "Skate Mafia Buttery Ass Board Skate Decks at Premier". Thepremierstore.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ "City Donovan Buttery Ass Skateboard Deck < Skately Board Shop". Skately.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* 1 2 "Make-A-Wish So Fla on Twitter: "Alex wished to meet skateboarder Donovan Strain".
* ↑ "Donovan Strain's Murk Avenue (2010)". NYSkateboarding.com. November 30, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
* ↑ "Thrasher Skateboard Magazine | Office Space". Thrashermagazine.com. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ "Murk Avenue, I Found Ice Cubes 'Good Day'". Murkavenue.tumblr.com. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ "Cali native Donovan Strain calculates exact day of Ice Cube's "Today Was a Good Day"". TheSource. January 21, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
* ↑ "Ice Cube Leaves Rap Fans Disappointed - FishbowlNY". Mediabistro.com. March 4, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
* ↑ "Apparently This Matters: 'Ice Cube's a pimp'". CNN.com. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ "Ice Cube's 'Good Day' is revealed: Blogger cracks music mystery, says date is Jan. 20, 1992". NY Daily News. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
* ↑ Christine Friar (January 16, 2014). "Ice Cube Actually May End Up on a Blimp - Show Clips". Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* 1 2 "Donovan Strain Shares His Analysis of Figuring Out the Exact Day Ice Cube Was Talking About on "It Was a Good Day" | Complex". Complex Networks.
* ↑ Trinh, Jean (January 20, 2014). "Photos, Video: Ice Cube Rides Goodyear Blimp That Says 'Today Is A Good Day'". LAist. Archived from the original on January 24, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
* ↑ "Flappers Comedy Club and Restaurant :: Burbank :: Claremont :: Comedy Workshops". Flapperscomedy.com. Retrieved March 18, 2014.