Providing some balance

In 2020, Dante Powell was mistakenly called the Kanye West of Des Moines. Appearing on a podcast after his relatively low-profile Twitter account, Kanye West Des Moines, went viral, the misplaced “of” gives off the wrong impression, especially given the more recent controversial behavior of Mr. West.

Still, the combination of the two, a braggadocios superstar rapper and the mostly-white Iowa suburb was funny to Powell, a comedian always looking for new jokes.

“The juxtaposition between West Des Moines, Iowa, and Kanye West is hilarious. More diametrically opposed items do not exist in the world,” Powell said. “For about a month or two, I would just tweet in the style of Kanye, but about stuff in Des Moines. So it’d be like I’d shoot out a tweet that just says, ‘Jordan Creek Mall? Michael Jordan never even played here. What’s that about?’”

Powell, known locally in Creston as Southwestern Community College’s transportation training coordinator and for some light trolling in Facebook comments, is also a seasoned comedian.

After performing across the country and becoming a staple in the Des Moines stand-up scene, Dante’s journey from Bernice, Indiana, to the heartland has brought him success and a connection to his new community.

Comedy and ego

Starting in 2014, Powell began regularly performing at open mic nights in Des Moines on recommendation from a friend. But, Powell considered 2016 the first year he’d consider himself a professional.

“I’m a professional because it’s like, oh, I have to keep up with this for taxes now,” Powell said. “I really need to consider, would I rather go to work this week or would I rather leave on Wednesday to go open with some comedian that’s going to pay me more than I’m going to make in a week here?”

Powell didn’t shy away at his day job from what he does on the side. In fact, building a communal respect between him and his coworkers helped him find the time to travel for gigs.

“You’d have managers who’d come see, and they’re like, ‘oh, you are really good at this,’” Powell said. “Then, it would be a thing where, ‘don’t use your PTO, just let me know if you have something going on. I’ll find you coverage.’”

Returning over and over to open mic nights, Powell said the positive reception helped build his confidence in his comedy. Crediting ego as what brought him back to repeated laughs and applause, Powell said chasing and constantly approving was addicting.

“You have this personal push and the pride and the ego,” Powell said. “Then money shows up and then acclaim and all that good stuff.”

If you need a CDL, call Dante

Powell and his wife Lauren both work at SWCC, with Lauren currently working as the Director of Assessment and Student Success. Drawing from his background as a truck driver, Powell now teaches others and helps his local community find new opportunities with a CDL.

While Powell says Lauren was integral to introducing him to the SWCC staff, Lauren saw it differently.

“He made a name for himself within the college,” Lauren said. “By 2025, the rest of the employees were calling me, ‘Dante’s wife.’ That’s how well he integrated himself into the community.”

“My wife now looking at me like, ‘Wait a minute, why does everyone on campus know you when I go there?’” Powell said.

Powell was a pivotal part in building SWCC’s CDL program, to the point where the SWCC staff had assumed Powell was going to take over once it started. Powell was initially invited to an advisory board where he would serve as a coordinator part-time, with one day SWCC opening a full-time position.

“I was like, ‘Oh, okay. Let me know if you ever decide to do that. I’d love to apply,’ thinking that I would just be part-time and they would hire someone else to do it,” Powell said. “And then they didn’t.

“They took me seriously when I would give them input. They reached out to me about what truck to purchase, all this stuff. And then before I knew it, I built out a curriculum for them. I had gone to Ankeny to do training at the DOT to be their first certified CDL examiner, and then they’re like, ‘we’re ready to move now.’ And I go, ‘Wait, seriously?’”

The decision for Powell and his wife to move to Creston, soon after having twin girls, came down to community. Working at SWCC offered a chance for Powell to find a connection he couldn’t feel when he lived in Des Moines.

“I was doing standup and working part-time at a trucking company as a trainer in Des Moines, but I felt no sense of community, right?” Powell said. “I was just there, and I would sit around the house some days and do nothing. I had no tie to the community.

“But now, I have an incredible balance. Every few months, someone will see me on campus and come up to me like, ‘Hey, why didn’t you tell me you were a comedian?’ And I’m like, ‘That’s not what I lead with. When I’m here, I’m the transportation training coordinator. Do you know someone who needs a CDL?’”

Creating a moment

Today, Powell still heads to Des Moines and other places to perform standup. At the moment, he’s a co-creator of Dante’s Comedy Review, a dinner theater show at The Ingersoll replicating the feel of late night TV.

Powell and his co-host Ian Pope perform a few monologues once a month, accompanied by a band called The Powell Rangers.

“God, I love those guys,” Powell said. “They’re incredible.”

Through this unique show, Powell was able to craft his own version of stand-up which sought to help audiences disconnect from their lives and embrace a current moment. Through comedy or connecting with others, Powell wants people to experience something special.

“We wanted it to be this cool thing that, when you came to it, you didn’t feel like you were necessarily in a place,” Powell said. “You didn’t feel like you were in Des Moines. You just felt like you were in a time. ‘Oh, this is what 2026 feels like.’

“What I’m trying to do is take what’s happening right now, where we’ve almost become an absurdist version of real life, and I want to bring some levity to it. I want people to be able to laugh at stuff, but I also want to — I use this word a lot, but — I want to give us some balance, man. We can’t always be fighting about everything all the time."

Powell, now a father to two twin girls Findley and Hanson, and working on his second comedy album, has made Creston a home with his family. In finding his own balance, he found a community.

“I just want the people who are here that don’t feel a sense of community to know it’s there,” Powell said. “You kind of just have to look around and find your people and go be with them, spend the time and effort to get to know those people.

“I believe in my heart I can make you laugh and hopefully I can continue trying to do that for the foreseeable future.”