We Are Upstate NY With David Engel the Eccentric Clown and Family Entertainer

Playful, heartfelt and inventive, David Engel’s alter-ego Captain Nemo has been known to inspire audiences of 2500-6000 attendees. You can enjoy his next swashbuckling performance, “Captain Nemo’s Adventure Academy: 20,000 Laughs Under the Sea,” at our local Rosendale Theater at 11 a.m. on Sunday, April 14, 2024.

Hudson Valley-based itinerant performer David Engel brings 35 years of experience in classical theater, movies, TV, and clowning. His eccentric, absolutely memorable, interactive shows command exuberant, full-body laughs while also slipping in more cerebral, earth-honoring concepts and humor complex enough to make sure every age gets a boon.

David shares, “The overarching theme I strive to integrate into all my school shows (and my family-fun shows too, for that matter) is to help inspire in kids a more questing, curious, mindful desire to be part of our world and to be more tolerant of the living things we share it with, human and otherwise.” Inspiration, to be sure.

As for the upcoming show in Rosendale, what can you look forward to? In David’s words: “Essentially, it’s a laugh-riot marine environmental stewardship escapade where kids and their families are challenged to become “Guardians of the Deep!” There’s loads of comic action, bubbles, whale poop, brain and body competitions and even a visit from King Neptune himself! Did I just say “whale poop!?”

David, it’s time to walk the plank! But first… tell us about how you became a pirate and more of your rambling adventures…

INSIDE+ OUT Upstate NY: Where are you from, and how did you wind up in the Hudson Valley?

David Engel: I’m a native of Chicago and moved to Brooklyn sadly on the eve of 9/11. After I arrived in Brooklyn, I was a yeoman actor and variety performer with many grueling metro-area commutes. I had always loved the Hudson Valley while performing up here at Unison Arts, Mohonk Mountain House and Rocking Horse Ranch, and the area seemed like a magical, bucolic energy center. After meeting my wife (playwright Kaethe Fine) in 2016, we soon discovered our long-held mutual wish to live up here. We came up to New Paltz just to look at rentals and on a whim, we thought of checking out homes for sale. On our first trip up, we ended up buying the third house we saw!

Would your show be geared specifically for kids and if so, what ages usually respond?

As a family entertainer, my target audience is 4-10-year-olds, but I design my shows to have wide appeal. My shows are highly interactive and I love to have multiple generations engage with each other. It’s important to entertain the adults in attendance, and even the sullen ‘tweens and teenagers who are dragged along, to help reinforce that live theater experiences still have a vital place in our culture.

Tell us about your background in the performing arts, specifically with kids. How did you get your start?

How much time do you have? I started performing early, around 8 years old, creating Wild West stunt shows and clown acts with my best friend for all the kids in my neighborhood to attend (ticket prices were $.25!). As a ‘tween and throughout my teenage years I was a company member with the Piven Theater Workshop. We did Theatre Games and theatricalized short stories by Balzac, Maupassant and Issac B. Singer, utilizing pantomime and physical, creative dramatic play. This work had a huge influence on me, and it led to me performing some awful mime acts at local festivals and street fairs. At nineteen, I went on to perform street theater across Europe, meeting so many inspirational performers, and ended up living in Paris, where I cut my eyeteeth in European-style clowning. Coming back to the States, I ended my school years in conservatory training in ‘legit’ theater acting at Columbia College in Chicago. Here, I discovered an affinity for swashbuckling stage combat, which is essentially sword fighting. As a busy young actor, I was doing a lot of Shakespeare, Restoration Comedy, some TV commercials and waiting tables (which I hated). Finally, I combined my love of it all and created a pirate character to do children’s birthday parties, which were much more lucrative and eventually, I stopped waiting tables. My signature show, “Pirate School,” was born.

Do you consider yourself a clown? Our culture has some negative associations with clowns. Yet, they have played a complex role in many cultures socially, shamanically and psychologically. How does this relate to your work and identity?

Yes, I do consider myself a clown. Though, to be clear, there are as many sorts of clowns as there are sorts of lawyers. I am not a “Circus Clown,” nor am I a hobbyist clown often referred to as a “Yamma” clown. I am what is known as an “Eccentric Clown” or “European Style” clown. Think Monty Python or Mr. Bean, an outsized, odd-ball character based in reality. And yes, there are many misconceptions of “The Clown” borne of Hollywood and facile misrepresentations of the genre to a culture not used to the legacy or the history of The Clown. In a nutshell, Clowns came from a long lineage of truth-tellers.

From cave-dwelling storytellers to ancient shamans, from Greek Bacchanalias and the European Court Jester and traveling troupes, from Indigenous American tribes “Berdache” or Backwards people, to the social satirists of Burlesque music halls, clowns just never made it in a meaningful way into the fabric of our modern American culture. My theory is that the early circuses in Europe were intimate one-ring spaces playing to 200-500 people, and the clowns were the stars of the show. In the 1800s, Barnum and Bailey changed it with the hungry new American audience, giant tents with three or more rings and thousands in attendance. The clowns were relegated to change-over routines between acts. They had to use garish makeup and violent slapstick bits to read to the farthest bleacher seats. When the tradition of having a clown perform at a child’s birthday started in the 60s, 70s and 80s- the clowns kept using garish face paint. Still, they were three feet away, in your living room, which was scary. Also, comedy is quite subjective. Comedy is hard. Several generations of well-intentioned folk who thought just putting on a red nose and a colorful wig made them clown traumatized a lot of kids. Okay, that was a pretty big nutshell, but you get the picture!

Do you work primarily as a one-man show, or do you also work with an ensemble?

I am mainly a solo performer, but I wear many hats. Besides chewing the scenery, I am also my own producer, director, designer, prop-maker, marketing guy, driver/roadie, camera operator, editor, etc. However, I do love ensemble work and miss it. I have had many, many wonderful clown collaborations in the past. For example, duos with Hilary Chaplin (El Magnifico!, China) and Judi Ockler (The Pirate Circus, NY); David Woolley (The Swordsmen, Chicago) and Stephen Elliason (Punti Reversi, Europe). I also partnered with scores of talented clowns while performing at NY/Chicago pediatric hospitals with the Big Apple Circus’ “Clown Care Program.” These days, my greatest collaborator is my wife, Kaethe Fine, whose own theatrical and filmmaking experience is indispensable in honing ideas and developing content. She is currently co-producing my new YouTube channel.

What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of working as an entertainer for kids? Do you work with a particular age group?

Over 35 seasons of entertaining children and their families, I have definitely stored up a long list of “Hall of Fame” and “Hall of Shame” moments! Some highlights: Before shows, I love listening from backstage to the excitement building in the audience, remembering and refocusing on why I love my job. I’m fed by the energy exchange during a live performance, nothing but you and 2,500 boisterous school kids hungry for fun. On the other hand, since I started performing professionally back in the Jurassic Era, I mean 1988, I must admit to a growing dismay as I witness first-hand the effects of our device-riddled society with social media pressures on children’s attention spans and empathy. My audiences seem more impatient, distracted and perhaps more apt to misbehave since I first started. Some also seem less apt to interact with abandon. I encounter more and more audience volunteers who are wary of being ridiculed and thus don’t show up with gusto. It’s a shame.

Do you only work with kids or do you do other theater work as well? What is the largest audience you performed for?

I have been both an actor and a Clown during my career. I have played Hamlet, Macbeth and Titus Andronicus, among other classical roles. I’m proud of the commercials, film, and television roles I’ve had, as well as other regional theater credits. My last play was in 2008. Since then, I’ve turned my attention to being a full-time family and arts-in-education performer.

My largest audience was last November in Texas when I performed “The Science of Pirates!” at a STEM festival for over 6,000 kids. They had two jumbotron screens on either side of the stage and live-streamed the show. So I had 4,000 kids in the center section looking at me on stage and over 2,000 kids on the far edges of the music pavilion looking off at the screens. Ha! Who knew?!

What is the biggest misconception about your work?

That it’s easy to do.

What do you love best about entertainment as a teaching tool? What are some over-arching themes or metaphors you create for learning?

The overarching theme I strive to integrate into all my school shows (and my family-fun shows, too, for that matter) is to help inspire in kids a more questing, curious, mindful desire to be part of our world and to be more tolerant of the living things we share it with, human and otherwise.

I love doing my arts in education shows at schools and performing arts centers. It’s such an honor to be presented with so many eyes and minds to work with for an hour. I take the responsibility very seriously. I know that when kids laugh and participate in a theatrical setting, this jump-starts their investment, even if only for a short moment. But that moment has a ripple effect and perhaps, I’d like to believe, something sticks as they go back to their classrooms. Perhaps they may see their teacher in a new light, or the teacher feels more supported in their classroom by having attended the show. One hope I hold is that, in one or two years, the student has an “Ah ha!” moment of clarity or recall about a small detail and says, “So THAT’S what Professor Bones or Captain Nemo was talking about!” I personally have vivid memories of a musician coming into my kindergarten class and playing the piano. I remember sitting under the piano, feeling the vibrations and listening to him sing. This moment has stuck with me. It fed my soul as a kid, and I hope my work has a similar lasting ripple effect; even for one or two kids, it would be worth it.

You have a show coming up at the Rosendale Theater on April 14th and tickets are on sale now! What can theater-goers expect from this show?

Yes! It’s called “Captain Nemo’s Adventure Academy: 20,000 Laughs Under the Sea!” I’m very proud of this new show. Essentially, it’s a laugh-riot marine environmental stewardship escapade where kids and their families are challenged to become “Guardians of the Deep!” There’s loads of comic action, bubbles, whale poop, brain and body competitions and even a visit from King Neptune himself! Did I just say, “Whale poop!?”

I’m excited about this show as it represents a new direction for the Rosendale Theatre. Rob Lertner, who just started as the venue’s new managing director, is expanding their offerings beyond film. With Captain Nemo, he aims to bring more live, family-friendly acts and musical performances to the HV. I’m proud of his initiatives and glad to be performing in my own backyard!

And you are also a sailor! Tell us about this. Any pirate stories of your own?

Yes, I have been a sailor since a young age, having been lucky enough to grow up on the shores of Lake Michigan. I’ve crewed on a tall ship in the Caribbean, owned two antique wooden sailboats with my best friend, and launched a squadron of bathtub rafts. I’ve spotted whales off Puerto Rico, been given the side-eye from an angry Moray eel and voyaged down the Erie Canal. Pirate stories? I do have a few. One features boldly strolling into an active shipbuilding yard in Bayonne, NJ, in full pirate costume to actually plunder the SS Peking, a historic 300′ 4-masted steel vessel before it was shipped off to Germany. But I may have to wait until the Statute of Limitations is in full force to divulge details. Sorry!

How do you market yourself? Do you leverage social media to promote your shows, and how is that working for you?

I’m proud to say that up until recently, I have relied mostly on word of mouth and a sterling reputation to market my shows. I use email, postcards, Facebook posts and live showcasing booking conferences to book my own shows at schools, libraries, festivals, schools for special needs children and community events. I have an agent who handles my nationwide arts center shows. People may visit my website for more information.

What are you working on now that you’re excited about?

So glad you asked! The first is my new YouTube channel, which will launch soon with content for both general family fun and sensory-friendly communities. We will be launching with a treasure trove of short videos born from my self-produced web series “Marooned Together!” Think of a swashbuckling Mr. Rogers. The second project is a real departure from my traditional Clown work. I am developing a touring act that uses the works of Leonardo Da Vinci as its source material. A cautionary tale for the Anthropocene told from three perspectives: Past, Present and Future. It will tell a tale of the search for meaning and value in an age of alienation. By using life-sized puppets, animation, sound effects and shadows, the story unfolds from three different perspectives: that of a withdrawn 12-year-old girl, her exhausted dad and the great Renaissance inventor/artist/engineer Leonardo himself, who feels he is at risk of being forgotten. This production aims to highlight the personal struggles of the three characters as they intersect in an age of isolation, anxiety, and upheaval generated by our device culture and rampant social media. I’m very excited about this new adventure I’m embarking on.

What about the Hudson Valley makes it unique to live + work here?

There is so much creativity, beauty, and good food, and they are so close to each other!

What impact does your work have on local communities, or is there a particular far-reaching one that has touched you deeply?

I’ve been working in the NY metro area at schools for children and young adults with Autism, cerebral palsy, and physical disabilities. My particular style of “Play Therapy” has had a great impact on these kids and their caregivers and I am working to widen my presence to schools up here in the Hudson Valley.

What local businesses do you rely on to be successful?

I am a maker and LOVE P&T Surplus in Kingston and my local Beck’s Hardware store in New Paltz. I find all sorts of amazing little supplies and hardware for my jobs.

What is missing in the area that you wish we had?

A food truck park with Indian or Indonesian street food. Really, ANYTHING food truck would be welcome.

Which places in Upstate NY do you most frequent?

My wife and I are foodies, and we love to go to spots in Beacon, Kingston, etc. We also love the Field + Supply show and antiquing. We are also parents, so we are often focused on things our vibrant and feisty 13-year-old daughter wants to do.

Tell us something about yourself that people might be surprised to know.

I would like to be a firefighter and I would like to have more friends.

What is your current state of mind?

Feeling anxious but hopeful. Grateful for who and where I am and for the people I share it with.

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