David Shiner — David Shiner

From the Streets of Paris to Broadway

When I was a boy, Jerry Lewis was my hero. No one could make me laugh like he did. So, it was no surprise that in third- grade I chose to perform a clown act with my friend Todd for the monthly parent-teacher association meeting. I was the doctor, and Todd my patient. Our act started with him coming into the room with a stomachache. I listened and decided it must be gas and that a scalpel was the best course of action. I poked him and he exploded. We had hidden a balloon filled with flour under his shirt and it covered us and everyone in the room. We laughed our heads off and so did plenty of others—I was hooked! Making people laugh was my calling.

But it would be many years later until I finally realized how to manifest that calling. One day in the summer of 1980 I saw a mime performing on the streets in Boulder, Colorado. I was fascinated with his movements and the ability to create illusions like leaning on a bar and walking against the wind. Something clicked.

After working ten years as a carpenter the door to other possibilities had suddenly swung wide open. During the week I built houses and on weekends I was on the streets learning how to mime. In the beginning I was terrible, people would walk by and say, “What an awful clown.” I would never get more than five people watching me. One evening, out of frustration, I stopped a police car, opened its door and whistled for the police officer to get out. He played along as I frisked him, got back in his car and drove away. Suddenly, the street erupted in laughter. I had an audience. Out of desperation, an act was born. As I continued my weekend clowning, I was learning and there were many failures. I realized that stepping into another person’s physical space requires equal amounts of discretion and courage.

Eventually, I would end up on the streets of Paris for three years performing my own style of guerilla theater just because I had heard that it was the place to perform. From there, more and more opportunities opened. I moved on to CIRQUE DU SOLEIL and eventually a show on Broadway with the celebrated clown BILL IRWIN. We created FOOL MOON together supported by the brilliant music of THE RED CLAY RAMBLERS. The following years we would play FOOL MOON during the holiday season in New York and take it on tour across America and Europe. During this time, I never lost my yearning for CIRQUE DU SOLEIL and would wind up creating two more shows for them.

All of the combined collaborative efforts with the incomparable likes of Bill Irwin, Rene Bazinet, Stefan Haves, Cirque du Soleil, Signature Theatre, and many others, have unsealed a well spring of knowledge providing me with an endless fountain of creativity.

Our creative selves never die. Over the years, we simply start believing in the illusion that the well has run dry. But it will continue to be a font of ideas until our last breath. We just need the courage to drop the bucket deep enough….

David Shiner : Official Bio

AWARD WINNING CLOWN, DIRECTOR AND MENTOR

David Shiner began his career on the streets of Paris in 1981 and quickly established himself as an artist with a vision. He drew hundreds of spectators at a time to his own form of guerrilla theater. He incorporated audience members and bystanders – from grandmothers to children to businessmen and police – holding up a mirror to both the mundane and spectacular as an antagonistic yet lovable social commentator.

He then began performing in Europe’s most prestigious circuses, including starring in the famous German Circus RONCALLI and the Swiss Circus KNIE. Across the Atlantic, David became one of the original creators of CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, first as a performer in NOUVELLE EXPERIENCE and then as a director with the show KOOZA.

In addition to the circus, David also performed in variety theater and film. During the shooting of 1993’s SILENT TONGUE by Sam Shepard, David had the opportunity to act alongside Bill Irwin. From that chance meeting grew a collaboration that would last for over 20 years. Together, they created the Broadway hit FOOL MOON. The show won many awards, including a Tony Award recognizing its original, modern spin on vaudevillian comedy. The duo’s most recent collaboration, OLD HATS, had two successful runs in 2013 and 2016 in New York at the Signature Theatre under the guidance of Jim Houghton.

David has appeared on The Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Dick Cavett, and Regis and Kathy Lee shows.