- DAVID TABATSKY was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a
hardscrabble town in the heart of America’s forlorn industrial
sector. He began running and speaking in Warren, Ohio, and
spent most of his formative years in New England. As a child,
David developed a passion for impersonating Zorro and
Superman. In spite of these manly aspirations, he played the
role of Hansel in a first grade production of Hansel and
Gretel, thus whetting his appetite for the theatre. In the
summer of 1964, he portrayed Jonathan Banks in a full-scale
production of Mary Poppins, and the following year he played
the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. Both productions were
performed entirely in Hebrew under the direction of some of
Israel’s best theatre artists.
At the age of 13, David voluntarily celebrated his Bar
Mitzvah, a rite of passage in the Jewish tradition and
his introduction to the wild and wonderful world of the
buffet lunch. His own father, a Cantor and spiritual
leader of the community, taught him as only a father
can. It was, perhaps, the peak of David’s religious
upbringing. Growing up in the 60's against a
backdrop of war (Vietnam and Israel, to name just
two), assassinations and a shifting moral climate
challenged the foundation of most teenagers’ cultural
connections and David was no exception. However,
seizing the opportunity to leave home on weekends
and summers, David remained active in Jewish youth
groups (USY, LTF, Camp Ramah) on local, regional
and national levels. He organized conventions,
demonstrations and theatre productions. Somehow, David graduated from Manchester
Connecticut) High School in 1972, firmly ensconced in the middle of his class.
- David attended Adelphi University in
Garden City, New York, completing
his Bachelor’s Degree, cum laude,
with major studies in film, television
and radio—as well as theatre and
dance—with intensive training in class-
ical, modern and radical techniques.
During this time he complimented his
studies with work in a number of local
professional theatres on Long Island.
He performed in a wide variety of plays
for adults and children, exhibiting a flair
for eccentric character roles and high-
Medea, the Hobo in Winterset, Walter Mitty in Thurber Carnival, Brer Rabbit in The
Tales of Brer Rabbit, Owl in Winnie the Pooh and Injun Joe in Tom Sawyer.
- At the relatively late age of 21, David learned to juggle
three balls and began to study mime. This opened up
many new doors for him into the world of circus arts (as
well as women’s hearts), and he pursued both paths
with a passion. Pantomime and clowning became a
more flexible means of expression, and through
ensemble work, street performing and original solo
performances, David found more and more avenues
for work in New England and New York.
After graduating college, David moved to Hartford,
Connecticut, and worked throughout the northeast,
acting, performing solo, directing and teaching. He
received a number of local, state and national grants to
perform and teach acting, mime, clowning and general
circus arts at institutions such as the University of
Connecticut, the Hartford Conservatory, the City of
Hartford Public Schools, Wesleyan University and the
Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. While working under
a federal C.E.T.A. grant for performing arts, David
was invited to create and perform the title role in
Till Eulenspiegel, the tone poem by Richard Strauss,
on a custom-built stage with the Manchester Symphony
Orchestra. David performed and produced a series of
shows at The Hartford Stage Company and The
Protean Theatre, including Catch the Comic Dancing,
A Throbbing Heart & Other Love Muscles, Is the World
All F!?!ed Up?, Sex, Clowns & Politics, and Why is the
Sky Blue & Other Major Mysteries.
In 1981, David ran a strangely successful campaign for Mayor of Hartford. Although he
technically lost the election, his political efforts—and satirical entertainment along the
campaign trail—helped produce Hartford’s largest voter turnout in history. Despite
losing the election by dubious means, David departed Hartford with no discernible
wounds or hard feelings and headed for the concrete pastures of New York City.
- David attended the Actor’s Institute on Fifth Avenue at
19th Street to work with the renowned Dan Fauci and
studied movement with the legendary Bill Irwin. Just
two months after arriving in town he performed solo at
The Newfoundland Theatre. David subsequently
became very busy in the New Vaudeville scene and
participated in the first New York Clown Theatre
Festival, hosting an evening of shorts. He performed
with ensembles such as The Bond Street Theatre
Coalition and The No Elephant Circus and toured
extensively with a partner, Bette LaRusso, as
Vaudeville Heaven. David also appeared solo at the
Beacon Theatre, Radio City Music Hall and Lincoln
Center. He teamed with Will Shaw to become a familiar
sight for New Yorkers and tourists alike, street
performing in Central Park, Demo Square in the West
Village and The South Street Seaport, as well as on
cruise ships in Panama and in the Caribbean.
Eventually, David returned to acting and played the
horse thief, Osip, in an Off-Broadway production of
Chekhov’s Platonov.
King commercial (to pay the rent) and enduring a few too
many Bar Mitzvah gigs—it was time for a change. David
traveled to Tokyo and, out of the blue, established a
career there as a variety artist, performing on the streets,
in theatres, hotels, department stores, festivals and
amusement parks––as a soloist, with his partner, Zip, and
as part of the traveling Noge Festival. He feels lucky to
have experienced much of Japan, performing throughout
the country and establishing lasting friendships.
The following year, David also lived in Paris, working with
the famed Fratellini Circus; and in southern Holland and
Amsterdam, performing in cabaret theatres. He also
returned to New York to perform his solo show at NADA.
David returned to America and Adelphi University, graduating in 1989 with a Masters
Degree in Educational Theatre, 4.0 G.P.A. (not to brag, but this is a self- promoting
website). He directed an all-female cast in a production of Waiting for Godot and
debuted his autobiographical solo play, Running in Place. During this period, David
taught Circus Arts at Bloomfield College in New Jersey and was the juggling and
clowning Instructor for the New York School for Circus Arts of the Big Apple Circus at
P.S. 109 in East Harlem. The following year, David taught Theatre and Circus Arts
and directed two productions for The Governors Magnet School in Norfolk, Virginia,
the first performing arts magnet school in the United States.
- In 1991, David went back to
Germany, where he had previously
performed in theatre festivals,
variete houses and on German
television—with astonishing results.
The Berliner Morgenpost called
David “a skilled juggler and an
effervescent comedian," adding,
"Tabatsky doesn’t joke. He tells
stories, like the ‘wild and crazy guy’
Steve Martin, with a deeper
front-page review, The Berliner Zeitung described his program as “an Oedipus drama
Woody Allen himself could not have directed any better.”
David made his home in Berlin, and began teaching
variety artists at die Etage, a professional training
school. He co-wrote, choreographed and directed
a family circus theatre piece, Taborka, which is still
running at the iconic Tempodrom. He also began a
run of solo shows at the Scheinbar, a landmark of
Berlin’s fringe theatre scene; the Bar Jeder Vernunft
and at the Chamaleon, the first commercial variety
house in the former East Berlin. He appeared there
in a duet with the celebrated clown, Hacki Ginda,
and in the long-running production, The Hotel
Show. David hosted numerous Mitternachtshows
at the Schmidt Theater in Hamburg, located on the
famed Reeperbahn, and worked there with two
ensembles. After his show at the Cologne Comedy
Festival, the Cologne Stadtanzeiger called David
"an extremely sharp satirist, a clown satirizing an
entertainer who would like to be an acrobat who is
really a reborn dadaist.”
Three Balls, How I Survived My Jewish Mother and Help! I Married a German) and
created Meschugge in Paradise, a multi-media piece inspired by mythology from the
Bible and how it intersects with modern television. He was fortunate to perform
these shows in the historic theatres of the UFA Fabrik in Berlin. He also wrote two
editions of What’s Cool Berlin, a comic travel guide and renegade dissertation on life in
Germany’s capital beyond The Wall. Both books sold out.
married. He and singer Ute Lemper had a son named Max, and moved to Paris where
their daughter, Stella, was born in 1996. In between changing diapers and driving Max
around in circles until he fell asleep, David performed in Paris at the legendary Follies
Pigalle, as well as the Theatre du Lucernaire, Theatre de la Potiniere and Les Bleu
Monteaux. (It is important to note that David performed in all of these venues without
the benefit of speaking anything one could safely call French. Yet, still, he succeeded,
which only goes to prove that the French know much more English than they let on; or
they are way more polite than their reputation suggests; or they were merely drunk and
nodding off and David didn't notice that they were using a laugh track.)
After crossing the English Channel in 1997, David thoroughly enjoyed frolicking
through London with two very young children and was fortunate to perform there in
theatres such as The New End, The Gatehouse, Southwark Playhouse, and the Canal
Café Theatre. He performed his original solo show, True Stories & Other Bullsh!t, to
critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Stage described David as “a
supremely skillful performer and a fine actor...he reaches levels which no other comics
have matched at this Fringe.” Ironically, immediately after reading that review, David
moved back to New York with his family. After performing at The Producers Club, David
decided to take a break from performing and devote himself primarily to parenting.
- For the next five years, David stayed home to raise his
kids while continuing to write and teach. He taught
theatre and circus arts at the United Nations
International School, Bard College, The Gene Frankel
Theatre, and for various public and private schools in
the metropolitan area through arts organizations such
as The Henry Street Settlement, Oasis Children’s
Services and Hospital Audiences, among others. He
became a guest faculty member in the Performing Arts
Department of Adelphi University, where he still
teaches clowning and circus arts and occasionally
directs black box productions.
David has wrote and directed a one-woman show, A Whole Lotte Lenya, starring
opera singer and orchestral soloist Linn Maxwell as the legendary Austrian icon, which
debuted in 2004 at The Gene Frankel Theatre in New York, and has since been
performed at Cornell University, Georgetown University and Yale University, to name a
few. In 2007, David wrote Standing in the Fuhrer’s Slippers, which will debut in 2010.
As a journalist, David has contributed articles and columns to the Sesame Street
Workshop, Parenting magazine and The Forward. Some of his editorials appear online
at Associated Content.
He was honored to be the Consulting Editor for Marlo Thomas' bestselling book, The
Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2: Your Turn! (Atria Books, 2006). He is also
completing a memoir on Japan, writing a children's theatre textbook, and creating a
new performance piece on parenthood, based in part upon his research with The
Fatherhood Project.
In 2009, David co-authored Chicken Soup
for the Soul: The Cancer Book (101 Stories
of Courage, Support & Love); and with his
one-of-a-kind colleague, Bruce Kluger, he
created the landmark book, Dear President
Obama: Letters of Hope From Children
Across America, which includes nearly 200
letters and drawings to President Barack
Obama from children in every region in the
nation. The collection was published during
Obama's first 100 days in office.
Equity Association and The Screen Actors Guild. He was listed in the 2005 edition of
Who’s Who in America. That, and a bottle of codeine, will get him to the corner of his
street, where he can currently be seen hailing a taxi to destinations unknown. David
lives in Manhattan with his children, Max and Stella.
- For more information, please take a moment to visit David's
website. Wait a minute. This is his website.
For more information, please take a moment to actually
navigate your way through it. And, congratulations on making
it to the end of David's biography.
It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
And, then he lost his watch.
To be continued.
