“Clowning,” is defined as “to do silly things and to dress in outrageous costumes in order to make people laugh.” But, Clowning for Christ is a ministry and involves sharing God's love more than laughs.
Meet Clown David.
Clown David, also known as David Kohn is a retired high school teacher and basketball coach and a parishioner of Good Shepherd parish in Columbia. David was not always a clown, nor was he always a Catholic. God led him by a convoluted path, from a Jewish upbringing to a Catholic clown.
David was born into a non-observant Jewish household in the Bronx, New York. As a child, he attended synagogue services on the high holidays, but neither weekly Sabbath worship nor daily prayers were in David’s childhood experience. He attended Hebrew school in preparation for his bar mitzvah, but states that learning about his faith was “more of a duty than an act of faith.”
In 1976, while pursuing a political science degree, David spent one year studying in Austria. There, he met Dorli Kisslinger. Dorli was a devout Catholic, and although David knew very little about Catholicism, he sensed a graciousness in her that was obviously derived from her faith. This piqued his interest. However, after his year was completed, he and Dorli parted ways. He returned to the U.S. to earn a master’s degree in education.
During this time, David had performed some clowning as a hobby, In 1981, after auditioning for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, he was selected to attend their prestigious Clown College. Later, he was selected to tour with the circus. This lasted for one year, until a knee injury caused him to leave the show. Still, the embryo of Clown David had been conceived.
David then began a teaching career, and he also reconnected with Dorli. A series of letters and phone calls culminated in her visiting Connecticut, and landing a teaching position at UConn. This also marked a period of spiritual transformation for David. Dorli’s faith prompted him to begin reading the Bible and, for the first time, the New Testament. Two subsequent events moved him to enter the Church.
He read a book about near-death experiences, Heading Towards Omega, by UConn professor Kenneth Ring. He explained that this proved to him, “Beyond a doubt that there is a God, there is a heaven and I needed to start doing something about it.” Then he and Dorli attended a weekend retreat where, at Mass, after witnessing the priest consecrate the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, he “realized that I too wanted to participate and receive God’s blessings.”
In short order, he and Dorli were married, and David was baptized. They settled in Salzburg, Austria, where they raised three children. There also, David started his Clown Theater.
Over the next 12 years, his clown troupe performed in more than 2,000 schools and his character, “Clown David,'' became known throughout Austria. His troupe also published
a book to teach English to Austrian children, My Clown Papi. The book sold more than 20,000 copies and the proceeds were used to fund “Kids For Kids,” which worked to grant the wishes of young cancer patients. David fondly remembers how this charity enabled an 18-year-old dying of cancer to realize her dream of visiting Greece. A few months later, her mother wrote to share that her daughter had succumbed to her cancer, but that the trip made her last days special. “I felt very blessed that God put me in that position — to be able to bring joy, not just during our shows,” David said.
In August 2022, David and Dorli returned to Connecticut, where he resumed his teaching career, until June 2018 when he retired. Their two sons live in Austria, and their recently married daughter, Emily, lives nearby in Connecticut.
David enjoys retirement, sculling on Columbia Lake and splitting wood for his numerous Holz Hausen (beehive) firewood stacks. He states that he is most grateful to God for giving him the grace to grow in his faith journey, and especially for putting Dorli in his life.
Clown David is also in retirement. David Kohn has no regrets and has left behind that chapter in his life. But, there is one thing he clings to: his clown trailer, which he shipped from Austria and now rests in his backyard. “Sometimes, I feel like Clown David was another person, but the trailer and a portrait of me as a clown that hangs in our living room remind me that Clown David was, and I guess still is, me.”
By Deacon Benedict LoCasto