Teacher Turned Actor | David Howard Thornton | Life Story

all right ladies and gentlemen so we're we're back in the studio we got a different look today if you haven't noticed I'm feeling real fresh Manny fresh of all things as we're as we're rolling out you know what David this is our first virtual podcast like this in the studio where we're doing it over zoom in this capacity man so so I got to give you you know a nice bow and and praise you for that one so ladies and gentlemen I have what's the best way to describe this gentleman so let me tell you

his name first David Howard Thornton and yes if you haven't seen the movie terrifier or if you haven't heard of art the Clown this is the man that plays art the clown and that was in the terrifier that quite literally spooked or may have spooked what's the actual percentage of people that watch horror by the way I want to get to that in a second a lot of people in that film and I find it so fascinating that there's a human being behind that because you relate so well to a character now we're going to

be able to connect with you here David so God bless you for being here thanks for being here we're gonna have some fun together my man thank you thank you thank you happy to be here yeah yeah so in that case I mean obviously I heard a little bit about your story I was told that you come from a good Southern place in Alabama you did some teaching back in the day if I recall and I was told properly I always like to kick start these things was kind of giving us some story and some

background about what the journey entails to get you up to a point today and out of that for my listeners they know I always start to find some things that should Shuffle around and I'll pull into the conversation what I hear but let's start with that man tell us about your journey here yeah um like I you said um I grew up in Huntsville Alabama of all places um Rocket City USA my dad worked for NASA my mom was a retired uh special ed teacher and um I started off doing uh theater at a very

very young age just doing Church theater of all things which is kind of funny when you think what I do now but yeah so this is full circle thing for me in a weird way I guess you know because you know I did shows about a guy coming back from the dead now I come back from the dead in my own movies pretty cool yeah yeah yeah but totally different way totally different way but yeah um I I cut my teeth doing all that kind of um Church theater then I progressed to doing um uh

I guess you could say uh Community Theater because I was in Middle School I was bullied a lot and my mom wanted me to get out of my shell more and one my classmates to see my my funny side which they never saw at school um sorry I got a cat that just jumped up in my lap of course she always does this don't worry we have our own cat too so I know how you know those furry ones are yeah they ignore you until you you don't want them to ignore you and then they're

just like hey I'm gonna make my you know they sure do I'm with you my man so if you see a tail come up that's why there it is right there yep oh yeah there we go but yeah but back to this tale yeah I I was um yeah she just wanted me to break out Michelle more because I was so quiet in school because you know bullied all the time and and we did a a show called uh Mickey's Christmas Carol and she's like you should audition for that before your choral program you do

a great Mickey Mouse impersonations that want to go out for it and so I did and got the role and it was going great when we were doing the actual show and then things went wrong on stage like uh the set started falling apart thank goodness it was a made of cardboard but stuff like that happened uh we we had like uh the the the table for the Cratchit family dinner fall apart and shot the chicken over the audience and I was like maybe I just started making jokes when things would go wrong like oh

boy it looks like we're having fast food tonight folks that kind of stuff and you know I was in my element I had people just laughing and I discovered them like this is something I really love to do is I I love to make people laugh I and it for the first time that school people were laughing with me instead of at me and that was a great feeling and I won more of that so my mom's like encouraged me to get involved in the local community theater and start doing this more and that's what

I did and it kept going and going I did a lot of um children's theater shows as well as a lot of musical theater growing up in Huntsville and then I tried to be practical and pragmatic with my life because it's like you know as much as I want to be an actor professionally it's usually not a very stable career path and the likelihood of actually being a you know true success at it it's very very slim so you know I'd rather be able to support a family and all that and like okay I'll I'll

teach because I come from four generations of teachers in my family I I've always loved kids and stuff like that I said you know I could do this and I could do theater on the side so when I went to school I I got a degree in elementary education and then during one of my final years in school my mom unfortunately passed away from cancer and that just changed the whole trajectory on my life I I discovered you know there I I enjoyed entertaining my students more than teaching them I was like this is what

I need to do in my life powerful and yeah yeah and I called up my dad while I was doing my internship I'm like Dad I don't want to do this anymore and I expected the whole uh you know conversation it's like well you put all this time and effort blah blah blah blah into it you should you should still teach you shouldn't act and he's oh no he had the total opposite reaction he's like yeah your mom and I always thought you should act but we didn't want to tell you what to do with

your life we want you to figure this all out for yourself so you know go ahead and finish up your degree so you have something to fall back on at least but um after that go do what you want to do and see what happens and that's what I did I finished up my degree and I spent a few years there in Huntsville just um honing my skills doing more theater and saving up money then I moved up to New work in 2006. wow and you know struggled for over a decade waiting tables and doing

side acting jobs and I ended up um touring with How the Grinch Stole Christmas the musical for five years and that started really setting me on a good trajectory and then this little audition for this low budget independent film came up called terrifier and I was like hey that sounds like fun I would love to try to do some film work this might be a good way at least to get my foot in the door in the industry um I don't know if anybody even see this movie because it's low budget to pin film but

hey it's experiencing so I submitted myself for that and the rest is history wow yeah no kidding and I and I've in in my Studies have realized how connected and committed the horror Community is to that genre oh yes it's cult-like in a positive way yes though that's a direction I do want to go in shortly I want to roll it back to the moment where you said that your mom passed away from cancer so ironically my mom actually passed away from cancer too when I was much younger so we'll share that in a comment

so I understand yeah you you at that moment said something along the lines of realizing like you didn't want to do what you were doing anymore and in your case did your mother's passing shake you up to the point where you thought about life differently and realized it was better to live life now versus do it for somebody else like what was that pivotal inflection that made you start to think about life differently in her passing that switched right because I think if we can again in the purpose of the show people are living life

right now where they're not doing things that they enjoy or they're living life based on somebody else's Vision in somebody else's dream you switched it and went in the direction of what you wanted to do how can you help someone out there that's also thinking about going after their dreams or wanting to follow what is in their deepest desires and in their hearts do that for themselves David yeah I mean that's exactly what happened um my mom and I were very very very very very close and um that was our final conversation with each other

um I I had just finished doing a show in college that she unfortunately had a Miss because she was so sick and I had to come back home and my dad came to the show I was like you have to come home just finish the show we're leaving in the morning we got to go back home it's you you need to say goodbye and so that was like the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life and that was my final conversation with my mom I was the last person she was actually able

to physically talk to and um she really wanted to just impart her last bit of wisdom to me and um she said you know she had lived a great life but she had a lot of regrets a lot of things she had wished she had tried and she she was people hadn't told her not to do like she she always wanted to sing and she unfortunately had a a choir teacher when she was young but told her she had a horrible voice which was not true she had a beautiful voice and she come my my

grandmother was a professional singer and you know she was teaching my my mom that that one teacher ruined that for her and she'd always wished she had done more more things like that with her life and lived more and traveled more and she she told me she's like you know you've been given certain gifts that a lot of people don't have um don't squander those gifts that you're given and don't don't do what you think you have to do with your life because she knew I was trying to go into teaching just you know to

put food on the table and nothing more wasn't there for my own fulfillment but just to you know just for a paycheck basically which is like don't do what you think you have to do do what you want to do with your life and if you succeed you succeed if you don't you don't but at least you tried and you're not going to live a life with regret and you know I I that didn't totally click there in the moment you know because I had a lot of other things on my mind at that time

too but it was about a year later when I went back to do my internship in the schools and that that same month that I had just gone back for uh my internship my uh in a month's time my dog died my grandmother died um a friend of mine committed suicide and uh my sister married a homeless man that is now in prison for molesting little girl and so a lot of things all happened at once while I'm trying to be in work in my internship and my brain was just fried I was so depressed

so just just ugh I just couldn't think straight and I was making mistakes left and right I was just so just out of whack and it was bothering me I was like what is wrong with me it was that day I was I was sitting in my classroom reading story time for my children and I was doing all the silly voices for all the different characters and they were laughing and they wanted me to keep going but I'm like sorry guys we got to go on to math now um but tomorrow I'll read you another

story and I I went home that day and I was just thinking about that moment I'm like gosh that's when I realized I was like yeah I I really I really feel my calling is to entertain and bring laughter and joy to people instead of just teaching I could still teach in my own way but this is what I really I'm born to be an Entertainer this is what I'm supposed to do this is what I was put on this Earth to do and that that it was like the most freeing feeling I had in

my life where I especially after I talked to my dad I went to um my uh my Dean and the head of the department and all the other professors and had a big meeting with them and told them you know my my thoughts on it and they were all like yeah we we all think you would be a fantastic teacher because you know especially young the school systems especially need men in in the schools because a lot of kids need a positive male role model in their life but like but they also had seen me

in a lot of the shows I had been in in college and seen my talent there and it's like yeah you do have a a certain skill set that a lot of people don't have and as much as it would be a loss for the teaching profession this is your life and we think if you actually tried you could probably make it in the world too so go ahead and do this you can always go back into teaching they they were just just like my dad just like my mom's like yeah you go ahead and

give this a shot see what happens it was I had the full support of the whole entire college and it was it was very freeing because I walked out of there it's like I don't have to teach I can actually do what I really really want to do with my life and I just felt like the biggest weight had just been lifted off my shoulders I just felt so free and happy for like the first time in years since like my mom had been diagnosed with cancer and it it's it hasn't stopped since it's I

I think that's a you know the the when you said it at first I had the chills flush through my entire body with how you said it and I stressed the same thing with living without the regrets right doing the thing and knowing that when the time comes when it's the end that you're not thinking about what it Shoulda Coulda right and you just reinforce that now I'm curious about the decision to go from teaching you go to make the move to New York and now you're graduating from I'm not going to do this teaching

I basically decided to go pursue entertainment but now you have a new set of challenges right now you're moving to a new city and you have to find a way to integrate the I want to become an Entertainer on stage off stage film TV however it went but you also have to support yourself and Supply yourself with the means to put food on the table and stuff right yes oh yes how did you transition David from I have this challenge of teaching now I'm like it seems like you're moving closer towards the arena of where

you want to end up which is in New York and so you're going in that direction which I think is fantastic but now you have to overcome the well I got to do this job while I do this thing so were you able to merge the two or how did you tackle that new challenge in uprooting yourself going to New York and then making that the next phase of your life where you didn't beat yourself up again and and again I'm curious too so you know you know maybe compartmentalize these questions I'm not trying to

throw another one on top of you and the one I'm asking right now but with with the the now because I remember when my mom passed away I didn't realize I had all kinds of trauma because of it until I grew up a little bit and I was dealing with that and I got sober on it in hindsight I was like oh I was all messed up so you probably had some difficulties in orienting yourself because of the situations that happen maybe maybe not but if you wouldn't mind sharing what that looked like for you

to keep moving forward despite some of the difficulties that you were then moving into in New York love to hear your take on that yeah um that what definitely was a change because I had never pictured myself you know waiting tables or anything like that I like all the jobs I had done before that what dealt with working with children and you know I was a camp counselor babysitter all that kind of stuff and and I was like well you know I I need a career or not career but a job there's a difference I

think between Career and job job puts food on the table careers what you actually really want to do with your life but um I I figured you know working in the service industry especially with Food Services that's a job I could have that would give me the flexibility hour-wise to also do theater and pursue my career and that's why I started doing that first in Alabama and then you know that way I was able to save up money so when I moved to New York and then I got to New York I first started working

at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company there in Times Square so stays Times Square oh oh yeah as I I call it the fourth ring of hell but yeah you know I made a lot of good friends that way and um it gave me the flexibility so I could work during the daytime or or work at night time I mean and be able to audition during the daytime for whatever would come along and I was able to do that I did that for 13 years of different waiting jobs all over the city and I had you know

especially if I had to go on the road um sometimes I had one job for a while that would let me go go on the road for a few months and come back and I could still go back into waiting at that job and then um had others were like no we won't let you do that just buy I'm like okay fine I'll just find a new waiting job when I get back to the city right because you know you know you can't you know spit without hitting a restaurant here in the city it seems

like so right yeah so there's always jobs to be had there in that industry so and that's what I did I did that for 13 years waiting tables and doing the side acting jobs whatever came along and then terrifier changed all that but I was still even when terrifier first came out the first film I was still waiting table so that was a very surreal experience to be um being treated like you know crap I I work with people just being upset over not getting enough Ranch on the side of their salad or something like

that and then I go home and I'm answering fan mail at night yeah it's just like this is a very just weird situation to be in and I even had a situation one time where I had a table that was treating me horribly at work and then one of them recognized me they're like wait a minute you look familiar and I'm like yeah yeah I was like I'm in this movie called terrified like oh my God why are you here I'm like I gotta put food on the table yeah wow yeah and I was in

their whole disposition changed you know towards me at that at that moment but it was and then I started doing conventions and um that's when I didn't have to wait tables anymore because I I was making so much more just signing autographs at the conventions than I was waiting tables I was like oh this is nice I don't have to do this anymore now I can fully focus on my career and not have to worry about a survival job anymore which is even more free is just like oh that was the best thing in the

world did you have any Assurance when you went in for the audition for art that you were even remotely gonna get it or did you just kind of buy a whim say you know what let's give this a shot and get lucky in that sense or do you think it was some form of Destiny curious how you perceived that whole experience I I kind of feel like it was meant to happen I it was one of these very serendipitous moments because I had been up for about five or six different Broadway tours and final final

callbacks and they hit all fallen through for one reason or another one of them literally came down to it was for uh Peter and the star catchers between me and the other guy for bum break and it came down to a flip of the coin right Roger Reese could not decide between me and this other guy and I thought I had lost that coin toss and turns out I didn't but if I had done any of those tours I would not have been able to audition for art or film terrifier it was just that that's

it was just supposed to happen and it just I just randomly came across that audition notice I had seen the Anthology film All Hallows Eve where art was first introduced a few years prior and I love the characters like oh that's a great character I feel like that you know I would love to have a chance to play a character like that I think I could do a lot with that I think I could totally own that character and then it just happened I was like oh my God just a second oh my God it

is that character oh yes I I need to I need to do this yeah and I I you know went in there for that audition and it changed my life and I I actually left that audition that day which is very unusual for film I left that audition you know 99.9 sure I had the role because they asked me to come back in for a makeup test wow wow so right there this is great yeah yeah so I I felt like it was all supposed to happen that way did you feel like that was the

moment where you said to yourself I've made it like this all of the time and the energy and the loss and the waiting tables and the auditions and Road shows everything you think to yourself well this is a step in the right direction or because you didn't really know what the success of the movie would end up turning out to be right so you're kind of right no I had no idea I mean I was I was trying to be realistic at the time I was like this is a very low budget independent film I

mean we made the first film for 35 000 so it's like extremely low budget wow yeah so I was like I I mean I thought it was a great idea I thought the character was really cool I thought it had a great look and all that that was going to be a fun film but I was also just trying to be realistic I was just like yeah there's probably no one that's going to really see this and we had no idea that it was going to get the reaction to God and so it really it

really didn't hit me until we did our first convention and I saw you know people that had merchandise already of May I had people that at that convention got tattoos of me and people were dressing up as I mean cosplay and I was like oh wow this actually must be something this is wow and it just didn't stop from there and especially once the first film released on Netflix because we first just released it on DVD and a few streaming platforms and it was you know had like an underground you know following so there's like

a you know like an underground cult following and then Netflix happened and that's when it got to a much wider audience then all of a sudden you had you know different famous people tweeting about it or instagramming about it like a lily Reinhardt from Riverdale was instagramming about it so that got us out to a whole new fan base Chris Jericho was talking about it on his podcast and that it just started to snowball from there and I was like oh wow this okay this this is real then this is really real now yeah did

it ever did it ever occur to you that there was a difference in the fact that it was a non-verbal character versus a talking character and that did that affect your interpretation of that role at all or in your mind where you're thinking to yourself I don't care I'm going to play this guy as great as I can and I guess you know I'm more of curious in that world because you know if you get cast for an acting role you're you're speaking you're more front and center right your face is showing you're you're you

are who you are in character of the other person but in this case you're behind makeup the whole time you're playing a sadistic evil clown that's just ripping through and killing people and you weren't saying anything but you can totally see by your movements and your mannerisms the the the nuances and how you were doing that which in my homework and study of it was pretty fascinating but did it matter to you at all that it was a non-verbal character no not really though it was a total change for me because I I've always been

a voiceover um musical theater guy so like one of the first things I always did was build my character off of The Voice I I'd find out how the character talked and everything would basically fall into place afterwards the mannerisms the posture how he walked how he laughed everything would fall into place somehow where I set the voice and I didn't have that luxury with art and I had never done any horror before I had never had to do like real fight scenes where I'm actually supposed to be killing someone have to be violent with

me so this is a new Whole New World for me and I had never really done film work before either I hadn't done extra work but that's not the same it's actually you know day in day out doing heavy prosthetic work and having know where your frame is et cetera et cetera et cetera so I I had to do a lot of on-the-job training with it but um at the same time I I felt like this was going to be something I I could definitely do pretty well because because I I love the idea of

a silent character I I have a long long Lifelong Love of You Know physical comedy and silent film acting I I grew up on the greats like chaplain and Buster Keaton and Marx Brothers Lauren Hardy you know Three Stooges all of that I I my aunt gifted me a box set of Mr Bean videos when I was a teenager so I would sit there and just devour those I would watch them over and over and over and over and over and I'll just learn from watching him I'd learn from watching uh Jim Carrey and Doug

Jones and all those great physical Comedians and I and I had always wanted to uh play a character like Mr Bean and wait one of the silent mischievous characters and so when this opportunity came around for art I'm like oh this is this is that opportunity and this is a totally different way to do it instead of just being full on Comedy I can do comedy and horror at the same time and this is something that's never really been done before I mean the closest thing would probably be Freddy Krueger but he talks that's incredible

I'm curious about the the adaptability in what you just said of never having done it before you come from a background of being very voice focused and front leading with the voice uh comedy how did you and how I relate this is people are transitioning in life often and they go from one thing I think easily I guess you could say this is in the world of of I'm a professional and now I want to go be a business owner and I have to transition from an employee's mindset to more of an entrepreneur's mindset or

a builder's mindset and in your case you went from having done X so long and well to now I have to do this whole new type of a character completely unfamiliar to me foreign territory and at this moment I have to learn adjust how did you process that transition in terms of accepting it and doing it and training for it and taking it on with ownership so that it would turn out the way that it did David yeah well what I first did I I went back and re-watched All Hallows Eve because I Eric had

a good foundation right there with what Mike Gianelli who was the original art the clown I had a good foundation to start from so I was lucky in that regard I didn't have to totally create a character you know from scratch I had a good foundation so and and I just built upon what he had already set there for me and I I saw it as like you know he he didn't do a lot more of the the clowning physical comedy aspects of the Care side that's what I wanted to add more to the character

since he is a clown I thought that would separate him more from all those other horror villains out there especially the silent ones like Jason and Michael Myers and all those guys and so the comedy that that kind of aspect came naturally to me the hardest part for me was more of the killing is having to get used to um actually be physically violent with people and I was my first night was just a trial by fire because my first night on set was uh the scene in part one where I'm attacking Tara in the

garage when she's hiding from me and I I get on top of her I start you know stabbing her in the ankle then I get on try to gouge her eyes out with my thumbs and choke her and I was so so worried about hurting uh Jenna canell who played Tara and I was so concerned about that I was like I don't want to hurt her I don't I don't know this is a new thing for me but she has a long you know background with uh stunt work so she was like oh don't worry

about I'll help you through this and you know it's like go ahead and like write with the eyes you know go ahead and push your thumbs into my eyes a little bit you know I'll have my eyes closed but go ahead and apply some pressure it gives me something to work with and like are you sure I don't want to hurt you she's like yes please please just do it as like if if it hurts I'll let you know don't worry you know and I was constantly checking in with her and all that and and

I over the course of the film I started getting more and more comfortable with doing those type of things but you know I'm still like that to this day where i'm like constantly checking in with my co-stars you know as soon as we do something like are you okay are you I'm sorry if that hurt or anything like that but you know I I have gotten more comfortable with being aggressive when I have to be aggressive but sure yeah well because you in essence you have to be for the role right yeah and does some

of that protective I don't want to hurt you stem from some of those incidents you probably mentioned from the past as far as seeing and being around that type of thing and so you want to be more cautious around that oh definitely I've always been a very protective person I've always been a papa bear so so I I it's probably probably one of the the strangest things for my cast mates is here I am on top of them covered in blood and being scary one second they say cut and I'm like oh my gosh are

you okay I'm sorry especially like with the uh the flail that we use in both films that the whip where it has all the the metal instruments on it uh I mean we use we of course don't use actual metal instruments on it we have rubber ones but they still I'm still hitting the actors and actresses with that and it stings and sometimes they it might go off Target and instead instead of hitting the protective stuff that we have on might hit their skin and I'm like oh no I'm so sorry and I actually got

a taste of my own medicine in part two where um Lauren lavera's character uh Sienna takes it away from me and starts attacking me and she got me across the lip one time and I was like like same reaction I did to her when I would hurt her she was like oh my God I'm so sorry I'm like no no no fully Fair totally fair totally fair totally fair it's like it's like now now I know what it feels like and I am so sorry oh my God I was like how did you do all

of this I'm like but you know sometimes you are in the moment too and you're just It Might Sting or hurt in that moment but you're also using that to um enhance your performance too because it's giving you a real real reaction to go off of but you know you still I don't want to hurt anybody I try to avoid that at all costs yeah yeah now technically I'm curious when you said this you know the protective Papa Bear you know where does that come from is that something your dad was in the family that

you grew up around I'm curious where you where you generated that uh that part of yourself oh I'd say that's from both of my parents especially my mom I mean my mom was the one that wore the pants as a family I'll always be honest about that my dad's very quiet reserved man my mom was very very vocal she was always the one like you know fighting for whatever was the agenda at the time she was very it's right always right there she she would call spade a spade which is very protective for everybody and

and I also had that more because of my sister and my sister's mentally and physically handicapped even though she's 13 years older than me I was always protective her I've always I had friends in school even though I was bullied I like my friend Jeff he um has a lot of you know disabilities as well and I was people wouldn't you know mistreat him all the time in school and I would protect him and so it just comes from that I I don't like bullies yeah I I and I am always very protective of people

that makes sense absolutely can I ask you a personal question on that bully level because I think about bullying and I think it does a variety of different things to whoever is experiencing that um I think of the word hazing now too I think hazy is a form of bullying to some extent that that got kind of popular in the last decade maybe even when I was in you know Middle School and High School it was you know go out and embarrass people and put them through the ringers like they get to belong now to

the group or The Clique that you're hanging out with right but in your case do you think that the bullying put a chip on your shoulder to go out there and prove to the world to some extent that you were capable and that you were a fantastic funny young man that became the Entertainer how did it be how did it be come the thing in in your interpretation of it that you look at it as it did this for me or maybe it took you in a different direction entirely what would you say that that

was processed as it it did two things to me at first I mean it made me uh you know more conscientious of you know how I treat other people and you know you know how kind I treat people but you know it's like I I'm I'm like that to this day like I I am I'm a big teddy bear but if you are mistreating other people then that's when the papa bear comes out and I I'm like that on social media at times I will just tear into people because like I see how they are

and it comes around because like I didn't have people that would do that for me back in the day so I I get to be like that but also I would say yes I am it was a catalyst for me because I was constantly told by my peers growing up that you're nothing that you you'll never be anything you're a loser blah blah blah blah and I I was you know I think I was always somewhere in the back of my mind it's like I want to show these people one day I want to show

these people that I'm worth something that I can do something great with my life and and unfortunately um you'll see you're terrifier too came oh no terrified one came out back in 2018 I had my uh 20th High School reunion that fall and it was like it was a month after we released on Netflix too oh what a great timing oh it was fantastic you were the celebrity the star everything yeah it was great it was like this I have to go to this reunion now and so I did and it was probably one of

the most satisfying things is like it's whatever I think every bullied geek dreams of doing one day is to be able to go back to the that reunion and be like wow okay cool this is this feels good I I I I've done something and I'm showing these people but not in a smug way I just I just showed up and people were like oh my God I just saw you and I'm like ah thanks yes inside my head are going yeah that's actually something I really noticed at this reunion was that all the people

that were the quote unquote cool people you know the the Star Quarterback the cheerleaders and all those guys back in the people that bullied me put me through the ringer they're either in prison now or they just stayed there in Huntsville Alabama and stagnated they they're they peaked in high school that's when the best then they're still trying to recapture those days I heard them at the reading oh my God remember we did this and this and this and we scored that and that the game I'm like yeah our football team sucked what are you

talking about it's like no one went to the games because it's like we're always going to lose so it's like yeah but I noticed that those of us that were The Outsiders that were you know the band geeks acquired Geeks the theater Geeks just the Geeks in general all of us got outside of Huntsville Alabama and did cool stuff with their lives I had you know like we're we all showed up and I guess oh yeah she works for a senator in DC this person owns their own huge makeup business in Seattle et cetera et

cetera et cetera I'm like this is now I think all of us had that drive we were like yeah we don't want to just settle for this we want to get out there and show people that we we can do something yeah absolutely yeah what are we living for if we're not exploiting our fullest self right exactly it's like we we weren't complacent with where we were in high school we wanted better than that and I in a weird way I it seems like that the bullying that I endured back in school is what helped

put the fire under my butt to do more with my life and you use it for good I mean you used it to go out there and do the thing that you were gifted with that's fantastic because some people could take it the opposite direction David right oh yeah oh some people can a lot of destroy them I've seen that happen yeah I mean I saw that same thing happened with a lot of my friends I had lost parents I still saw them get into drugs and alcohol and just go into a total downward spiral

that was me before I got sober trust me I know that path oh I I almost went that path I I was very angry for about a year and a half of my life until I decided to do this instead and it was like I saw myself going down that path and I saw it and I was like I I can't let this happen to myself that this this is that would be the biggest disrespect to my Mom's memory if I let something like that happen to myself I feel like we're spiritual Brothers man because

exactly what you just said is exactly when I got sober and I realized I had a second chance at life and I didn't get killed in a car crash driving drunk 300 times a year over a decade you know it's like I was spared to do something great and my mom passed away she only lived the 32 I would be just the same exact thing you just said is I would be disrespecting the fact that she lost her life it's time to do something spot on you're right on with that man now let me ask

you about that angry thing because I think that you know even for me sometimes Katie would probably tell you listen I'm a good man however I do have I think buried depths like really really deep levels of anger in there sometimes and sometimes it definitely comes out and I'm like damn that's not who I wanted to be in that moment but I got to get better yeah how do you deal with that and do you well I guess I should say maybe you don't but do you still feel that there are I would say eruptions

of of that emotion at times based on some of that that previous time frame in life that where that anger does come out and you have to figure out how to navigate those Waters oh yeah I I have more of those eruptions more on like social media than I have in like you know day-to-day life and like I said those those moments only become because I I see an injustice I don't I just do not like injustices I don't like seeing other people being mistreated and ostracized for just being who they are and you know

that that sets me off sure that is a trigger yep I guess you could say and yeah sometimes I've said a few things maybe I shouldn't say but it's like it's I I'm like my my mom I was like I I'm I have a very sharp tongue at times yeah sure and it's like yeah I I shouldn't have said that but at the same time I'm I'm standing up for what I think is right okay yeah yeah so I was like yeah like I'm like yeah I I too much like my mom at times I'm

like yeah but yeah sometimes things need to be said too so it's just like the important thing is I'm not lashing out with fist or violence and that's that's the more important yeah you're defending what you've perceived as the mistreatment which you believe dearly and nearly to your heart and therefore you almost feel like it's your rightful Duty and obligation to defend for whatever reason that's that's fine and that's that's your responsibility that's fantastic I heard you say something that uh today you've mentioned it when I was doing some homework I also heard it but

you you call yourself a geek no I think I think that's great right and you know however one would Define the term geek it's almost like the way that I translate that is just being yourself and understanding like hey you you might not be and again this is subjective but socially Norm right like what does that even mean you know fitting into a different type of crowd well there's crowds for everything right so yeah in your case David how have you embraced the the inner geek of yourself and allowed yourself just to to Showcase that

to the world where maybe in this you know this is a a bolt-on question maybe you it it did affect you to some extent but then at some point you realize like what do I care what other people think because I think that's another big thing the world suffers from nowadays is too much consideration of what other people think of them right the judgment and all those good things but definitely you're you're you're you seem to be swimming around in it floating and having a good old time oh yeah and your inner geekness right well

I I think right now is a better time to be a geek like when I was growing up in Alabama that was not really something you really tried to show to people because you know especially there in Alabama in the 90s early 90s so that was all about you know football football you know sports sports sports sports and if you weren't obsessed about that then there's something wrong with you yeah I was all big into you know cartoons and musicals and and comic books superheroes and you know all that in video games I love that

kind of stuff and and that's the funny thing is I I discovered so many other people were into that but they were just afraid to say it back then and now it's it's a time where you know comic book movies are a Mainstay right now video games are mainstream now so it's it's okay to be a geek and it's like it's it's okay to be more of an individual this day and age than it was bad growing up which I think is a wonderful thing there's a place for everybody and I'm so happy to see

that I mean yeah there's still some areas that we're still working on as a society when it comes to certain groups of people but you know it's it's a lot more inclusive now than it was I think growing up so it's it's it's it's okay to let your geek flag fly this day and age which I think it's a wonderful thing yeah do you have any uh words of advice uh advice what did I say was that advice I was trying to say I'm trying to say advice ladies and gentlemen words are hard I have

verbal dyslexia advice have to over over um exemplify it there right so what I was trying to say was do you have any advice for maybe stepping outside your comfort zone in terms of you know you you've you've got yourself classified as a b or c category but now I'm like you know what I'm gonna go over here and see if I can hang out with this crew just because maybe it's going to challenge me a little bit I'm wondering just your perspective on that yeah I would definitely say go ahead and try I mean

that's always try try new things because you never know where it might lead one day I mean I I started off doing the typical things as a as a boy growing up in Alabama I was playing sports I was playing soccer and t-ball and doing Taekwondo and all that as at an early age and I was like yeah I was like most people that know me now is like what you were a jock as a kid yeah I was doing all kinds of Athletics is it then I was like I started like oh wow this

my mom and dad were on all the church theater and I got cast in a few of the the choir shows and I was like I kind of like this so let's see how it goes and it changed my whole life I'm like there was a time where I had to choose between you know keeping on with with Taekwondo or theater because I I was having to go to uh you know my my lessons five days a week for Taekwondo because I was getting higher up there in my belts or I would have to go

to rehearsal two or three times a week and I was like gosh which one do I really enjoy more and I'm like well you know hi condo is great and all but I don't see oh you know whatever I also have to pay for those lessons every single time right theater I I feel more comfortable with these people yeah these these I I really enjoy this and I think this is really where I need to be this is this this feels like my tribe I guess you could say and so it's like I'm gonna do

this instead but you know I wouldn't have known if I hadn't tried right and I I'm still like that this day and age but I'm still trying new things I'm like yeah it's like okay this opportunity doesn't come along every single day might as well try it see if I like if I like it I do if I don't I don't that's hey at least I tried have you just never know what might take you yeah so true I believe in that too have you found yourself in a different set of regimen in terms of

now being in the world of entertainment and having done the film like you did does does your now daily routine change to be more focused on leveraging the fact that you had the successful movie with art and then going to try to get more and and how does that influence you know things from what they were like before to what they look like today and moving forward oh yeah it's definitely a lot different now uh you know back then I would just basically complacent I'm just going and waiting tables in day in day out same

thing day in and day and I it's like I can't stand this anymore um but now I'm like you know I I have to set aside time every single day to answer you know messages and stuff like that from fans and all that kind of stuff having to be more self-conscious about that kind of doing doing videos from time to time um you know promotional work all that kind of stuff but not I'm also having to uh work out more and and decide all right this is something I just learned about myself during the pandemic

of like oh wow you know sitting there I I started to gain weight I'm like I can't gain weight I got I gotta stay nice and trim for art so I'm like yeah I gotta start exercising now that's something I really hadn't done in years I'm like yeah I got I got changed my regime here and started taking better care of myself because I'm also getting older now and ah God he hit 40 everything starts to go get out of whack I'm like oh this sucks so you know because I want to keep doing what

I'm doing I I so that's yeah there's a lot of things you're I'm always having to adapt and just you know change my my regime which is which is a little bit hard for me at times because I um enough Katie told you this but during covet I learned that I am on the Spectrum and I that's one one of the traits of someone that's on the spectrum is being very you know um I guess routine oriented I I'm so used to doing the same thing day in day out you know I I have breakfast

at the same time lunch at the same time I wake up around the same time to shower at the same time it was like that's what makes me comfortable and I'm I'm slowly having to train myself like sometimes you have to break that what you what you're used to and start doing new things and you know I'm I'm getting better at it yeah yeah that's amazing when you say because because I hear this a lot the Spectrum right so like what's the experience for you as the individual when that comes to life when you realize

that you hear that is it you're you're you feel like something's off therefore you go and you see a doctor based on something that you were experiencing and then they say oh hey by the way let's give you this test and then they they pull out a report and they tell you oh here's where you are I just don't understand enough about what that means and I guess that's where my curiosity comes from in asking that question of what does that mean when you say hey I'm on the Spectrum okay and and not to be

or sound like a jerk because that's not what I'm trying to come from but what does it mean it yeah it's it's actually a really hard thing to Define it's it's it's because you know that that that's why it's called the Spectrum but it's just so it's so vast it's so varying and it's like I'm high functioning but it's like for so much of my life I was always kind of beating myself up I'm like why am I not like other people why do I get so I'm so socially awkward at times and I get

I get upset over you know my my routine changing like my mom always had to explain to my dad you can't change plans on David at the last second you have to prepare him in advance because he'll freak him out because I I every single day I have my whole next day mapped out I'm gonna do this this time this is this time this this time this this time and it's it's it's you know it's just one of those things I was like why am I like this why am I like this and during the

pandemic I just had a lot of good self-reflection time I was like you know what I'm gonna finally see you know because growing up no one knew about autism or anything like that and I'm like you know what I I I I think I might be on the Spectrum let's take some tests and stuff like that that's what I did I'm like oh everything was come back yep yeah you're definitely on spec I'm like wow okay and my roommate um and she has a degree in a uh psychology and it's like oh wait you didn't

know that he's like I diagnosed you in the first month of living with you because you could do this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this I'm like yep wow but the same time I found to be very freeing to find out because I'm like oh this is why I'm this way and now that I know I'm this way I can find ways to adapt and change certain behaviors and to to improve myself which is it was very frame thing because I know some some of my friends when

they found out they it was like a a found it to be shameful or something be embarrassed by I'm like oh no I I'm I kind of wear it like a badge now and like yeah this is where I am and like I I occasionally when I'm at the conventions I have fans that come up and they're a little bit awkward when they come up and they hit polish like I'm sorry I have autism like hey that's cool I do too and I I like to let them know that I am on the Spectrum as

well because I I hope it maybe in some ways can you know can encourage them yeah to yeah to like oh wow you mean I can do it because yeah yeah yeah that's great because you have autism doesn't mean you can't do what you want to do with your life you just have to learn to adapt yeah using your platform for a good the I mean it's the same thing for me when I it's like I read a lot of books on trauma especially right now I've got a couple that are right next to my

desk and I'm I'm actively studying a lot of that and you said the same thing that I always say where I just want to know like I mean when you do the work and you get the you Source the answer to the question you've been asking it's like oh why is it that I act this way and you're like you're on this quest to figure out what it is and then you find something then almost like you have a sense of relief inside your mind you're like oh my God that makes so much sense and

then it gives you a peace of mind and you're like okay I can check that box off so I think in in indefinitely a lot of us at least I know myself I'm always on that quest to figure out sort of sourcing but I also don't want to live there too much because if I try to Source myself I'll always live backwards which I don't think is healthy but I do think for a lot of us if there's these uniquenesses about us then I think sometimes it's worth exploring to figure out what we can discover

now yeah obviously you know being um being such a iconic clown in the movies it's it sounds funny to say it's even funny to say right like oh a killer clown by the way I remember I grew up watching Jason I think I'm oh yeah I think I'm traumatized from all the horror movies I watched as a kid which is probably deep unconscious stuff but aside from yeah I understand the importance of like oh my God Jason if I met Jason in person like you're Jason wow that's cool oh Kane like I I know several

of the jasons oh really yeah yeah I was just hanging out with Kane Hodder this week in it the convention I was at we had a panel together which was oh that's awesome awesome and they're all the just like especially him and like uh Ari Layman who was like the first Chase and he's like the Jason and the water that comes out and the kid yeah yeah and then uh CJ Graham who was Jason in part six and they're just the coolest guys biggest teddy bears you'll ever meet Kane's hilarious too he is such a

funny guy that's cool man that that's taking me down memory lane there man I mean I'm gonna have to go check my mind when I get out of here so I don't start having flashbacks I think about what it takes for you in in the context of what you just shared with me and a lot of what you just revealed about yourself you know and your personality geekiness and uh Spectrum Discovery and your self-reflection which you know I certainly appreciate how you've shared that with us and then Translating that to sort of the behind the

scenes world of making a film right David where you're you're required to collaborate and and and be creative in the same space with a lot of other constituents that also have a role in intention and directions from a director so how have you found it to be a better collaborator in those environments that aren't as familiar and without the necessary I would say necessarily the tools that support someone that's just so easily makes collaboration happen how did you find a way to make that work where collaboration was something that uh it came together and look

what became the product of it right a fantastic movie that everybody loves so what could you talk to about collaboration well I mean I I think we're very lucky with uh with terrifier in that regard because it it is a very collaborative effort it was I mean Damien Leone he was the director writer Creator does all the Practical effects himself he's a man of many talents he's he's very open to other people's ideas he has his own ideas he knows exactly how he wants certain things to look he's a brilliant brilliant man in that regard

but he also is willing to play around and experiment and see if there's other things we can do with the scene which I I really love and that's that's something we discovered um together during the first film just early on when we're doing the uh Pizzeria scene because he he there's this one bit where he just wanted art to make a bunch of faces at uh Tara and he he just set the camera down he's like I'm just gonna let the camera roll just feel free to make as many faces as you can think of

and we'll just see what we work with and I ended up sitting there for about five minutes just making tons of faces just playing around and he just forgot to say cut because he was just so busy watching what I was doing he's like oh God cut cut cut cut [Laughter] so I was just gonna keep going until you said cut so that's a pretty rememberable scene yeah yeah and that's what we we that's where a lot of like where we discovered where we're to go with this character came and play is like like when

I got up just to walk to the bathroom how I just hopped up and walked off on my Merry way he he says you know that he would have never thought to have art do stuff like that he would just had artists do a normal walk but I had a little pep in my step a little cartoonish walk I did he was like very well he's like wow and he's like let's keep working on that and you know that's something we're always looking at like you know there's always a fine line that we have to

walk with this character because it can get too funny and too campy wow and so we'll sometimes do different takes on the scene like we'll do the take he wants like the very serious scary take and he's like okay now Dave why don't you do it this way Do Your Own Thing with it see what we can come up with in the moment and we'll see what works best and you know sometimes it makes it in sometimes it doesn't and it I got it another great example that was the costume shop saying in part two

where um he he wrote about how the the scene was going to go and then when I get to all the props over there with the glasses and all that fun stuff he just basically wrote Art plays with uh props around him he's like we're just going to discover that all when we get there on sets and I went down this whole entire rack of glasses all these different pairs of glasses did different things each pair of glasses had whoopee cushions noise makers all that kind of stuff around me I was just playing with and

he's just like just just play just play and you know we'll we'll see what we can do with what we have and then he just had the the fun part of having to edit all that together and yeah that's fun it's fun but other times he knows exactly what he wants me to do down to the very facial expressions he wants to make like uh when I shoot Tara in the in the first film he's like I don't want any expression on your face whatsoever no emotion nothing just dead eyes just dead cold eyes no

smile nothing no frown just stone cold just no expression I was like okay cool or like um the scene where I'm just standing there Frozen for a bit I I didn't know what the heck he was wanting me to do I'm like this seems so weird he just wants me to freeze and then pounce forward and I'm like this seems so weird but okay don't get what you're doing then you know he showed me or not just trust me just trust me that he edit it together and showed me I'm like oh my God I

totally see what you're going for yeah but he he knows what he wants he knows how things need to look he's just like and we just have a mutual trust in each other and I I think that's we collaborate very well with each other sure so in essence I think what I'm hearing out of what you're saying is this there's a there's a respect and there's also a chemistry in in how you execute the different scenes and and their respective roles to to have a safe space to try some things out and then in the

background you edit out what you don't like and you bring together and give it life to what you do it's that's like probably every actor's dream type of director to work with he's so actor friendly and it's wonderful because I've had directors some directors that don't give me any direction at all and I'm like so um you have any notes or anything like that that's like yeah just do it again I'm like okay anything I can because I like to play and I I like to hear other people's ideas and see what because sometimes people

think of things I thought of I'm like oh that's a I'm like let's try that take on it and let's see where that can lead us and stuff like that and so I I like some Direction but then I get other directors I've had in the past where they micro direct every little thing you do down to like okay I want you to raise your eyebrow on this line and do this here and I'm like then you feel like you've had no creative control over your character whatsoever you just feel like a puppet on a

string so long to our time so like this the the relationship that Damien has with his actors is just wonderful because he's it's not with just with me he's like that with all of us on set he's just very open to what our ideas are and just playing around see what we all could come up with and I I and it makes for a fun set to be on and I think that always translates very well to screen as well because you can tell when you you're you see some films where you can like okay

they had fun making this totally you can just tell yeah and well that and that that right there the fact that there is participation from all the other actors and actresses allows you to be yourself more which in essence would translate to better performance at least how I see it same thing it's it's eerily similar to what would happen in a professional environment where you have a boss that micromanages you and you never have the option to do something you enjoy versus the boss is like hey you're talented I know what you can do let's

see it and they're like oh all right let's go do it right and the next thing you know is the star performer comes out so that's fantastic I a couple more questions and then we'll we'll bring this thing home we pick a lot about the the option because I've heard this before it was a guy that I studied that also was a top sports psychologist and he at the time referenced a scene or I shouldn't even say a scene the movie rain man and he referenced Dustin Hoffman playing Rain Man and then I believe he

was talking about this I'm talking about the sports psychologist was talking about how Dustin Hoffman was talking about how he played the character so well he became the character and I say hmm that's a pretty gnarly place to go and then I started connecting with other people that had been in and around the film TV acting industry and some of the other people that were playing at a high level also said something similar where they play the uh the the the parts so well that they end up turning into that person right or that character

so I'm curious on your mentality of not letting yourself go too deeply into the freak zone of the clown or the evil zone of the clown and not letting that infect you to an extent where now you have this like other odd things that are going on in your life because you did such a good job of playing that character how would you speak to that it's never been an issue for me that's always I can easily just put art aside I mean like I I've I say the closest thing that I have the artist

my sense of humor okay and because I put a lot of myself in art that way but sure the the vicious you know horrible and vile side of him that's not me at all and I I can easily hang that up and I think that just comes from my stage days of where I would play multiple characters in this and in a show like when I did the 39 steps I played 30 characters in the show I sometimes have to argue with myself on stage as different characters and so you you learn how to just

slip in and out of character when you need to and it's you know that's you just hang it up when you're done sure yeah yeah you make it sounds so easy that's good by the way just being able to separate yourself it's like you do one thing for half the day you shut it down you go to the left you turn on the next part of the day and you do the next thing in the day right almost in parallel okay that makes sense I do my homework before I like I I've discovered who the

character is before I come to set and I know where they are and I can just pull them out of the bag when I need to do that and then I put them back away is this sure it's probably a weird thing for my my co-star to see because we'll be like that on set I'll be goofing around doing silly voices and they're like okay rolling and then I'm also I'm just yeah outcome the evil eyes and I mean I had a few times we're like oh god there he is that's awesome and as soon

as they say cut them just like hey sure sure in the in the spirit of of the community the horror Community what makes them so awesome and so die-hard and connected to the genre and the film and all of the creative that that make it so spectacular I mean it is a they're evangelist right they just go all in on this lifestyle and so why do you think that is and what makes them so great I I think they they it's I I think a lot of of horror fans are like how I was or

they you know they were The Outsiders for a lot of their lives they were the bullied and it's it's kind of a um a survivor mindset he's like they they identify with these movies because it's it's empowering in a lot of ways whereas it's good triumphing over evil you see you have these people to go through these horrible ordeals and then they come out at the end they defeat this horrible evil and it's a very cathartic thing and it is something we all can relate to in a weird way it's like yeah we've all survived

something I I think that's part of it and it's it's fun and yeah and plus we also know it's all not real it's just like it's over the top and crazy and fun and a lot usually the characters that are in these films are very um fun and charismatic character especially like people like Freddy Krueger or Chucky or stuff like that so it's it's I I don't know it just I think it just draws in all all types because everybody's afraid of something that's fine and it's it's always fun to try to overcome those fears

and I think these horror films help you overcome those fears it helps you deal with your because you're like yeah my life sucks but hey it could be a lot worse I could be this person right now being hunted down whatever time I try to sleep this guy comes at me in my dream to try to kill me yeah yeah talk about playing on the imagination and what a great answer by the way to start that with with the idea that uh you know that that you all kind of shared in that that type of

a lifestyle at some point I think about I have a mentor mine that always talked about how and I get it now I me Manny can go to a movie and sit down in in a theater or watch it at home and get so caught up in the story because it's so well written I forget that it's manufactured you know and that it's it's it's not real like I I know somebody is writing that directing that acting that part and it's made for entertainment purposes but you could get so wrapped up in it that you

lose yourself in such a great story that you forget that it's manufactured I thought that was fascinating when I read it very much so I'm special like that with books if I get into a good book series I I feel like the characters are real and they're part of my life and when something horrible happens I'm like oh no God I get depressed wow like it's just a character so this this person's not real that just goes to show you how much influence can be had on you uh by by talented people I think that's

a very yes it's a powerful point the what's what's uh in in honor of the name terrifier uh and I and and the genre of Horror is there anything that terrifies you at this juncture in your life or that you're horrored by or scared of type of thing I I'm it's a very uh a fear that goes just back to my childhood I don't like dark voids like I I have to have all my doors closed I have to have the you know closets closed all that kind of stuff what I go to sleep at

night because I don't like looking into a Dark Void because I know it's so irrational but there's like that part of me is I'm always expecting to see some eyes looking out at me or something right that's why I I that's what freaks me out is it's like that on tornadoes tornadoes scared me too because I was in a tornado when I was a kid and it's like that that kind of scares me yeah down in Alabama yeah wow all right very cool I appreciate you for sharing that um all right man so you know

we're we're near here so I always uh I always say always I think sometimes I do sometimes I don't but depending on how the conversation goes I always like to pass the Baton back to someone like you and say hey is there any additional wisdom or advice or something that we didn't touch on or cover or that you think would be instrumental valuable uh you know sort of centering in in the message that would help somebody that's listening think about do something explore their dreams whatever that might be to you that you have that you

know message inside you that you wanted to convey that I didn't get to I'll give you the the mic back for that one and then I'll ask you where we can find you then I'll ask you my final question sure I I'd say just um just touching back again on my my final conversation with my mom go out there and do what you want to do with your life don't let you don't live the life that other people expect of you you live the life you want to live and persevere mad like like I I

waited tables for 13 years and I just kept going and going on because I was like this is what I want to do because I know I there's so many many many talented actors that moved up here to New York and they gave up way too soon and I was like it's like if they had just stuck it out you just never know you just never know and I'm like it's just if it's something you truly enjoy doing persevere keep on at it and you know and keep learning I always say that too there's always

something new to learn keep learning I'm I'm like a consonant you know students I guess you could save life I'm always I'm always happy to learn new skills new new ideas new Concepts there's always something to improve upon and so always and know yourself always try to um just um explore yourself explore who you are why you what makes you tick and all that kind of stuff yeah well I'm gonna ask you a similar question here in a second hopefully you didn't just give it all you're going to come up with a different answer uh

all right man where can we all find you where can uh people pick a a time or I should say a place to go see the movie or you know Instagram channels social medias YouTubes websites all that good stuff yeah um got so many things um well first of all you can find me on Instagram and Facebook under David Howard Thornton um and my God there's so many things coming out right now um I'm actually going to be on the new season of Bop kiss with Pete Davidson oh that's good debuts this um Thursday I'm

in the final episode as art the clown in a little bit of it so that's going to be fun um uh of course uh they're re-releasing terrifier one back into theaters this summer which is exciting so I'm excited to see how that's going because I've never really got a full uh theatrical release that's great so I'm excited about that but I got two other films I just wrapped on that should be coming out hopefully later on this year um first one is a independent film I did called the dead place and I play another bad

guy in that one I should talk for this one so that's gonna be fun and then another one I did called stream with uh a lot of the terrified two team like Damian's doing the Practical effects on it we have an amazing cast for this it's like basically a lot of the horror legends of my childhood are in this movie like uh Jeffrey Combs D Wallace uh Daniel Harris Daniel Robuck Terry Alexander um Tony Todd the list goes on and on and on and on it's like being on set with these actors it's just like

a dream come true so it's a fun film too so I can't wait for people to see that one too and then we're also working on terrifier 3 right now Damien's hard at work on that and hopefully we're going to start filming that later on this fall or winter you know unfortunately there's that writer strike going on right now so hopefully that's not gonna negatively impact us too much but you know we got some fun ideas cooked up for everybody so that's awesome a lot of good stuff a lot of good stuff and I'm doing

uh conventions Nationwide right now even up at the Canada I'm they're not too many to name but I mean I know I'm going to be in Denver next weekend for one I'm gonna be doing like Texas fright and air and uh Spooky Empire in Orlando and saw another one out in L.A days of the Dead all over the place so you know just keep an eye out for me there's a hard convention near you I'm more likely I'm going to be at it so yeah the main attraction that's again yeah well I got to tell

you man and I I respect the fact that you were willing to come in here and you know not really know too much about what we were what we were up to here but totally be yourself geek out with me right yeah of course and and share raw moments transparent times in your life and take us on that Journey with you in the spirit of acting and entertainment and you know playing behind the scenes or should I say behind the costume of one of the most iconic clown characters out there now and and uh you

know being able to just be in that moment of Joy so I'm thankful I appreciate you for doing that and I'm glad that you're seeing the success I'm glad that you stuck to it and that you were willing to persevere um and you know even thinking about what your mom said said in terms of going out there and doing what you want I think that's that's a great thing that you were able to latch on to and go out make the the dream come true what a what a great place to be and I'm super

thankful for for your time obviously for taking the hour and what's almost 30 minutes here to do this and be a part of our show final question as you can see behind the screen the name of the show is always on the grow I ask to you David what does always on the grow mean to you it's always on the grow is always on the no no like I said earlier that it's like know thyself because that's once you know more about yourself the more you can grow as a person I need a big Bell

to when I when I hear a great one I haven't heard before to kind of wring it out and just have a lot of fun with that was a good one always on the grow is always on the no and thyself wow that's good man I dig that I'm gonna have to cut that one out and post it put that on a t-shirt yeah yeah yeah there you go don't come asking me for royalties down the road man yeah yeah yeah we can work a deal out I'm just kidding exactly cool brother well hey I

had a great time thank you for taking the time again and uh sincerely appreciate your spirit your personality your charm your smile your aura your gentleness Papa bearish type of feel you know and um you know my salute my hats off to you keep doing great work and we'll catch you on the next go round hopefully catch you in person pretty soon my friend yeah I hope so sounds good yes you know if y'all can make it down to days dead in um La that'd be awesome yeah yeah you know what we'll be up to

uh exploring that man be great to meet you in person all right David be awesome God bless my friend thank you take care all right give Katie a hug from me too I will a big one yes all right buddy bye-bye take care bye