We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful David Berman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with David below.
Hi David, thanks for joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers
One afternoon I was doing my normal Facebook scrolling and saw a post from my good buddy Lorenzo Beronilla. I was a little excited because he hadn’t been posting for a little while and whatever big secret he was about to unveil. Seems exciting to be at the moment. What look like him filming at a hospital set in a hospital gown immediately made me click on the post. Typical Lorenzo Clickbait. the video started off a little strange. I expected Lorenzo to introduce himself and reveal what awesome project he was doing. Instead, it was very heavy and he was brought to tears explaining to us (his friends and fans) that this was not a set and he was not in costume. Here was a friend of mine only a couple years older than me, revealing to us that he had heart disease and would only survive if he had a heart transplant. I thought to myself how could this be? And then I thought to myself how can I help? I immediately called him and told him I was going to visit him and talk to him to come up with some sort of battle plan that I could help out with. But in all reality, how could I help? A group of people already started a GoFundMe and who am I and what could I possibly do? Lorenzo answered that question when I visit him and I saw him hooked up to a machine that was doing the work of pumping his heart for him. I entertained him. I made him laugh. He reminded me of the gift that I have and I decided to utilize that gift and spread awareness that Lorenzo needed help. When I went home, I extended on a concept that was already in the works. (#heallorenzo campaign) I used all the influence I had and the little popularity that I had and took to social media and came up with a twist on the #healLorenzo campaign. It was a simple play on words, but it was effective. All I did was tape a paper heart to my chest and told everyone that I had a heart on for Lorenzo and challenged three of my friends to make a video and show that they had a heart on for Lorenzo as well. The video got a lot of people motivated as well and I saw Umer videos with my concept and what I wasn’t expecting was people Were mentioning me in their videos and posts. Inadvertently I call the attention of a few people and they reached out to me because they wanted me to help them with a project that they believed I could definitely make a reality. They wanted me to build an escape room in a temporary location for their employees to use for their team building day. I really had no plans on starting my own business, I referred them to a few larger escape, room, companies, and friends of mine that would be able to commodity them. They were not interested in that at all. after what they saw, I did for Lorenzo and knew how motivated I could be insisted that I do. I dug deep into my soul and thought about it long and hard. (for about 30 seconds.)
I agreed on building them in the escape room and just like that my portable escape room company was born. I still have no name for this company, but I have a few businesses already booked for my first one and I have three other escape rooms in their conceptual design stage. Long story short, there are truly silver linings woven out of a terrible situation if you look hard enough. We all have our own journey.
Be a good person and life will have your back.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Over the past 30 years, I’ve been working in the entertainment industry. I started off doing local theater and doing gigs that required me to show off my acting abilities. This trend continued and grew after high school and I started finding myself in background rolls in movies and doing writing with a partner for pilot shows and lesser known shows on Comedy Central. Most of my stuff just wound up shelved, but a couple of things were utilized in a show called tough crowd with Colin Quinn, I was famous in my own mind.
It I got into the entertainment industry pretty late in the game. I didn’t start acting until my senior year of high school. I was the type of guy who got along with everybody and every click, but didn’t really fit in anywhere. I learned very quickly that I liked to be the center of attention when I got the leading role as the puppeteer for the plant and little shop of horrors. The moment I rolled out of that plant to do my curtain at the end of my first show I was hooked.
Throughout the years I continued to find ways to shine by making my way into different musicals and background acting. I say making my way because I didn’t traditionally audition for very many things at all. I would just kind of show up and people knew who I was by my reputation and gave me a chance. When I was out of high school I did a little bit of , continuing education at Sony purchase in their acting program. College was different than high school and I didn’t do well in a classroom. It was an environment that I felt nourished me.
I had a fun opportunity working at Radio Shack where I met a writer, friend of mine. We hit it off and dabbled a bit of stand-up comedy as well as writing for pilot shows.
Shameless plug, bits of my material was premiered on “Tough crowd with Colin Quinn” on Comedy Central. Although it brought me some notoriety I was a backseat driver to my writing partner backseat to my writing partner.
As fate would have it, I stumbled upon an opportunity at anational haunted attraction and wascable to dive in many creative departments. This is where I received my true hands-on education in the entertainment industry.
I started off as an actor, and then quickly took on the role of make up artist and join their staff as one of their crewmembers. I learned how to build sets and design illusions. . I moved to in ranks quickly from management a lead on their writing staff. I find this funny because English was my weakest subject in school. But I excelled in writing. I would creat the themes and write the scripts for all of the attractions. Basically every year for the past 20 years wrote hour and a half long theatrical production. It was only natural that after that I became the Director and acting coach for the hundred plus actors.
I was only in my early 20s when I found myself in a position at a Nationally known haunted Attraction. I quickly Rose from a scare actor to the writer and acting Director and make up artist!l. I also wound up leaving my full-time day job to help build sets and make props on a small scale.
I wore many hats and was one of the main contributors to the reason why this particular haunted attraction was number one! I was the goto guy if there was a production company that wanted to do a special on us.
I would bulid a team of actors and coordinate them with their production team. This consumed my life for about 20 years working for someone else and selling my ideas and talent at a price that was a fraction of what was deserved began to eat away at me.
The saving grace was during this time I met many people and I had the privilege of hiring some of the best talent I’ve ever witnessed. One of the people that I met was Lorenzo Beronilla. The man is incredible and amazing actor and the unofficial scout for the Hudson Valley in New York. Although I hired him, he also helped me and pushed me to do more with my talent, acting in films and other side gigs.
Life was moving fast and I wanted to settle down so I decided to start a family. When my son was born, I scaled back the entertainment biz, which was OK money but gigs were sporadic. I had to grow up and be responsible. I was a father and needed a big boy job. I had to grow up and be responsible. I was a father amd needed a big boy job.
My son was born in 2016 although I did stay I took a backseat and started doing a lot less. Or at least taking credit for a lot less. I would still do my best to split my time with my family. It brings my joy to learn that my son is a natural born entertainer as well, and he started having a love for being in the spotlight. So I have been bringing him along for the journey as well.
In 2021 I decided to focus even more on my family left the industry completely. My son continues to do small rolls and have fun in theater haunted attractions and it makes me miss it like crazy. In October 2023, I built up enough courage to propose to my now fiancé in full make up and realized how much I missed entertaining!
Although some of the most amazing things happen to me this past year such as being engaged to my beautiful fiancé, I found myself restless,stagnant and missing the excitement of entertaining. Life was getting complicated and super stressful. From the deaths in the family to being taken advantage of for over three years by a tenant that decided to squat my home I felt like there was nothing good was in my future.
I saw no silver linings in my future.
Then the unthinkable happened. I learned that my dear friend Lorenzo was in the hospital do to heart failure. I was distraught and immediately contacted him.
I found myself driving over an hour pulling into the hospital. I needed to see for myself. I hugged my friend as he delivered the news. He was critically ill and was in need of a heart transplant. As we talked it was clear that a heart transplant wasn’t all my friend was in need of…he needed the support of his friends, family and fans in order to get through the next steps of his journey.
My brain went into overdrive and I took the call to action. My mind was racing. How can I help? Then it became clear that I had to create a campaign in order to help Lorenzo. The #heartonforlorenzo campaign.
I used my creativity, influence and our combined fan base to reachout to as many people willing to watch my social media video in hopes to generate funding to aid in Lorenzo’s long journey from transplant to recovery.
But what I didn’t realize was that by doing so was more than just helping a friend in need. I found i was focusing on me and what I needed out of this life. This was a spark of inspiration that literally re-ignited my creative side. I was WOKE and world responded.
Out of the blue Iwas being contacted by people asking me act again and to come up with ways to entertain! One person in particular reached out to me after seeing me in one of Lorenzo‘s campaign videos and inquired about building an escape room for their businesses teambuilding day. I of course, pass them off to some local friends and businesses that I know that have their own escape rooms. She insisted that she wanted me and that it didn’t really have anythong to do with the escape room it had to do with me being ME..my presence and personality.
Let’s just say it took about 30 seconds of thinking about how I was going to pull this off before I agreed to the project.
My head was completely blown up by this encounter, but it ignited the fire needed to start my own portable escape room business. The company doesn’t even have a name yet, but I have my first portable escape, room built, and I have few facilities booked! I’m already thinking about a second option in escape rooms and have a small crew ready to work.Lorenzo is so happy for me and vowed to help out after he is done recovering!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Working in the entertainment business is cut throat. There has been many times that people were after my job and wanted my status. There is always someone in the wings eating to take over. Truth be told there were younger and more talented people that could have easily taken any one of my roles I played through out the years but I wore many hats. I made myself indispensable. I remember one time I was given the task of putting together a zombie paintball event. I had less than two weeks to get the staffing prepared for a complete overhaul and change in our format. This seemed impossible. And of course there was those vultures waiting for me to mess up. I needed 50 actors to train and be ready for this event. I spent at least a half a dozen sleepless nights and the 2 full weekends getting the crew together. There were a few times I wanted to just throw in the towel. “Why not? Someone will just take over and finish it” that was just it, I wasn’t about to let someone ride my coat tails just to take the credit at the end. I put my nose to the grindstone and finished setting up the event! It was a wild success. That’s just one example of me never giving up.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Most efficient Strategy that I’ve used to growing clientele has been word-of-mouth and social media. My reputation and my experience has spread like wildfire.
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