STATE FAIR & FAMILY FESTIVAL SHOWS
Arrgh, ya’ll! Imagine a thrilling family act blending the daring spirit of the Wild West with the swashbuckling excitement of the high seas. This all-ages comedy mashup brings together two of Americas favorite badasses and adventurers: Cowboys and Pirates!
Freedom-loving ranchers, farmers and swashbuckling sailors have more in common than meets the eye: from carousing, and brawling to sailing the Seven Seas or plying those “amber waves of grain.”
Unlike anything in the national State Fair market, this popular act features hilarious adult & kid-friendly content, full audience participation, bubble play, brain teasers, magic, slapstick action, and cartoon-like sound effects!
Refresh your 2025-26 Family Entertainment line-up with “Pirate School: Cowboys vs. Pirates!”
NEW STATE FAIR ACT for 2025
David Engel’s PIRATE SCHOOL presents
“Kids and parents had nothing but great things to say! I’m so pleased.”
—Dave Simmons, Presenter, The Columbia Festival of the Arts, Columbia, MD
Jedi Academy! at the Columbia Festival, MD
MEET THE PERFORMER
David Engel provides excellent acts for Family Stages of all stripes: State and County Fairs, Family Fests, Maritime, Seafood, and community festivals too.
The ‘special sauce’ that David brings to each Festival show is the result of years of experience forged by performing for the notoriously fickle festival audience in open-air settings.
In his twenties and thirties, David cut his eye-teeth performing self produced street theatre tours at major festivals and on the great cobble-stone pitches of Europe: Covent Garden, London; The ‘Mound’ at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland; The Piazza Uffizi, Florence, Italy; The Dam in Amsterdam, Holland and on the public squares in front of the Pompidou Center, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France —to name a few.
This depth of experience is part of the excitement that builds for each new audience. The skills to gather a crowd, to build and galvanize a street-theatre audiences’ attention is the enduring legacy of this ‘school of hard-knocks.’ Within each of Mr. Engel’s current shows resonate these hard-won lessons of when, sometimes, the crowd didn’t stay.
Images of festivals past.
David as "El Magnifico!" at Clown Festival, Liuzhou, China (w/Hilary Chaplin). c 2007
David as "El Magnifico!" at Clown Festival, Liuzhou, China (w/Hilary Chaplin). c 2007
David the (unauthorized) clown character "Authority Show!" at Clown Festival, Shanghai, China. c 2008
Long Island Maritime Museum, Seafood Festival c 2011
Barnegat Pirate Days Festival, Barnegat, NJ c. 2011
Barnegat Pirate Days Festival, Barnegat, NJ c. 2011
"El Magnifico!" (Solo show) at Clown Festival, Tiandu, China. c. 2008
The excellent and eager Chinese audiences encroach the stage.
David as "El Magnifico!" at Clown Festival, Liuzhou, China (w/Hilary Chaplin). c 2007
"El Magnifico!" (Solo show) at Clown Festival, Tiandu, China. c. 2008
"El Magnifico!" (Solo show) at Clown Festival, Tiandu, China. c. 2008
"El Magnifico!" (Solo show) at Clown Festival, Tiandu, China. c. 2008
Audience. Clown Festival, Tiandu, China. c. 2008
Valley of Flowers Festival, Florissant, MO
David and his mentor, Fight Master David Woolley. Taste of Chicago Festival c. 1988
David and Stephen Eliasson: Sword fighting comedy duo 'Punti Reversi' Avignon Festival, Avignon, France. European Tour 1992
David and Stephen Eliasson: Sword fighting comedy duo 'Punti Reversi' Stockholm, Sweden. European Tour 1992
David and Stephen Eliasson: Sword fighting comedy duo 'Punti Reversi' Avignon Festival, Avignon, France. European Tour 1992
"Jedi Academy!" Columbia Festival of the Arts, Columbia, MD c. 2017
"Jedi Academy!" Columbia Festival of the Arts, Columbia, MD c. 2017
Applying mime makeup in the Piazza Uffizi, Florence. c 1985
El Magnifico! for Redmoon Theatre, Chicago: Frankie & Johnnie at Steppenwolf Theatre w/ Martha O'Toole c. 1998
Navy Pier, Family Pavilion Stage, Chicago, IL c 1995. Early Pirate School! show (Note: self-automated sword fighting machine I built)
TBT: Early Pirate School! show aboard the S.S Windy, Chicago's Tall Ship c 1990?
Wonka's Wondershow. Children Theatre in the Woods, Wolftrap, Vienna, VA c 2017
FESTIVAL SHOW ACTS
