Family Entertainment of the Quad-Cities

Davenport, IA
ph: 563-343-7378
familyentertainmentqc@gmail.com

About Us

Influenced by the characters of Sesame Street as a toddler, by age 4, Darin was performing skits with hand puppets for his parents. It was through them that he learned of ventriloquism and the greats, Edgar Bergan with Charlie McCarthy, and Jimmy Nelson with Danny O'Day and Farfel (who were best known for their Nestle's commercials in the Fifties). By age 7, Darin was hooked on mastering the art of ventriloquism and received his first dummy for Christmas. The following May, he was in front of his first audience for an elderly residencial facility performing a skit with jokes from his father and rehearsed with his mother. (HE HAS NOT STOPPED PERFORMING SINCE!!!) The following year, he attended the first ever national ventriloquist convention where he met his idol, Jimmy Nelson, and another budding and now famous ventriloquist, Jeff Dunham.

Darin's talent was noticed right away as he began performing yearly for the Knight's of Columbus Talent Show placing 2nd his first year at age 7, 3rd the second year, as a finalist his third year, and finally placing 1st in his fourth and final year at age 10. During that time, he gained invaluable experience as he was invited to join the Bettendorf Junior Theater as one of their featured acts during summer tours. He then auditioned for Roundy the Clown's performing troupe and was given a spot once again as a featured performer. One of the places they performed at for a certain number of dates, was the Ground Round restaurant.

Shortly after this engagement, Darin, along with his brother (who was a magician and had performed with the same two groups as well), were hired to perform there on their own. It was at this time the brothers (with their parents' blessing) decided it was time to give it a go on their own and "The United Brothers of Entertainment" was born! They continued to perform together through Darin's jr. high years and performed a record 64 shows in one year! During their time together, they continued in their professional training by yearly attending the Fellowship of Christian Magician conventions. Darin continued to win contests there and through 4-H, which he was a member of. He even made a TV commercial for them with one of his dummies while in the 6th grade.

As his brother entered high school, he passed on his magic and ballooning skills to Darin and along with the clowning skills he had picked up at the conventions he had attended, Darin became a solo act! He auditioned and won a spot for his high school's talent show three years in a row starting when he was in the 10th grade. During his senior year in high school through his freshman year in college, he returned to The Ground Round for yet a third engagement, but this time as the restauant's mascot, Bingo the Clown. He continued to perform on his own and due to his love of performing in costume as his high school's mascot (for which he received his athletic letter!), he also performed as other costumed characters such as the Easter Bunny and Parker the Bear (both for Northpark Mall), and even as Santa, making house calls on Christmas Eve.

After college, due to being employed as a social worker for children, Darin developed a puppet presentation promoting self-esteem to youngsters in such settings as churches, schools and libraries. He utilized life-size puppets, which he designed himself, to perform to songs that had an upbeat message, thus earning the name, "Positive Puppets". Darin performed a Christmas version of this show for 7 consecutive years in the Village of East Davenport for their Annual Christmas Walk. He was invited twice to assist in promoting this event, once on "Paula Sands Live" and later on KWQC's early morning broadcast with Erik Maitland. A LITTLE KNOWN FACT: during the original Christmas Walk many years earlier, the stores were not open but instead, they all featured "Living Window" displays where real people would be acting in classic-style Christmas scenes. While Darin and his brother were working together, they performed Christmas versions of their acts in one of the windows one year with a wire for the microphne running to a speaker outside.

After a successful run of 10 years, Darin felt it was time once again to re-evaluate the marketability of his skills to decide which one was the most practical to pursue next. There was a large demand for balloonists as there had been a movement from families hosting parties in their homes to having them at larger venues where everything for the party was included which made it much easier for the parents. Since the opportunities to perform a puppet or magic show in the home had become few and far between, Darin brushed up on his ballooning skills as parents still wanted to add that little "extra" to their child's special event. Darin opted not to dress as a clown to do this as it took precious time from his family due to the time it took to change in and out of character. So after performing a few gigs as himself and being referred by many children as what he was, "balloon man", he decided to literally take on that mantel and began doing balloons as the Quad-Cities only spandex-clad superhero, Baloonman! He performed as this character for 15 years and during the last 3 years of that run, he had even developed and performed a self-esteem/anti-bullying show as Balloonman entitled, "YOU Can Be A Superhero!"

After over 40 years as a local performer, and having turned a mere 50 years old in 2016, Darin decided it was time to retire the character of Balloonman but still do balloons (as himself), while adding magic, puppetry, and ventriloquism back into his repertoire, and not just for the delight of others, but for the benefits that he receives himself from the reactions of an enthusiastic audience!