Reverend Dave had a problem. His parishioners knew it, everybody in town knew it. He liked to hang out at that new coffee shop downtown with all those hippies, playing his guitar, laughing and talking and singing long into the night. He ignored his duties; he changed the greeting on his answering machine to something silly and wildly inappropriate. He loved to go to parties, especially when he knew there would be blow or weed or both. It was only a matter of time before Dave, too, realized he had a problem, but no one could have predicted the way it happened. Daffy Dave is a popular professional clown, a man who has found his true calling. Kids all around the San Francisco Bay Area know and love him and want him to entertain at their birthday parties; parents love him, too, because for a few days after one of his shows, kids are enthusiastic about cleaning their rooms, laughing and silly in their play. Daffy Dave hasn't touched wine or beer or weed or blow for many years, and he likes it that way. These days, he says, he's a "clean" clown. It's not the career he pictured for himself when he was growing up, when he idolized the Beatles and the Monkees and played his mom's broom as if it were a sunburst Stratocaster, but it is a career which suits him all the same. It fits him well, like a finely tailored suit. It brings him prosperity and abundance, and it makes him happy. Reverend Dave and Daffy Dave are one and the same man, but between them lie years of struggle and heartbreak, stops and starts, and plenty of good, hard work. If he could do it, anyone can, he says, but it wasn't easy. It took effort and prayer and tears and prayer and earnest sweat and more prayer. He wasn't able to do it alone, but he didn't have to, and neither do you. Coyote Spirit: The Improbable Transformation from Minister to Clown chronicles one man's journey from the depths of despair to peace and contentment, and is a road map for anyone else trying to do the same.
About the Author: David John Mampel (aka Daffy Dave) is known by kids all around the San Francisco Bay Area as Daffy Dave where he has performed as a professional clown/magician/juggler/musician/story-teller since 1992. He has been voted The Best of The Best Children's Entertainer by Reader's of the Bay Area Parent Magazine nine times in a row. His songs have been played on The NBC Today Show and on The Dr. Demento Radio Show. His second album, "Get Down with The Clown" won Best Children's Album from The Children's Music Web Awards. His past local TV Show (Daffy Dave's Tree Fort) received runner-up for the Home Town Video Award, only to be beat out by the top-rated kid's TV show, "Worm Poop". Dave lives on the fringes of the American Dream in a mobile home park near the outskirts of San Jose, California, with his adopted dog Poppy. When he's not performing or throwing a frisbee for Poppy, he's writing his next book, a novel called Alchemy Rising (Book One of a Trilogy). You can find Dave online at daffydave.com or davidjohnmampel.com