West Chester Life Magazine

Magazine Interview

West Chester resident Dan Freed, also known as The Amazing Spaghetti, moved to Pennsylvania in August 2014, but his career has had a long and storied past.

Freed went to art school in Columbus and after graduating in 1990. He started out doing quick caricatures at a summer-long festival in Columbus. From there, he started doing caricatures at private parties. Soon, requests for other artists started pouring in, so he started booking them, as well.

“That got to be too much with everything else I was doing so I just started to perform as a magician only (The Amazing Spaghetti),” he said.

He later started a party equipment rental business, renting moon bounces, dunk tanks and more. He even had a retail costume and magic shop, all at the same time. When that got to be a bit too much in 2005, he closed up shop and moved to Eugene, Oregon., as a part of a transfer at his wife’s place of business. She was transferred again in 2014, and the family now lives in West Goshen.

“As the Amazing Spaghetti I do any combination of comedy magic for kids of all ages and families, ventriloquism with cute animal puppets, balloon twisting, caricatures for parties and events for adults or kids, and a little game leading” he said. “I do company picnics, birthdays, festivals, etc. I do entertainment for any kind of event in nearby areas.”

Freed: I started doing gigs around 92′ in Columbus, then moved to Eugene Oregon in 05′ for my wife’s job, then moved here in August, also for my wife’s job. Eugene had a small town feel though the county has around 250,000 people. I had a fair amount of work there, but not as much as Columbus or here. Eugene was a smaller less populated market, and wasn’t as into hiring entertainers as much as the other markets. In Oregon I traveled a lot, doing the bigger gigs up to 2 hours away such as in Portland, Salem, etc. Here I don’t need to travel as much, I find enough work within 35 minutes of West Chester, I do lots of parties in West Chester, Exton, Chester Springs, the Northern part of Wilmington DE, etc.

WCCFL: What’s the most special/best part of your job?

Freed: Getting kids to laugh a lot and experience the fun of in person entertainment. Kids are so plugged in to electronics and high-tech animated movies but they don’t experience high quality live entertainment enough – it’s a whole different experience. Kids love those Pixar movies, and they are great, but they aren’t going to laugh nearly as much and have as much fun as seeing a good interactive entertainer for kids.

WCCFL: What do you do for fun?

Freed: I do oil painting for fun http://danieljayfreed.com . I also frequently perform with professional improv comedy group http://bettertanbaconimprov.com It’s similar to Who’s Line is it Anyway. We have regular shows at the Uptown! theater in West Chester and the Kennett Flash.