I earn £190 an hour doing a job no one takes seriously – I grew up with nothing and now rake it in at 23
A PROFESSIONAL clown reveals he works hard at his seemingly silly job – after he grew up with “essentially nothing”.
David Torres-Fuentes juggles clowning and running puppet shows to make his performance dreams come true – but came to America with only “two suitcases”.
The 23-year-old, whose family moved from Mexico to Nashville, Texas, when he was a child, said despite how ridiculous his job may sound, he is living a life of “financial discipline” – alongside bringing “whimsy and wonder to people”.
Speaking to CNBC, David said his childhood ambition to become a clown led him to begin children’s entertainment company, Abrakadabra.
Alongside his wife Jacquelyn, David books parties as a professional clown – with prices ranging from £108 for an hour of balloon twisting, to £406 for a “deluxe magic” experience.
David’s jester lifestyle has even seen him amass more than 158,000 followers on TikTok.
But life was not always so peachy for the chipper performer, who admitted: “Generational wealth is really important.”
The unconventional professional continued: “When my family and I moved here, it was four of us, and we had two suitcases.
“We essentially had nothing… My parents really taught me the worth of a dollar.”
Despite the success of David’s clown enterprise, he still has to hustle.
While wife Jacquelyn works as a barber alongside entertaining, David puts on his weekly puppet shows for kids and families – often doing as many as eight a week, for only £12 an hour.
And he even works shifts at a coffee shop, for ten to 15 hours each week.
But it makes his clowning gig possible – after years of holding onto the unlikely ambition.
David decided to become a clown aged four, when one visited his kindergarten class – and left him terrified.
He revealed: “My 4-year-old logic was, ‘If I’m one of them, they can’t get me.’”
But a determined David clearly had his eyes on the prize – adding, “I went to my mum and I said, ‘Hey, I want to be a clown.’
“And she looked at me and she said, ‘Well, you better be the best clown you can be.’”
If you’re interested in other outlandish career paths, why not read about a woman who spends more time in crypts than in clown shoes.
Jenn Park-Mustacchio is a funeral director and embalmer who works in New Jersey, USA.
She spends her days scrubbing down corpses before pumping them full of preservative fluid – and she is paid by the job, allowing her to earn up to £63,000 a year.
While London’s poshest craftsman, the Pimlico Plumber, earns approximately £210,000 a year busting bogs.
And Love Island Australia’s former contestant Jordan Dowsett took a major career turn after retiring from luxury villas.
Jordan makes more than most people earn in a week – by spending twelve hour shifts underground as a mine technician.