Job jokes fly fast and furiously when youre a professional knife thrower. "He aims to miss!" is the most common zinger.
David Adamovich, 74, a gleaming star of the impalement arts a term for hurling knives near, not at, a human target has heard that one before.
The Great Throwdini, as Adamovich calls himself on stage, has told it, too.
"It goes with the territory," said the Freeport resident who was 50 when he discovered, to his surprise and delight, his near-superpower knack for knives.
By then hed already received a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University and taught graduate classes in exercise physiology at schools including LIU Post. Hed also pursued emergency medicine management and dipped into theology.
"Its a clich, but David is like an onion," according to Dix Hills magician TJ Tana, 28, who has shared a bill with Throw and become a friend. "He has so many layers."
"People say Im a Renaissance man," said Adamovich, whose onstage banter, like a LinkedIn bio, deftly tells his story.
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Heres his spiel: "My name is Rev. Dr. David Adamovich, a retired professor with a doctorate in exercise physiology, a paramedic, a professionally trained chef, an ordained minister and in my spare time I throw knives. My friends call me Throw."
Adamovich smiled while reciting that on a Sunday afternoon in his backyard overlooking Woodcleft Canal. He chills out here chatting with his eclectic group of friends and fishing for striped bass.
The spacious deck is as colorful as he is. A Wheel of Death, a wooden spinning disk painted red and white thats used in his act, occupies one space.
A life-size cow sculpture bows toward his boat gently bobbing in the canal. Adamovich saw the bovine wonder in a shop in the Hamptons and had to have it; he custom-colorized it in red, gold and black.
Across the way an airy gazebo surrounded by benches that seat 30 is where he performs weddings. "Ive done thousands," he insisted, adding that hed performed one days earlier.
After getting laid off from managing a medical practice in his late 40s, "I did the most logical thing," he said. "I opened a pool hall Docs Billiard Emporium in Bay Shore."
"One night a customer came in with a throwing knife," said Adamovich, who took to it instantly. "Nine months later," he added, "I was winning world championships."
And breaking records now more than a few dozen of them, by his count. "Competitions pay you in bragging rights, not big cash prizes," he said. In the early 2000s, after five years in the national competition circuit, he carved a path into performing.
At Adamovichs request, "Wild West" performer Chris McDaniel, a former East Hampton resident now living in New Orleans, showed him the ropes about putting together a show.
McDaniel shared videotapes of notable names in the impalement arts. "A couple of weeks later, David sent me a videotape of him throwing knives at a knife board with a volunteer standing in front of it," McDaniel told Newsday. "He was doing everything he had seen in the tapes. His skill is incredible.
"Hes very calm, and thats worked well for him," McDaniel said. "I helped him map out the basics of what to say in his act."
For the most part, Throw lets his sharp instruments knives, axes, machetes, tomahawks do the talking. "Chriss advice was to be myself," said Adamovich, whose first performing gig was in 2002. It was a small art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Hes fuzzy on the name of the place, but he recalls what he wore a black tuxedo, his go-to costume ever since. "Ive worn a tux and tails since my first day of performing," Adamovich said.
He added that years of teaching had prepared him for being in front of an audience, whether in a club, sideshow, a theater or on TV.
On Aug. 5, 2002, after a recommendation by McDaniel, Adamovich debuted at "Monday Night Magic," a long-running off-Broadway production. Since then he has performed in it 85 more times, most recently just before the COVID-19 outbreak.
"Im hopeful hell be back," said Michael Chaut, founding producer of the magic showcase currently set to reopen on Sept. 20 at the Players Theater in Manhattan. "Hes got sheer and amazing skill. Hes also a go-getter."
While Adamovich, whos self-taught in knife-throwing, makes tossing blades that land within inches of a person look easy-peasy, its perilous doings.
"My partner said, Make sure you get a copy of his insurance," recalled Chaut. Adamovich assured that hes covered by required liability insurance.
A memorable appearance came in 2007, when Adamovich made the cut in the early rounds of Season 2 of "Americas Got Talent." Before being eliminated, he was christened a "dangerous creepy reverend" by judge Piers Morgan.
"The judges were trying to make fun of me," said Adamovich. "Thats their style. I took it in stride."
Throwdinis flesh-and-blood targets have taken minor mishaps in stride over the years. "Ive never hit someone in the sense of impaling them, but I have scraped them on the arm or the leg," he said.
Lynn Wheat, 37, confirmed that. "Thereve been scrapes," she said. "The worst is when the knife hits a knot and doesn't actually stick into the board. Thats when it'll bounce down. It can land between my toes."
Wheat recalled meeting Adamovich when she was managing the theater scene shop at Hofstra University. She needed an expert to create a knife illusion for a stage production and sought him out. They became a couple. Wheat, whose work as a technical director for corporate events dried up amid the pandemic, has lived with Adamovich for 10 years. She is also one of his targets.
"Throwdini Centrale" is the nickname for the third floor of their home, where the dcor is best described as Contemporary Knives Out.
Walls here are crammed with photographs from past performances, a poster for "Girl on the Bridge," a film about a knife thrower, plus cherished certificates and awards.
Adamovich has won a Merlin Award, an Oscar in the world of magic, which is among his proudest achievements. He holds a Guinness World Record for the most knives 102 of them thrown in 2007 around a human target in one minute. He later beat that record and threw 144 in 60 seconds, as certified by Record Holders Republic.
Adamovich called hurling knives "a source of intermittent income." Like many performers, he was sidelined by the pandemic for a year and a half. Last November in Los Angeles he shot an episode of "Game of Talents," a TV guessing game that aired on Fox in May.
When host Wayne Brady exclaimed, "David, show us your talent," Throw obliged. Last month, he wowed the crowd at the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. "I was thrilled to do it," said Adamovich, who spent his childhood in Brooklyn and Queens before moving to Long Island as an adult.
In "Throwdini Centrale," reached by climbing a ladder from a second-floor bedroom, Adamovich eyeballed a 6-by-4-foot pine impalement board stippled with gouges from where knives have stuck.
His signature diamond-headed blades, which he maintains to keep sharp and are marked with a telltale "TGT," measure 14 inches long and weigh 12 ounces. Replicas made by Western Trade Props sell for $44 apiece.
Wheat backed up to the board, centered herself, raised an arm Statue of Liberty-style, smiled and froze. Adamovich tossed knives around her. She never flinched. He never paused.
Wheat rotated 90 degrees, then pursed a drinking straw with a frilly end facing out tight between her lips. In a flash, Adamovich chucked a blade and nipped off the frill. His aim was true.
"Im never afraid. Its exciting," Wheat said. "I trust him completely, and he trusts himself."
Adamovichs wish for his 75th birthday in December? Performing as The Great Throwdini.
"Its just a natural skill for me," he said. And thats no joke.
By Joe Dziemianowicz Special to Newsday
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LI knife-thrower cut path from teacher, preacher and pool hall owner - Newsday