David Nifoussi

Who: David Nifoussi, twenty-one, one of the Twin Cities’ youngest entrepreneurs, owns Eastern Onion Singing Telegrams and Flamingos by the Yard, which will do anything from, well, you get it.

Get a Job: “I needed a job and couldn’t find anything I liked. I saw a small ad: ENTERTAINERS NEEDED FOR SINGING TELEGRAMS, IMPROV. I called, and they liked me. Last October, the owner—who I’d never met—sent an e-mail announcing that she was selling, so I decided it might be funny if I owned the company. I asked what my father thought since he would obviously be providing financial backing. He liked it—we bought Eastern Onion in December and I’ve been running it. My twenty-first birthday was my first day in the office alone.”

Crush on You: “A character that I do, Ned the Nerd, pretends he has a crush on the recipient and sings ‘Night and Day.’ On one occasion, [it was] especially embarrassing to a sixteen-year-old, when I sang the last line: ‘and the torment won’t be through / until I spend my life making love to you.’ That went over well!”

Paul Is Dead: “The biggest problem with this business is that people don’t know it exists. Everyone I tell says, ‘Singing telegrams—they still do those?’ or ‘That’s really cool. I wouldn’t have thought to do that for someone.’ But Eastern Onion has been in the Twin Cities for thirty years. Some say, ‘Wow! I remember them from before you were born.’ It’s good to be in the business of making people feel good.”

Communication Breakdown: “It’s really tough to be extremely disappointing. But you can’t go wrong if you’re wearing a coconut bra and grass skirt like the character Hector Hula. No one’s gonna be unhappy.”

Greatest Love of All: “Every time I’m in a gorilla suit, I think, ‘This is the best job in the whole world.’ Couldn’t be better to get paid to dress up and make people feel good. Obviously, it takes a certain kind of person because not everyone would like to dress up and sing and embarrass people—it’d be more embarrassing for them—but it’s a very fun job.” 

Eastern Onion, 763-537-1820