Dennis Michael Fett
Resume
Director
and Co-founder of the
Peacock
Information Center
Dennis Michael Fett was born in 1950 in Passaic, New Jersey
and resided after birth in Paterson, New Jersey until he
graduated from Eastside High School, Paterson, New Jersey
in 1969. Eastside High School was the subject of the movie
"Lean On Me".
During High School (and also in college) Fett studied
clarinet for six years with Professor Joseph Allard at the
Juliard School of Music, New York City. While in high
school and later in college, Fett was a Professional
Musician in the New York City and New Jersey Metro area. He
played in numerous professional orchestras for off-off
Broadway musicals. He has been an adjudicator (judge) for
woodwinds/clarinets for the Iowa High School Music
Association Small Group Contest for 25+ years.
During his senior year of high school, Fett won a spot to
play Semi-professional baseball for the Philadelphia
Phillies triple A farm league. He played baseball for the
Clifton Phillies during his senior year of High School
before making a career choice of being a music educator.
Fett attended Yankton College Conservatory of Music,
Yankton, South Dakota. His musical abilities earned him a
3/4 scholarship. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree
in 1973. His major area of performance was Clarinet. Fett
has 36 graduate hours in education from various
universities throughout the USA. While being an
instrumental music instructor, Fett has taken several of
his instrumental music students "under his wings" by
spotlighting their extraordinary musicial abilities by
using his media and Television contacts to showcase them.
Fett arranged for a student to meet Doc Severson in 2003
and for a student to appear on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in
2005.
After college, Fett taught instrumental music & vocal
music in South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. In 1980 he
married his wife Debra Joan Buck of Minden, Iowa while he
was teaching in Iowa. Together they Co-founded the Peacock
Information Center in 1980 and in 1986 Fett wrote and self
published the book called The Wacky World of Peafowl volume
one. This book was an immediate success and sold out its
first printing and went into its second and third printing
when he co-wrote the second peacock book called The Wacky
World of Peafowl Volume 2 in 1990. The Wacky world of
peafowl books has sold 15,000 copies combined. Volume 1 is
in it's seventh printing since 1986 and Volume 2 is in it's
fourth printing since 1990
With the overwhelming success of The Wacky World of Peafowl
volume two, Fett and this wife started the Peafowl Report,
a bimonthly color newsletter in 1991. The Peafowl report is
well into its 17-year and still going strong. Fett left
teaching to be on the lecture circuit, speaking at schools,
churches, and civic organizations about the "Wacky World of
Peafowl".
Fett has a record of writing more on the subject of peafowl
than anyone else in the world.
With the success of two self-published peafowl books and a
successful peafowl publication, (The Peafowl Report) Fett
and his wife were nominated for the Iowa Entrepreneur of
the Year Award in 1991 and 1992.
With all this success, Fett and Buck's work and studies
have been written up in over 30 newspapers nationally, such
as USA TODAY, L.A.TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, and THE NEW YORK
TIMES says, "Mr. Fett has an encyclopedic knowledge of
peacocks".
With Fett's and Buck's musical talents and abilities, they
collaborated and wrote a peacock song called, "The Wacky
Peacock". Fett wrote the music and Buck wrote the words.
They were invited to be a guest on a national talk show on
the Lifetime channel called "Attitudes" staring Linda Dano
and Dee Kelly in New York City in May 21, 1990.
The following video clip
requires the viewer to have Quicktime movie player
installed on your computer.
Click here to download the free
player.
Click this or the photo to View a Quicktime
movie of Dennis Fett's Attitudes Talk Show
appearance
This video
clip is used with permission from Lifetime Television
and Lifetime Entertainment
Services. We are very grateful to Lifetime for allowing us
to share this wonderful vintage clip of us on the Attitudes
Talk show with all our web viewers.
Fett's research on peafowl led him to a major discovery on
peafowl behavior. During the summer of 1997 he was granted
a Fellowship from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska to
study the mating habits of peafowl. Fett's Hypothesis: Do
peahens preselect peacock with larger tails? Results of
this study was published in the January/February 2003 issue
of the Peafowl Report.
Fett and Buck have won numerous ribbons and awards for
their peafowl, ducks, and geese at several county fairs and
at the Iowa State Fair.
In 1996 the Peacock Information Center launched the first
and only web site dedicated to the subject of peafowl.
Their Web Page
http://www.peafowl.com
is now visited by over 30,000 computers/persons each month.
Peafowl.com was awarded the prestigious USA TODAY HOT SITE
AWARD in the February 7, 1997 edition of USA TODAY Online,
a free and immensely popular news service on the World Wide
Web.
Sam Vincent Meddis, Technology Editor for USA TODAY said,
"Earning this designation is quite a distinction. Just as
we do with top-rated movies and TV programs, we look daily
for Web sites that are likely to be sure hits with readers
-- sites that seek to astound and delight, inform or amuse
-- by exhibiting excellence in graphics, content or both."
Dennis Fett is an award-winning photographer with
photographs of his peafowl purchased by VOGUE MAGAZINE,
TIME MAGAZINE, ORGANIC GARDEN, ANIMAL FAIR and many more.
His photographs have also received top awards for two
consecutive years at the Iowa State Fair photography
contest earning him 2nd place.
Although Fett does not have a poultry science degree or
formal training in poultry, his 30+ years as a music
educator, along with his 28 years of first hand experience
in raising peafowl, he has educated 1000's each month on
peafowl. As a true educator, Fett chose to publish all his
first hand knowledge on peafowl in his two books and his
Peafowl Report newsletter.
His vast knowledge of peafowl and experience has him
helping people all over the USA with peafowl problems. He
was a paid consultant for the city of Rolling Hills Estate,
California in 1992. He was commissioned to educate the
community and provide a peafowl management plan so those
residents could live with the wild peafowl that have been
in the community since 1924.
In addition, Fett was also hired to capture a runaway
peacock from the King circus in Denison, Iowa when the
birds were lost after the performance.
In
July of 2000, Dennis
Fett, was
invited to be a guest on, "You Like Like A Dog" game show
on the Animal Planet channel. He was a pet expert
(peacock Farmer) and the three celebrity panelists go
through three rounds of play to determine who is lying
about being the real peacock farmer. The show
had a celebrity panel of Doris Roberts, Victoria
Jackson, and Kevin Meaney.
Even
with all these accomplishments, Fett has not been sitting
back and resting on past works, as he & his wife
released the Wacky World Of Peafowl music video on DVD in
June of 2006. You can view this video below on YouTube
below.
This song came about in 1989, Fett woke up in the middle of
the night with a musical melody in his head. After
transcribing it to music paper he asked his wife, Deb, to
write the words to it. This funny and humorous music video
tells how the couple started their life with
peacocks/peafowl . In addition, Fett and and his wife also
self produced and released The Wacky World Of Peafowl DVD
in August of 2006. The Wacky World Of Peafowl DVD is a
companion to their two best selling peafowl books and
Peafowl report newsletter. The DVD runs approximately 83
minutes long and gives an instructional and visual view on
raising peacocks/peafowl. It was produced, written,
directed and filmed by the couple right on their own
peacock farm in rural Minden, Iowa.
In 2007 after teaching music education for 33 years, Fett
was encouraged by his wife and a former student to
resurrect an old clarinet act he performed in college &
at community events some 25+ years ago. Fett earned a
spot to be a finalist in Iowa's Got Talent contest to
perform a humorous clarinet solo called Immer Kleiner
(always smaller). The solo requires Fett to start playing
his clarinet all together and then gradually start taking
it apart piece by piece, ending up playing only the
mouthpiece. You can view this Act below on YouTube.
After his successful performance at the Iowa's Got Talent
contest in April of 2007, he decided to write two
additional original musical arrangments using two popular
public domain songs where he disassembles his clarinet and
ends up with just the mouthpiece. He also created a
30 minute clarinet novelty act demonstrating how a clarinet
can be played in several unusual ways. Fett played his
novelty act at a Juvenile Diabetes benefit concert, nursing
homes and community events. If you are interestind in
booking his act e-mail Fett.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New for 2008, Peacock trainer, author
and owner of The Peacock Information Center Dennis
Fett has just released 3 amazing vintage videos displaying
three behaviors he trained his peafowl to do. These three
classic video clips were filmed in the early 90's and shows
what peafowl can do with a little time and love and lots of
treats. These three clips were released for the
first time to the public in early 2008 as many people ask
if peafowl can be trained.
The first video clip
of "Mr. Peacock" (A black Shoulder peacock) who was a
pet from the day he was hatched to the day he
died. "Mr. Peacock" reached a ripe old age of 20
years and was a constant source of entertainment
during his whole life. You can view the 15 pound
peacock jump several times on Fett's arm on command on
YouTube below.
The second vintage video
clip from the 90's has Dennis Fett showing off his peacocks
and peahens jumping up several feet into the air on
command. The birds really love jumping up for treats
all year long. You
can view this below on YouTube.
The final classic video
clip shows Fett's peacocks and peahens untying
his shoes. This unusual behavior happened one day
when several peacocks and peahens found some treats around
owner Dennis Fett's feet. Soon they were picking at his
shoe laces and later started untying his shoes
if Fett stayed in one spot long while doing
chores. You
can view this below on YouTube.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In addition to peafowl,
Fett is a music educator and plays clarinet. He is
also known as the Clarinet Playing Peacock Farmer. He
plays a novelty clarinet act at all his peacock
programs. This act has gained Fett national
attention.
On December 19, 2008, Dennis Fett made an appearance
on the
Tonight Show starring Jay Leno playing his
disappearing clarinet act in the comedy segment
called
"Does This Impress Ed Asner". This act requires
Fett to play his clarinet all together and then
gradually disassembles his clarinet taking it
apart piece by piece, ending up playing only the
mouthpiece.
There is good news, you can read a full description of
Dennis Fett's wonderful experience on the Tonight Show on
our peafowl Blog web page.
Click here to see photos and read the
story!
View Dennis Fett's Tonight show recreation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following video is from the many videos we did recently
and it also shows me playing my carrot-net as well as my
disappearing clarinet act and just fun clips of my video
work, enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below
is the list of all the movies, TV shows, magazines,
newspapers and radio features done on Dennis Michael Fett
and his wife, Debra Joan Buck and their peafowl.
Copies of all the below articles, video and audio tapes are
available on request.
Movie
Appearance
Paid
extra for
Up In The Air,
April 2009
Starring George Clooney, Jason Bateman, Anna Kendrick,
Director/writer Jason Reitman
Paid
Peafowl Television Consultant
Ghost
Whisperer
starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Camryn Manheim, CBS, June,
2008
30
Rock
starring Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack
McBrayer, NBC, February, 2010
Television
Appearances
Tonight Show, Starring Jay Leno, 12-19-08
(doing the segment, Does This Impress Ed
Asner)
Good Morning America 7-12-94
NBC Today Show 3-23-94
Hard Copy 7-20-90
Attitudes (Lifetime Cable Talk Show Starring Linda Dano
& Dee Kelly) 5-21-90
Wildlife/Human
Nature (Australian worldwide syndicated Animal show
starring Olivia Newton John) 4-7-97
You Lie Like A Dog (An Animal Game Show on The Animal
Plannet Starring: Doris Roberts, Victoria Jackson &
Kevin Meaney) 1-25-00
CBS's
Prime Time Pets
Real News for Kids (syndicated kids show) 9-18-93
Iowa Public TV "Take
One"
America Today TV (short stories syndication)
Fox News Channel "Pet News Show" 1-1996, Starring Brian
Kilcommuns
FX Channel "The Pet Department" 11-11-96 Starring Steve
Walker
The 700 Club 6-5-98
"Amazing Animals Videos" Animal Planet 1-9-03
Videomax (syndicated kids show)
KCAL/TV, TV 9, Los Angeles, CA. 2-19-92
KCOP/TV, TV 13, Los Angeles, CA. 2-19-92
KCTV, Kansas City, MO. 12-29-87
KETV, Omaha, NE.
KMTV, Omaha, NE
WOWT/TV, Omaha, NE.
WHO/TV, Des Moines, IA 7-19-94
KCCI/TV, Des Moines, IA. 8-16-94
KWOC/TV, Davenport, IA.
KTIV/TV, Sioux City, IA. 7-1988
RFD TV satellite network news, 1-1990 Omaha, NE.
Mentioned during live chat on "LIVE" with Regis and Kathie
Lee talk show
~~~~~~
Radio
Appearances
National Public Radio
"All Things Considered" and
"Weekend Edition", Saturday
WNBC, NYC "The Alan Colmes Show"
Mother Earth Radio-American Public Radio
"Pulse of the Planet" (short stories syndication)
KGO Radio, San Francisco, CA.
KBRT Radio, Costa Mesaa, CA.
WKDR Radio, Burlington, VT.
WCCO Radio, Minneapolis, MN
KMOX Radio, St. Louis, MO.
KCMO Radio "The Mike Murphy Show" Kansas City, MO.
KFAB Radio, Omaha, NE.
WOW Radio, Omaha, NE
WHO Radio, Des Moines, IA.
KFMW-FM,
Cedar Falls, IA.
WOC Radio, Davenport, IA.
KMA Radio, Shenandoah, IA.
KNOD Radio, Harlan, IA
KUSD Radio, Vermillion, S.D.
WNAX Radio, Yankton, S.D.
KKAR Radio, Omaha, NE.
Iowa Farm Bureau Radio
Animal Talk Radio
Radio Iowa
~~~~~~~~
Magazines:
Animal Fair
Time Magazine
Vogue Magazine
First, For Women
National Wildlife Magazine
Writer's Digest
Discover Magazine
Mother
Earth Magazine
Dun & Bradstreet Reports
Guideposts
Organic Gardening
Country America
Midwest Living
New Business Opportunities
Buzzworm
Weekly Reader
San Diego Home/Garden Magazine
Happiness/TV Guide
Your Health
Pet Business
NBC TV Newsletter/Forcast
Gefluge-Borse-West Germany Publication
Ein Herz Fur Tier/West Germany Publication
Midway Airline Publication
Country
The Iowa Farm Show
Successful Farming
Partners
The High Plains Journal
Bird Talk
Home Magazine
The Gazette Game Bird Magazine
The Poultry Press
National Poultry News
APWS
Wings and Hooves
Pet Health News
DVM Magazine
Pet Industry
Poultry Digest
GRIT
Cappers
Pig Tale Times
National Examiner
~~~~~~
Newspapers:
USA Today, Arlington, VA.
New York Times, NY
Wasington Post, Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA.
The Philadephia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA.
Associated Press
Press-Telegram, Long Beach, CA.
The Daily Breeze, Torrance, CA.
Palos Verdes Peninsula News, Palos Verdes, CA.
Star-Tribune, Pasadena, CA.
Berkeley Voice, Berkeley, CA.
Rocherster Democrat/Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.
Phoenix Republic, Phoenix, AZ. Boston Globe, Boston MA.
Newark Star Ledger, Newark, N.J.
Newport News Daily Press, Newport, VA.
Arkansas Democrat, Little Rock ARK.
St Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN.
The Miami Herald, Miami, Fla.
The Beacon Journal, Medina, Ohio
The Omaha World Herald, Omaha,
NE.
The Des Moines Register, Des Moines,
IA.
The Milwaukee Journal Green Sheet Milwaukee, WI.
Iowa Farm Bureau
Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, N.M.
The Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, IA.
Harlan Tribune, Harlan,
IA.
The Daily News Transcript, Needham, MA
Bergan
County Record, Hackensack, NJ
San Jose Mercury News, San Diego,
Ca
Fox News.com
~~~~~~
Internet
News:
TheStreet.com
7-28-09
Musicians
and Song Writers
Songs
written:
I've Found Time for Love
The Wacky Peacock
Music written by Dennis Michael Fett
Lyrics written by wife, Debra Joan Buck.
We made our national television debut singing the peacock
song on "Attitudes" Lifetime Cable Talk Show.
Nominated
for Iowa Entrepreneur of the Year 1991 and
1992
