Meet David Hall, the professional whistler who’ll be on everyone’s lips Saturday at Delray Beach festival
The puckered-up president of Lake Worth Interfaith Network aims for a high-profile dream gig: Whistling at Carnegie Hall
PROFESSIONAL WHISTLER David Hall doesn’t use any musical instruments, but he will be among the talented musical performers Saturday at the All People’s Day Diversity Festival in Delray Beach.
In response to your immediate question, yes, professional whistling is very much a thing, albeit confined to a select view with varying degrees of success.
Everyone whistles. It’s a ubiquitous self-created accompaniment to our daily routines, while we work, play and pass time.
“You just need tongue, teeth and desire, and you can be an instrument,’’ said Hall, a former Lake Worth Beach resident.
But there are some who don’t just whistle while they work; whistling is their work.
Among them: Geert Chatrou, a three-time world champion whistler who performs with Cirque du Soleil; Molly Lewis, who whistled a Billie Eilish song in the 2023 Barbie movie; and Jason Serinus, the self-described “Pavarotti of Pucker” (and Hall’s friend) who performs Woodstock’s whistle in the Peanuts cartoons.
Long before he moved to South Florida, Hall was known as “Harpo the Happy Whistler,” a persona adopted in the 1980s. He wore a top hat and whistled for tips in San Francisco, delivered whistling telegrams in Berkeley and, on April Fool’s Day 1983, set the first Guinness world record for marathon whistling, a lip-numbing 25 straight hours.
A new record of 40 hours whistled in from Africa in 2025, but Hall is happy to keep the U.S. endurance mark.
For Hall, whistling has never been lucrative enough for him to quit his day jobs. “I’m a professional whistler,’’ he says, adding with a smile, “not that I get paid for it.’’
But when it comes to the high art of making music with pursed lips, he ain’t just whistling Dixie.
“People think of whistling as (he whistles) ‘Hey, taxi! Or someone is up to something mischievous (he whistles like a guy complimenting an attractive woman). I’m here to change that,’’ he said.
“While I have whistling as an endurance feat, it’s now about bringing it to a different level of performance,’’ he said.
Hall, 67, enjoys whistling to the unsuspecting, tapping his breathless repertoire of show tunes, TV themes, commercial jingles and popular songs from Beethoven to The Beatles.
He has whistled for passersby at Grand Central Station, for fellow shoppers at Walmart and for the birds and squirrels in Muir Woods in northern California.
He has whistled Hebrew prayers at Masada National Park near the Dead Sea in Israel and at the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, and he whistled “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” on the streets of London.
“I bring my whistle wherever I go,’’ he said. “It’s somewhere deep inside and I unpack it. It starts as a heart beat and comes out as a wind instrument.’’
He has whistled a duet with opera singer Barbara Bayer and whistled with guitar-playing Rabbi Marc Labowitz of Temple Adath Or. Last year in Lake Worth Beach, he whistled “Let There Be Peace on Earth” at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
“My favorite thing is to whistle in cathedral-like places where you get a great resonance or reverb, like the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco,’’ he said.
Hall’s next whistle stop is Saturday in Delray Beach’s Pompey Park at the free All People’s Day Diversity Festival, co-hosted by the Lake Worth Interfaith Network, an ecumenical nonprofit of which Hall is board president.
He’ll be among a lineup of 14 performers, including Caribbean dancers, Japanese drummers, folk musicians, Mexican hat dancers and the special needs singers of The Spotlighters.
“I take the stage at 1:30 p.m.,’’ Hall said. “I’ll probably do ‘Down by the Riverside,’ ‘She’s Got The Whole World in Her Hands,’ the Mayberry song (Andy Griffith Show theme) and maybe ‘I Whistle a Happy Tune’ (from The King and I).’’
Meanwhile, he has been paying lip service to his dream gig: Whistling with an orchestra at Carnegie Hall. His goal is to do it in 2028 when he turns 70.
He took a big step toward achieving that dream while visiting New York City earlier this month. He was in Manhattan accompanying his girlfriend, Anne Goldberg, who was interviewed on The Today Show to promote her book, “Take This Phone and Shove it: A Frustrated Seniors Guide to Smartphones.’’
They stopped by Carnegie Hall to discuss his idea with venue reps. To his delight, he was invited on stage to test-toot the acoustics at the 600-seat Zankel Hall, one of three theaters at the famed venue.
With Goldberg and three Carnegie Hall staffers watching, he belted out “I Whistle a Happy Tune.’’ His exclusive audience was blown away, and as they erupted in rousing applause he tried to imagine what it would be like in front of a packed house.
“That was a thrill of a lifetime,’’ he said. “I literally was weak in the knees. I couldn’t believe it, after dreaming up this plan to whistle at Carnegie Hall.’’
He hopes to get a bigger thrill in 2028. Before that can happen, he said, he needs to raise about $250,000 to hire an orchestra and rent the theater.
“It’s a lot of ambition, a lot of drive, a lot of tongue in cheek,’’ he said.
He might launch a social media campaign and a gofundme. “Maybe I can talk to Chapstick about a sponsorship,’’ he said with a laugh. “Or Tito’s Vodka: ‘How do I wet my whistle?’’’
For now, he enjoys gigs like the one he will perform Saturday, bringing his whistle to new audiences.
“Whistling, like religion, is sort of left to the elders. I don’t hear kids going, ‘Oh, I really need to whistle,’’’ he said with a laugh.
“It’s always been a novelty in the sense that it brings laughter and joy.’’