Thread by @adamneelybass

Ben Shapiro’s father, David Shapiro might have gone to music school! Does that make him a music theorist? Let’s find out! (1/10)

David does play piano, here is a recording of him playing Girl From Ipanema. It’s…uh...sloppy. It’s actually been a while since I’ve heard someone play with this much raw nervous energy. You can really feel where Ben gets his anxiety. 2/10

Here is a video of him accompanying a young Ben Shapiro, and to David’s credit, his playing is a lot more grounded. 3/10

Now, does this make him a theorist? Where did he get his training? Is he published? Where has he taught? What is the nature of his work in theory, especially in regards to hip hop, prosody, and aesthetics? 4/10

Turns out David Shapiro was an insurance adjuster, at least of the time of his Jeopardy appearance (j-archive.com/showgame.php?g…), not a working musician, much less a theorist. It seems like music is a hobby for him. 5/10

Since then, David appears to often write puff pieces praising his son Ben under the pseudonyms “William Bigelow” and possibly Hank Berrien. (nyulocal.com/is-ben-shapiro…) 6/10

David Shapiro also apparently adapted the novel/play The Scarlet Pimpernel to a musical in 1993, but it has no relation to the 1992 adaptation that was later turned in a Broadway run in 1997 7/10

Just a note - there seem to be multiple David Shapiros who are musicians. This is definitely not the David Shapiro in question davidshapirocomposer.com who seems to have a healthy relationship with many styles of music. 8/10

Nor do I think that this is the David Shapiro - imdb.com/name/nm0788487/ This one has credits as a composer for movies in 1986 and 1988, and according to his Jeopardy profile as of 1987 he was an insurance adjuster in Chicago. Although by this point who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 9/10

Anyway, David Shapiro might have gone to music school, so now we have to pay attention to his son’s preschool-level takes on musical value. Thanks to @12tonevideos’s tweets for getting me riled up about this.