Regan Davis was bursting with creative energy.
As part of the producing group for the puppet variety show SNORF!, which played at various venues in Chicago and was occasionally broadcast on the WGN Morning News, he manipulated a variety of animals, including a snake puppet that held a sword in its mouth and performed sword-fighting moves with its tail.
He and his son, Frankie, set up a “leprechaun trap” at their North Center home on St. Patrick's Day. The trap never worked, but somehow the boy woke up the next day to find his front door blocked off with a drapery.
Davis rotated among his friends at dinner clubs and, whenever the opportunity arose, liked to sneak in some amusing “long stories” — long, humorous, rambling, nonsensical tales told in vivid detail. He often began his stories with the sentence, “There was a pink house…”
He loved playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends, and he took his role as Dungeon Master — storyteller and referee — seriously, but he wasn't shy about backing some particularly outlandish ideas, like the time his friend Andrew Huff shot flaming arrows to escape bloodthirsty pirates and hurled evil spirits over his shoulder to elude pursuit.
“When he heard the idea, his face lit up and he said, 'Okay, let's see what happens!' and he started describing the screams of terror of pirates fighting this horrible evil thing. It was really cool,” Hough said, noting that Davis used a different voice for each character who inhabited his fantasy world.
Davis passed away on May 12th after a sudden illness. He was 41 years old.
At the memorial service last week, a 20-sided die, similar to those used in Dungeons and Dragons, was rolled to determine the order of speeches.
Videos played at the memorial showed Davis doing a variety of things, including transferring an Oreo cookie from her forehead to her mouth without using her hands, laughing with her son and playing the accordion while riding a stationary bike.
“He believed in being goofy and kind and fun and putting himself out there and not being afraid to be seen trying things and being goofy the first time he did something,” his wife, Beth, said.
Davis was vice president of product at SpotHero, a technology company that connects drivers with people who rent out private parking spaces, and previously held the same role at technology company JellyVision, where he worked on efforts to make health benefits easier to access.
“He loved analytics and data, but he brought human empathy to technology. He would say, 'Stop telling me what your company wants. What do people want?'” he said.
Davis also worked as an entrepreneur mentor at technology incubator 1871.
“He saw the good in everyone and brought out the best in everyone. Being around him just made you want to do something cool. He was willing to learn and patiently helped others learn something new,” Huff said.
Davis took a job in technology to support his acting hobby.
“I moved to Chicago because it's an improvisational theater city,” says Beth, who met her future husband while helping out in the computer lab during freshman orientation at Florida State University, where they both studied theater.
In Chicago, Mr. Davis attended classes at Second City Theatre and performed with and taught in several improvisational theater groups.
Friends say he used the “yes, and…” improvisation technique — a technique improvisational actors use to continue and expand on an idea — not just on stage but in all aspects of life.
“If you had a wild idea, he'd say, 'Go do it!'” Beth said.
“He took every experience and was able to build fun into it, even just clearing dirty dishes off the table,” said friend Cinnamon Cooper.
Davis was born in Nashville on November 4, 1982, to Michael Davis and Emily Hager, and grew up in Florida. His mother was a speech therapist who later became a lawyer, and his father was a former Episcopal priest who worked as a tuba player in the circus. Like everyone else in the circus, he helped clean up after the elephants.
“There was always this mentality of, 'If you're in the circus, you all clean up after the elephant, you all scoop up the elephant poop, you all do it together,'” Beth said. “That was what her father said and what Regan lived by.”
Davis occasionally appeared on “20X2,” a variety show hosted by his partner Huff in which each guest was given two minutes to perform some aspect of the night's theme.
One of the shows, held at Schubas Tavern in 2018, was themed “Where do I start?”
“He brought out his original Nintendo and played Super Mario Bros. and explained to me how games teach you how to play, and that every single thing you encounter teaches you a new aspect of the game, and just like in life, you learn something new. It was funny and fun, but it really resonated with me,” Huff said.
In October, Davis attended SNORF!'s 10th anniversary show at Links Hall.
“He performed as a dog puppet and sang a song he wrote about what life was like at a dog's age,” said fellow SNORF! member Noah Ginex. “He talked about taking time to enjoy quiet moments and how time feels so long for him, and his final words before he left the stage were, 'I love you all, bye.'”
A service was held.
