Ted Manderfeld's Musical Journey In St. Cloud And Beyond

Ted Manderfeld of Deuces Wild Dueling Pianos and Rock N Roll Christmas joined me on WJON to discuss his life on WJON's My Life Series.

Early Years

Ted spent the first 6 years of his life in St. Joseph before moving to St. Cloud. His father was the financial aid director for Hamline University in St. Paul and was the director of admissions at St. John's/St. Ben's prior to that. Ted's mother worked at the St. Ben's Library before taking at job at St. Cloud Hospital. He says his dad commuted 5 days a week back and forth to St. Paul for many years.

Discovering Classic Rock

Ted has an older brother and a younger sister. Ted's brother is 4 years older while his sister is 4 years younger. He recalls a great childhood and still has a great relationship with his siblings. Ted was interested in music early in life. He recalls discovering his Dad's music collection in the family basement from when his Dad was a radio DJ in college. The music was largely classic rock and Ted enjoyed it.

Ted Manderfeld

Piano Lessons

In 5th grade Ted's Mom took piano lessons from a lady down the street. He started lessons at the same time and continued them for 4 years. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, Ted recalls loving heavy metal music before picking up rap music in the 90s. He spend a lot of time listening to music and amassing his music collection. Ted joined the school band and played percussion and later joined choir and was involved in numerous productions.

Sports

Ted played a lot of sports growing up which included football and basketball. He also played baseball until the 7th grade....he ran track after that. Ted went on to play 2 years of college football at Concordia-Moorhead. He went to Elementary School at St. Anthony's before going to John the 23rd Middle School and then Cathedral High School.

First Jobs

By the time Ted was around 15 he started playing piano at Catholic mass at St. Augustine's. He recalls doing up to 6 masses on the weekend. At this time, Ted was also working as a bag boy at Byerly's.

College

Ted graduated from Cathedral in 1998 and from Concordia-Moorhead 4 years later. At Concordia-Moorhead Ted played football for 2 years, left the team and spend the next 6 months in Mexico City. He was a Communication and Spanish major at Concordia.

Music Career Launched

After college graduation he wanted to be a musician. He joined Deuces Wild right out of college in 2002. Ted recalls quitting his call center Airline job and followed Dave, from Deuces Wild around until he hired him. He says his chemistry with Dave improved over the years to where he noticed it about 8-10 years in. Ted says he realized they were going for the same thing so a trust in the other person was formed. He says it doesn't matter who gets bigger laughs because either way it serves the same purpose.

Deuces Wild

Deuces Wild required a combination of musical talent and comedic ability. Ted says the comedy is often more memorable but both are equally important. Deuces Wild performs throughout the upper Midwest in North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ted has been apart of Deuces Wild for 25 years.

Family

Ted has been married to his wife for 20 years and they have 15 year old and 12 year old daughters. The couple lives in St. Cloud. The couple's oldest daughter is a writer having recently completed her 2nd novel. The couple's youngest daughter is described by Ted as very musically adept. Both are competitive dancers.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Ted, click below.