I am a huge fan of the “Big Books” series from Paradox Press (I have collected all of them except for the Big Book of Weirdos and the Big Book of Thugs, both of which I have been trying to find to no avail.)
For those of you who have not encountered any of these books, they are collections of stories about various topics pertaining to the theme of the book (aka The Big Book of Urban Legends features retellings of classic urban legends.) All of the stories are in comic-book form and are illustrated by dozens of different artists, from Sergio Aragones from MAD Magazine to Marvel artists. These books are very, very cool.
My most recenltly acquired Big Book is the Big Book of Freaks, a collection of stories about circus sideshow attractions throughout history. While reading it, I could not help but wonder, does the “freak show” still exist?
I guess first I need to ask, do independent traveling circuses and carnivals still exist, setting up in one town for a few days, packing up and moving to the next? Or is the world of circuses monopolized by Ringling Brothers and a few other mega-circus-mongers? In all my life in small-town Indiana I have never come across the kind of traveling circus I keep seeing in movies. The only circus I’ve ever been to was a huge Ringling Brothers production at a basketball arena in Indianapolis.
Anyway, if those traveling “gypsy circuses” do indeed exist, are there freakshows as part of the act? I want to think that in this day in age we’d be above ogling people with deformities and other “freaks,” but I doubt it (and I doubt that the “freaks” would be above showing themselves at sideshows for money.)
So, if any of you Dopers have ever seen a real live, honest to goodness, fat-lady, wild-man-from-borneo, amazing-two-headed-alligator-boy freak show, PLEASE let us all know!
Yeah I’ve heard of them before. That’s some freakish activity.
I mainly mean the seedy type of sideshow which mainly features deformed “freaks” of nature, or people gimmicked to appear as such. From the way this book makes it seem, there was once a golden age of pinheads, dwarves, giants, hairy women, and other folks who would be exhibited as “freaks of nature.”
This is somewhat different, though no less interesting, than a man who can hang 50 pound weights from his penis.
At the Spring festival in Dali, China, I encountered a bona fide Chinese Victorian-style freakshow, with conjoined twins, bearded lady, snake swallower, etc.
If you’re interested in the freak show era, I highly recommend the movie “Freaks”. The movie itself is scripted, but it recounts the lives of various freak show performers…all played by themselves. Could prove difficult to find though. I don’t remember where I got it.
I used to go to Riverview in Chicago as a kid. I’d run straight to the freak show. Once, I was even allowed to be the “audience participation kid” with the electrified lady. She was holding a fluorescent bulb, and when I touched it, it lit up. I think I may have been standing on an electrified plate or something.
At any rate, the finale was the tattooed lady. She sold nekkid pictures of herself to the “Over 21” crowd after the show.
There was also the “Two Faced Man”, who I believe you can google for an oogle. It was a very sad birth defect.
I believe all the freaks from the olden days are now living in some pathetic trailer park town in Florida.
Yeahbut, Jim Rose, The Coney Island show, and for that matter the [url=“http://www.bindlestiff.org”]Bindlestiff Family Cirkus are all some sort of extreme performers and geek acts.
No “freaks of nature” like Lobster Boy, or conjoined twins, or the Living Skeleton.
Are they still on display anywhere for money in this PC world?
Ah! I love the Big Book Of… series (Factoid Press)!! I have 7 or 8 of them, including The Big Book of Thugs. I’ll trade it for your Big Book of Freaks.
Heck yeah Freakshows (Sideshows) are still around today.
Of course you won’t find any professionalGeeks anymore, which is a good thing. Geeks in the old days were often mentally ill, homeless people who were lured to the sideshow by the temptations of free alchohol and a semi-warm place to sleep, not to mention all the live chickens they could stomach to eat.
i believe that town is gibsonton florida. Theres a jerry springer episode where he visits there, and you get to see an old “blockhead” preform his act. (for those not “up” of freakshow terms a blockhead pounds nails into his sinuses)
What is the Big Book of Thugs even about, Gambit? I have Little Criminals; I’d think that that would pretty much cover thugs as well. Any noteworthy people in the Big Book of Thugs?
BTW I won’t trade Freaks for anything! It’s the rarest of the series.
