How else would you expect a bunch of sideshow performers
to behave at their annual end-of-season blowout? They've been on the road for
months, playing bars, comedy clubs, college campuses, motorcycle rallies,
Halloween attractions and theme parks across America. Now, performers with
names like Coney Island Chris (a quarterfinalist on NBC's "America's Got
Talent") and Thrill Kill Jill get the chance to hang out for a weekend,
mingle with fans and, best of all, catch each other's bizarre, head-shaking and
frequently hilarious acts.
"Show 'em what we've come up with during the year,
or throw some jokes in there that only they would understand," said Ling,
who performs with Philadelphia-based Olde City Sideshow. The Sideshow
Gathering, held each November in the northeastern Pennsylvania city of
Wilkes-Barre, bills itself as the "world's only sideshow convention,"
a time for sword swallowers, light bulb eaters, glass walkers and human blockheads
to unite as one weird and freaky family.
It was started nearly a decade ago by Franco Kossa,
co-owner of a chain of tattoo parlors and founder of an annual tattoo
convention in Wilkes-Barre called "Inkin' the Valley," to which the
Sideshow Gathering is attached.
Kossa, 45, got the idea after a chance encounter with
sideshow promoter Ward Hall. They spoke about "how the sideshow is
dead," he recalled. As a sideshow fan, Kossa thought it only natural to
invite some acts to his tattoo gathering.
"Tattooed people have been (sideshow) exhibits
forever," he said. "Sideshow history and tattoo history are
conjoined." About 30 acts showed up this year, among them the Rev. Gunn.
He bounds onto the stage, his long dark hair flowing behind him. A bed of 500
metal spikes awaits.
"One mistake and bam! My body slides down till my
flesh rests against the bare wood, eight inches of sharpened steel piercing its
way through my entire body," he says forebodingly. "It would be
gruesome." Gunn, a 42-year-old from Los Angeles who founded a wildly
successful troupe called FreakShow Deluxe, stolidly eases his frame onto what
looks like a medieval torture device. A second nailboard is placed atop his
bare belly, and The Green Monster (5-year-old son Grennan) lies down on it. Then
daughter Charlotte, not quite 3, stands on The Green Monster's stomach.
Gunn groans from the bottom of the pile. "You guys
gotta lay off the snacks. Ah, geez!" Afterward, he explains how he does
it.
"The human body is amazing. It can do amazing and astounding
things, and all you have to do is train yourself to work together in body, mind
and spirit," said Gunn, whose real name is Thomas Nealeigh.
It's not all fun and games and placing hands in animal
traps. This is a convention, after all, and there's also sideshow business on
the agenda.
