ChUrChOfAciD
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 Looking for a couple answers:
null
Hey, this is a great message forum first off, but i have a couple questions that might get asked a lot here... Im very interested in sideshows, and have been for a while, i m still young, 17 right now, but want to learn everything that a sideshow has to offer. I was just wondering where you start, after you read and know everything, from books and the internet. Ans since i know no one who has ever even worked in a sideshow, let alone seen one, im a little stuck. Any comment s would be greatly Appreciated. Thanks...
or if anyone lives in toronto, and is willing to teach, for money... That would be even better.
Bex
church_of_Acid@@@hotmail.com
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8/14/2005, 12:08 pm
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Slim Price
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Re: Looking for a couple answers:
Beginning Sideshow Arts
I sometimes get mail asking about how to start learning sideshow arts. This is my answer,
First you need to analyze your self, and your reasons. If you want to learn to impress the guys at the bar, or your frat buddies, or to get girls, forget it! By and large, the acts are dirty, invoke some pain, take years to learn properly and you will find that “normal” people will look at you as something less than normal. The acts will probably cause you medical problems later in life, or immediately. It isn’t like magic at all, the damage you do to yourself can last for years. I often think that in our current media society, people think an accident (there will be some) goes away at the end of the clip, or movie… This is not true. An accident can take weeks or months to recover from, and can even cause you permanent disfigurement… The best (only) way to learn is with a pro teacher who has lived this life. I don’t mean the kid at 7/11 who sucks fire from a Bic. I mean a working professional. Learning from a book is the worst way to get this knowledge. I think I have read most of the books on the subject, and I am often appalled by errors, missed points, plain lies and oversights, all of which can bite you! Even when you know it all, a pro can see a lot of things you will miss, and might save you a lot of damage to yourself or others. Slim’s notes are overwritten to prevent as much of this as possible, but sometimes surprising interpretations slip in. I remember writing several additions to a note to clarify putting a Band-aid over a thumbtack...
Most of the people who chose to start learning sideshow acts are young, impressionable, frequently misfits, and are looking to make some kind of mark. “See what I can do!” This is understandable, but the fact is that there are a lot of better, easier, cleaner, and more profitable ways to make a living. Working at McDonald’s will earn you more, and you won’t spend most of your time looking for the next gig. Even the best performers have dry spells.
Although most of the acts however, dangerous, are simple, few initiates realize the need for learning to be an entertainer. This is really what separates the tyros from the pros in every field, not just sideshow work. Theater skills are what will make the money and work for you. If you are still in school take advantage of your theatrical options, acting, stagecraft, voice, costume, scripting, learn anything and anything you can. If you are a “civilian,” do the same. It’s an investment sure to pay off…
Don’t try to learn everything at once...There are dozens of nuances in any single act that can only be learned by exploration. Mastering one act and doing it well, (and adding your own persona) will always serve you better than “shotgunning” several badly done stunts. When you begin working a sideshow act, the first thing you will want to do is ‘push the envelope.” This, more than anything else will get you in trouble… Give your art a little time to nurture, until you really understand it… Above all, learn from a pro mentor.
An after thought :
Learn to stop calling what we do "Geek Magic." That is a term that real sideshow performers find very offensive. Geeks were the lowest form of sideshow performers, Low drunks and junkies who would eat the grossest things. Live snake heads. Live chicken heads, for example, just to get a fix... Jim Rose is not a good example of true sideshow work. Although he introduced a whole new generation to sideshow acts, his methods of presentation leave, for me, a lot to be desired. Sideshow work does not need to be presented in a gross, frenetic manner as he does. Why do I mention him? He is, I think the person most likely to have misused “Geek”, as in his claiming to do “:Geek Magic”
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12/9/2005, 6:41 pm
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Doctorrigormorto
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 Re: Looking for a couple answers:
Slim it is so nice to have you back on board!
All that you have said is true.... this is not the easiest type of work to be doing. As a matter of fact, two years ago I contracted 'Fire Lung' and I have not done fire since. (Fire Lung is when you ingest Naptha into your lungs and it causes chronic coughing and also can lead to Cancer)
I had been doing Fire for 12 years to that point ... and now will not do it again...no matter how beautiful it looks.
The best way to learn is to Aprentace... but there are not many working pros that have the time or the want to teach right now.
Be patient grasshopper.... if you are meant to be a Sideshow Performer, you will meet the right people in time.
Once again Slim welcome Back!
Great insight...as usual!
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Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstien
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12/9/2005, 9:00 pm
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Wicked Fox
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A few new questions
OK I found my way here and let's hope I have the right thread now thanks to Downcast for pointing me in the right direction (I would have stopped and asked for directions)I'll now repost my questions.
I'm probably not posting in the right thread here but I just thought of a question. Now I know that some sideshow performers may not perform feats but some do like the Diablo performers. My question was it may in fact be mind over matter sometimes but what does the body feel like after performing some of the feats after awhile? Also if you kept doing what you were doing is there like a cutoff when you may not be able to perform these feats anymore? Is there an age at which a performer will retire or will they keep performing until the day they depart from this realm?
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Everyone needs a little chaos but it takes a true master to create a little mayhem
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4/17/2006, 12:35 am
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Board's time is: 11/24/2009, 2:19 pm
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it was just something I thought about while sitting here poking around on things. So pretty much you guys take your lives in your hands every day as well. I am also glad that you stopped doing fire feats because the show would not be a show without you! 
But that electric chair feat what is that doing to poor Sinn? Yes I would ask him, but he is indisposed right now so I figure I pose the question to the board 