Shocked and Amazed Sawdust Trail June 97

Our very own James Taylor has recently finished taping an episode of the Jerry Springer Show in Gibsonton, Florida. Scheduled to air in July, the talk show has interviewed long-time SHOCKED AND AMAZED! friends: Jeanie "The Only Living Half Girl" Tomaini; Perscilla "The Monkey Girl" Bejano; woman with a beard--not bearded lady--Jennifer Miller; Melvin "The Anatomical Wonder" Burkhart; Karl Slover, the last of Singer’s Midgets and one of the Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz; Lobster Kids, Cathy and Grady Stiles; and banner painter-sideshow performer and SHOCKED AND AMAZED! fave Johnny Meah.Since we haven't seen an edit of the show we're not sure who made the final cut, but we'll keep you posted!

Mark Frierson, our very own artist-in-residence, has been a very busy boy. In addition to painting his hiney off to prepare for his recent show at the La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles, Mark was profiled in the latest issue of International Tattoo Art. The interview is bursting with pictures of Mark’s glorious banners, bouncers and other bizarrities! It provides a good background on Mark’s work and the history of sideshow banners. Our very own James Taylor gets to add his two cents, too. Pick it up while you still can.

Devil Man made a big splash on the pages of scientific journal the Weekly World News.* Known internationally for their uncompromising journalistic style, the WWN doesn’t rest until it uncovers the truth and presents it to you for $1.09 at the checkout stand of your grocery store. According to the April 1 issue, the remains of Devil Man were found in Mexico. After exhaustive forensic anthropological tests were conducted, the startling results were revealed: Satan infiltrated the body of a hapless victim, changing him from the inside out, making him into the human incarnation of Our Dark Lord. The report also warned the next embodiment of Satan should occur simultaneously with the end of the millennium.

Being privy to inside information, we at SHOCKED AND AMAZED! have formed our own theory. Utilizing the scientific technique presented in the Weekly World News, we have come to believe the next guise of Satan is beginning its manifestation now! All of the evidence (horns sprouting, relatively short overall physical transformation time, the adulation of the masses, etc.) points to THE ENIGMA of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow as the next human incarnation of Beelzebub. In our humble opinion, if you don’t want to piss off the Lord of the Flies, you should buy a ticket and attend the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow when it comes to a town near you. Who knows, maybe he will show you some mercy when the four horsemen ride if you can show him a ticket stub from the show.

*Of course careful readers of SHOCKED AND AMAZED! may know a different story about Devil Man. Created by our very own artist-in-residence, Mark Frierson, Devil Man appeared in the still-available-but-selling-out-quickly volume 2 of SHOCKED AND AMAZED! We are pleased with his newfound success while just a teeny-eeny bit annoyed that peacenik Ghandi got top billing in the issue.

You Be the Judge:

Is the Enigma Satan?

Enter your vote here and we’ll let you know the results in the next Sawdust Trail!

The suffocating levels of pollen in the air can only mean one thing: It’s carnival season again. The cast and crew of SHOCKED AND AMAZED! are gearing up for another year of chasing friends down the sawdust trail.

Hardly ones to be accused of being "40-milers," this year the intrepid staff plans to begin the season outside of Philadelphia visiting sideshow legend Ward Hall’s newly revamped traveling museum show. If we know Ward, this spectacle should leave you speechless!

We have also gotten wind that one of our favorite weekend getaways, Coney Island’s Sideshows by the Seashore, is getting some new and exciting improvements. According to our unnamed source, founder Dick Zigun is planning on bringing back a Coney Island tradition—Terza’s Wine Bar. We can only hope the resurrection includes the nekkid lady bathing in wine. The folks from Bindlestiff Family Cirkus are also rumored to be joining forces with the folks from Sideshows by the Seashore for part of the summer!

Don’t let the Eurotrash affect fool you—there is a fabulous new variety show on the air now! Not since the days of Ed Sullivan has there been a show like VIVA VARIETY on the Comedy Channel (Check your local listings). It has it all: bad (and I mean nearly unwatchable) sketch comedy, mildly amusing musical acts but most importantly VARIETY performers. So far they have featured my favorite ostrich Stevie Starr and those wacky kids from Japan, the Tokyo Shock Boys. Watch this show for the variety performers before the network axes it.

The cover of the new CD by the group Silverchair features a faux banner with the head of Lobster Boy, Grady Stiles. This is an enhanced CD, so if you pop it into your computer you get a freak gallery, too. Most of the images are from Coney Island’s Sideshows by the Seashore!

On Springer—check your local listings for details—Lori and Dori, the oldest living country-western singing female Siamese twins alive make an encore performance. Always a treat, one can only hope the girls will serenade Jerry with a medley of today’s hits. See them before their performance schedule at the Grand Ole Opry gets too grueling, limiting their riveting TV appearances.

Also on Springer, Sandy Allen, the world’s tallest living woman, makes her return to the talk show. Careful viewers may recognize her from the Learning Channel documentary Sideshow. While not a sideshow performer in the classical sense, Sandy worked at the Niagra Falls Guinness Museum in their now-defunct Human Being Gallery.

On the sawdust trail...