CARNY KNOWLEDGE

The freak within us all

By CRAIG TERLINO

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The spectacle of traveling carnivals, with their illustrious sideshows, had become a much-anticipated and celebrated event, offering a bizarre atmosphere of amusement, fantasy and astonishment to the remote and quaint lives of early 20th-century Americans.

Portrayed throughout seven impassioned plays inspired by carny folklore, Fort Point Theater Channel impresarios Silvia Graziano and Marc S. Miller present Carny Knowledge—a historic and artistic reappraisal of an era. Fitted with the eclectic appeal of steampunk fashion (a fusion of Victorian and gothic styles) and theatrics, Carny Knowledge is a reinvention of the carnival sideshow culture and folklore celebrating its cult-like status. I got a chance to chat with its maker, Silvia Graziano.

SO, YOU FIND THE SIDESHOW CULTURE INTRIGUING. PLEASE EXPLAIN.

I've always been in awe of the sideshow. Going to see sideshows when I was little and, more recently, at Coney Island, I decided to learn more about sideshows. I've always been fonder of the darker side. I watched this show on the Mermaid Girl who recently passed away, Shiloh Pepin. She was born with both of her legs fused together, resembling a tail. She had no vagina and no anus.

YIKES.

Despite the way she was born, though, she was always in good spirits. Before she died, she had said, "Just because I'm different, doesn't mean I am not the same." That's what Carny Knowledge is about.

NOT THE EXPLOITATION OF THE SIDESHOW CULTURE?

It's not about exploiting anyone. We're actually celebrating what makes us different and what makes us the same, as well as a time before there was any moral ambiguity. What we're trying to celebrate are the folks that chose this life and were OK with it. Sideshows became a home to many—they were able to have an income, families. They were able to find love. Their differences brought them together in a society that labeled them "outcasts."

WHAT WILL WE GET TO SEE GO ON AT CARNY KNOWLEDGE?

The Carny Knowledge band, featuring Nick Thorkelson and Peter Tork (of the Monkees), will be performing the dark cabaret and gypsy music. There'll be plays. I'll be acting in one of them. There will be sword swallowing and knife jugglers. Nicholas the Ridiculous, also known as The Human Blockhead, will be there banging nails into his nose.

This show is kinky, as well. We got burlesque dancers taking their clothes off, we got ...

BOOBS? VAGINA? THAT SORT OF THING?

No, you're not going to see vagi- ... what? Burlesque dancers don't show vagina ... or boobs. You'll see pasties, though.

WHAT SORT OF REACTION DO YOU WISH TO GET OUT OF THOSE WHO SEE CARNY KNOWLEDGE IN RELATION TO ITS HISTORIC VALUE?

The sideshow existed—it was a big part of this country. We're bringing it back, but not in the exact element or the state it was in at that time. I hope they learn to appreciate what is disturbing, what they find disturbing. These people were not freaks. They were human beings who had problems, ailments, but, underneath all that, they had the same necessary needs of every human being. Within "extraordinary," there is the word "ordinary." You can't have one without the other. What makes you different could also, possibly, make you the same.

CARNY KNOWLEDGE
THROUGH SATURDAY 2.6.10
CAMBRIDGE YMCA THEATRE
820 MASS. AVE.,
CENTRAL SQ.
CAMBRIDGE
800.838.3006
THU-SAT 8PM, SUN 7PM/ALL AGES/$14
FORTPOINTTHEATRECHANNEL.ORG