{"id":1222,"date":"2014-02-24T18:33:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T18:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/?p=1222"},"modified":"2014-03-05T02:38:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T02:38:52","slug":"freak-show-interviews-sideshow-to-general-motors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/?p=1222","title":{"rendered":"Freak Show Interviews &#8211; Short E. Dangerously"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Freak Shows - Minnesota &amp; Florida State Fairs\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sQc7fEhtgw8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The tall, successful-looking man next to me in the elevator was just making small talk when he asked why I carried so many books and notes with me.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m writing a book about traveling carnivals. I spent the year working and living in traveling carnivals and now it&#8217;s time to write a book. There was lots of hitchhiking involved too, I said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I used to work for the freak show every year at the Minnesota State Fair,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I used to pull the sword out of the sword swallower&#8217;s mouth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Writer Amy Tan says she wonders if the &#8220;universe&#8221; is sending her material for her books when she&#8217;s writing, because so much comes her way when writing that inspires her work (<em>they are good novels<\/em>). <\/p>\n<p>It happens to me too but my subject is carnivals, carnies and the ephemeral locus of American communities. With a subject that broad, one is likely to run into people with connections to carnivals.<\/p>\n<p>You never know what you&#8217;ll see in a freak show, or who those performers are in real life.<\/p>\n<p>For my last day in my year in traveling carnivals, I asked King of the Sideshows Ward Hall if I could work in his freak show for a token amount and for just a day. <\/p>\n<p>I saw the World of Wonders several times when I was working the billiards game for Adam West&#8217;s crew in at the Minnesota State Fair last summer.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;World&#8221; was playing the Florida State Fair in Tampa and I wanted to get a toe into the freak show side of the industry. Hall agreed and I took tickets and was a gopher.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-two-inch tall Short E. Dangerously is the only classic &#8220;freak&#8221; in the show, called a &#8220;half man&#8221; because he was born without legs.<\/p>\n<p>At the World of Wonders show in Florida, people ate fire, swallowed swords and performed magic, including a guillotine routine with a head thrown into the crowd. Illusions, Ward said, are most of the show these days.<\/p>\n<p>Hall blames political correctness for the decline in &#8220;human oddities&#8221; wanting to perform in sideshows. Hall has worked in the sideshow business for 60 years and knows his freaks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve worked with hundreds of human oddities,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Giants, midgets, alligator skin men, bearded ladies, the monkey girl, pinheads, midgets, dwarfs, the armless girls, the living half men, all worked for me in the past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Shorty started touring in sideshows just a couple years ago and now travels the world. He&#8217;s knocked out by the fame and travel. Before one performance, (performances run continuously almost all day), he looked back at fellow performer and beautiful assistant Sunshine and said, &#8220;I know, sometimes I can&#8217;t believe all this myself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard work as you&#8217;ll see in his interview.<\/p>\n<p>I found his lack of neuroses compelling. He says he had a happy childhood. He loves music and women. He&#8217;s healthy. He makes money and travels the world. He&#8217;s a happy man.<\/p>\n<p>Without a hint of self pity for the cards he was dealt, he proclaims himself a lucky half man and a rocker.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve read experts who say otherwise, but I believe a man is happy if he thinks so. I also believe most of what we see,  we should question.<\/p>\n<p>You never know what you&#8217;ll see in a sideshow, on stage, behind the stage or in an elevator.<\/p>\n<p>You never know the shape of a happy man.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q &#038; A with Short E. Dangerously<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1 &#8211; Where did you grow up and what was it like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I was born a mile and a half from the Ohio- Michigan border. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio.  But my mother&#8217;s side is completely from northern Michigan, I spent a lot of my life there with relatives. My childhood was fairly normal. My parents split up when I was 5. My mom raised me as a single mother.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>2 &#8211; Do you have medical problems that accompany your disability?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I have no medical conditions related to my disability. I do have joint problems in my shoulders and arms. But I manage the pain thru over the counter medications and other herbal remedies.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>3 &#8211; How did you take your condition, were people cruel?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I took my condition just fine and so did the people around me. If they didn&#8217;t then they didn&#8217;t need to be a part of my life.. Plain and simple.  There were a few assholes along the way, but it was dealt with accordingly.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>4 &#8211; How did you decide to get into the entertainment business?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;My love of music is why I choose the entertainment business.  I had a band in High School.  I have always liked being on a stage.  Things with the band didn&#8217;t work out.  So while I was in college I knew a DJ and him and I talked a lot and realized that is what I wanted to do.&#8221; <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>5 &#8211; Being a DJ at a strip club? Were you a favorite of the dancers? Were there wild nights?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I was a favorite of most of the dancers. The ones I wasn&#8217;t still respected me and didn&#8217;t give me any problems.  There were plenty of wild nights! But I&#8217;m not going to go into details. I think you can figure it out.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>6 &#8211; How did make the transition to the carnival shows?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I made the transition to the sideshow by a phone call form Tommy the manager of WOW.  I was tired of DJing  and was looking for something different to try. I was offered the chance to tour with them for the 2012 season. It changed my life and the rest as they say is history.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>7 &#8211; What is your act?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The acts that I do are acrobatics, fire breathing, and I also throw knives.&#8221;<\/em>  <\/p>\n<p><strong>8 &#8211; Where in the world have you traveled with you act?<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><em>&#8220;I have been to New Zealand, Brazil, Venezuela, Germany, Spain, and Australia.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>9 &#8211; Do you feel like you are part of a bigger tradition, a time honored profession? What do you call yourself, &#8220;freak,&#8221; &#8220;carny,&#8221; showman, entertainer?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I do feel like I am part of something. Its becoming a dying art and I only wish I discovered it sooner. I consider myself and entertainer first and foremost, but I&#8217;m also a showman.  I just happen to be a freak.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>10 &#8211; How hard do you work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;When I&#8217;m with WOW between 15-20 1\/2 hour shows a day. Sometimes as many as 30.  I know that I have done the bowling ball stunt at least 15-1800 times since I debuted it in Minnesota last year.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>11 &#8211; What makes you happy, in life?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Being on the road good friends family. Being on Stage is an incredible rush.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong> 12 &#8211; What makes you happy when on the road?<\/strong><br \/>\n<em><br \/>\n&#8220;On the road is the performing, the fans, but most I love just going down the road to the next gig.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>13 &#8211; What&#8217;s the future for you. Wife and kids and grandkids? Buy a business and get off the road? Movies, books? More countries and more roads?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Not so sure about wife, I will never get off the road. I would like to have my own show in the next 2-5 years or so.  So yeah, more countries and more roads.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>14 &#8211; Are you a happy man?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I am very happy right now with my life.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>15 &#8211; If you could do it all again, who would you be in the next life (<em>Ward Hall told me he&#8217;d be a faith <\/em>healer).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;If I had to pick I would be a rock star!&#8221;<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n 16 &#8211; What kind of rock star.  Any road stories? Any tricks gone wrong? Are you really Dangerously?<\/strong><br \/>\n<em><br \/>\n&#8220;Metal!,,,  We were a cover band. Lots of Metallica covers. I was the front man.  No nothing super funny on the road&#8230; No real problems.  We are\/were very close.  Everyone pretty much got along.  I have had knives bounce back at me before.. I was in LA filming a TV show and one bounced back and almost caught me in the chest&#8230;  and the name is taken from an old wrestling promoter. His name is Paul Heyman but his ring name was Paul E. Dangerously. I took the name and made it  Short E. so I could still keep Shorty in my professional name. My real name is Aaron.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>*<\/strong>Answers are in full and unedited.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><em>This month marks the end of my year working and living in traveling carnivals around the USA. I lived on carnival wages so I also hitchhiked between jumps. I&#8217;ve traveled through 36 states, Canada and Mexico, for more than 20,000 miles. My 15,000 miles of hitchhiking makes me the #1 Hitchhiker in America. I worked carnivals in California, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Alaska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and Florida. I worked rides, games and one freak show.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tall, successful-looking man next to me in the elevator was just making small talk when he asked why I carried so many books and notes with me. I&#8217;m writing a book about traveling carnivals. I spent the year working and living in traveling carnivals and now it&#8217;s time to write a book. There was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4qqmC-jI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1267,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions\/1267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}