|
|
Leslie Melville Special user Blackpool-U.K. 708 Posts |
During my recent attendance at the ICBM Gathering, Gil Earl kindly took me to the Barnum Museum at Bridgeport.
P.T.Barnum has been a fascination for me since at the age of fourteen, I first read 'The Fabulous Showman' by Irving Wallace, so I was particularly grateful to Gil for giving me the opportunity to visit the museum. Whilst there, I purchased from the souvenir gift shop the DVD, "American Carney". The movie is sub-titled 'True tales from the circus sideshow'. Todd Robbins is the featured artiste, who performs and talks informatively and interestingly on the history of Coney Island and many of the amazing, weird and wonderful showmen and women who have plied their skills in this arena over the years. I have had to wait until the NTSC format was converted to something more compatible with my U.K. DVD player. I really enjoyed the movie and highly recommend the DVD to everyone who regularly visits this thread. Harley Newman, whose company I enjoyed for a second time at this year's ICBM, is another featured performer and Penn Jillette does the opening narration. You can get it here: http://www.amazon.com/American-Carny-Tal......181&sr=1 Leslie
Stories....?....That's telling!
|
Eddie Garland Inner circle Hells Kitchen, New York City 4207 Posts |
I agree. This is a great DVD and not to be missed!
|
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
It's okay.
|
Eddie Garland Inner circle Hells Kitchen, New York City 4207 Posts |
It's an "Okay" DVD and not to be missed!
|
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
I am glad that American Carny was done. And yet, it's not really the movie I would make.
I want to someday do a filmed version of Carnival Knowledge. I want the piece to walk the viewer through the whole experience of a classic American sideshow 10-in-1 from the bally to the blow-off. It would start off with the camera point of view coming down the midway towards the sideshow tent. I would be on the bally stage doing an opening. Ward Hall would be in the ticket box. I finish the bally and step off the bally stage, turning it over to relief talker Penn Jillette. I start talking directly to the camera laying out the form and function of a sideshow. We enter the tent and I give the office to the magician onstage, letting him know that the crowd is all in. The magician is Teller doing the miser's dream with a kid from the crowd. The kid is wearing a top hat and Teller is wearing a paper tear hat. He finishes the trick as I get up on another platform, draw the crowd over and do glass eating. The rest of the film features the various acts you would see in a sideshow, plus the hows and whys of it all. It finishes with the blow-off of a girl to gorilla illusion and then I head back out to start another bally opening, thus starting the cycle again. It could be good. |
Eddie Garland Inner circle Hells Kitchen, New York City 4207 Posts |
Beautiful!
|
Leslie Melville Special user Blackpool-U.K. 708 Posts |
Todd,
Your vision sounds great and I would love to see such a DVD. I can also understand why you only think that American Carney is only 'okay'. However, in the absence of any similar documovie, you shouldn't underestimate its current historical value. I grew up in Blackpool, the UK town in which I still live. Most magicians know it for its annual magic convention, but in my youth there was a stretch of the seafront which is still called 'The Golden Mile'. It is actually somewhat less than a mile in length but between the 1930's and mid '60's, this stretch was full of the type of sideshow entertainment you feature in your DVD. Nothing like the size of Coney Island of course (although 'The Pleasure Beach', three miles further south may well be!) - and we never had 'ten in one' shows, but we did have 'bearded' ladies, fat ladies (& men!). We also had the shows with the 'outside talker' usually accompanied by a glamorous flimsily clad girl - often with a python coiled around her body, enticing passers-by to come inside and see the 'Most Sensational Show on Earth!' Murray (the Australian escape artiste & illusionist), had a 'Radium Girl' illusion on the 'mile' during the early 1960's. The Rev. Stiffkey (a notoriously famous unfrocked vicar) was exhibited 'fasting' in protest and living in a barrel, for all to see (for modest one shilling!). There were freaks and weird exhibits (two-headed goats - foetuses in jars, passing off as dead mermaids!) - so your DVD brought it all back to me with fond nostalgia. So thanks for that. Take care, Leslie
Stories....?....That's telling!
|
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
I was joking about the okay part. Nick did a nice job with the flick. He captured a lot in that movie and it was good that he got it preserved. We had fun making it and it is a nice snap shot of the sideshow community.
Todd I have always wanted to see Blackpool. It is the home town of my old friend Norman Barrett. |
Harley Newman Inner circle 5117 Posts |
I think it's one of very few productions that don't write off sideshow performers as sensationalist carny trash. It's nostalgic. It shows the sense of family we have, without focusing on dysfunctional aspects of that family. It gives a good idea of the quirkiness that makes us what we are, the places we come from, and the kinds of goals to which we aspire.
I'd like to see a good performance movie, too. But I'd like to explore other directions than the sideshow tradition of 150 years.
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” -Mark Twain
www.bladewalker.com |
Leslie Melville Special user Blackpool-U.K. 708 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-11-30 16:16, Todd Robbins wrote: Norman is great friend of mine also! I have known him for forty-odd years! His son Guy, a fine performing illusionist, makes Jap Boxes for me to sell at my lectures! You must come to Blackpool - Annual Magic Convention, end of February every year - FISM in 2012. How about it? Failing that, what about the next ICBM - November 2010? Leslie
Stories....?....That's telling!
|
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
I will make one of those. I almost made it up to this years ICBM, but had a last minute booking.
By the way, that Jap Box routine of yours that was in Oracle was worth the entire subscription price. Todd Quote: On 2009-11-30 18:38, Leslie Melville wrote: |
Leslie Melville Special user Blackpool-U.K. 708 Posts |
I look forward to meeting up with you at one or the other!
Glad you liked the Jap Box routine - the real credit belongs to the late Roy Scott, an Edinburgh magician. The basic concept was his. I just re-jigged it to suit my style of presentation. Leslie
Stories....?....That's telling!
|
Leslie Melville Special user Blackpool-U.K. 708 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-11-30 16:48, Harley Newman wrote: Hi Harley, You are quite right, although it is important to keep the history and pay homage to those who led the way. There is no doubt a market out there for the 'strange & weird', both Todd and yourself are evidence of this. But the Coney Island and Blackpool's 'Golden Mile' image is of a bygone era and new venues/location are not so easy to find. Maybe the outdoor 'Rock' Concert is an area that could be explored. Paul Zenon is a very successful UK performer (TV & corporate etc.). A couple of years ago, he took a show to The Edinburgh Festival called 'The Famous Spiegeltent' http://www.spiegeltent.net/index.php The show was re-booked the following year and he has since taken it to world-wide locations, including Canada & Australia. It is small tenting show with a variety of high quality and unusual speciality artistes. Maybe that's the way to go! Entrepreneurial skills are of course also necessary to make such an enterprise successful - but hasn't that always been the case? Leslie
Stories....?....That's telling!
|
Stmarkus Regular user Puerto Rico 131 Posts |
Todd...from your description of the miser's dream, it sounds like you've seen Al Flosso....I only met him once, but it was a privelage...." That's the money trick son...My boy, Houdini had a LOT of wands!"....A true legend...
|
Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
Yup, it would be a nod to the original Coney Island Fakir. Stand up straight, my boy, stand up straight.
Quote: On 2009-12-01 10:45, Stmarkus wrote: |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The spooky, the mysterious...the bizarre! » » American Carney DVD (0 Likes) |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.04 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |