Jim Rose Circus

The original Jim Rose Circus is a modern-day version of a circus sideshow. [" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/08/99/edinburgh_festival_99/422168.stm Jim Rose: The Shocking Truth] ". "BBC News", August 17, 1999.] [Turczyn, Coury. " [http://www.popcultmag.com/obsessions/profilesingreatness/jimrose/rose1.html Geek Love] ". "PopCult Magazine", April 15, 1999.] It was founded in Seattle by Jim Rose in the early 1990s. They came to prominence while performing on the second stage at the 1992 Lollapalooza festival as the "Jim Rose Circus Sideshow".

Performers

Slug (Paul Lawrence), billed as a man who would eat anything (worms, grasshoppers), and swallow a variety of swords. He also doubled as the show's organ player.Slug transformed himself into The Enigma, who is tattooed with blue jigsaw puzzle pieces all over his body. He left the show in 1998 and has toured the world over since then.

The Amazing Mister Lifto (Joe Hermann) who hung heavy weights (cinder blocks, steam irons, beer kegs, etc.) from his body piercings, including those in his nipples and genitalia. At Lollapalooza Lifto would perform the "genital lift" feat after spraying shaving cream on himself.

Matt "The Tube" Crowley, whose moniker came from the seven feet of tubing that he would swallow. The other end of the tube was attached to a crude hand pump. Rose himself would fill the pump with a variety of fluids and proceed to pump it into Crowley's stomach, then back out again. Audience members were invited onstage to drink the vile concoction after it had been extricated from Crowley. He would also provide a demonstration of sheer lung power by blowing up a hot water bottle with his mouth until it burst.

Bebe the Circus Queen (Beatrice Aschard) would perform a variety of stunts such as having a watermelon placed on her back and split with a sword, laying on a bed of nails while weights were placed on her chest... or the "Plastic Bag Of Death", where she gets into a large plastic bag and one of the other performers sucks all of the air out with a vacuum cleaner. She would also employ an electric grinder in her act (for example, she would create a shower of sparks from a metal chastity belt covering her groin area).

Torture King (Tim Cridland) had a segment that featured him walking barefoot up and down a ladder of razor sharp sabres, piercing himself with long needles and meat skewers, eating pieces of a broken lightbulb (he would hold a microphone near his mouth so the audience would hear the sound), and touching an electrical generator while holding a fluorescent lightbulb that would glow. In 1994, The Torture King left the Circus to create his own show. The Torture King Show toured the US and Canada many times. He currently lives and performs in Las Vegas.

Throughout their tours additional acts have included many other "Fringe" artists including Wrestlers and Pyro-X.

Rose himself performed in between acts, often committing masochistic deeds such as attaching paper currency to his forehead with a staple gun or driving a long nail into his nostril. During the show's final act, he would escape from a straightjacket. His most outrageous trick followed: he would invite audience members to stand on his head after he'd placed it in a shallow crate of broken glass.

Later Performers

The Lizardman Completely tattooed performer with a surgically split tongue (featured on Ripley's Believe It or Not) joined Jim in 1999 on the Godsmack Voodoo Tour and in 2001 toured with just Jim and Bebe doing comedy clubs. He performed several acts previously done by members who had left (Lifto, Enigma, Matt the Tube) and added new acts and routines to the circus. He left the circus in 2001 to return to his solo show endeavors.

Cappy (David Capuroo) Award winning yoyo artist. Featured in "The Jim Rose Twisted Tour".

Rupert (Ryan Stock) performed the traditional sideshow stunts. He now stars in his own show on the Discovery Channel with partner Amber Lynn.

Television, Video and DVDs

Both Jim Rose and The Enigma were featured in an episode of "The X-Files", the Season 2 episode "Humbug" which was set in a sideshow.

"The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow" video tape (1993 American Recordings) was re-released in 2003 as a DVD by Moonshine Music.

"The Jim Rose Twisted Tour" [imdb title|0421375] was a seven episode series that debuted March 2003 on the opening week of the Travel Channel, although only five episodes were aired. It was released in 2006 on DVD, which includes all episodes.

Books

Jim Rose wrote [ghost written by Melissa Rossi] the autobiographical "Freak Like Me (Real, Raw, and Dangerous)" (Dell 1995 ISBN #0440507448)

Road Manager Jan Gregor wrote "Circus of the Scars" (Brennan Dalsgard Pub 1998 ISBN # 0966347900) about the group's formation and first tours.

Jim Rose released the book "Angles" in 1999. "Angles" was mostly reprints of sideshow pamphlets that had been published over the years with a few paragraphs written by Jim Rose. "Angles" was self-published and limited to 3000 copies.

Jim Rose released the book "Snake Oil (Life's Calculations, Misdirections, And Manipulations)" in 2005. It reprints the book "Angles" with a new cover by artist Gail Potocki.

Jim Rose wrote the introduction to the book "Gail Potocki: The Union of Hope and Sadness" in 2006.

Jim Rose was written about extensively in Marilyn Manson's autobiography 'Long Hard Road Out Of Hell'. The stories refer to the 1994 'Downward Spiral Tour' with Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.

References

External links

* [http://www.jimrosecircus.com/ Official web site]
* [http://www.morrisseytour.com/fringe/index.shtml Interview with Jim Rose]
* [http://www.stoneponyonline.com/photos/2002/rose/ Stone Pony Photos of Jim Rose Circus, June 6, 2002]
* [http://www.scs.fsu.edu/~burkardt/fun/misc/jim_rose.html Circus review]
* [http://www.circusofthescars.com/ Circus of the Scars web site]
* [http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/mrlifto.html Mr. Lifto interview]