Geek shows were an act in
traveling carnival
A traveling carnival (US English), usually simply called a carnival, or travelling funfair (UK English), is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, ...
s and
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
es of early
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and were often part of a larger
sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten seq ...
.
The billed performer's act consisted of a single geek, who stood in the center ring to chase live chickens. It ended with the performer biting the chickens' heads off and swallowing them. The geek shows were often used as openers for what are commonly known as
freak show
A freak show, also known as a creep show, is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with ...
s. It was a matter of pride among circus and carnival professionals not to have traveled with a troupe that included geeks. Geeks were often alcoholics or drug addicts, and paid with liquor – especially during
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
– or with
narcotics
The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
. In modern usage, the term "geek show" is often applied to situations where an audience is drawn to a performance or show where the performance consists of a horrific act that the crowd finds distasteful but ultimately entertaining. It may also be used by a single person in reference to an experience that he or she found humiliating but others found entertaining.
References in pop culture
''
Freaks
Freak has several meanings: a person who is physically deformed or suffers from an extraordinary disease and condition, a genetic mutation in a plant or animal, etc.
Freak, freaks or The Freak may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Freak (Ima ...
'' (1932) is a
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
with a long history of controversy because it used real carnival performers. In its original release, it became the only
M-G-M
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
film ever to be pulled from
cinemas
A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
before completing its domestic engagements.
In the
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
classic ''
Nightmare Alley'' (1947), based on the
1946 novel of the same name by
William Lindsay Gresham
William Lindsay Gresham (; August 20, 1909 – September 14, 1962) was an American novelist and non-fiction author particularly well-regarded among readers of noir. His best-known work is '' Nightmare Alley'' (1946), which was adapted to film i ...
,
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include '' Jesse James'', ...
plays a sideshow
barker in a seedy carnival which includes a geek biting the heads off live chickens. Power's character later succeeds as a
charlatan
A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through false pretenses, pretense or deception. Synonyms for ''charlatan ...
mentalist
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precogniti ...
, but then descends into
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
and is reduced to falsely portraying a geek as a means of survival in another sideshow. In one of Gresham's non-fiction books, ''Monster Midway'', he further details the process of making an alcoholic or a drug addict perform a geek act in exchange for a fix.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's "
Ballad of a Thin Man
"Ballad of a Thin Man" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan, and released in 1965 on his sixth album, ''Highway 61 Revisited''.
Recording
Dylan recorded "Ballad of a Thin Man" in Studio A of Columbia Records in New York City, located at 799 ...
", from the 1965 album ''
Highway 61 Revisited
''Highway 61 Revisited'' is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on ever ...
'', makes a reference to the geek in its third verse. It is directed at the 'straight' Mr Jones, who is unable to come to terms with the counter-culture youth revolution around him:
:You hand in your ticket
:And you go watch the geek
:Who immediately walks up to you
:When he hears you speak
:And says, "How does it feel
:To be such a freak?"
:And you say, "Impossible"
:As he hands you a bone.
In the television show ''
Starsky and Hutch
''Starsky & Hutch'' is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a ''Movie of the Week'' entry) and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn (inspired by th ...
'' (1976), Huggy tells Starsky and Hutch that the guy they are looking for, Monty Voorhees, used to be a geek. Starsky explains geeks to Hutch. He also claims that the geeks formed a union in 1932, which he then admits he made up. "Well, suppose all they paid you in was chicken heads." (
“Bounty Hunter”, Season 1, Episode 22)
The artist
Joe Coleman bit the heads off white rats as part of his stage act as Doctor Momboozo in the 1980s. He primarily did a 'Human Bomb' show, self-detonating at the end, but also performed with the rodents for his turn as a geek.
The 1990
Troma
Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. The company produces low-budget independent films, primarily of the horror comedy genre. Many of them pl ...
film ''
Luther the Geek
''Luther the Geek'' (Alternately spelled ''Luther, the Freak'') is a 1989 American Horror film directed by Carlton J. Albright and released by Troma Entertainment. It stars Edward Terry in the titular role, with Stacy Haiduk and Joan Roth playing ...
'' revolves around a geek named Luther, who eventually becomes a murderer who bites the heads off his victims.
A geek show figures in the
Katherine Dunn
Katherine Karen Dunn (October 24, 1945 – May 11, 2016) was a novelist, journalist, voice artist, radio personality, book reviewer, and poet from Portland, Oregon. She is best known for her novel '' Geek Love'' (1989). She was also a prolific ...
novel ''
Geek Love
''Geek Love'' is a novel by Katherine Dunn, published completely by Alfred A. Knopf (a division of Random House) in 1989. Dunn published parts of the novel in ''Mississippi Mud Book of Days'' (1983) and ''Looking Glass Bookstore Review'' (1988) ...
'' (1989). Crystal Lil, the debutante mother of the
freak
A freak is a person who is physically deformed or transformed due to an extraordinary medical condition or body modification. This definition was first attested with this meaning in the 1880s as a shorter form of the phrase " freak of nature ...
s, met their father while performing as a geek during her summer break from university. Aloysius, the proprietor of the traveling circus, comments that college boys often toured as geeks during their summer breaks, but at the sight of the lovely Crystal Lil and her eagerness they made an exception. During a recounting of her time as a geek, Crystal remarks on how damaged her teeth were from biting the heads off chickens.
In the 1993 ''
Beavis and Butt-Head
''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, ...
'' episode "At the Sideshow", Beavis and Butt-Head go to a carnival, run a foul of the staff, and are forced to join the sideshow as Siamese twin chicken geeks.
In the 1995 ''
X-Files'' episode "
Humbug
A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclama ...
", real-life sideshow performer
The Enigma portrays a mostly-mute geek named "The Conundrum." True to the classical view of circus or even other sideshow performers about them, one of the sideshow workers calls The Conundrum "neither highly trained nor professional, just...unseemly." In true geek form, The Conundrum's willingness to eat anything plays a crucial role in resolving the episode's plot.
In the 1998 ''
Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, a ...
'' episode "
Bart Carny", Homer and Bart are asked to perform in a geek show to pay off a debt: "You just bite the heads off the chickens and take a bow".
In ''
Marvel Noir'',
Norman Osborn
Norman Osborn is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, first appeared in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #14 (July 1964) as the first ...
has his henchmen all employed from various sideshow attractions.
Adrian Toomes
The Vulture (Adrian Toomes) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Toomes is an Invention, inventive, but maniacal genius who designed a special suit that allows him to fly at vast speeds. After turning to ...
was a former Geek, and seems to have lost all conscience, as he devoured
Ben Parker.
In the film ''
The Wizard of Gore
''The Wizard of Gore'' is a 1970 American fantasy splatter film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and starring Ray Sager, Judy Cler, and Wayne Ratay. The screenplay was written by Allen Kahn.
Plot
Magician Montag the Magnificent delivers hec ...
'' there is a show that opens with "The Geek" (played by
Jeffrey Combs
Jeffrey Alan Combs (born September 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for starring in horror films, such as ''Re-Animator'', and appearances playing a number of characters in the ''Star Trek'' and the DC animated universe television fra ...
) eating maggots and then biting the head off a rat.
In the first two episodes of ''
American Horror Story: Freak Show'', there is a geek named Meep (played by
Ben Woolf
Benjamin Eric Woolf (September 15, 1980 – February 23, 2015) was an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in ''American Horror Story'' first and fourth seasons, in which he played Infantata and Meep, respectively. He wa ...
) who performs in the Freak Show biting heads off of baby chickens. He is eventually wrongfully arrested and murdered by the other inmates in prison.
In HBO's 2003 television series ''
Carnivàle
''Carnivàle'' () is an American television series set in the United States Dust Bowl during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The series, created by Daniel Knauf, ran for two seasons between 2003 and 2005. In tracing the lives of disparate ...
'', Ben Hawkins' father, Henry Scudder, deserted the
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...
and fled to America where he eventually succumbed to alcoholism and worked as a sideshow geek at Hyde and Teller's carnival.
Archived HBO Website John Savage as Henry Scudder
{dead link, date=January 2022
References
External links
detailed article on the Circus Geeks
Circuses
Sideshows
Cruelty to animals
Alcohol abuse