Shoot the Freak was an attraction on the

Riegelmann Boardwalk The Riegelmann Boardwalk (also known as the Coney Island Boardwalk) is a boardwalk along the southern shore of the Coney Island peninsula in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1923, the boardwalk runs bet ...

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, USA, that operated from 2000 until its demolition in 2010. The game was located on West Boardwalk in Coney Island. The game was considered one of the distinctive attractions of Coney Island. A successor, called Shoot the Clown, opened in a different location on the Boardwalk in 2013.

Game play

The game consisted of a raised platform above a yard filled with obstacles and other objects. A high

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

wall defined the back end of the yard; the walls of adjacent buildings defined the side boundaries. A

carnival barker A barker, often a carnival barker, is a person who attempts to attract patrons to entertainment events, such as a circus or funfair, by exhorting passing members of the public, announcing attractions of show, and emphasizing variety, novelty, beau ...

would draw passersby to play the game, using trademark calls of "C'mon, ya pineapple!" Players would fire

paintball Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy ai ...

rifles from the platform at human targets in the yard below. Playing the game required purchase of ammunition from the proprietor. The targets (the "freaks") were unarmed, wore plastic armor, and would taunt and insult the players while dodging paintball fire. No prizes were awarded and there was no scoring system.

Demolition

As part of its contract with the

New York City government The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a mayor-council system. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for the ...

to reconstruct and modernize Coney Island and create a new park called

Luna Park Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-sc ...

, the Italian firm

Zamperla Antonio Zamperla S.p.A. is an Italian design and manufacturing company founded in 1966. It is best known for creating family rides, thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The company also makes smaller coin-operated rides commonly found in ...

tried to coerce several existing Coney Island boardwalk attractions to close or relocate, and Shoot the Freak was among those that refused. Over the 2010 winter holidays, Shoot the Freak was

bulldozed A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, ...

without proper permits and sealed off. The owner and operator of Shoot the Freak was Anthony Berlingieri, who also owned Beer Island, another Boardwalk business that had been threatened with eviction by Zamperla. Berlingieri had been battling Zamperla in court and had been formally served

eviction Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgage ...

papers on November 1, 2010, but the eviction had been stayed on

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

and court hearings were not yet under way. Zamperla was fined for the illegal action.

Shoot the Clown

After

Superstorm Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

decimated Coney Island in October 2012, proprietors scrambled to replace the attractions that had been destroyed for the following spring. The old Derby Racer space, on Bowery Street in Coney Island, became the site of Shoot the Clown. The rules, layout and setup of Shoot the Clown are identical to those of Shoot the Freak. The proprietor of Shoot the Clown is Caesar, the operator of a number of other attractions.

In popular culture

* A band based in Brooklyn is named Shoot The Freak. * In the game ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', and the ...

'', a non-playable storefront in Firefly Island in Broker is called "Shoot Em Down." The sign is in the same style as Shoot the Freak's sign.Firefly Island - Grand Theft Wiki, the GTA wiki
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References

External links

- page with pictures of the Shoot the Freak game. {{coords, 40.5740, -73.9803, display=title Carnival games Coney Island