Jim Rose Circus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

The Jim Rose Circus is modern day version of a freak show circus sideshow. 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. Acts included:

Slug, 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 (real name Paul Lawrence) transformed himself into The Enigma, who is tattooed with blue jigsaw puzzle pieces all over his body.

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 cleverly 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.

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.

Jim 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, himself, 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.

Contents

[edit] Television

Both Jim Rose and The Enigma have featured in an episode of The X-Files - Season 2, 'Humbug'.

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: The Jim Rose Twisted tour was a 7 episode series that debuted March of 2003[1] on the opening week of the Travel Channel. Only 5 episodes were aired.

The Jim Rose Twisted Tour was released in 2006 on DVD, which includes all 7 episodes.

[edit] Books

Rose wrote the autobiographical "Freak Like Me (Real, Raw, and Dangerous)" and road manager Jan Gregor wrote "Circus of the Scars" about the group's formation and first tours.

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.

[edit] Trivia

Jim Rose provided the voice for Psymon in SSX Tricky.

[edit] External links


  This article about a corporation or company involved in entertainment, leisure, sports and/or tourism is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../j/i/m/Jim_Rose_Circus_200f.html"