The Weirdo Show has the feeling of an old carnival midway, which is no surprise as it’s produced by local sideshow performer and afficionado, Kellan Hancock (aka Charlie Artful).
The show’s host, Professor Sprocket, has perfected the patter of the old bally talker to a dizzying degree. Serving retro realness every fourth Saturday of the month, the show features local and touring performers who specialize in the retro art forms of sideshow, variety and burlesque. At a recent Weirdo Show, Madame Baska d’Joy, chanteuse and accordionista, opened the show with, appropriately, a cover of the Who’s, “Squeeze Box” followed up with a rousing rendition of Cee Lo’s “F@*! You.” Baltimore burlesque beauty Kay Sera followed with a sexy little number to that song we all hate to love, “What Does the Fox Say?” (spoiler alert: the fox says “Ow!”). Then came the Schadenfreud Circus! Now I’m not normally a flincher but Lazlo and Lady Riggy had me peeping through my fingers throughout their show. They ran through classic sideshow acts the Blockhead (hammering a nail into one’s nose); walking, jumping and barefoot tapdancing on broken glass; and the Human Pincushion – the name says it all. Upping the stakes, Lady Riggy climbed a step ladder that had machetes for rungs barefoot.
In a very touching moment Lazlo told the audience of an abusive childhood juxtaposed with performing strong man feats of bending a nail with his bare hands and rolling a frying pan like it was a tortilla. And to show how much they loved each other, (they’re romantic partners in real life who met on the midway) Lady Riggy took a sledgehammer and smashed a cinder block against Lazlo’s crotch. Lazlo, in turn, took a strobe light and induced a seizure in Lady Riggy. I know they say the course of true love never did run smooth but COME ON!
After a brief intermission and a couple of nerve soothing drinks later the second act kicked off with Kay Sera, cute as a bunny, performing to an old Elvis Presley song, “Lucky Charm.” Did you ever think you’d see the words carrot and merkin together in a sentence? Well you just did, and if you had been at the show you they wouldn’t be just words! Madame Baska seemed to sum up the evening musically with a cover of the Doors’ “People Are Strange” and a sing-along to Radiohead’s “Creep.” In an odd sort of way it was really heartwarming to hear the entire crowd sing “I’m a weirdo-o-o.” Schadenfreud returned for a little fire and glass-eating. Lazlo performed a straightjacket escape but since that’s not enough on it’s own, oh no, he was blindfolded and barefoot with mousetraps set onstage. I haven’t seen many women sword swallowers before so to apparently make up for that Lady Riggy did something I’ve never seen – swallowing two swords at once.
To finish the show in flinchworthy fashion, Schadenfreud carved apples with chainsaws … oh yeah, they were holding the apples in their mouths. For the finale they went in for an applemouthed kiss, the chainsaw between them. We had a chance to sit down with Kellan Hancock, Kay Sera, Madame Baska, and Schadenfreud. This video is not for the squeamish or prudish as it contains graphic depictions of the above-mentioned sideshow acts, an F-bomb, some sideboob, and immature innuendo.The next Weirdo Show will be Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 10:00 PM at the Bier Baron and is every fourth Saturday of the month.
