No one from the Ex or North American Midway, the international concern that took over the midway from Conklin, can remember when the freak shows stopped showing up at the midway, but they’re definitely gone – a likely victim of our far more sensitive, politically correct times.
Well, that’s actually rubbish – the midway freak shows that featured dwarves, birth defects, tattoo junkies and the morbidly obese have moved to reality television with titles like The Biggest Loser, Miami Ink, Half-Pint Brawlers and Hoarders.
Which is why we’re due for a return of the circus sideshow freak, only instead of putting conjoined twins or 500-pound gluttons on display, I think we need to tap the freak talent pool of reality-TV and celebrity culture and fill the tents with Richard Hatch, LaToya Jackson, Trista Rehn and Kim and Chip from The Amazing Race.
