#side shows

[diana-andraste]

Circus performer Olga Denver

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Here are some unidentified "circus-style" wood types printed by Racine-based (formerly Stevens Point-based) book artist and letterpress printer Caren Heft from her 2012 artists book The Human Volcano: The Stories of Captain Don One Man Sideshow Sword Swallower, Fire Eater, & Tattooed Man, printed at Heft's Arcadian Press in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on Hahnemuhle and Root River cotton papers in an edition of 35 copies.

The book includes photographic images and an edited interview with side-show performer Captain Don Leslie (1937-2007) by Texas folklorist, photographer, and filmmaker Alan Govenar (b. 1952). Captain Don recalls:

Being a tattooed man added to my repertoire, so to speak. If you were a fire-eater, you got one salary, and as a sword swallower, you got another salary, and if you were a tattooed man, it added up. So, I got paid three salaries. And as the years went on, I was able to demand more money because I added to my attractions. I learned human pin-cushion, electric chair, bed of nails, and human blockhead. So, I do about ten acts. In recent years, there have been so few circus sideshow performers out there that I've become, literally, a one-man sideshow.

Swallowing swords was dangerous enough, but it was eating fire that doomed Captain Don, as the lead in the gasoline he used for his act gave him tongue and throat cancer, killing him in 2007.

View more books printed by Caren Heft.

View some of our other Typography Tuesday posts.

[silentmagi]

Side Shows:

*dusts this idea off*

Well with this idea…a fascinating one indeed, and without spoiling still, the latest episode gave me…thoughts

I have two questions

1.How does caine react to solver/cyn trying to get their tessa back?

2. How is tessa’s interactions with the cast you’ve gifted to us? (Gangle, zooble, pomni, ragatha, and kinger)

Side Shows

Well now! This is new! New friends to be a part of the show? No? Well then... they must not interrupt. His guests are not leaving. *snap*

Do you understand how awkward all of this is going to get? It's like twice what you're thinking.

[stone-cold-groove]

A day at the circus.

[muccegai]

SIDE SHOWS

A Drawtober 2021 challenge throwback to commemorate and make way to this year's october!

Hear Hear! What fights we are going to have! Two sibling puppets, only one shall remain. It is indeed one of our most popular attractions, for amidst stabbings and immolations, neither appears to give in. For now, there is no sign of a stop to the eternal fighting...

[emilylaj]

Drawtober 2021

Prompt 5: Side Shows

Oof, the art block with this one.

～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～

✦ Like my art? Consider supporting me: Ko-fi. For custom art for personal use, view my Commission Info. For graphic design/art for business purposes, i.e to make profit from reselling the work as a product, using it for advertising/promotion, etc., view my Contract Details on my website: emilylaj.com/contract-details. ✦

[ID: A person with long hair, wearing a dotted, sleeveless shirt and solid-colored skirt, stands in front of of pillar, with floor to ceiling mirrors on either side. Their image is reflected four times in the mirror, two showing each side of the person, and two showing each 3/4th view of the person. From the person outward, the mirror is cracked in six major sections, and in each section is an image broken up from the cracks. From top to bottom and left from right in an arch, the images are: screaming mouth, bloody handprints, eyeballs, screaming mouth, eyeballs, and bloody handprints. The words, from top to bottom, read in all caps: “Side Shows, Introducing: The House of Mirrors. Only at the Grand Finale.” End description.]

[cryingoflot49]