Latest / Drawn of History / A Carny _ This Past Weekend w_ Theo Von _496(M4A_128K)

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A Carny _ This Past Weekend w_ Theo Von _496(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today's guest is a carny out of the New England area,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and his family has been involved in the carnival business
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: for over 100 years. I'm excited to learn all about
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the behind the scenes of the food, the games, the prizes,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the debauchery, everything that goes in to the carny universe.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Today's guest is carny Mitch Candiano. I'll sit and tell
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: you my story.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Shine on me.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: And I will find a song.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I will sing it.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I'm on the stage. Mitch, the carny, baby. Good to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: see you.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you, man. Thank you for having me.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So thanks for coming on, dude. So we just want
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to learn about carnies and carnival music. employees, fairs, everything
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: like it. Is carny an appropriate term? Yeah.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I was born and raised a carny.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: My grandparents were carnys. My parents were carnys. My brother
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and his kids are carnys. No way.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: It runs deep, man.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: 1918 he started. And can I say before we really
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: get going?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I got to thank you for having a poor pedestrian
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: like me on. Because, you know, I don't wear a
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: watch and I don't use a washcloth. So Tom would
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: never have me on. I appreciate it.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Tom. Oh, yeah. He doesn't like the pores or whatever.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: He doesn't like the pores. I don't know why. Yeah,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know, dude. I think we're great people.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, I don't. Yeah, I'm not. Yeah, I don't
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: have a washcloth. I probably should have one.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: That's what I use. Yeah. He hates washcloths.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, he hates them?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: He hates them. Yeah.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think, well, I'll use a washcloth, like,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to get, like, in here, though.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right? I mean, how do you get it out?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: How do you get in there?
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I try just using my fingernail and getting it out
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and then just, like, putting it like that into the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: drain or whatever, but I don't think that's enough sometimes. No, washcloths.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Especially as you get older.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: You know? But, yeah.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: A good old wet willy.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You got to, doing a wet willy on somebody? Yeah. Yeah,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I remember doing, oh.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I'm going to sneak one up on you later.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, you really do? Just wear a condom, bro.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, I will. Okay.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm asking for, you know? I mean, it's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the least you could do, dude. The Irish hello.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure, man.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: It's our first time hanging too, so I'll definitely keep
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: it covered.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, but dude, thanks. Yeah. So I guess I'm
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: just curious, like, so what is a carny? What is
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the term?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So a carny, carnival, you know, carnival worker.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I guess is where it came from. And, uh, So
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: that's what we are. And I know there's all different versions.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I know people sometimes think of like, uh, somebody that
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: just got out of prison, coming in tattoos, smelling like cabbage,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: you know, missing a couple of fingers. And they think
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: that's a carny that's working the ride or something like that.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. That Iris deodorant. Yeah.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: You know, and, uh, we don't, we carnies don't call
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: them carnies. We call them like 40 milers or green
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: help or something like that. Cause like a 40 miler,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: he's just trying to get onto the road and get
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: 40 miles down the street to the next lot. So
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you can get out of, whatever situation he was in
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: when he joined the carnival.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Okay. So there's different types. Do you have actual carnies
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: that are like, they've been in there for a while?
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Like their families are out there. They have kids,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: they raise their kids out there.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: And then you got 40 milers. Yeah.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: We call them 40 milers.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: And those are guys that are just kind of like,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: maybe just got out of doing some time and they're
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: just trying to.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Try to get a job and you know, get out
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: of town.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And get out of town.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Just trying to get there for just something.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: And so a lot of times the carnival will hire
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: folks like that just because they need like a lot
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of help.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: It's tough to find help out there. You know, people
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: that want to travel and just be out there every day,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: you know, living at the carnival. Yeah. And you're in
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a different town every week and you know, you don't
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: get much time off. So it's, it's wild.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's interesting. Well, it's kind of interesting. It's kind
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: of similar to comedians because you go to a, town
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: or a city for a few days and then you
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: hit the road and you go to somewhere else.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Um, I'd say like, that's like the calling, like a, uh,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: open mic or like a comic is kind of like
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: calling one of those ride guys. A Connie is kind
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: of like the same thing, you know?
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Okay. I see what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: makes good sense, man. Um, and your family's been doing,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: you said hundreds of years.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Well, since 1918, my grandfather started selling cotton candy in 1918.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And what brought him into that? I'm really not sure.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: He came over from Italy. He was born in 1900.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: And so he was about four or five years old,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: came over on the boat to Ellis Island and all that.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: And I don't know, he was 18 years old and
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: started selling cotton candy at like street fairs and little
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: things like that. And yeah, it's just kind of how
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: we started and got into it. I actually still have
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: some cotton candy machines that he built handmade, like wooden
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: frame and like, you know, belt driven, like old, old school.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: They obviously don't work, but because then now they're like
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: all sturdy metal, like, you know, Industrial looking.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, like Whirlpool makes them.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, something like that. But, yeah, we have some
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: old ones.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your cotton candy will have a fucking sock in
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it or whatever. You're like, this is like one of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: these you're looking at?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have a couple like that. As they're older,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: those are kind of like the– those kind of seem
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: like residential ones that you can kind of like buy
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: for your house.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: So your grandfather came over and he started selling cotton candy.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: He started selling cotton candy, yeah.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: He's selling cotton candy and then– Like, what, he just
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: gets a job and he stays, like?
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: He just kept doing it. And then, you know, he
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: had kids. And then my father got into it. And
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: my father and mother started their own whole carnival business.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: So they started buying rides and games and food and everything. And,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: you know, we had a whole carnival called Candiano's Amusements,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: you know, way back before I was born. And then
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: when I was born, they kind of split up. And
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: my dad started working for bigger carnivals, like the real
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: big ones that did big, the big county fairs and
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: state fairs and stuff like that.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: So he started working for a company like that and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: then went for, ended up working for another, the biggest
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: one in New England called Fiesta Shows. And so he
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: worked for them up until he died. And so he
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: was kind of like, you know, a big shot out there.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: He ran like food and games and stuff for them
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: out there and was a lot man.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: So what, and so did you, what was one of
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: your first jobs in the carnival?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Yep. And so what's the difference between a carnival and
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a fair? Because we had the fair would come a lot, right?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the fair is just— Is it the same thing? Yeah,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: it's basically, except the fair is they have like the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: animals and everything like that. Like you have the whole
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: agricultural part of it, you know, and sometimes they'll have
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: like demolition derbies and all that. And like the races
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: and all the agricultural, like the pigs and the cows.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, they had definitely, yeah.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: All that stuff. So that's what kind of distinguishes it
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: from a fair to a carnival. And they've kind of
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: been long running. Like up where we are, we have
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the Topsfield Fair. It's been around for like 150 years
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: or something like that.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. How does that 4-H element fit in? Because that's
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: also a whole different element than the rides and the games.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: You would always like, I remember we'd always have to
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: walk over to like the livestock shed or whatever. It
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: was like a bomb shelter or whatever that had a
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: bunch of pigs in it and stuff. Yeah. you'd have
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to go over there and, uh, pig races.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: You ever see those?
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And they have like the kids art, like you'd
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: won my third place or whatever. It was pretty bad.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: A lot of it. Jesus Christ. Like they hit it
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: over here behind the goats. It wasn't that great of art,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: but you'd be able to go over there and like, um,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: they had like crocheting and a lot of local crafts, but, uh,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: did you guys ever have beef? Was there like a
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: lot of like, beef between carnies and the livestock people?
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: The beef was in the carnivals, between the carnival.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Like, so during the spring when we're doing just carnivals,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: we would split up into like three different sections. So
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: you could do three cities at the same time. But
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: then when we got to the fairs, we would all
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: get together and then the fights would break out. Oh yeah.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Like crazy fights.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: So what was a lot of the beef between the people,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the workers?
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm a first unit. No, you know, you're just
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: a lonely guy from the third unit. Like, you know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: you shouldn't be over here like with us or partying
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: with us or hanging, you know, they kind of look
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: down on you. Like, it's just like anything else. You know,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: the first unit got all the big rides and the
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: nice stuff. And then the second unit was kind of
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: steps down. And then the third unit was like, they
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: got all the shit, all the bad rides, all the
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: bad stuff. So whenever they all teamed up, it was
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: all these beefs going on.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Like, you know, territorial stuff, territorial stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Huh?
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: So like, what was your first job in it?
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I think my first, I think I was probably selling
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: cotton candy. Probably in the floss, we called it a
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: floss stand. And it was the one that did cotton candy,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: snow cones, popcorn, and candy apples.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Ooh, yeah.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the caramel apples with sprinkles.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I love that, man.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. I still make caramel apples.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: Do you?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's so good.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: That's so good, man. And people don't think about them
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: that much. No. If you ask somebody, what are you
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: thinking about? They never say caramel apples.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: It just, you know, it's like something you don't hear
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: as much as you wish you should because they're so
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: good when you get them.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: They're so good.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: They really are.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And was that like, what goes into making cotton candy? Like,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: what is it?
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Sugar and coloring.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Sugar and coloring. Yeah.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: And it's honestly not a lot of sugar.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: But what, how does it get the cotton or whatever?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It heats up.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Uh-huh.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: So it heats the sugar up so it gets real
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: stringy and fluffs out like that. It goes in the
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: machine so that head there in the middle spins really
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: fast and it heats up. Some people get crazy with
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the cotton candy. Have you seen the people that make
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: the animals and stuff with the cotton candy?
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Uh-uh.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, no? You should check that out.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, they get crazy. They make all kinds of animals
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: and stuff with the cotton candy to give to the kids.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know how they do it. I got a
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: girl that works for me, one of Mitch's bitches. Yeah? Yeah,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: and she wants to start figuring out how to do that.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: And that's what you call them? Mitch's bitches?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: I don't call them that. They call themselves that. Oh, yeah.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: So don't cancel me, guys.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: No, it could be a union. Yeah. There's a lot
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: of different unions. I'll stop.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: My friend is.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: In the pipe fitters union, and he's always yelling about something.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, these girls, they call themselves Mitch's bitches.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Huh.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they all made shirts that say Mitch's bitches on it.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: It's pretty wild.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: And those are your friends? Yeah, friends.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: I pretty much hire friends or friends. They become friends
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: real fast once they start working for me. Like still,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: love you, babe.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And so what about this? Bring that back up. Sorry,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to learn about this. So cotton candy,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: it is made by heating and liquefying sugar and spinning
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: it centrifugally through minute holes, minute holes.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Minute holes.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Causing it to rapidly cool and re-solidify into fine strands.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It is often sold at fair circuses, carnivals. Wow. So
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: you just put some sugar in the hot.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that thing that spins in the middle, you
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: pour sugar in there. You color the sugar ahead of time.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Okay. And it starts spinning, and next thing you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: it makes cotton candy.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's coming out crazy, and you got your stick,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: and you're whipping it around.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: How fast? How long does it take?
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: It doesn't take long to fill up a bag.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: But I don't know if this guy's going to get crazy.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Maybe he does. I don't know. I've seen some. There
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: is some people that really make some intricate stuff with
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: the cotton candy. Yeah. There's a machine that's just kind
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: of like the one I have just like that. So
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: that was like my first gig, you know, like there's
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a picture of me. I was born in the summer.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: So like, as soon as I was born, my mom
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: had me ride out on the road with her. So
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: there's a picture of me sitting by the cotton in
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: my little car seat, sitting up by the cotton candy
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: machine while she's making cotton candy, you know, a month old. Seriously.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So your family was just out there like, Oh yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: And so like what towns was that usually?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, man, we did like the Topsfield Fair, the Marshfield
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Fair out on Cape Cod, the Bangor and Skowhegan Fair
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: up in Maine, Rochester Fair in New Hampshire, Hopkinton Fair
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: in New Hampshire. It was a really big one in
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Connecticut we did.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then in the spring, it was just all–
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: the spring was always– sometimes you do a lot of
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: the same stuff, but a lot of times it would
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: get switched up because like if you didn't do that
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: well the year before or whatever, they would find you
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: another place to go. You know, and towards the end,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I don't do carnivals anymore. I'm still in the business
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: of like selling food and stuff like that, but I
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: don't do carnivals. Because towards the end of when I
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: was doing it, they were still like, we were doing
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: like these closed down strip centers. You know what I mean?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Like old Ames and Kmart parking lots where everything's boarded
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: up and we're in the parking lot trying to make
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: nobody's coming. You got like, you know, nobody there.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: So this is somebody making cotton candy right here?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Is this the machine you're talking about? No.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Mine's similar to that. I don't know if they have
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: a different speed or a heat. It might be the same,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: but it does seem like a different consistency than the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: one I use that I make.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: And so what is it? The sugar's in there and
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it's just spraying it out really hot?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Yep. And it cools off immediately.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. So this is- That's all cotton candy. So
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: this is a cotton candy machine right here?
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And so the sugar is inside of that.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: See that little thing? Yeah, that's spinning super fast right
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: in the middle. It's spinning so fast. You can't even
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: tell it's spinning.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's just blowing hot sugar out of there?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: It's just blowing hot sugar, baby.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. And now this, wow. And this is a
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Korean guy.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, he's getting down, huh?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look at him.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: He's going to make an umbrella.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It looks like he's making, yeah, like maybe a UFO.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, something.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, these guys get creative. I don't know how
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: they do it.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: So you guys would never do anything like this at
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the fairs, huh?
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't even really leave it on sticks that
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: often because I wasn't that good at spinning it because
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: you want it to be like nice and big and
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: fluffy on a stick when you meet people.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: And so I wasn't even that great at that. I
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: would always put it in a bag and sell the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: bag cotton candy. Wow, this is unbelievably creative.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, he's making some stuff, yeah.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, here we go.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Now, do you get jealous when you see somebody taking
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: it to another level?
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I know, me too. It's like when you see somebody
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: that's just that great. They're crushing it on the stage. Yeah,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: it's like meeting Tim Dillon. You're like, ah, damn. I'm
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: just regular cotton candy.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, man, you and Tim were on the same level.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, that guy's so funny.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: He is.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, he is. He's just so funny to be around.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you for saying that. It's nice of you to
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: say that. Okay, so you're working the cotton candy. That's
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: how you get started out. What kind of, like, groups
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: are at the carnival? Yeah, we definitely say separated. Okay,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: what kind of groups are at the carnival? Like, are there,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: because there's the games, right? There are.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: The joinies.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: The, what is it?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: We call them joinies.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Joinies?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And what is that?
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: The joints. The trailers, we call them joints.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: And so they work the joints.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Okay. So they work the games. Those are the joints.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: And then there's the food. Yep.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: One of the concessions.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Concessions. And then there's- And then you got the ride jocks.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Ride jocks. Yep.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: And are those groups kind of like they keep to
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: their own a little bit or what?
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for the most part. The joinies and concessions are mingled. And,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: you know, I mingled with everybody. Just I knew everybody. But,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: you know, a lot of times some of the ride
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: guys would mingle with some of the concessions a little bit. And,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: you know, they would mingle a little bit. But for
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: the most part, they were with their own crews, you know. Yeah.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Did you ever work the rides? Yeah.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I did it all because, you know, I
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: was just out there. And when I was a kid,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: before I even like worked officially, I would like, I
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: knew everybody. So I would jump on the ride. Hey,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: let me run this ride for a little while. Or
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: I would work inside the haunted houses, scaring people when
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I was like, you know, 12, 13 years old.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: You know, and like they had the walk-in, you know,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: haunted houses, all the ones you ride through. And I
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: would go in there and like scare the people coming
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: through and stuff like that. And, you know, that was
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: always fun.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Why is your family so tied in?
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Just for doing it for so long.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Honestly. And, you know, even before my father, you know,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I had my grandfather around the same time, I guess. Well, yeah,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: I had a great uncle. He was my father's great uncle,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I believe, or cousin. And he was already big in
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: the circus business. He was one of the biggest freaks
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: in the world. He was our most famous three-legged man,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Frank Lentini.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Frank Lentini? Yep.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: There he is.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He had three legs, four feet, two dicks, 16 toes.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. He had two wieners on him? Yep. Oh,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: my gosh.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Two peepees.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Dude, I couldn't even, you could serve, dude, you could serve, yeah,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: it's almost like a damn soda fountain at that point.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Leg, dick, leg, dick, leg.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, you could have urine and then fanta. Yeah, man.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: It was wild. And they both worked. Really?
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And how did y'all know that?
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Did they write it down somewhere?
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, because he was so... everybody wanted to know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: you know? So like when he was traveling the freak
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: shows and he was really well-spoken, they called him like
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: the mayor of the freaks. Cause he would go and
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: speak for everybody. Like when he'd be like, you know,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: we want more money or we want better working conditions
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: or whatever. He would be the guy that would go
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: talk to everybody. He worked for Ring Lane, Barnum and Bailey.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: He worked for all the, all the big freak shows
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: and circuses.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Wow. Frank Lentini was born in Sicily in 1881. He
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: was the fifth of 12 children. Yeah.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: And they didn't, his parents didn't really like him that much.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Gave him to his aunt. Yeah, they were kind of
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: ashamed of him.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Because he had three legs, each of different lengths. Now,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: that's a lot to, you know, because then you're like.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Throw it at your hip. Like, that's got to be crazy. Yeah,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: it's got to be tough on your joints. A fourth
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: foot that stuck out of one of his knees, 16 fingers,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: and an extra set of genitals. Wow, running on that
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: spare genny, dude. Keep the lights on, bro. His condition
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: was the result of a parasitic twin. Yep. that was
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: attached to his body at the base of his spine. Wow.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: And it was too, they couldn't take it off, especially
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: back then, I'm sure, but they definitely, it was too
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: dangerous to try to remove.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: He would go on to work with every major circus,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: including Barnum and Bailey. In his act, he would kick
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: a soccer ball, ride a bike, and skate.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: He'd kick it out of his third leg, like hold
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the ball over a football and kick it with his
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: third leg.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, bro, that's got to be so incredible, huh? Yeah.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Imagine running and you just kick somebody with your third
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: leg while you're running.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Dude, imagine you could play footsie with two women under
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the table. And still have an extra leg. In different directions, yeah.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: And one extra foot to tap to the music you're
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: listening to. Dude, what a time, brother. His career spanned
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: more than 40 years, and he came to be known
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: as the king in the circus industry for his hard
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: work and presence. He married and had four children. Wow.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all his children came off fine.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: He got a lung failure. Damn. You'd think he got
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: one of his legs caught in something. You know what
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I'm saying? Just the odds. Because every now and then
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I almost get one of my legs caught in something. Wow,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: look at that. Zoom in on one of these photos, please.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I love the one on the right where he's got
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: like the one and he's got each other foot on
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: a stool. It's such a trip.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it almost looks like a... No, let's go to
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the other one that he was talking about. Yeah, you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: mean the black and the leather? Yeah. Wow, look at
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: those pants. Those pants have to be like, what the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: fuck are we doing?
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he said he would buy two sets of shoes
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: and he would give his fourth... the extra shoe to
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: a buddy that lost a leg. So they all went
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: to use.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's beautiful, man. Yeah, you just don't see that
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff anymore. That's the toughest part about stuff. Wow, unbelievable.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Look at that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, there he is. There's an old man down there.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, can we get one more picture of him? Frank Lentini. Oh,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I wonder what would it be like? Imagine this had
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: to be such a flex that you cross your leg
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and then you cross the other one over. People must
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: have thought you were Jordan Peterson no matter what, right?
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: That had to be so wild. Unbelievable.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: They used a picture of him on the back of
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: an Alice in Chains album.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Was there?
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they have a three-legged dog on the front, and
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: he's the three-legged man on the back.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I think I remember. that.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually their best album.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Down in a hole. Is that them? Yeah. I'd like
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to fly, but my wings have been so denied. You
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: know it. Dude, that's so incredible. So this is a
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: relative of yours. Yeah, yeah.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: He was my dad's either great uncle or cousin. I
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: can't remember. I tried to really narrow it down, but
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: it's so long ago. My dad's not with us, so
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I can't ask him anymore.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to hear that, man.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: It's all right.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: 23 and me, though. They might not even have these
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: kind of— Yeah, my brother actually started doing that. Going
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: back to see what was going on.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: With the 23andMe and like, yeah, he's got the ancestry
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: going on. So he's trying to like put it all together.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I tried to find out some more information
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: about him through that. I know he had four kids.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: They all came out normal. No parasitic twins there.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Wow. So yeah, being a parasitic twin, can you bring
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that up for me? First of all, I've always thought
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: twins should have to... fight to see who.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Who gets to make the shots, call the shots.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Who gets to stay alive.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, that's got to be tough.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that nobody deserves to be alive,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: but it's just like... Because it's kind of crazy when
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you meet one guy and then you meet, and you
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: know they're kind of just each half of a guy
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And you're like, what are we doing here?
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: At least you two get together and decide what you
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: want to say and then come tell us.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Because it's a lot of extra kind of like back
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and forth. A parasitic twin is a type of conjoined
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: twin where one fetus stops developing but remains attached to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: its twin. Wow. The other twin continues to develop. but
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: is usually born with the limbs, organs, or other tissue
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: structures from its parasitic twins still attached. It's a very
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: rare condition. Gosh, dude, imagine two to see. Oh, what
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: is that?
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Sorry.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, that's another child, huh? Oh, that child is,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: she looks like Tila Tequila a little bit.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Can you zoom in on her? I can see that.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about? Yeah.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: A Doja Cat?
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's Doja Cat, dude. Bro, that's
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: fucking hilarious, dude. I don't even know what Doja Cat
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: looks like. Oh, I don't know, dude. No, that kid
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: has longer hair than Doja Cat, I think. Yeah, imagine
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: being a parasite. Like, imagine knowing that your brother or
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: something was like a part of you and now that they're,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: it's almost like you got to live. It's like nature, like,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you must feel alive. There must be like a lot
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: of responsibility, you know? And then seeing your brother's wiener,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: if you look at your own wiener and seeing your
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: brother's wiener.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Does that make you gay if you jerk off that wiener?
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: No, dude, it just makes you a cool brother, I think.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Touche.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Dude, to not polish your brother off once a year
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: or something on Christmas.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of rude.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Day after Christmas or whatever. It's not rude. I think
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: it's just.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Well, if you don't ever let him come. Yeah. That
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: is kind of rude.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: It's, I bet when you get to heaven, he's going
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: to be like, hey, come on, guy.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: 36 years and not one nut.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, brother, I left that thing down there for a reason.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Couldn't even took advantage of that.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm the one who helped you out and gave
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: you the third leg. I gave you a fucking job,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: you know? That's wild, man. So people like Frank Lentini,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: what was that group? That group was called, what is it? Freaks. Freaks, okay.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: They were the freak show.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: The freak shows. And that was popular. Did you ever
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: work with that?
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: So occasionally the carnivals would have freak shows join up
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: with us, but they were all, you know, corner store freaks.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: They weren't really great. Like we had the, we had the, uh,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: the ripoff of the lobster man. And I actually think
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: he was a relative of the original lobster man, but
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: he had fake gloves that he would put on to
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: make himself have fake lobster hands.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: That's not real.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: No, we had a lot of that.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So it was a lot of, yeah. Cause
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: they had like the freaks were like the bearded lady.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: I remember you would hear about. what, like the four-titted
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: sister or whatever. They'd always have something, you know, the
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: lispy Jew. They'd always have something rolling. The lizard man
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, lizard man.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: A real-life mermaid was the only one. They'd have a
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: girl in a tank with like a fake suit on
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: acting like she was a real mermaid. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: The four-shouldered Italian, they'd have that guy. Oh, the smallest horse.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I met the world's smallest horse one time.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, we used to have that too, yeah. Yeah, Tom
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Thumb is the one that I met. I don't know
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: the name of the one I had. But yeah, he
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: was at the fairs with the agriculture. He'd be there,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: pay 50 cents, and get to walk up and walk
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: around and see them.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: And go in, yeah. They had the dollar. I remember
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: they had one dude at the fair in our town
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that was like, if you gave him a dollar, he
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: would tell you if you were fat or not, right?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like guess your age or your weight or stuff
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: But this dude, I remember you'd give him a dollar,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and he'd just call you fucking fat.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, really?
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then you just, yeah, he was like the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: fat dollar guy. That's a good kick. I was like,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: what the fuck? And you just walk off. You're like,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, dude.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: I think he was just out there hustling people.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he might not even have worked with the carnival, dude, honestly.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: That's a new one.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: That guy could have been working different. Here's a couple
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of them right here. General Tom Thumb. Charles Sherwood Stratton
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: was actually a relative of P.T.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Barnum.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: When Barnum learned of Stratton's dwarfism— He sensed opportunity. Barnum
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: took Stratton under his wing and taught him how to sing, dance,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and impersonate famous historical figures. Wow.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: That was the Lobster Boy.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, here's Lobster Boy right here. As shocking as his
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: appearance is, Grady Stiles' real-life story is even more shocking.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Stiles' condition was known as ectrodactyly. Ectrodactyly?
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: I think you got it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Ectrodactyly? Which causes hands and feet to fuse into claws. Yes! Yeah.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: The condition ran in Stiles' family. In fact, he was
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: the sixth generation in his family to have it. His
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: father was already performing in the circus when Grady was born,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: so he entered circus life early as the Lobster Boy.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Wow, huh? That was his kid, yeah.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Pinching ass and taking names. That guy. Wow, look at him.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: And there's a picture right there of Bearded Lady and
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Lobster Boy. They fell in love.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's romantic.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: A Valentine's Day love story, huh? Wow.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: I wonder what their kids would come out like, huh?
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Bearded lobsters.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be interesting. I mean, it would probably be something, yeah,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: you'd see it like one of those fancy omakase places
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: or whatever, you know. I don't think Benihana would be
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: running that.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Probably not.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: You know, get you a cut of freaking hair lobster,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: you know. It might be. Who else did they have?
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Let me see a few more of them. These were
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: all the freaks, right? Lionel, the lion-faced man. Born Stephen
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Bibbrowski in 1891, Poland, Lionel the lion-faced man endured a
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: medical condition known as hypertrichosis, which is commonly associated with
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: werewolf syndrome for obvious reasons. In an odd twist of fate,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: his mother was convinced the condition was caused by her
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: witnessing his father being mauled by a lion when she
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: was pregnant. Still, that was a coincidence, albeit a crazy coincidence.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Wow. Wow. I haven't heard of him.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Unable to handle his appearance any longer, she put him
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: up for adoption when he was four years old. Oh, no.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: He was adopted by a German entertainer who put him
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: onto the circus circuit. See?
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: And he made a life for himself. We need freak shows.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: It's true, huh?
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: That way these freaks can make a living.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't have... And they had... I remember... What
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: was that thing? They had a dime? I want to think...
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Because they almost had one in the... A dime museum?
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Can you look that up?
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: I thought you were talking about somebody that pays a dime.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Dime museum and freak shows.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: From the popular Coney Island amusement park in New York
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: City to traveling circuses and side shows, exhibits that featured
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: people with physical differences with some sort of the most
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: prevalent attractions in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Wow.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Dime museums often featured humans who were considered different for
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the public to view and experience. Yeah, because I think
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: they had some places where you could pay a dime,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I guess was the name. I'm assuming. I'm assuming. From
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: 1840 until 1940, freak shows were at their height. Historians
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: typically marked 1840 as the beginning of the freak show era.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: The museum contained many exhibits of historic artifacts and gaffes. Oh,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: that was the year P.T. Barnum began the American Museum,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: a New York City attraction that cost a dime to enter.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: There it is.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: The museum also housed many people who were considered to
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: be rarities worthy of exhibition. Wow. So you'd have other
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: people included. Tom, Tom, Tom.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: There he is.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: A person with dwarfism. The Aztec Twins. albinos, and many
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: other living curiosities.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Dude, that's almost like a Deke fraternity somewhere, you know?
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it's different, but it's probably similar. So
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: you crossed paths with some of these guys, but it
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: wasn't like.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not like, like I said, the lobster man, a
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: boy that was with us, I had heard, I didn't
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: really talk to him, that he was a relative of
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: the actual lobster man, but he had fake claws that
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: he would put on him and not. We actually had
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: one of the last living munchkin, though, that was out
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: there touring with us at the Freak Show. It was
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: one of the dwarfs. And he was one of the
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: original munchkins smoking bongs with him. He'd have to stand
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: up on a picnic table in order to hit the bong.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's beautiful.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was like 70 years old hitting the bong
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: with us. 70?
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: I think he was that old. I was young, but
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: he was up there.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: And he was a little guy?
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was in a munchkin from the original movie
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: from Wizard of Oz.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: He was in Wizard of Oz? Yeah. You smoked dope
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: with a Wizard of Oz munchkin?
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Munchkin, yeah.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: No way. Dude, that's incredible, man.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: It was pretty wild. God dang, that's lucky.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's crazy, man, because just to be able to,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: get to do something like that yeah wow i'll watch
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: that movie a bunch jerry marin that was the guy
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: he or this was one of them the last surviving
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: adult munchkin.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Okay when did he die what's it say that 2016
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: okay yeah it was probably him because he said he
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: was the last one bring.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Up a picture of this dude wow and there he.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Is right there too i was at the carnival so
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: he could have been bullshitting me too.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah he could have been full of shit it could
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: have just been a little dude trying to fucking get
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: high yeah well he could have been a seven-year-old with
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: a cane trying to fucking you.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Know a beard on him yeah somebody put a beard
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: on him.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Look at jerry maron right there on wikipedia he's huffing
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: he's got a cigar on him right there wow oh
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: yeah that guy that's beautiful um So the freaks weren't
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: as much of a part of you guys' universe.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Not as much, no.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: And now what about the rides? Because, yeah, I want
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: to go through some of the different stuff because by us,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: they would have the rides would come, right? Oh, yeah.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: The fair would come. We were excited. We lived right
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: down the street from the fairground. So we'd walk over
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: there and the day before the fair, you could go
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: and for 50 cents, you could get on a ride.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: But They were just plugging them bitches in.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, and you were the test subjects.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, dude, you would.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Somebody's going flying off.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, the zipper, we go in that. Dude, you remember
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the zipper?
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: The zipper's my favorite ride.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, bro. All my money, I'd have saved up my allowance.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: I would go down there because the day before. Because
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: if you went regular day, it was $ 8 to get in.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: We're like, fuck that, dude. I got $ 2. I'm going
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in there. I got my quarters in my pockets. Hell, yeah.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: But the zipper would shake all your money out of
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: your pocket. They did that on purpose. Oh, dude, it
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: was horrible. I'd get out. I had no more money.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I had to vomit. It would shake. I remember it
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: shook a couple of my teeth, like my baby teeth
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: out or whatever.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: I believe it.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd get out. You had no enamel. You had
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: no money.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because they could really get it going when they want.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: They know how to run it, so they could really
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: get you whipping around and drop it.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: It was unbelievable. It literally felt like you'd been put
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: in the garbage, I suppose. Yep. That was a tough ride.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: I loved it.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Did you?
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was my favorite one.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. What was cool, though, when I was a kid
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: in school and, you know, you would go on field
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: trips to the fair. I don't know if you guys
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: did that at your school, but we would take field
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: trips to the Topsfield Fair when we were in grade school.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: But I would skip that day of school and I
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: would just go to the carnival, the fair with my father.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: And the rides weren't open yet. They kind of were
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: only there to supposed to be going to the 4-H
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: stuff and all the agricultural stuff. And so I would
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: go over and grab, sneak over some of my friends
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: from their chaperones and bring them over to the rides.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: And the ride guys would let us all ride the
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: rides while the rest of the school was at the
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: 4-H section.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's nice.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: So it was pretty cool.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, because you were kind of dialed in, huh?
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I knew everybody. You know, they all
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: looked out for me. I was like, oh, it's little Mitch. Like,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: I knew it because I was running around as a
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: little kid. So everybody, you know, knew who I was.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: And it would cop you a little bit of drugs
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: or something sometimes? Oh, yeah.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was wild.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Was there drug use out there?
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: A little bit.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Just a little bit.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: And what were the drugs, really? What were some of it?
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, weed, yeah.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Of course, weed, alcohol. I mean, especially, I mean, when
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: we were at the fairs, you're open for so long. Like,
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: you close at 11 at night. You got to open
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: at 11 in the morning. So we're crushing beers as
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: fast as we can once we close to get as
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: drunk and as fucked up as fast as we can.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: To go to sleep. Or just have fun. If we could.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just have fun.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: And were people doing drugs, too? Like, what kind of
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: uppers are we talking? Cocaine? Oh, yeah.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Yeah, plenty of cocaine. I'll tell you, just
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: to step up, though, they have straightened out these days.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: They drug test and all that shit now.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Bro, if you drug test the guy who's working the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: fair ride for me, get fucked.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: You want a good ride or not?
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I want a real ride for a real drug-using American.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: That's what I want.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Yes. Okay?
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Dude, we used to go, we would get on the Gravitron, right?
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, the Gravitron was great. We would throw so many
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: parties and that at night.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Bro, one guy, we get in there, right? And I
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: remember that you would get against the thing, and it
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: would slowly move you up the wall and start spinning.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: And there was a guy in the middle who was like,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: are you ready to rock? I'm like, who the fuck
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: is he talking to? This guy was always just in
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: his own world, bro.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: And the thing was spinning. And I swear one time
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: this dude got his wiener, like was just showing his
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: wiener to people. And he was playing, ah, nice day
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: for a wide wedding. And you were so, you couldn't
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: even turn your, so even though you felt like you
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: were visually being molested or whatever, you couldn't turn your
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: head to look and see if anybody else knew what
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: was going on. So you get off and everybody was
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: afraid to say, I think we just seen that guy's wiener,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: you know? to November rain, you know?
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's pretty sweet.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: And there was some parts of it were nice when
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: they would play some of the ballads in there, but. Yeah.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: That was harrowing going in there.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that ride's pretty crazy. Sometimes the guy would get out.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: If you got a really wild guy, he would get
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: out and he would come. Yes, and hang on the pole.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: And hang on the pole. Yeah, dude. And walk and
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: hang and pull himself around it and go back in
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: while the ride was running. You're like, what is this
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: guy doing?
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the dude would be walking. Totally. He would walk.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: He could even walk around the thing.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to hold on to the railing, but
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: he could walk around it.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, my God. I forgot about that. Yeah, he
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: kind of was like the guy at the skating rink
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: that kind of was like the dude who would go
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: through and do the backwards skating.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, try to show off.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: And like skate through your girlfriend's legs or whatever. Like,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: who the fuck is this guy? Yeah, it kind of
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: reminded me of that guy, you know? Oh, here he
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: is right here. This is somebody on a Gravitron. There's
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: somebody trying to sit up on it.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's trying to push it up on his own
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: or something. We used to like flip ourselves upside down
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: and be upside down in there against the wall. Yeah.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: He could move all around. Oh, wow.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't know. We were too small to do
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: some of this. This is like late teens. Oh, that
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: kid looks about our size.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, he's standing straight out.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, this dude vapes.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, he does. Yeah, it was fun. We used
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: to throw a lot of after parties in the Gravitron.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: In the Gravitron.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, take me through some of that. And is it
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: men and women come too or no?
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we had some girls out there working
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Some of the guys were definitely better looking.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: But, you know, we had some ratchets up in there.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you're going to work a ride and
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: travel the carnival.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Especially if it was 20, 30 years ago.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: You've got to be a tough chick.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: You sure do. And, like, there was some of them.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, this one girl's, you know, they had crazy.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: This girl had Bust a Nut on me tattooed on
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: her ankle. Oh, yeah. You know, Head Ho was another
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: one tattooed on her.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, these girls, some of them had the lot lizards
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: tattooed on their feet.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Really? Oh, yeah. So it was women that were probably
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: just doing their best out there that had been through
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: a lot probably.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you got good ones too. I'm not
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: going to lie.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Busted nut on me is a lot.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: That was pretty rough.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Well, it's like when.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I thought it was sexual harassment every time she
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: walked past me. I was like, she wasn't good looking.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Well, she's not saying marry me. You know
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? But still, that seems to be, yeah, busted.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: And then what do you even, say now that she's married,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: has a family, what do you even adjust those letters? Yeah,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: what could you change that to? Oh, you could do us, you, me,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I think. Bust, if you put the B and T, bust, A.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Take out the A, cover that up. Nut, take out
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the N and T, just the U. Us, and then
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: it would be a blank. And then it would be you,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: just the U. And then nut on me. Take not
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: the on and just me. Does that make any sense
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: or not?
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Not really, but it's probably still better than busting out
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: on me.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It would be, it would just say you, I
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: would say us, you, me.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Make it work.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: I think it'll walk in. It'll go over better.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: If you're at the grocery market, it's going to go
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: way better. Cause if you're walking over by this cabbage
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: and you get some hella fresh produce on your back,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: You're like, where's that from? Well, you told me.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Dude, that's the freshest produce they got. Friggin' semen, bro. Yeah,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: take me through like a good party night out there.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Well, the party nights like in the Gravitron, yeah, because
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: they had the sound system in there already.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: You know, and you had the walls so you can
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: get in there and like, you know, really be able
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: to party and get loud and not bother too many
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: of the, you know, the bosses. Because, you know, the
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: bosses still stayed out there in their trailers too. So
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: you didn't want to wake them up in the middle
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: of the night and have them come out. He's like, bars, everybody,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: get near, bunkhouse, everybody. You know, we open in three hours. Wow. So, yeah.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: And what was the sleeping quarters like?
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, to be honest with you, my family
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: didn't care where I slept at that point. Like, I
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: was 13, 14, just sleeping wherever.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mostly in games. I'd sleep in the game at night,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: one of the games.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: No way, really? Yeah. Wow. That's wild. Yeah, it was.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've even slept, I mean, wherever sometimes, especially
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: when you're going over the road, like everything's torn down,
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: you got no place to go, you're waiting for your ride.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Like I've passed out in the generator box before just waiting.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: And what is that? Just the electrical thing?
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the giant generators that run everything.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: And because everything's packed up and that thing's always open,
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: you got a nice cozy pile of wires you can
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: crawl up on like a cat and pass out for
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: a little bit. Yeah.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: And it's kind of romantic almost.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's wild. I mean, for the most part, when
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: we got a little older, you know... Yeah, were there bunks? Like,
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: where did everybody sleep? So they had bunks. The ride
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: guys had bunks.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: So the ride operators had bunks. Yeah, they would put
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: most of those guys up in bunks.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: And were they like... a trailer? Like what type of bunks?
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just a giant trailer. They would buy like,
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: they almost looked like one of the, like an 18-wheeler trailer.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: And they would just turn it into bunk rooms. They
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: would just chop it all up.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: Some of them, they had some that were, built professionally
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: as house trailers they had those ones too and they
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: were i mean those were it was pretty tough because
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: it was like two bunk beds and you know you're
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: in there with and it was time it was like
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: a closet with just two beds yeah and you know
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: that's where they had the ride got the ride uh
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: the games and the joinies were on their own unless
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: What do you mean on their own like people would
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: sleep in sleeping bags or people stay at motels or what.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah wherever you could like if you made enough money
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: to get a motel you get a motel If you didn't,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: you didn't sleep in a tent or like there was a,
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: at a point after I stopped staying, staying in the
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: games when I was younger, I ended up bringing a
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: couple of my friends out on the road with me.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: And so as soon as high school was done for
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: the summer, we'd go out on the road until, you know,
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: school started back up. And so I'd bring a couple
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: of friends with me out there, Doogie, Jay. And, uh, we,
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: we'd set up like our own tent city away from
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: everybody so we could party and not bother anybody. Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: And we'd have a nice campfire. We even brought in, we,
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: we used to travel with, uh, a lizard with us too.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: We always brought him with us. We had a nice
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: little cage for him and he was our little buddy.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: And we'd set him up. Yeah, and we'd just drink.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: We had all our tents and nice fire going and
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: we'd party out there.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: A couple men and a lizard, bro. It's like the Bible.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: You know, like whatever the new Bible they'll write will be.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Carney Bible.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was fun, man.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: A lot of people slept in their games.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: So that would be it. You just crash in there
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: and they would just pop it back open in the morning? Yep. Okay.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Roll your sleeping bag up, put it under the counter.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: And what were some of the other rides, man? Do
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: you remember the Skymaster? The Skymaster? Yeah.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: They call it the Apollo sometimes. It was two.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like two boats it almost looked like?
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: But they would go upside down. So you were closed in.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: And they swung like this. They were opposite. They would
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: swing opposite of each other. And then they'd go upside down.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: And sometimes they would hold you up there. Yeah. And
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: holds you while you're upside down and you could shake
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: it and like shake everybody's money out of their pockets.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. There it is. Oh yeah.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. This was for the big kids. I don't think
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: I went on this at the time. Yeah.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I used to run that sometimes. So it was really
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: easy to tear down and set up. And sometimes I
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: would run it and you're in the dog house and
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: you know, it's just a kind of just a remote control,
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: like a little joystick. You get it going, you rock
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: it back and forth until you get enough energy to
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: get it up and around and you can hold it
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: up there. and you'd hold it and you'd just shake
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: it a little bit and wiggle it so it'd go
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: back and forth a little bit and you start shaking
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: the money out of their pockets so it all falls down.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Although one time there was a bad scene, because you're
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: always supposed to wait till the end of the ride
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: to go pick up the money. Well, a kid who
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: ran it all the time was trying to be a
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: daredevil and he ran through to get the money while
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: the ride was still in, while he was up top,
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: ended up getting hit. Oh yeah, it was pretty wild.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: He lived.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: He lived?
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: He did live. Wow. But it was a mess. I
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: wasn't there at that carnival or fair when it happened,
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: but I was at the next one.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: And you lose a limb, they put you just right
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: over in a freak shell.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now you go right to the freak shell.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: That thing punts you right in the damn freak shell.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Or you could be in a game after that, too,
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: you know, because you can work a game with one arm.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Or in a wheelchair.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Wow. So a guy got damaged up pretty good?
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he got hit pretty good.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Damn.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: That was pretty crazy.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Is that one of the worst accidents you've ever seen
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: out there?
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: That was probably the worst, yeah. We were running that
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: skydive at one time, and you know how you got
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: the shoulder bars that come down? It had let go
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: while the girl was in there. But you're caged in still, too.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: But she was flopping around while it was going around.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: While she was upside down, the shoulder bars came up,
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: and she fell into the cart.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Just getting banged around.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Just getting banged around while it was spinning around.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: And how long, if somebody's not doing well on a ride,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: can you... shut it down for him. Does it take
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: a few seconds?
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll take, sometimes some take longer than others to
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: slow down and come to a stop.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, there was one, the freak out. I don't
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: know if you've heard of the freak out.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: The freak out?
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a pretty dope ride now. Now that's my
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: favorite ride I'd say out of all of them.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Let me see.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like, it's an arm and it's got
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: these other arms that come down and those spin while
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: it goes back and forth and you get an awesome
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: sense of weightlessness, almost like a Like a roller coaster,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: I'd say. Like that first drop. There it is.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Freak out. Ooh, that's pretty cool looking. Yeah, they didn't
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: have the freak out. Oh, so that goes like a
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: pendulum and spins?
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: And spins, yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Dude, I remember, yeah, we would get on that swing.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: One of them was like a swing set. You just
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: faced out.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the swinger?
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it would just... People would just be... People
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: would be vomiting from... Like, people would be, like, standing
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: watching you, and then literally you come around and just splash. Oh, yeah.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe just dose them up with that fucking. With that
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: tummy skeet, baby.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: That vomit. You got to wash up a lot of
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: puke on some of those rides. They get a lot
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: of pukers. We had one. I don't even remember the
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: official name of the ride, but we called it the
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: puke barrel.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Well, that's what I'm saying, dude. You guys were making
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: shit up.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the name of it, the puke barrel.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay, I don't even know the official name.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: And what ride caused the most vomit, you think?
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: The puke barrel. Really? Probably. It looked like one of
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: those metal 55-gallon drums, you know, those metal garbage can barrels,
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: but it was huge.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: You know, and so it was massive and say it
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: was on its side and you go in, it had
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: a sliding door and you go in and then there
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: were two seats that people could sit in circle seats
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: and those spun like this while the floor rocked back
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: and forth like this. And the outside barrel spun like
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: this with strobe lights going on inside. I mean, who's
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: not going to puke?
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: It was pretty wild.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: It's good stuff. So we actually owned one of those
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: candy honors. My mom and dad owned a couple of
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: them actually would have been. So they split up when
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: I was like a year old. So they ended up,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: I was too young to kind of help with the business.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: So my mom sold most of the rides by the
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: time I was, you know, a teenager. So we still
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: had some stuff, kiddie rides and stuff, but we had
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: gotten rid of all, she had gotten rid of all
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: the major rides that she had had.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Bring that video up. You're going to show us.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: And now what do you do when something, what is this?
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: What is this here?
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, that looks like the... What ride is that? We
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: call them the Thousand and One Nights. I'm not sure
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: what this version's called, but that's what it was.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: It looks like the whole thing is shaking, so people
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: are going and jumping on the side to, like, hold
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: it down.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, to, like, hold it, yeah.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: A carnival ride in Traverse City, Michigan suddenly malfunctioned. What
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: do you do when this kind of thing happens? What
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: do y'all do?
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Shut it the F down.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: But how do you... I mean, people are trying to
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: save this thing from falling over. Yeah, they're all trying
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: to get some weight on it. Is that a realistic approach,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: you think? Is that safe, or would you.
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: Tell the people not? I mean, it could be.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: That was one of the things about the carnival. You
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: always felt like nobody had your back in a way,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: which was something exciting about it. And deathly alarming. And
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: you felt like if you died, they wouldn't tell your parents.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, we've probably buried some bodies out back.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, in the haunted house, probably some of those
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: bodies in there are probably kids that just never made
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: it out. I'll be honest with you, though. The carnival
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: rides are a lot safer than probably amusement parks.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because they get inspected every week. So you're getting
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: state inspectors every single week. Every time you set up,
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: they have to come in and give it a go ahead.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: So what's the worst accident you've ever seen out there?
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: So that was, I mean, I didn't see the kid
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: get hit by the Skymaster, but that was probably the worst.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: Although at one fair that I was at, at Topsfield Fair,
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: I forget the name of the ride, but somebody did
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: come flying out of it, but they didn't die. I
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: wish I could remember the ride.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: But they always say those people didn't die, but you
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: never see those people anymore.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: You know, or like, they'll be like, yeah, Janet didn't die.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: And they'll be like, well, then why isn't, yeah.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, where is she?
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, she went to Florida. She retired.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, people, yeah. If she retired, she's 11. Yeah. Like, yeah,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: where did she die? So that's just the thing I
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: think sometimes about that kind of stuff that seems like
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: a little bit tricky, man.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: Like I was saying, they do inspect them a lot
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: more than like your regular music parks that are just
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: set up year round. They only got like one or
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: two inspections a year. Oh, yeah. And so, but the carnival,
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: like they have to get state inspected every week, every
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: time you set up in a new place.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: So, okay. Wow. I did not expect that. Yeah. Because
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: it seems like they're not even.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: You know where the shady part comes in is where
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: like say something breaks or something happens during the week
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: and then it gets fixed not up to par.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: In between inspections.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: In between inspections.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: And you just got to have the ride. You got
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: to have it going. You got to make the money.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then so you have your main ride guys.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: So all the ride foreman's have to do a once
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: inspection every day. And they have to fill out a
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: form and say they inspected their ride. I mean, but.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: And then you have the ride super who was in
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: charge of all those guys.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: And his heel. Yeah. But it's like how, how real, how,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: if they're locked in, cool. If they're not, then it's whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: I could be a ride, yeah, if I was a
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: ride super dude.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: You're like, yeah, okay, you just take it to forms.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: You're like, yep, everything's fine. Yeah. Or, you know.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, people ain't gonna be, everybody not gonna be living
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: if I'm a ride super. To be honest, and no
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: offense to anybody. Okay, so you got the rides. I'm
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: trying to think of the other rides there were.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: There was some, um, You know what we used to
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: do too? Remember the super slide?
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, super slide was pretty fun with that burlap sack.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know when it's really fun? During the rainstorm
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: and you get a black trash bag. Really? Oh, yeah.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: You don't even touch that bottom hill.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: It just launched off.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's awesome. You got to open up the fence
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: at the bottom of the ride because I've seen people
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: hit that fence so hard. Oh, yeah. Go right under it,
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: hit it hard, just get scalped on the way under.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. They got that fishnet face for the rest
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: of their life. Oh, yeah.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: I've seen some crazy stuff.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. There's nothing like just, yeah, really hitting the
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: chain of fence.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: After hours, you know, getting drunk, going down. Sometimes we
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: would just wet it on our own. We'd get a
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: hose and soak the slide and grab a trash bag.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds like fun, dude. Would you guys have
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: some fun like that? Oh, yeah.
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, there was one crazy party. We were all partying.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: It was like the beginning of the year. It was
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: like the second or third carnival. So we were all
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: like warmed up. Now we're like, all right, let's have,
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: this is one, because you'd have parties where everybody would
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: party together. Like the ride guys, everybody, food joints, even
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: some of the owners, you know what I mean? Some
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: of the parties once in a while. And so this
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: was like a beginning of the year, like let's get,
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: you know, let's have a welcome home party. Everybody's in.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: And so we're partying all throughout the carnival. Like we're
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: on the sea dragon and you can unlock the sea
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: dragon and get it swinging manually. You just get a
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: couple of kids on each side, swinging it one way
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: and you just really, and you can get it going.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: And so we were partying up on that. Yeah.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: We were partying up on the sea dragon late one night. And, uh,
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: there was a new guy. That I guess the ride
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: super didn't like he had just started. Oh yeah. And, uh,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: he passed out drunk in his car and he was
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: driving like this brand new white escort or something like that,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: you know, nice and white, pretty nice.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: But it was small car, cheap car, but it was,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: it was new. And the ride super really didn't like him.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: And he was passed out drunk in his car, right
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: on the side of this, on the sea dragon. And
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: we're up in the top seat, just sitting up there
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: having a couple of drinks, putting them back.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: And what'd they do? They set them on fire?
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: Well, not quite. All of a sudden the ride super
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: goes over to his house trailer and he opens up his,
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: he gets a five gallon bucket and he opens up
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: his shitter drain, his tank. And he fills up the
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: five gallon bucket with all the shit water. And he
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: goes over and he dumps it on the guy's car.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: And nothing. The guy doesn't wake up. Nothing. So he
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: keeps doing it over and over again until he dumped
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: his whole tank onto this dude's car. And he just
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: slept through the night like that all day. And we're
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: laughing hysterically about this. But it's outside of the car, right?
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: It's outside of the car. It's on his car, but
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: on the outside. So it's just covered now and just everything.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: And that night I didn't see him. But the next spot,
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: I remember I'm walking by and he's outside and it's
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: he's trying to scrub it all off and it's just
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: got this brown tint and you could see where it
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: like swirled all around. Like he could not get that
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: thing clean for the life of him. He didn't last
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: another week.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: He didn't know. Was there a lot of stuff like that?
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of like, uh, um, hazing and stuff.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Yeah.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Yeah. And what about, um, take me into,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: so I feel like that's kind of the rides. I'm
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: trying to think of any more of the rides that, uh,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: the zipper was just, harrowing. I know I would get
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: on it and I'll be like, I'm not getting on
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: it this year because last year I got hurt and
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: I don't have any more money or whatever. And I
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: got electrocuted. Oh, dude, I got electrocuted. Cause that was
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: one of the big things is one time I got
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: off of, I think it probably was the zipper. I
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: got off and I touched, I've told this story before.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: I've touched the two like metal bars. You're getting off
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: of like the stair bars or whatever. And it completed
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: a circle. And I just, Bro got lit, and I
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: couldn't let go, right? And some guy working the ride
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: behind me, it was a black gentleman. He called me.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: He's like, get moving. And I was like, I can't.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: And then he just fucking kicked me right in the back, dude.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: I think he even called me the N-word, but I
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: think he kicked me in the back. And thank God
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: he did. Yeah. Because I was just like part of
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: the– I was just completing the circuit. I was just
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: probably powering a fucking– lantern or something down the street
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: yeah yeah whatever i was doing dude it was unhealthy
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: for me yeah you know because i was conducting electricity
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: and um thank god but yeah i just remember be
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: it was very very it seemed like um there were
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: some safety issues i would.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: Say yeah yeah it sounds like it yeah we i've
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: definitely run into a few live rides before yeah especially
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: oh has that happened yeah what's happened to me okay
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: yeah so that's a real thing yep Because I know
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: my whole life, I was like, I know this happened, man.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Well, how does that happen?
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: Because there's so much wiring going on in those things,
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: like all the lights and everywhere. And back then, too,
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: you know, now with LEDs, they don't take as much.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: But back then, you had those really hot lights and
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: they took a lot more power. And so you got
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: bigger currents running through and something could just get cut
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: or pinched somewhere along the line. And next thing you know,
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: you're making that live.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Damn.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: God.
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that thing really caught me up to speed, boy.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: I fucking aged probably eight months. I went home. My
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: mother was like, God, you seem different, you know?
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Hey, Ma, you already grew a mustache from it.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was like, things are going to change around here. Yeah.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: I'm wearing the pants now.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: But I remember that, dude. We'd walk over, and yeah,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: the rides would just be getting set up in the distance,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and we'd come in, and they'd– They'd have somebody standing
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: over there for 50 cents. You could get over there
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: and get you a couple tickets and go get on them. Yeah.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: And the other kids, people didn't know because the fair
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't open.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: But we knew this could be live right there, and
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: so we'd all walk over there.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: That's cool. We never did anything like that.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: It was pretty cool, man. What about, so take me
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: into some of the games.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the games. The games are fun.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Let's get into some of the games.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: They're definitely interesting.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Because you had the booths. You had the game booths, right?
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we had game booths. We owned some. My brother
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: still has some. I think he still has one or two.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: You know, they're definitely not as profitable as they used
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: to be.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I used to have all kinds of games.
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of them are illegal now. Maybe
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: I should throw on some shades or something if I
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: want to spill secrets, like the magician telling us secrets.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: About the games? Yeah, if you want to put some on.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: No, I'm just kidding. They all know who I am
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: now anyway.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: It's too late. Well, yeah, because I know there was
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: videos that came out years ago about exposing all the
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: games or whatever.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, really?
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't like that shit. I knew that you pretty
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: much weren't going to win.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: No, there's some that you are not going to win,
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: unless they want you to win.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: If you, if they got, if they got enough money
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: out of you and they got a good tip going,
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: there's a big crowd.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: If you're in a wheelchair or something, probably if you're.
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: Maybe it all depends on how much money you spent. Yeah.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: And then like, if they got a nice crowd and
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: they want to keep that and a lot of like,
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: if the crowd is really like they've been there a while.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: and they really want to see that dude win and
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: he spent enough money and you know, you could get,
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: now you can, if that dude wins, everybody's going to
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: stop playing. Yeah. You know?
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Ah, so the part of it is some strategy. Yeah.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of strategy to it.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: What was one of the games that was the toughest
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: game to win? Probably you think.
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: The toughest to win, like legitimately. Well, so there was
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: some that just can't be one.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Okay. So, okay. So take me like, what is one
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: of them?
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: So like to cover the red spot, you guys ever
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: have that one?
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Cover the red spot.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: So there would be a big red circle.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you get like little discs.
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: Could not be one legally.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: There would be one that could be one on that
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: the guy would show you how to do it on
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: because that one can be one.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: And he would always use that one. And I've worked
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: that game before, so I know how it's done. And
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: then you have all the other ones, the circles are
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: just slightly too big to be completely covered.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, so the base circle?
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Yep. There it is.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, cover the spot. Okay.
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: So you see how that one's covered all down there
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: with the five discs. It's completely covered. So sometimes those
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: red circles are just slightly too big where it's mathematically
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: impossible to cover it all.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Dude, the saddest part, I just remembered this. So my brother,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: he was like the older brother, you know, and like,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: he like was trying to win a game and I
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: knew we didn't have much money, you know? So like
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: he kept trying to win and like, I knew it
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: started to be a little bit thing, like I gotta
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: win this, my brother's watching me, you know? And he
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: fucking didn't win, and I could feel it just break
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: his fucking heart.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I have seen so many hearts broken.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: Oh my God, I've seen families broken up. I mean,
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: they've spent their whole mortgage, lost a car, like lost everything. Really? Yeah,
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: even traded their kid in, like trying to win. I
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: swear to God. Sometimes you'll see the kid's still up
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: there as a prize now. You can win him.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys want this stuffed bunny with a cleft
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: palate or you want Ricky. Nah, nah.
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: We got a real life ginger over here.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: We got to feed Ricky, man. We'll take that. We'll
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: take that hoppy, the cleft palate fucking Easter hero.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: If you got a gambler playing, somebody that gambles.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: They know what's up?
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: No, they lose everything because they want to win. And
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: then you tell them, Hey, man, if you win, not
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: only will you get the prize, but I'll give you
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: all your money back. Every dollar you spent, I will
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: give it back if you win. wanna play again fuck
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: wow and now a gambler is not gonna say no.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: And how hard is it have you ever had to
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: run somebody up like.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: That I kinda have by the time those games are
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: kinda I mean I ran the red spot and stuff
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: but I was a kid I was still a teenager
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: then so I wasn't a real agent you know.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: But were there some people they were good at it
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: oh man.
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: They were so good. Like when I was a real
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: little kid and before I was working, I would, you know,
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: sit on the counters with some of these guys, you know,
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: when they're not busy and I'd sit down and hang out,
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: but then all of a sudden a mark would walk
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: by and they'd get them. And I would just see
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: him run them up. Cause like you pay your bills, right?
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: Like you pay your bills every month.
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: So just don't worry about paying me up front. Just
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: keep playing. I'll tell you how much you owe at
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: the end. Oh yeah.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: What do you think is the most you ever seen
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: somebody lose on a carnival game?
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: I've seen somebody lose a car. like, legit how to
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: give up their car.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Nuh-uh.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Who's going to enforce it, though?
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: Well, because they're a gambler. Like, most gamblers pay their, like,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: if they have it, they'll pay their debt, so they'll
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: go get the title and sign it over right there
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: to keep playing.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, you ever been to a casino? Like, some
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: of these guys, some of these gamblers are like, they
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: lose everything.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm amazed at somebody. Yeah, I have friends that
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: are real successful, I'm amazed at some of these guys
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: that just go gamble all the time. I don't, I'm
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: so thankful. I don't get any, uh, like I like
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: to play, you know, I'll play some games. I like
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: to do, yeah, we play prize picks and stuff like that. And,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: but I don't, I'm not the guy that's betting.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: Betting the house. Yeah.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I'm so good, man. I'm thankful to God
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: that I don't have that.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: I've seen, I've seen people like eventually like they'll go
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: home and they're like, I just got hustled and then
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: they'll end up like going to the cops or something
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: like that and coming down the next day and you
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: got to squash the beef and make everybody happy. Like
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: I've seen that happen.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire man loses life savings on carnival game. Let's
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: look at it.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: I probably saw that Epsom.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire from the salts, I guess. Um, Henry Gribbon, um,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: Says he lost his life savings, $ 2, 600. Damn. On a
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: carnival game. And all he has to show for it
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: is a stuffed banana with dreadlocks. Wow.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: He got the dreaded one, though.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Dude, BLM, bro.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: That's all I'm saying, dude.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, at least you got the dreaded banana, dude.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, it was crazy. Those games are illegal now, though,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: up there.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Well, it says you're expecting the kids to win a
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: few things. Let the kids have a good time. Say
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: grip home. It just didn't turn out that way. Grip
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: Home says he attended a Manchester carnival run by New
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Hampshire-based Fiesta Shows.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: You mentioned them. That's us.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: It is?
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: That's who we worked for.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: Wow. And wanted to win an Xbox Kinect at a
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: game called Tubs of Fun.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you about that one.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Where contestants toss balls into a tub.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: Ain't happening. It isn't?
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: So the bushel basket, that's what it is, the tubs
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: of fun. So they take those, remember those old apple
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: bushel baskets?
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, I remember this.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: And they'd be up on the side.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like at an angle kind of. Yeah, at an
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: angle kind. And you got to toss the softball in there. Yes. Yes.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: There it is. Oh, there's some guys getting it right here. Yeah.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a trick to it. Do you see
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: how he's doing it? You've got to give it a spin,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: and it's got to hit right on the edge. I see.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: So it'll kind of use its momentum to stay in there.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: And they're using plastic ones, too. I don't know if they're.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Right, go back to the bushel baskets. Can you find
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the bushel baskets?
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: They might be just as hard.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: For reference in the one we're talking about?
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: It's the same game, but those were made of the
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: wooden ones, like the original Apple bushel baskets. Yeah, so
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: take me through it. So what the problem with those—
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: They were at like an angle, right? Yeah, it's that
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: same thing as that with the plastic ones, except they
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: were wooden. They just won't stay in there. The softball
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: is so light and bouncy and the back of those
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: baskets are just so bouncy as well that they would
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: just bounce out. You can't get the ball to stay
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: in there. It's really, I mean, if you know a
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: trick like they were doing, if you could get the
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: right backspin on it and hit it right at the edge,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: you can get it to stay in there. But how
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: they get people so easily is the guy sitting in
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: the booth, can easily toss the ball in there from
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: his angle. It'll easily go in there and stay in there.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: And then you give the other ball to the guy
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: and be like, look at how easy it is. Throw
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: the ball in there and give him a free shot.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: Here's a free shot. See how easy it is. And
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: then they throw it in there. And because that other
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: ball is already in the basket, it'll deaden that second
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: ball and that second ball will stay in. So now
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: people are like, oh my God, that was so easy.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: But now when you give them the balls, they don't
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: have that first ball in there and they won't get
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: that ball to stay in there.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: And you're like, no, it's like this. You know what
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: you're doing wrong, bud? You're hitting it in the wrong place.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: Watch what I do. Watch what I do. And you
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: take that ball and you're like, just like this. Throw
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: it in there and it goes in. And you're like,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: here's this ball. Watch, try it now. And they do
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: it and they're like, oh, I did it. You're right.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: And then you give them both balls again and then
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: they can never do it again. And you just keep
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: the cycle going.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: Dude, I remember the weird, there was always the weirdest
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: energy when you were the kid and you were up
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: there at the thing. Once you'd engaged in the conversation
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: with the booth guy, if you're a kid, you're like,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: you start to feel like, man, I got to play now.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: I already started talking to this guy. You know, I
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: know only got a couple of bucks here. What am
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: I going to do? You know, and then you would
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: play and then you would fucking miss the first one.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: And you'd be like, I am such a fucking loser.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: I am a loser.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: And they know you're not going to win too. And
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: they're just trying to get that two bucks out of
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: you and get you out of the, get you out
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: of the hair.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: God, that was hard.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, if Eric Adams was there,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: He would have found out that there wasn't an Xbox
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: in that box.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, oh. So you're saying that if they
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: have the prizes, some of the prizes aren't even in
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: the boxes? No. Wow.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Because they know nobody can win it. So
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: you're not even going to put a real prize. They
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: just put PlayStation boxes in Xboxes. I mean.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Damn. Dude, in the craziest. Eric Adams will probably find
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: the yayo that's hiding in there.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: What's in here?
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: And Mitch is talking about the episode with- Who are
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: we with? Shane Gillis. We're like that. That was so funny, dude.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: That was a crazy video. I can't believe they're doing
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the drug searches like that, but yeah. Oh, but sometimes
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: we would win something and it would be a felt
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: Elvis or a felt picture of a something. Oh, I
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: remember those felt pictures. Remember it was like, it was
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: like neon and felt. Some of it would be felt
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: like not all of it. You get a black light
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: or something. It would look like you'd be able to
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: see it. Oh, and the posters, they had those felt posters.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: That's what it was.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. yeah remember those I forgot about those yeah the
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: start art games like the ones that you throw the
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: dart at oh that was fun with the balloons yeah
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: the balloons are a hustle though too it is oh
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: yeah cause they don't always have like.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: Cause oh cause you'd have a dot behind it or something.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: You had to have a they'd have different circles under
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: there and they'd say small medium large like what size
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: prize you win and you know they would never have
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: an extra large up under there or if they did
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: it would be under like a really like barely blown
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: up balloon so the dart would always.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: Bounce oh you couldn't do it Because I based how
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: I felt about myself for the rest of the year
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: on how well I did on these games. That was
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: the thing.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: Even the Stardart game, like if you didn't get that
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: dart right in the red.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: Stardart?
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what we called it, the Stardart, where it
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: was like you had to throw a dart, get it
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: in the red, and it couldn't touch the border around it.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: It would be a black border around the red star.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: And if it touched, any part of the dart was
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: touching the black just a little bit, you didn't win.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: And the thing was, if you'd think it would be
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: in there completely, you know, you're on the ground, you
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: hit it, and you're like, oh, did that go in?
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: And the person working the game would go up and look.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: And if it was all the way in, but it
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: was close, he would just touch it a little bit
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: and push the dart so it would touch the black.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: Nuh-uh.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. You just have to do it nice and smooth.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: So you just barely push the dart up a little
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: bit so it'll start touching the border and be like, oh,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: you're so close, bud. Come on up and take a look.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: You'll see it's touching the black.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: I don't even remember that one, Stardart. I remember they
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: had the water horse, but that was a competition against
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: other people. So somebody always won. Yeah.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, there are ones that are slower than others.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: Naturally, like the games, like you could hit them both
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: at the same time and one just rises a lot
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: slower than the other one or blows up the other one.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: I remember, yeah, sometimes it didn't even make any sense.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: I remember one time it was like ring the fucking
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: fish and they had fish swimming and you just throw
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: the fucking rings in there.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: Get a fish.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: You didn't get shit. You're like, how do you even
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: know if you got it? I was like, you lost.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh, fuck, dude. I'm a loser, man. 12
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: more months of winter. It's like Punxsutawney Phil just seeing
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: your fucking reality each year when I went. It was like, God,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: I forgot how much. Yeah, I based my like who
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: I was off of that, man. And just like because
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: I would save my money each. You know, I was
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: very particular about saving my money. So. When we go
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: down there, I'd have an, you know, I'd plan ahead
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: and I would get my little, I would keep my
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: money in like one of those Jim Beam, those purple
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Jim Beam.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: Bags, you know?
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: You remember the- Oh, yeah. With the drawstring? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: I would keep my money in there.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: The Crown Royal Jim?
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Crown Royal bag. Sorry, the Crown Royal bag.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: And I bring it down there and God, dude. It
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: just felt horrible. Oh, ring toss. That was one. Now,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: that was fun.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: I will say this, because you know why? Because you
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: got a bunch of rings. Yeah, and they can't lie
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: to you. You're either getting it on the bottle or
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: you're not. Like, that's a legitimate game. Those are still around.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: Right. That was a lot of fun, I remember.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: Those ones were a hustle.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, the weighted.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the weighted. Everybody knows that now.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: And this is, we're looking at the weighted milk bottles.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: And the softballs. Yeah. What was so hard about it?
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: Just they're weighted. They're not going to knock over with
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: the softballs. Because you'd fill them you'd fill them with
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: lead or cement or whatever. And the top one would
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: be empty. So if people said, oh, they're weighted, you
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: would just grab the empty one and hand it to
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: them and be like, oh, look at it, dude. They're
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: not weighted.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: Wow. That's pretty crazy, dude. The bushel basket, that was
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: another one that was a hustle. What was that?
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, not the bushel, the bank of balls. You
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: remember the basketball? It was like there was a wooden
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 2: backdrop back and there was like a laundry basket underneath
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: and you had to like throw the ball against the
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: back and it would fall into the basket.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that. Some of them were so confusing
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: to me, I didn't play them.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: You would just push that basket in.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: So it would never do it, right?
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: So it would never do it. So it would never
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: drop in.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: Where did y'all keep the fish at night? Who was
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: with all the fish?
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: We had a fish lady.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: Don't weigh you to fish lady? No.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: The girl that ran the rides, like, I never worked
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: a fish game or, like, we didn't own one, but
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: I knew the girls that ran it. And, yeah, they
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: just had a trailer that was full of five-gallon drums
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: full of fish, and they'd bag them up.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: Wow. Because that was the craziest part, because you'd fucking
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: get home and you'd have a fish, you know?
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, look at this fish.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and your neighbor would be like, we're going to
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: cook them bitches, you know? And you just have your
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: neighbor go cook six of those goldfish or baby koi,
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: they called them.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: Goldfish get pretty big if you let them. If you
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: just let them go.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: I've seen some really big ones.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: My sister won a goldfish once and they put it
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: in their fish tank or whatever. And it grew into
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: like a.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: A big fish.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Carp or whatever. Yeah.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize how big they got.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: It couldn't even turn around. The tank they got for
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: it was so small. The fish couldn't even fucking turn around.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: It was just like, it would just always be straight ahead.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: Look at this dude right there. Crazy. One of the
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: world's biggest goldfish has been caught weighing in at 67 pounds,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: four ounces. The enormous specimen was found in a fishery
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: in France by British angler Andy Hackett, who reportedly spent
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: over 25 minutes reeling the fish in. Can you imagine
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: reeling that in and being like, what in the fuck?
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: What did I just catch?
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: I thought these were two inches long. Bro, and if
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: we're not, this right here should tell you, if you
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: don't think there's stuff in the water- That is turning
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: your kids trans or multi-armed or whatever. Then this is
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: a fucking fair goldfish. Yeah. This is a parking lot minnow.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Half of them probably spray painted gold. Yeah. That was
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: supposed to die right when you got home. Yep.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: If you made it that far.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's the ETD on these things. The second you
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: cross your doorstep, they're supposed to die. It's how most
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: kids learn about death is from a fair goldfish. But
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: here we are modern day and this mother 67 pounds
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: and living in France. Unbelievable. Probably working at a creperie
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: or something. Chocolat. It's just unfucked. And people are like,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: the water's safe. The water ain't fucking safe, bro. God,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to get crazy, but this shit, it's like,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: how much proof do you need?
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: It's in your face.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: That the water's bad. Yeah.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, that thing could work in the freak show.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: I'd pay 50 cents to go see that.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, you staple another little cock to that thing. I
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: think it'll do 11 years in a freak bowl. Work
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: over there in Nipsey's Freak Bowl or whatever it's called.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: Step right up. Dreaded banana, son. Alive, alive, alive. But
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: some of the gay, yeah, I remember some of the
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: people that worked, like some of the, one lady, I
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: remember we gave her 50 cents. We were just scratching
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: her back while she was smoking a joint or whatever. Oh, nice.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: And then she's like, I'm all done. And we're like,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: what the fuck is that?
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: Did you get the roach?
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: We didn't get anything. We might have got a little
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: contact high or secondhand high.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what you were paying for.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I remember we gave that lady a couple
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: of us. It was like three of us scratching her
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: back at the same time. We didn't even know her.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: I was like, damn, dude, this bitch is wild. But
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: it's kind of cool.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds like she would work. She'd be good
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: in the dunk tank, man. Those dunk tank clowns were
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: something else, man.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, take me on some of the other periphery characters
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: that were part of the carnival.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the dunk tank clown guy, he was... I mean,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: you have to have a really special guy to be
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: up there and really, like, be able to, like, go
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: at people all day, get them pissed off enough to, like,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: spend their life savings trying to knock you into a.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: Pool of water. Like, what kind of stuff is he saying?
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: He's just saying, like, I slept with your wife last night.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: Like, you know. Your brother's an N-word or whatever. Yeah,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 2: you know, and he would have to get washed. Sometimes
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: he would have to have cops protect him when he closed, like,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: to walk him to his, you know, get him off
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: the lot because people wanted to kick his ass. I mean,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: I've seen people. you know beat him like not beat
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: him up but go after him if they're what if
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: he didn't have protection you know because not all the
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: time you know at the fairs you had cops around
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: but you wouldn't always have cops at the carnivals and
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: stuff and he would really get people going like they're
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: not even trying to dunk them they're trying to throw
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: the ball through the fence like they're smashing that fence
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: with the ball.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: Really oh yeah so that guy had to have some
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: real cojones or just be not even mentally that great or.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: Whatever yeah wow it was wild he would uh yeah
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: they would he would get into some serious shit Yeah.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 2: A lot of beefs.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: You don't see them anymore. What would they yell? So
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: they were just like, yeah.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was with your sister's mother last night. Oh,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: I was with your daughter last night. You know what
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: I mean?
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: With your daughter and the guy's saying his daughter's 11
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: or whatever.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't care. That's what I'm saying. These guys
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: would get mad.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: The dude's just yelling.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: Like, I slept with your 11-year-old daughter last night. What
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: are you going to do about it?
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the dude's just like, hey, I'm a pedophile. He
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: thinks he's protected by fucking 40 gallons of water.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: This dude's just like walking by with his kid, doesn't
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: even know. All of a sudden, the guy's like, what?
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: What did you say? God, it's just heartbroken, dude.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: Ugh.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: It's a sick world, man. Yeah. Who else was there?
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: There were like barkers, I remember. Like, oh, there was
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: the guess your weight guy.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, guess your weight.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: Was that a real thing? Did you ever see him?
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: That was a real thing, yeah. He would guess your
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: weight or your birth date or what else would he guess?
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 2: There was something else.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: How did they do it?
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: It was just a... It was really just came down
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: to numbers. Like they couldn't really do it, but it was,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: you could tell, like, they just got good at it.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: You could tell, look at somebody. Cause there was that
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: you had, you had an average, you know what I mean?
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: You could be off by like 10 pounds or whatever
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: it was, you know, five pounds either way. Or when
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: they guessed your birth date, they could be like, I
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: i don't know if it had to be like the
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: same month i know there was like a window where
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: it wasn't the exact date but i think it might
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: have been if it was in that sign.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: You know what i mean oh yeah if they're sagittarius's
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: i'll know dude exactly.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: Or a leo or something you could tell.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: One of my ex-girlfriends was a sagittarius and i'll spot
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: them bitches anywhere now you know i'll spot them 200
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: yards away you got a saggy on the fucking coming
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: over the ridge.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: Watch out um We had some characters, man. I remember
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 2: the guy that worked the big old guy that worked
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: the diner, the sausage stand when I was a kid.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is when smoking was still allowed. He'd
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: have a big old cigar in his mouth. Italian dude.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: It's like, what do you fucking kids want? Fucking ashes
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: are falling into the pile of onions and peppers right there.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: Big old cigar just always hanging over his mouth while
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: he's working the grill. Those were the best onions, too.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 2: You were like, get them riled up until you get
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: the ash in there. You know what I mean? You
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: want that ash.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a little free burnt Winston.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: You got to be careful on the first day of
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 2: the carnival though, maybe sometimes if they brought like some,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: sometimes they'd bring the leftovers from the last carnival and
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: try to sell it. Oh yeah.
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: That's a good point, right?
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: So because the carnival ends on a Sunday and then
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: it starts back on a Thursday?
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: Sometimes a Wednesday. Sometimes we do overnighters where you would
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: tear down Sunday night, set up Sunday night and then
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: open Monday. Yeah. It's like, So they'd close you a
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: little early, like five or six o'clock on a Sunday night.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: Then you got to tear down, drive to the next location,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: start setting up and then open up that night.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: So what other periphery people do y'all use? Do you
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: guys hire other locals? You said there were like 40 milers,
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: like guys that would come on.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, they're always looking for help. I mean, it
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: was kind of set up back then. You had like
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: the main carnival owner that owned like, say, Fiesta Shows.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 2: He owned all the rides mostly. And sometimes some of
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: the games and food. but you would have other families
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: that owned like, you know, they had a whole grip of,
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: you know, games or a whole bunch of food stands
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: and you would, and with the games, there was a
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: lot of families that owned a bunch of different games
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: and they would join up with the carnival and you
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 2: would tour with that carnival for the year.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: Okay. So it was a lot of like smaller family
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: businesses would join up under the larger umbrella of the carnival.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: Ah, I see.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: So there was a lot of that. And so a
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: lot of that's gone by the wayside now, like, They
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: start buying up other carnival businesses. Then they start buying
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 2: their own games and food and hiring people to run
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: them for them instead of like, you know, having people
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: come in.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: Rent and everything. Yep. So it's some larger conglomerates now,
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: you think?
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I know like Fiesta definitely bought a
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: bunch out and that's how they got so big in
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: New England. And yeah, I started like. We own some stuff.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: My family still does. My brother still owns stuff out
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: there and does it, but then he also manages stuff
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: for the owner of Fiesta Shows. Okay. So that gets
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 2: him good locations, you know what I mean, and prime
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: spots and stuff.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: Was there a lot of camaraderie amongst you guys? Was
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: there a lot of partying? What was that like? What
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: was some of the lifestyle like?
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we had some camaraderie. Definitely the ride guys,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: they would all have their own crews, especially some of
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: the bigger rides had four, five, six guys as a crew.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 2: They would be different crews. You'd have the Music Fest
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: and the Sea Dragon crew. They called themselves the Dickhead crew.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: And you'd have these different crews. And so they had
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: a really tight knit. And then the ride guys on
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: a whole mostly did the food guys too would, and then,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: you know, the different families, obviously with, with the people
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: that work for that family were pretty tight knit. And then,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: you know, yeah, at night, you know, whoever, whoever you
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 2: clicked with, you know what I mean? And I clicked
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: with everybody. I would party with anybody from like the
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 2: lowest ride guy to like the, the owners, you know.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: Were you a pretty hard partier or no? Yeah, man.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 2: Real hard. Yeah. Pretty hard.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: By the time I hit 21, I was already shitting
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: and puking blood for drinking so much.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Jesus.
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty wild.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: Did that run in your family, alcoholism or drinking that much?
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: Because that's kind of a lot of drinking.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all like really, like I didn't grow up,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 2: my dad, like my mom and dad got divorced when
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 2: I was a year old. And so, you know, I
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: had one foot in the carnival and another one in
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 2: the city. I grew up in like a pretty inner
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 2: city city, like, you know. In New York? No, it
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: was outside of Boston called Lawrence.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: Lawrence, Massachusetts.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Wow. So it was like a lot
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: of gang activity and stuff there.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. That's fun.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: So, and like the carnival was like my escape in
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: the summer, which isn't much of it. So it's like
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: the carnival of the hood, like which one do you want?
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: And I, and so, yeah, I drank a lot, partied hard.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: And would the parties get pretty crazy? Would shit get
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: a little bit weird out there? Yeah. It would be
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: pretty crazy, especially when you go to these bigger towns.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: Cause like you go to some of these towns, you know,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 2: and the girls are like, especially like a lot lizards,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 2: you know, the ones that like, They love when the
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 2: carnival comes to town because they ain't got nobody else,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 2: like especially up in the sticks of Maine or something
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: So you're saying there was a lot of like hookers
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: almost that would come and service the carnival workers?
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Not hookers. It's like straight up hoes, I guess.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, girls that didn't want money.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: Girls that just wanted to party.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 2: You'd get carfuls of them sometimes.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. I never thought of that.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 2: At like a fair, you know, at one of some
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 2: of the big fairs, man, they would show up after
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 2: you're already closed down and everything. Carfuls of chicks would
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 2: show up, look in a party.
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: No. Yeah. Why did they know you guys had drugs
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: or something? Yeah.
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 2: They just feel like, oh, the carnival's in town. Like,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 2: let's go meet the carnies, you know? It's the only
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 2: thing that happens every year in their town.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: Wow. That's freaking ripping, bro.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: But then the next night, you got the car fellow,
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 2: the dude, showing up looking at me like, yo, who
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 2: fucked my old lady last night?
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, really? Yeah.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 2: You got fights breaking out all the time. Yeah.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: How wild would some of those parties get?
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 2: Pretty wild.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: Pretty wild, yeah.
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Some of the fights were pretty crazy. I mean,
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: it was no different than being in the city sometimes.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: So the dudes would roll up and they'd want to
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: settle the score.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 2: And they couldn't. because there's just so many carnies.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, you show up with a car full
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 2: of people, or even two cars. I mean, we have
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 2: hundreds of people. Were you guys getting in fights a lot?
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 2: Were there a lot of fights out there? Yeah, there were.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 2: I didn't fight a lot. I wasn't much of a fighter.
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 2: I didn't like to fight, but I've seen some crazy ones.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: I got arrested for one of them.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: Uh-uh, take me through that.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: So we were at just a situation where we were
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: in Connecticut, and all the carnivals got together. You know,
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 2: and so you got the first unit like, oh, the
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 2: third unit's down there. Like, we got to go show
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 2: them who's boss. You know what I mean? And they
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: go down. And I didn't even really know anybody from
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 2: the third unit at that point. And I was friends
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: with a lot of the kids from the first unit.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 2: And I was on some, I think I was on
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: some dancing condoms maybe that night. Some paper, some acid.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, some LSD. Yeah. Praise God, baby, yeah.
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 2: And so there was a few of us on it.
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 2: And so they came up and they were like, oh,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: we just got into a big fight down there, like
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 2: down in Tent City and blah, blah, blah. And I
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: was like, and a couple of the kids are like, what?
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: No way. Like, let's go down there again and.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: Blah, blah, blah.
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 2: Let's go. And so I'm tripping and I'm like, all right,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 2: let's see where this goes. And I just went to
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: go see the action. And so I'm down there and like.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: it just all hell breaks loose. Like people are getting
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: ripped out of their tents. Like swords are coming flying out.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: Like it was wild. Like I'm seeing like little droplets
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: of blood fly by my face, like laughing at me
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 2: and stuff. And I'm standing in the middle, like what
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 2: is going on? Like, this is like, it was just
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: like 30 people. Yeah. It was crazy. And like security
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: tried to stop it and they got beat up. And
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: so now they're all standing up against the fence, like
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 2: ripped shirts and like, holding on for dear life they're
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: like we don't want no part of that and the
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: girls are screaming at him like stop this help go
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 2: stop the fight go stop the fight and they're like
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: the cops are on their way don't worry about it
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: like we're not we don't want nothing more to do
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 2: with it so Stady showed up and uh I left
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: and the cops were out there looking around or whatever
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 2: and there was some people and I I didn't really
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: think much of it because I didn't I wasn't involved
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: I was there but I wasn't involved I wasn't fighting
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 2: yeah and so I was just like I'm not too
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: worried about it i'm gonna go walk around and see
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: what's up yeah as soon as i went out there
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: cops like get on your knees he comes running up
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 2: to me with a can of mace trying to get
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: a bj i guess i don't know he comes running
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: at me like with mace with mace oh my jesus
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: christ i'm like what is going on cops now too
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 2: and so and i'm tripping so i'm like oh god
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 2: dude i'm like yeah whatever you want.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: Bro, one time I and whatever, they take you to jail?
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: They maced you? Yeah.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 2: No, they didn't mace me, but they did take me
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: to jail.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: They did?
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: And you showed up in jail. Were you still tripping?
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah. I was tripping pretty hard. I remember
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 2: I was like standing in the hallway and a few
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 2: of my friends got arrested and a bunch of the
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: kids from the other side that got beat up got arrested.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: And I'm in the hallway and it was like, I
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 2: remember there being like this textured wall and I couldn't
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 2: stare at it. I was just like, it was going
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 2: crazy at me. And so I turn away. And the
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 2: cops just like, put your fucking face against the wall,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 2: you're spitting on me. And like get it. Yeah, like
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 2: at a GWAR concert or something. Yeah, I was like, wow, okay,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: worse than GWAR. And so I faced the wall and
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 2: they brought me into the cell and whatever. I bond
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: out the next day. I had a hitchhike back to
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 2: the carnival. No. Oh yeah, as soon as I get
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 2: back to the car, and they put me in a
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: cell with one of the kids that got beat up.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: And so my friends are in another cell. I'm in
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: the cell with them and I'm still tripping and I'm
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: just like yelling fresh fish. And like, I'm just kind
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 2: of being out of my mind and.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: Were you yelling that at yourself?
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: No, the cops.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, the cops, huh?
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 2: I think. Or maybe it was the kid that got
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: beat up.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: Because, yeah, I think people yell that at you if
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: you're the fresh one.
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: But you were like, I'm going to beat him to
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: the punch.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: I'm going to yell it. Yeah.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, I like that.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: And they decided to keep me in there for a
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 2: while because everybody got bonded out. They let everybody leave.
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 2: And I'm still in there. And then they went to lunch,
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: the cops. And I'm like, what is going on? I'm like,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: they even... They were gone for an hour, hour and
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 2: a half or so. And then they come back and
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: I finally had calmed down.
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 2: And I was already bonded, but they kept me in
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: the cell for an extra couple hours. They finally let
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 2: me out, hitchhiked back to the carnival. Because of the
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 2: whole scene, it was on the news. I got fired
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: that day and had to pack up my house trailer
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 2: and hit the road.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: Damn. That's wild, man.
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: It was pretty crazy. So, uh, but I got back
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 2: home and my mom was doing an event that weekend.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: So I just jumped on with one of her events
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: and just went right back to work.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: Were your parents, were they always in the, were they
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: working at carnivals as well?
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So my dad was at, was he at the
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 2: one that that happened? He might've been there. He might've
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: been at another one.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: What was he doing at the carnival?
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 2: So my dad was, uh, he managed food and games.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: Okay. So you're just running around doing that?
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was an old man by then, by the
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 2: time I was around. He was 50 when he had me. Oh, okay.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 2: So by the time I was, like, working 15, 16,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 2: he was already almost pushing 70, you know?
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 2: And he looked like an old Italian mafia, like, dude, like,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 2: he'd cap like this with his cane, like, what are
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 2: you guys doing over here? Get to work, hitting his cane,
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 2: hitting his cane at you, like, come on, come on.
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: Like Colonel Parker?
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: He was a good dude. Miss you, Dad.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What was the... What's some of the wildest, like,
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: was there some pretty good, like, sex activity going on
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: out there? Because everybody always thinks, I think there's this
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: vibe you think about, like, carnies, like the ride shut
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: down and then the party starts.
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the party starts.
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: I think that's what the energy you feel like happens,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: you know?
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like I said, you get those car full of
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 2: girls show up.
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 2: One of those girls that showed up, the head hoe
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 2: tattoo I was telling you about, that was one of
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 2: the girls that, she wasn't even an employee. She was
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 2: one of the girls that showed up looking to party.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: It said, bust a nut on me. No.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 2: And this one said head hoe.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: Head hoe on it. Yeah.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah.
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: Just the advertising that they have. That's wild to me.
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: Usually you don't know, like a girl's tattoo will be
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: like a secret, you know? Yeah. Like any, like, you know,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: like love is forever or whatever. And you're like, well,
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to decipher this, you know? But if
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: somebody's just like bust a nut on me or whatever,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, It's just like not as much guesswork,
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: I guess, but yeah.
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 2: It would be crazy. I mean, the girls like to
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 2: party just as much as the guys. So, you know,
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 2: there would be a lot of crazy stuff going down,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 2: you know, looking to party, looking to get down. And yeah,
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 2: I've seen some stuff. I mean, there's, you know, a friend. Yeah,
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 2: I've seen some stuff. A friend of mine, like. This
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 2: chick really wanted to get down with a couple of
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 2: friends of mine. So he breaks into somebody's house trailer
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 2: that we had never, I don't know whose trailer it was.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 2: He climbs through the window.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: Goldilocks, huh?
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 2: Next thing I know, he's kicking the door open and
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 2: the door comes flying open. We're all standing outside and
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: we're like, what the hell? What's going on? He's like,
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 2: we got a spot now. Let's go. And he brings
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 2: her in there and right on somebody's bed. I don't
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 2: know whose bed because they had the couch pulled out.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 2: So the door is wide.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: Open.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 2: He's going to town right there. Wow. Yeah.
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: Just making love, huh?
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know what you call love, but there was
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 2: something going on.
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Making almost love.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 2: My God. Yeah. So it was an interesting experience. I'll
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 2: tell you about another crazy game that we had. It
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 2: was called the Crazy Bike. You ever heard of that one?
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: Crazy Bike?
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a bicycle where if you turn left,
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 2: the wheel went right. And if you turn the handlebars right,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 2: the wheel went left.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh. No. Yeah.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 2: And so I owned one of those. And I couldn't
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 2: ride it. I couldn't. But one of my best friends
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 2: learned how to ride it. So we put it out there.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 2: And if you could ride it 10 feet, we would
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 2: give you 50 bucks. Wow. Yeah, that thing was a hustle.
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: It was pretty tough to run. I mean, but if
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 2: you could learn how to ride it. And the kid
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 2: that worked for me was really good. He'd be able
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 2: to sit on the handlebars backwards and ride it. Like,
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 2: he got really good at it.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: It was a unicycle?
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 2: No, it was a regular bicycle, two-wheel bike.
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: A crazy bike.
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 2: And we called it a crazy bike.
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: And so if you turn it to the left, the
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: wheel went to the right.
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 2: If you turn it to the right, the wheel went left.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 2: So hard to try to figure out how to ride that. Really?
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: Especially if you've never had, oh, my God. I couldn't
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: even imagine this, man.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 2: It's like, because your instincts.
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: It's like dyslexia, yeah. Yeah. It's like dyslexia made a
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: piece of transportation.
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. My friend could ride it all around the carnival
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: Wow. Oh, that's a vibe. Yeah.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 2: And so we would do it. If you drove it
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 2: 10 feet, we would mark it on the ground. If
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 2: you drove it 10 feet, we'd give you 50 bucks.
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: And now was there a lot of ladies to me?
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: Did you guys call regular people civilians? What did y'all
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: call them? Marks. Marks. Yeah. God. So everybody that walked through,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: it was like, we got to get it out of them.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to get that mark. And if you
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 2: got one, you'd call it out. Like, you know, you
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 2: got a fresh one. You got a mark here. And
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 2: a lot of people would wear these pins called, I
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 2: love Robin Marks. But it would be spelled out like Robin, R-O-B-I-N,
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 2: and then Marks underneath it. So it looked like somebody's name.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: Who was Robin Marks? I was.
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 2: I was Robin Marks.
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: I got it. But nobody was really actually Robin Marks, huh?
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 2: No.
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: Bring up a picture for Robin Marks. Let's just find someone.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: There's gotta be somebody. There we go, Robin Marks.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow, there is one. And so, yeah, if you
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 2: get a- Robin Marks.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: There she is right there.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 2: Oh, sweetie, I could fall in love with her.
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: With her husband, yeah.
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 2: And like for the games, you would either be an
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 2: agent or a clerk. That's what we call the people
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 2: that work the games, like they're joinies, but an agent
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 2: is somebody that can rob a mark, and a clerk
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 2: is somebody that's just gonna collect his money and not
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 2: really hustle him.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: So like, give me an example of how those would
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: be at the game.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 2: Like a clerk is somebody that doesn't really know how
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 2: to hustle somebody. Okay. You know what I mean? He
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 2: would just be there like, oh, you want to play?
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 2: He'll collect your money and you can play the game.
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 2: But he's not going to sit there and try to
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 2: hustle you out of more money. Okay. Where an agent
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 2: is going to try to take you for everything you got.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: And who were the agents? Was it like usually older people?
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Was it younger? Could it be anybody?
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 2: It was anybody. Anybody that was good at hustling, really.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 2: Like it was all ages.
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: Was it whites? Was it Native American? Like who type?
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: Was it any?
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 2: It was whites.
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: Whites. Yeah. it's kind of a white sport carnivaling.
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: Has it, has it changed? Like, or I remember it
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: being like that. It was like kind of maybe white
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: and black guys at work or white and black people
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: that work there, I guess. But that's kind of all
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: we had in our area.
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Up there and up North, we didn't really have,
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 2: there's not a lot of blacks up North.
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, one of my best friends, artist, he was
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 2: an older guy and he worked out there my whole life.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 2: He was best friends with my brother because all my
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 2: siblings were much older than me. And so, yeah, we
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 2: had some out there and some, you know, some, uh,
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 2: I guess it's some Puerto Ricans and stuff like that,
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 2: but not really. I mean, now they have a lot
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 2: of Mexicans and South Africans.
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, really? Yeah.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 2: That's pretty much who's running the rides now. Why?
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: What's changed? Like how have things changed since the past
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: to now?
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 2: Well, it was hard finding, I think, really good ride help.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 2: So I don't know why it was Mexico and South Africa.
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know why those two countries were picked. but
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 2: apparently it's sold to them that you're going to go
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: on a work and vacation. You get to see the
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: United States and work and make money while you're at it,
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: which is all bullshit. You're just, you're doing the carnival
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 2: and you're at that carnival. It doesn't look any different
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: wherever you go. You just, it's the same lot. So
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 2: you're not, you're not seeing anything different.
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: Would you ever get some free time?
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Cause you were a kid.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 2: I was a kid. And like your parents were, they
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 2: didn't make money. They weren't made any. I mean, we
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 2: were poor.
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: Wow, so it's not a big moneymaker.
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 2: No, and my parents were divorced, so like.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: So they were splitting the money.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 2: No, I don't know.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: Or like when you have two homesteads going, it's like.
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I didn't see my dad much growing up,
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 2: like really, like, yeah, until I started joining the carnival.
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, I would once in a while, like I
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 2: would see him on like holidays and stuff, and once
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 2: in a while I would go stay at his house,
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 2: I guess, I remember. But yeah, it was, I didn't
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: see him that much until I really.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: You almost had to be at the carnival to see him. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: Oh man, it's kind of a bummer. It's kind of interesting.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 2: It is, yeah. It's a bummer. My dad was a
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 2: hard ass too, so I guess I'm glad that I
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 2: didn't see as much from what my brother said. Oh yeah.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 2: He was great when I was, I mean, he was
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 2: an old man, so he was just like a, whatever.
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: People, yeah, start to lose their steam.
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, their edge. But so, it was definitely different. And
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 2: my mom, you know, trying to hold the carnival together
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 2: herself when all the kids were already grown and out
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 2: of the house and not helping anymore. And I was
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 2: still like a really young kid So yeah, we didn't,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 2: and we lived, we didn't have much money. Like I
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 2: was getting school lunches and shit like that.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Same man. Yeah. School lunches is always so weird.
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: Cause you had to go get the ticket each day
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: in the morning. Did you have to do that?
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: No, I forgot how they did it. I think it
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 2: was just like when you signed up and I don't remember.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: We had to go get the free ticket each day.
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: So it'd be like kind of embarrassing. I felt like.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 2: It was embarrassing. I remember that. Cause I think it
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 2: was by name or something like that. Or a separate line.
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a separate line. I remember you'd have to go
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: to get the free ticket from the lady and it
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: had a Y on it.
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: And if you paid ticket, it had an X on it. Yeah.
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: And I remember, yeah, we had to get the free ticket.
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: I forgot about that, man. Yeah. I'm not saying like
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: I'm ashamed of it or anything, but I remember feeling
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: at the time like.
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 2: At the time, yeah, you feel ashamed.
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you were trying to just like. pretend you weren't
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: getting that one yeah i don't know why they had
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: me on this list that's strange yeah you're there yeah
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: really what happens every day.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 4: God that must have make some poor whoever's making these
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 4: lists is just confused huh um a lot of times
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 4: people look at the carnival as a sad that like
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 4: i think it got that rap over the years in
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 4: a way that it just like was a negative.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: What are some positives about it? Because I also loved like,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: I loved, there was something like, you almost felt like
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: you were in the big city in a way because
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: there was these lights going on and there was, you know,
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: people would come that you didn't normally get to see
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: because there were kids that went to different schools and
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: that if they didn't go to your school, then maybe
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: you'd see them there. Those are things that I liked
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: about it. There were like, you know, like, yeah, you
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: got to gamble or play games. You didn't get to
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: do that. there was no other world that you got
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: to do that in as a kid.
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, you definitely felt a sense of like when
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 2: you had a good weekend or a good day and
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 2: stuff and you felt like everything went off smooth, especially
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 2: if you're doing food or like games that aren't a
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 2: rip off of rides. Like, you know, a lot of
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 2: the ride guys would feel pride in having like a
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 2: really nice ride with all the lights working and stuff
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 2: like that, making sure every bulb is fixed. Cause then
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 2: you've got some rides where the ride guys didn't really
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 2: give a fuck. And like all the lights are busted.
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 2: They got one blinking light going and like, yeah, that's it.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 2: No music. And yeah.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 2: Guys, you know, like I said, he's like one of
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 2: those guys that just got out of prison and yeah.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 2: So he's not, he doesn't really care about the ride
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 2: that much, but when, but for the families that are
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 2: out there and like when you have a good weekend
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 2: or like a really nice fair and you feel good
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 2: about like, you know, putting on a good show for
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 2: everybody and like having a good, you know, I had
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 2: pride in having a really like the cleanest stands and
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 2: putting out quality food, you know?
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: You mean like a family's running, like if a family owned,
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: like we do the games or we do the rock.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 2: We do the food and we do the rock games.
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: So there would be some organization of that.
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah. There would be multiple families. There would be like,
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 2: you know, sometimes 10, 12 different families out there.
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 2: All owning. I mean, sometimes you would have one guy
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 2: that just owned his one game and he would travel
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 2: everywhere with you, with you just running his one game.
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 2: And that's what he owned.
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: Was there another world of carneying where it was like
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: somebody owned all of it and they would just hire
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: all the people?
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's becoming that now.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, it is?
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It definitely is.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: What is it like about that? What is it that
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: makes people go to a carnival, you think, or go
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: to a fair? Like, what is it? Fun.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 2: They want to go on the rides.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 2: They want to have some fun. They want to escape.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 2: We need more escapism these days. Yeah.
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: It was fun. I definitely remember it was fun. Yeah.
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 2: And that was the thing, like it was crazy and
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 2: stuff and we have some crazy stories, but we always
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 2: wanted to make sure like we had, we wanted to
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 2: provide a good time for the people too. I mean,
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 2: granted the rides definitely, you know, are, I mean, the
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 2: games are a hustle and some agents did take it
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 2: too far. You know, I agree. Like those people that
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 2: were getting robbed of their life savings, like you're taking
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 2: it too far.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 2: But, um, for the most part, like you do want
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 2: the people to have a good time and come back
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 2: the next day and bring more people.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: And, Any animals ever get loose out there when you
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: got it?
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. One time we let a chicken go. We
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 2: stole a chicken or a rooster and we put it
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 2: up in the doghouse of the music fest. So when
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 2: the next day they came to work, there was this
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 2: wild rooster up in the dog house and the dog
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 2: house is the control room where you run the ride
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 2: oh nice and the music fest is the one where
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 2: like they go around it's like you're in a car
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 2: that kind of swings and it goes around like this
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 2: big like not a track but it's kind of because
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 2: it's on an arm so they kind of the cars
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 2: swing and they swing around and they're playing like crazy
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 2: music or whatever yeah I think I remember that one
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 2: and then it's like are you guys ready to go
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 2: backwards yeah let's go backwards this time there it is
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: Music Fest.
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude. God, those rods were such a big thing
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: when we were kids.
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we put a chicken in the dog house one
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 2: time for the rag guys so when they showed up
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 2: the next day.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I remember one time a lady just brought
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: a box of cats and fucking just dumped that bitch
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: out at the fair.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 2: That's a good place to get rid of them.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that was like some of the vibe.
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: It was just like people that had extra animals or
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: whatever and they're like, we're going to bring them up
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: here because we knew people would be up here. And
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: if they want a cat, they got it or whatever.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: But yeah, there was always some weird shit like that
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: going on. Any love stories over the years you see
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: where carnivores met each other and.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I met, I'm, I mean, back in the day,
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 2: that's the only place I really met. I mean, my
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 2: friend April, who I was been with, I was with for,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 2: you know, almost 10 years or something. We were 16,
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 2: 17 when we hooked up and met at a carnival.
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 2: She worked for somebody and I was working out there
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 2: and she worked for a friend of mine, another family.
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: Let me dart that balloon up.
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 2: She was actually pregnant when we hooked up already, too.
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah. Wow, that seems illegal. That's crazy in the
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: eyes of God, but I don't know.
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 2: And we're still friends. I mean, Raekwon, her son, works
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 2: for me now. Oh, yeah, really?
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, her son works for me.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah. So, wow, that's love, man. Yeah, well, that's
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: the thing.
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 2: We're still best friends, you know?
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not together, obviously, but yeah, we're best friends still.
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: Damn.
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, we've had some.
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: Love can happen out there, huh?
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 2: I think my nephew met his wife out there. He
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 2: just got married a year or two ago. He met
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 2: her out there.
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 2: She was South African. I think she came over from
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 2: that whole, when they brought her, because they keep bringing
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 2: more South Africans over every year.
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 2: Just for that work and vacation they sell them. People
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 2: think that they're going to come to America and make
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of money and travel and see the country.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: But are they bummed out when they get here or no?
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 2: Most of them are.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: They are?
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 2: But they're already here. They're already here. Some of them
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 2: pay to go back home. Like you've got to like,
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 2: But some of them love it, and some of them
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 2: end up rising up and getting positions of power too. Yeah.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 2: So it goes both ways. Some of them hated it.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 2: Some of them didn't mind it, and some of them
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 2: loved it.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 2: Mexicans, I don't know because they all spoke Mexican. I
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 2: couldn't figure it out if they liked it or not.
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Mexican people adjust pretty well.
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: They just adjust well to most things, you know? I
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: would like to be Mexican.
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 2: It would probably be fun.
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. I think I'd be, I don't know if
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: I'd be good at it, but I would be, I
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: know I would try my best, but I don't know.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 2: Well, my girlfriend's half Mexican.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: Does she seem, does that part of her seem good?
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. There you go. Yeah. I would just, we'll see
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: what happens, but I, anyway, that's like a bigger conversation,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: but what about like gypsies? Did y'all ever run across
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: those types of folks?
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. We had some gypsies.
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about?
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man. We had some that did like the psychic
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 2: readings and stuff like that.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of mushes out there. Yeah.
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 2: We didn't see them much.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 2: They were gypsies.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: But they were.
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 2: Travelers. They were travelers. Because normally, if you wanted to
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 2: do the big fairs, you would have to, like if
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 2: you were a gypsy that just wanted to come in
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 2: and do it, like in us family or different families
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 2: that were out there, they would make you do the
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 2: spring season with them. And you had to do all
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 2: the shit spots if you wanted to get the good spots.
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. It's just like comedy.
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 2: So, but I don't know how the gypsies got away
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 2: with it. Maybe just cause.
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: Like, what do you mean he got away with it?
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: They would do what?
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 2: They wouldn't have to do the shit spots. Sometimes you
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 2: would just see a gypsy, like a psychic reader or
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 2: somebody that did like the palm reading or the cards.
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 2: And you would only see them at like some of the,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 2: some of the big fairs and they wouldn't have to
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 2: do like all the shit spots.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, they didn't have to play the smaller ones in
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: this and the ones you didn't love. Yeah.
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 2: And they were funny, man. And you'd walk by like,
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 2: cause I never went into them, but she would always like,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 2: come on in i don't know and they're so perceptive
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 2: because they would try to get you to think that
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 2: they were being psychic or they knew something but they're
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 2: just watching what's going on out in the carnival and
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 2: they're like oh there's gonna be a blonde in your
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 2: life i see it and it's like yeah because you
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 2: saw me last night hanging out with her right like
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 2: but they're uh.
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the gypsies are, yeah, real interesting. My brother's friend
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: Donnie is a gypsy, I think. He might not admit it,
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: but I think he is. But I don't know if
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: he is. But he is.
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 2: He is.
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: But I wouldn't mind being a gypsy. I don't know
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: much about it. I just wish I knew more about it.
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: I like kind of simple, you know, I like kind
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: of like jewelry or whatever sometimes. I don't like a lot.
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: They're so secretive. Gypsies are unique. They're unique, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, you don't know what's going on. No,
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: you never know. They're like Navy SEALs, but of complete bullshit.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 2: You don't know what they're thinking, if they're being serious
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 2: or not, if they're telling you honest.
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't know. They just say stuff, and they
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: have their own language.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, they do, yeah. It's pretty fascinating. He's unspeasy because
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 2: he leads it to Kizani. I can't even speak it right.
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: Really? Is that Pig Latin?
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 2: Carny.
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's Carny.
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Carny is tough because you have to.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, there's a Carny language.
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah.
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 2: Like, what do you tell you about this? Oh, it's
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 2: like a pig Latin kind of? Yeah, you put E-E-Z
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 2: before every vowel. Oh, my. So it gets tough.
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: E-E-Zod.
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 2: E-E-Z, yeah.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, my G-E-Zod.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 2: It would be G-E-Zod.
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, my G-E-Zod.
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 2: So O would be E-Zo-M-E-Zo-G-E-Zod. Oh, my God. E-Zo-M-E-Zo-G-E-Zod.
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: Wow. B-E-Z-O-D. You put E-Z-O-D above.
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 2: E-E-Z before every vowel. So God would be G-E-Z-O-D.
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: B-E-Z-O-D. E-Z-O-D. What was this? What did the lady say? B-E-Z-O-D. E-Z-O-D.
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: B-E-Z-O-D.
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 2: B-E-Z-O-D.
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: E-Z-O-D. B-E-Z-O-D. B-E-Z-O-D.
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 2: B-E-Z-O-D.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: B-E-Z-O-D. B-E-Z-O-D. How do you shut the carnival down and
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: move it to the next place? What's that like? What's
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: the breakdown like in the setup?
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 2: When you close at night, you wait for the big
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 2: gondola wheel to close down. That's how you know you're closed.
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: What is the big gondola wheel?
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 2: The big Ferris wheel, the giant Ferris wheel. You wait
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 2: for the lights to go off and that means you close.
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 2: That's when you know it's time to close and you
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 2: close down. And depending on what you ran, games were
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 2: really easy to tear down. You know, the hardest thing
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 2: was putting on the hitch after they took your game
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 2: away because the hitches come off the, that pull the trailer,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 2: that you pull the trailer by, you gotta take those
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 2: off so you can put all the games, butt them
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 2: up to each other, make the midway.
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: Wait, hold on. When you say make the midway, what
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: do you mean? And you put them right into the truck?
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 2: When you put, you know, when you go onto the midway,
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 2: the midway is like where all the games and the
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 2: food are. They're all able to butt up against each
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 2: other flat because you take the hitch off where that,
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 2: that goes onto the, that you hook the truck up to,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 2: you back the truck up to the hitch.
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 2: And so that comes off and that's probably the hardest
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 2: part of like tearing down a game.
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 2: It's taking that on and on.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: And how do y'all travel it all out there? How
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: does it all move out?
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 2: So it's up to each family. They usually have trucks
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 2: that pull their stuff and somebody that works for them
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 2: usually will be a driver or two. They might have
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 2: a couple of drivers or you might hire a trucking
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 2: company to come in and pull your stuff. The carnival,
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 2: like the carnival itself, they own big trucks that pull
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 2: their stuff. And they also hire people out too, depending
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 2: on how fast you got to get the stuff over
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 2: the road, how far it is, if you can make
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 2: multiple trips or not. Because sometimes if you're only going,
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 2: you know, 50, 60 miles, you can make multiple trips.
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 2: But if you're going a couple hundred miles, you might
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 2: not want to make as many trips, you know, you
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 2: don't have the time.
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 2: So you'll hire a trucking company to come in and
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 2: take it. And I used to tear down rides and
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 2: stuff too for extra money. So I would do like
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 2: sometimes up to five rides a night, I'd tear down
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 2: and set up. I would tear down five rides, go
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 2: set up five rides. And, you know, I'd make good
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 2: extra money doing that.
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 2: That was cash.
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So what do they pay? An extra 50 bucks
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: to help turn it around or something?
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 2: No. So you do four or five a night, make
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 2: an extra.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: Couple hundred bucks. That's great. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 2: And so like the stand I have now, like some
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 2: of the, even back then at the carnival, we had
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 2: a wooden frame. Like I ran towards the end. I
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 2: ran all, I was in charge of the food stands
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 2: for my brother and my father. And we had the
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 2: wood frame sausage stands. that had the counters that came
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 2: along the side that you could sit at and sit
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 2: at the counters and like watch them cook and stuff
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 2: like that. I don't know if you had them down
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 2: here or not, but that, so that's what I have now.
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 2: That's what I use out at the festivals too. Okay.
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 2: And that's a lot of work because everything has to
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 2: come out of the truck, you know, the grills, the
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 2: fry laters, the fridges, like everything comes out.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: How would they move the big rides? How do they
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: get those to the next town or whatever?
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Big, big truck. You tear it down.
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: And most of them, they fold down pretty small. Like
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of them, you, Do they fold onto a
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: semi or just onto a trailer?
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 2: Onto a semi trailer.
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: Onto a semi trailer.
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 2: It's a trailer, yeah. It's got wheels under it. Right, right.
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 2: Some of them are ground. We call the other ones
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 2: that aren't on a trailer ground mounts. Okay. So they'll
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 2: have a trailer for it, but everything has to come
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 2: off the trailer and set up on the ground.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 2: But then some are on the trailer itself and the
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 2: trailer just unfolds like a, you know, like a transformer.
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: How hard is it to break down a whole carnival?
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: Does it take a whole day or they get it
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: done in a matter of... It depends.
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, you can move, you can get it done
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 2: fairly fast. You know, sometimes... You can be, have everything
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 2: done in like a good six hours or so.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: Wow. Really? And do they travel at night usually or
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: what does it happen? Yeah.
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. because usually close Sunday nights. And so you're done,
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 2: depending on how late you close. Sometimes you'll close early.
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 2: Some Sundays, though, they do the bracelets where you buy
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 2: a bracelet and you can ride all the rides all
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 2: day and night.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 2: And so when they do that, and if you're making money,
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 2: stay open later because you don't want to close on
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 2: people is what we call it.
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, if there's people still there. Yeah. Yeah. There
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: was one other game we used to play where you
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: would put the slide, the money, and you would pay
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: and get these thing of coins. And you put the
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: coins in. And it would push.
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 2: Called the splashdown is one of the ones we called it. Yeah,
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 2: it would move the coins forward.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it would push a little like an actual
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: quarter would be on top of it. It would push
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: a quarter off for a dollar.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 2: We used quarters in ours.
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, you do?
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. There was sometimes, depending on the state, sometimes you
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 2: had to use coins. Sometimes you can use quarters. In Maine,
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 2: you can use quarters.
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 2: And so, but those are a hustle too.
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: Are they? Yeah, because.
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of different ways they hustled it. Sometimes
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 2: there would be something under the quarters of the coins.
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 2: There's like this triangle right at the front of the lip.
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 2: So when they're pushing, they push sideways. And if you
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 2: want to see on the sides, there's the splashdowns. On
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 2: the sides, did you notice before that there's an out
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 2: of bounds? So the coins can push into the out
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 2: of bounds. So you would put a lot of weight
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 2: in the middle so that Instead of pushing forward, it
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 2: would push to the side.
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because they could fall off to the side. Yeah.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: And if they fell off in the middle, you got it.
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 2: You got it. Right. But if they fall to the sides,
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 2: the house gets it.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was it right there.
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 2: And so the more weight you put in the front,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 2: the more it's going to push to the sides.
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: Damn.
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 2: Sometimes people would glue that shit down.
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: Nuh-uh. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. You know what it taught you, though?
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: It taught you about loss, man. It taught you that
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: life is going to fucking, you're probably going to lose.
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: You know? And you're probably going to knock somebody up. Yeah.
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 2: It just taught me that everything is a fucking hustle, man.
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 2: Everything in life, whether it's your HVAC guy, whether it's
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 2: your teacher at high school.
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Whether it's your second fucking wiener. Yeah.
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 2: It's a fucking hustle.
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: Life's a hustle, dude. Because, yeah, life's a hustle, man.
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 2: Okay. That was another thing. Speaking of his wiener, that
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 2: was the way he made money. You were asking how
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 2: I knew he used it. He used to make these
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 2: pamphlets and he'd sell those things to everybody because he
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 2: was tired of answering all those questions if his penis
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 2: worked or not.
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 2: Like his hygiene and stuff like that.
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: The Great Lentini, you mean? Yeah, the Great Lentini. So
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: I'd love to get a hold of one of those. Wow,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: that'd be fascinating if you had that pamphlet. Bring that
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: up one more time. I want to look at him
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: as we close out here.
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 2: My dad had three nipples.
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: Did he really?
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 2: I actually nipped right down in it.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: Hmm, that's almost, that's like a third lay. It's kind
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: of like a third, it's like, it seems like it's
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: the same genetics, you know?
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was kind of wondering that, if it was
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 2: because of the genes type thing.
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: Franklin Tini, for as long as I can remember. Sideshow attractions,
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: let's look at two more of them before we go.
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: Miran Dajo, the invulnerable man. Miran Dajo was born in
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1912. Miran was famous for
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: piercing his body with sharp objects. and suffering no pain
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: or even bleeding as a result. He also had boiling
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: water hurled at him and survived being shot in the
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: head multiple times. Miriam was not affiliated with any one
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: SACCHO act or circus, but the idea of being a
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: human pin cushion was one that was popular in that industry. Wow,
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: so he would put pins right through himself. He was
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: the real article.
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's pretty crazy. I think I remember hearing about him.
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 2: When I was researching my uncle there, I remember seeing,
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 2: and the elastic man too, there was a guy that,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 2: maybe that was him, that could like stretch his skin
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 2: really crazy Mirin Dajo. Maybe it was him.
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: While he would perform, he would also preach and say
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: that his abilities were the result of God showing those
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: he performed for that there was something better out there.
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: While he preached, he would also condemn the idea of materialism. Huh.
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: So he kind of had a message with what he
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: was doing. Interesting. Interesting, man. Mitch, man. Nice to meet
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: a Carney, bro. Nice to meet a guy that's been
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: through it and able to come here and share a
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: little bit of what the world and universe is like. Yeah.
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 2: It's, it's been quite a ride, man. It's definitely been
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 2: interesting and I wouldn't change it for the world. It's
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 2: taught me a lot and, uh, it got me.
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 2: It got me. I mean, it's where, it's where I
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 2: am today. It got me here to meet you.
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, man. It got me here to meet you.
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 2: And I'm, I'm the job I have now, like selling
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 2: food out there is, uh, they treat me like a
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 2: rockstar out there and I'm not going to lie. Like they, they,
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 2: They really do. And I have to give a shout
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 2: out to all those, all those, all my nieces and
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 2: nephews out there in the world that really like support
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 2: me and take care of me and out there. Like
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 2: they really love uncle Mitch's munchies home of the turtle
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 2: dick sandwich.
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah. And it's real meat.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Turtle dick sandwich. There's only two places in the
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 2: country that could sell it.
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: It's in day. It's gotta be in danger or whatever.
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So we do it. We do it. You know,
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 2: now we go get, we get the turtle, we snip
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 2: it and send it back off in the wild.
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: He's serious. No, Oh.
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 2: But we do sell a turtledick sandwich.
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: But it's not real.
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 2: But it's not a turtledick. Okay. But that's what it
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 2: says on the menu. It says turtledick sandwich. And then
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 2: it says, if you have to ask, it's not for you.
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 2: So we fuck with everybody.
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: Well, that's just one of the things. It's like, you
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: just can't even get real turtledick anymore.
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 2: No, but you should see all the turtledicks we have now.
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 2: People make turtledick. Like we have all these turtledicks, a
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 2: dancing turtledick, this crazy shit out there.
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: The games continue, man. Oh, man.
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Mitch, so much for your time, man. Yeah, I
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: appreciate you coming, dude, and spending some time with us.
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 2: And I'm going to see you on the 9th.
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually what I do in the winter. I
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 2: work for my buddy's company, North Beast, up there with
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 2: Ashley and Frankly at UMass Amherst.
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, Saturday night or something?
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 2: Saturday night. Yeah, I think a Friday night, Saturday night.
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: It's Friday night. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to be working it.
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. I'll see you soon, then.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy.
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: Mitch, thank you so much, man. Nice to meet you, bro.
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 2: Nice to meet you. Sorry for the sweat. All good.
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 2: I'm nervous still.
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 3: Now I'm just floating on the breeze And I feel
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 3: I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone Oh,
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 3: but when I reach that ground I'll share this peace
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 3: of mind I found I can feel it in my
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 3: bones