The Habitat of the Human Freak

From Brooklynrail.org
by Brian Childs

“It’s show-time! Circus time for the freak-side. Where strange and unusual people entertain. One word of warning—as you walk into that canvas threshold you are walking into another world, another realm, another dimension. The World of the Sideshow Freaks. You’re gonna see what they look like, hear what they talk about. Strange ones, old ones, from all over the world. They are all here; they are all positively alive. There is nothing in this show that is dead, stuffed, pickled, mummified, preserved in formaldehyde…” Used to draw crowds at the Coney Island sideshow

—The Talkers’ Pitch

On Coney Island at the corner of 12th Street and Surf Avenue, across from an empty lot and a dingy furniture store, in a building made of driftwood, held together with paint and plaster, stands America’s last sideshow, the Sideshow by the Seashore.

Read more and see some amazing pictures, here.