It's All GEEK to Me: Analysis of the Sideshow Geek

I wrote this article in 2002 for the Harry Anderson fan newsletter.

“Let's talk GEEK. When I talk GEEK here, I'm not talkin' about the pencil neck in school who never got dates. A GEEK is a guy who used to work in a circus sideshow. They would do strange stunts in a sideshow like they would bite the heads off of living chickens, they would take like a live rat or snake, they would hold it by its tail and then swallow it and they'd wait and then they'd bring it out and it would still be living, sort of, you know, it wouldn't be fuzzy anymore. But they would take like a six penny nail and pound it up one nostril with the heel of their shoe or they ate ground glass, drank kerosene -- they were party kind of guys. Most states outlawed geeks years ago. Most carnivals aren't allowed to present a man who eats live animals. But geeks are men of great talent. They are illusionists." (Harry’s act)

Harry’s love of the sideshow can be seen in his career through his act, his tv specials and also his shop! Tricks of the Trade and Sideshow tried to emulate a “classic sideshow” environment with all the fancy banners and lingo with talkers and all. Harry talks about the GEEK in his act and has a huge sideshow banner of a WILDMAN act. Harry does his Needle thru the Arm illusion making the audience gasp. Harry also did a geekish type of trick while appearing to swallow SKIPPY. Harry’s shop not only displays sideshow banners (see behind us in our author photos with Harry), but he has many freak-carnival models that Harry made and put together himself.

So what’s with the fascination? In articles, he always mentions Bill the 3-eyed Geek -- but what actually WAS a GEEK?

James Taylor (carnival historian), e- mails me, “I’ve always thought they were the bastard step-child act derived from the old ethnic shows, where “savages” were exhibited for Victorian (and post-Victorian) audiences. Obviously, no Phillipine “Igarote” (“dog eaters” though they were called) was going to “geek” in the traditional, Tyrone Power NIGHTMARE ALLEY sense, but you just know that the idea had to come early to carnival showmen, who were always interested in upping the ante.”

GEEKS were usually men, described as down on their luck drunks who would per- form for alcohol and a bed. The act usually consisted of biting the heads off chickens, eating snakes, and doing a wild-man routine.

“Earlier Geeks were portrayed as abso- lute victims, driven to the black abyss of debasement by alcoholism, or the accident of being born black, deformed and not very bright... But ANYONE, merely by altering consciousness can become a Geek, become for others the Freak he has always felt him- self to be.” (Fiedler, 346)

The “first” Geek act can probably be traced back to 1783, when French magician DuFour debuted. DuFour’s routines were gaffed as were some of the Sideshow Geek acts. DuFour would tear a cat “from limb to limb” and eat the carcass, then incredibly extract it in full form again from his mouth. He also did a similar trick with a dog, ripping its head off, swallowing it, throwing it aside, and then bringing it back to life. (Jay)

The Geek show (according to Howard Bone’s experience) was located beyond the carnival rides at the back-end. There would be a huge banner that read CAPTURED IN THE WILD, with a pit either full of snakes orchickens. BonespokeabouttheGeek (named Steve) who dressed in wild man garb (wig, make-up etc), who ran around and drooled stirring up the audience. His act would consist of biting the heads off of chickens like it was nothing. During his break he would finish off a bottle of wine. (Would you do this sober??) Also when the end of the carnival came around, the Geek would escape, people would freak out and run for the hills (totally staged -- even with the local police), the end of the ruckus, the Geek would be shot, and everyone would be safe. This made more and more people pile into the carnival. One time, Steve got really drunk and went ballistic and the po- liceman did too (by accident). Instead of using blanks and firing away, Steve was hit in the leg and had a trip to the hospital. Howard said this was the last time he saw him at the carnival. He probably got smart? The SPCA later on outlawed the geek shows, not for the people, but for the chickens and snakes.

The movie NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) came originally from William Lindsay Greshem's 1946 novel. It portrays carny life with Stan Carlisle (Tyrone Power) . The central question of Nightmare Alley is, "how does one get so low?" At first Stan asks that ques- tion about the circus geek, who we never see ex- cept in shadow. No one really likes to talk about the geek. He'safactoflife that everyone ac- cepts; the black sheep of the fam- ily. Crowds like to see him be- cause he holds an odd fascination. Because Stan breaks the rule and asks about the geek, their fates become intertwined. No matter how successful Stan becomes, he is des- tined to fall down again. (J. Anderson) Stan becomes a famous mentalist, fooling tons of people, and then losing everything. He then must grovel for a job back at the carnival, and his sad situation leads him to alcoholism. Gerald Peary (critic) said, “Never be too proud. There's a geek inside all of us, waiting to drag us into the pit, where, rum- soaked and diseased, we crawl about, chew- ing the heads off screaming chickens.” Nightmare Alley is a definite Go See.

Harry often talked about Bill the 3-eyed Geek in his interviews. But who was he? I couldn’t find anything on him until Harry gave me his real name... Bill Durks. Bill was a man with a severely deviated septum. Although he was called the 3-eyed man, he only had one functional eye, one non-func- tional one, and an empty socket in the mid- dle where he’d paint an eye, or insert a false one. Harry did an imitation for us of Bill, when we visited him in New Orleans, in nasal-type voice, saying ‘when you swallow a snake you gotta oil that sucker up.’ Harry said he met him at a state fair in Texas. James Taylor’s article on Bill tells of his difficulty growing up with such a deformity, how he overcame it, and how he found love with Mildred “the Alligator Girl.”

There are some books that talk about the lives of geeks. Geek Love, a novel by Katherine Dunn, is about a carny family that breeds freaks for the sideshow. It provides a provocative look at a world most of us never see -- a world made up of aberrations we probably couldn’t even create in our wildest dreams. Surprisingly enough, we found out a while ago that Harry wrote the screenplay for this novel. Harry says Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas ) owns the rights. Hopefully he’ll produce it!

The Geek, by Craig Nova, is another novel about carny life and geeks on a Greek island. Chickens and all.

Reading about all the carny life, it seems so far from our reality. What a different life -- romantic, but at the same time a cruel one for most.