15 Years of FreakShow Deluxe

It’s been 15 years since FreakShow Deluxe really got started. What a long, strange road it has been!

Since the early days of FSD – just two guys and a handful of stunts, entertaining the queue of a haunted attraction in Ohio – to opening our own venue in Hollywood, expanding our numbers and talent of performers, getting awards & accolades, producing shows all over the country (as well as taking some of our performers worldwide), having multiple shows performing simultaneously in various cities while we are on the road…

Just so much great stuff!

Today is October 30, 2016 – and we have been getting lots of pings from our Facebook’s Timehop all day (as it has ALL month long). Some of those pings from this month include:

• FSD on the stage of the OC Marketplace’s annual Halloween event (with Reverend Tommy Gunn as the Grand Marshal of the Hearse Procession) in 2011.
• The time FSD drove INTO a hurricane to perform at an event in Florida!
• Five years of performing at Hollywood’s Magic Castle’s Halloween Week – the first show of its kind and one of the first non-member/non-magic groups ever to perform there. What an honor! PLUS we got to hang out with Marilyn Manson, Bono, Neil Patrick Harris, The Scorpions, and many more famous folks!
• Our pictures showing up in the LA Weekly and OC Weekly papers for our shows and events.
• The Black Hills Tattoo Show – in Deadwood, SD!
• We’ve been at amusement parks: Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Cedar Fair, Elitch Gardens, Frontier City, plus FSD’s Kitty Karloff was at Knott’s Scary Farm.
• Getting hired by Maroon 5 to perform two years in a row at their Halloween bash at the Hollywood Forever cemetery!
• That time we were at the Virginia State Fair

There has just been SO much we have done in the past 15 years! The list above is just a tiny segment of things from this month — it does not include everything…

We have introduced the LA Skeleton Crew, the Voodoo Krewe, and the Coffin Crew. We are co-executive producers of The Southern Sideshow Hootenanny. Our own line of coffee, cigars and, soon, hot sauce (from Hella Hot Hot Sauce). Whew!

All this year, your FSD is going to be doing a LOT of celebrating. Honestly, we have just been SO busy, it’s been hard to add more things. Hope you will come along for the ride!

See, it’s true. Reverend Tommy Gunn was Grand Marshal of the Hearse Procession. There’s just no living with him now – he’s NEVER come down from this high.

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The Past Couple Years In Review

There have been QUITE a few things going on with your FreakShow Deluxe! So much so, in fact, that it has been VERY hard to keep up on this blog — but it is a new year, so new goals (like doing this blog)…

The last real posting about what we have been up to was back in January 2013, it appears… Shortly before the death of our good friend, and the filmmaker who shot the first FSD documentary, Andrew Copp, we posted about some great things that had been going on… Now it is time to talk about what has happened since then.

The biggest thing is that FreakShow Deluxe has continued to just POWER through shows in ALL kinds of places!!

     
One of the biggest things we did was unveil the new skills of Grennan the Green Monster and Charlotte, La Pequeña Arañita, on the unsuspecting pubic. Grennan is still the World’s Youngest Professional Knife Thrower; and his target girl, Charlotte, is still The Bravest Little Girl In the World – being his target girl. They appeared on America’s Got Talent – where Howard Stern said it was genuinely something he had never seen before – and then they appeared on SuperKids in Germany. These appearances got them featured in magazines and newspapers all over the world.

Additionally, wee produced a couple monthly variety shows: Cap’n Jonny’s Whiz Bang and Ilumen-Naughty in Dayton, Ohio – which brought in some GREAT talent from all over – AND continued to produce one-offs in Los Angeles! We were also a big part of regular shows, like Tales From the Strypt and Circus Maximus in Southern California, a series of shows in Japan, and plenty more.

FreakShow Deluxe was featured as a major part of Kirk Von Hammett’s Fear FestEVIL! We drew a lot of attention to it and opened a lot of people’s eyes as to what was possible. Additionally, Reverend Tommy Gunn presented a paper about sideshow (and did a little show) at the Popular Culture Association’s conference at the Marriott in New Orleans. FSD was part of the New Orleans Fringe Festival and this year’s expanded Razor’s Edge Festival in New Orleans, too.

Being at The Gathering of the Juggalos got a great picture featured on Rolling Stone’s website (see more FSD pics from the Gathering here: http://www.drivenbyboredom.com/2015/07/29/freakshow-deluxe-gotj/ )

Plus there were all our great shows at these awesome places listed here
(* indicates we returned at least once, if not more):

• The Harem – Dayton, OH*
• Gilly’s – Dayton, OH*
• The Ostrich Festival – Chandler, AZ*
• The Brimstone Breakout – Long Beach, CA
• Maritime Tattoo Festival – Halifax, NS, Canada*
• Tommy’s Tattoo Convention – Hartford, CT
• Coney Island’s Sideshow by the Seashore – Brooklyn, NY*
• Texas Showdown Festival – El Paso, TX*
• Full Throttle Saloon – Sturgis, SD*
• Riverfront Fair – Owensboro, KY
• Star Lounge – Shibuya Tokyo, Japan*
• Throttle Fest – Kansas City, MO
• Delta Fair & Music Festival – Memphis, TN*
• The Joint – Little Rock, AR*
• State Fair of Virginia – Doswell, VA
• Civil War Days – Hartford, CT
• Georgia State Fair – Atlanta, GA*
• Frontier City – Oklahoma City, OK*
• The AllWays Lounge – New Orleans, LA*
• DiPiazza’s – Long Beach, CA
• Etti – Shizuaka-shi, Shizuoka, Japan
• California Institute of Abnormal Arts – North Hollywood, CA*
• Fresno Tattoo Expo – Fresno, CA*
• High Desert Tattoo Expo – Lancaster, CA
• PT’s Showclub – Portland, ME
• Elitch Gardens – Denver, CO
• Scandals Bar – Virginia Beach, VA
• Cafe Istanbul – New Orleans, LA
• Full Circle Bar – Fresno, CA
• Siberia – New Orleans
• Little Darlings – Oklahoma City, OK*
• RockBar Theater – San Jose, CA
• Therapy Cafe – Dayton, OH*
• Pioneer Event Center – Lancaster, CA
• The Banana Ball at The Docs Inn – Silvis, IL
• Gathering of the Juggalos – Thornville, OH
• The Penthouse Club – St. Louis, MO
• Byrdie’s Cafe – New Orleans, LA
• The Pony – Starkville, MS

Looking at this list makes us all kind of tired, seeing how much we have done in the past three years. We went through most of our calendars to come up with it. Plus all the press, clippings, videos and more. SO MUCH STUFF!

But for 2016? THERE IS SO MUCH COMING ON DECK!!! It will have to be a whole other post…