WEBVTT - Sideshow 13: The Legacy of Looking 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:10.680 Hey folks, Aaron here. Over the past six months, we've 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.680 dug up a lot of fascinating stories and gone on 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.560 an adventure that has spanned centuries. Honestly, who could have 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.720 imagined just how powerful the history of the American side 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.439 show actually was. But that journey brings us to the 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.080 present and to a very important question. Where is the 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:32.239 Side Show heading next? My teammates Robin and Taylor are 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.880 back today bringing you something a little bit different. Honestly, 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.159 it's a story that you don't want to miss. And 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:44.600 now on with the show. Hey Taylor, good to see 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.159 you over here. Hi friend, we meet again. So this 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.559 is the first time listeners are meeting you on the 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:55.000 side of the mic. It sure is. I am Taylor Haggerdorn, 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.640 producer over here. I've been lurking doing some research behind 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:00.560 the scenes through it this see in of Grim and 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.120 Mild Presents. So, Taylor, we are officially coming to a 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.440 close for this season. This last episode marks the end 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:13.000 of our sideshow story. It does, but but we've got 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:15.919 some good news for everyone. Though we might be closing 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.440 out this season for Grim and Mild Presents, there's a 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.880 really big takeaway for us and for the listeners, The 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.679 physical side Show story isn't over yet. That's totally right. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.880 So while this has been a history show, the side 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:34.479 Show itself isn't history. It's still alive, it's still evolving, 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.440 and it really has proven itself to be this totally 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.440 dynamic institution that continues to shape itself in response to 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:45.479 the current moment. I mean, even as we're recording this. Oh, 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.480 that's so true, and that reminds me. I got an 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.320 email the other day that I want to share with you. 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.800 So if you remember episode seven, we talked about Bloomington, Normal, Illinois, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:59.360 is this really important training ground for acrobats from across 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.160 the world. But what we didn't get to talk about 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.080 in that episode is that Illinois State University, which is 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.800 based in Normal, Illinois, has the oldest and longest running 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.799 collegiate circus in the United States. They've been performing since nine. 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.960 So this email that came in was announcing a return 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.320 to the Big Top this year for the first time 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.480 since COVID shut everything down. Oh. I love that. I 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.960 know you and I have both been wondering. We've been 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.720 talking about, you know, where we could go and experience 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:30.600 some of these things I've been learning about for the 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:34.200 past year. I mean, don't get me wrong, you know me. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.280 I love books, and I love archives, and I love 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.800 being a general super sleuth. But what I really love 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.200 is getting up and close and personal to experiencing the 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.120 real deal. I couldn't have said about her. I feel 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.840 the exact same way. You know. Really, early on in 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.240 our research, I had been looking out for the real deal, 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.280 you know, thinking maybe there's this living person out there 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.840 who could help us tell the story not only where 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.880 the side show has been, but where it's going. And 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.400 then I sent you this piece that this Gale published 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.320 in Box. You know, as our project was evolving and 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:09.800 we started thinking, oh gosh, are we going to interview 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.280 folks for this? Who can we bring on to help 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:15.520 us tell this story? We just kept chatting about this piece, 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.160 so it became evident that we just had to talk 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.880 to her. It's exactly right. So we called up the author. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.600 We sure did so without further ado. We would love 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:32.200 to hear from Kim Kelly, which me, are you interested 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.240 in here? I'm a bunch of things. Kim's a journalist 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.840 and community organizer, but recently she's become someone new, freshly 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.160 minted down on the sandy shores of Coney Island. She's 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.880 conjured and alter ego by the name of Greta the 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:50.240 Lobster Girl. I've always been interested inside show history, just 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.600 because they've always been interested in human history, you know, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.600 especially in like the weirder dustier corners. Of course, you 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.720 know Sid has fed the bill now, I know that 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.600 you can't see her, but Kim's inked just about head 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.840 to toe. She's got a guillotine, a lit match, a 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.240 Molotov cocktail. She's all tatted up in a way that 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.840 would make any union buster quiver. But though she's tattooed 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.520 all over, she still had some prime real estate left 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:20.000 to fill. So she found herself a tattoo artist and 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.600 got to work that there for four and a half 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.520 hours and get a big old lobster etched into my ribs. 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.880 Kim was born with extrodactility. It's the same genetic mutation 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.600 carried by the Styles family, the Lobster family from our 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.360 last episode. About one out of every nine babies is 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.760 born with it. It often causes limbs to fuse and truncate, 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.359 but it affects everyone differently. For Kim, that means she 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.039 was born with eight fingers, with two of her digits 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.080 on her left hand merged into one. Once I learned 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.920 how to paint my nails like, it's fine, and I'm 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:53.479 still pretty good at paint in my nails as long 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.320 as I have you know, oh cute tip with no abolish, 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.159 but everyone needs that. Growing up in New Jersey, she 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.800 lived in a tiny working class community and went to 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.120 school with the same handful of kids until she was 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.880 a teenager. And as a kid, her claw was a 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.000 non issue. When you're around the same kids for the 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.720 first half of your life, everyone just got over it. 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:15.960 I mean, it wasn't really that interesting because I saw 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.080 like it was doing everything they were. The thing is, 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:19.480 I did never made a big deal out of it, 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:20.920 because I was like, well, this is well, what do 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.400 you want? You want me to grow more? I tried 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.080 and life was pretty good, but becoming a teenager is 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.679 never that easy. She eventually went to a new school, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:32.479 and there she had to confront a whole flock of 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:36.200 new faces, teachers and students who probably meant well but 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.240 weren't quite sure how to accommodate her. I was just 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.520 trying to figure out how to fit in, and I 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.360 had to go to typing class and I sat down 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.760 and I was like, oh, this is gonna be a problem. 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:48.840 I went up to the T shirt and was like, hey, 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:51.880 I can't do this and just kind of like waggled 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.240 my fingers at her and she looked shell shocked, like 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.240 oh um okay, Like, well, we'll figure this out. And 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.880 the accommodation that they offered was like, okay, well you 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.360 can sit off to the side and like you can 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:04.880 look at the keyboard for tests. I basically bullied them 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.480 into letting me drop the class and do homemak instead. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:09.440 So then I just spent the rest of the year 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.120 using the sewing machines to alter my band T shirts. 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.479 Worked out great. She eventually made her way out of 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.320 New Jersey and into the world. She hung around in 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.960 the metal scene, touring as a roadie before signing a 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.440 lease in New York City. She was working as a writer, 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:27.120 getting byelines from big name publications on topics ranging from 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:31.320 music to labor rights to disability issues and sometimes you 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.080 should know work and play intersect for Kim in really 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:39.159 amazing ways. It was her partner, her Coney Island Baby 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:44.400 as she calls him, who told Kim something really interesting. Now. 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.839 Remember that old saying about running away to join the circus, Well, 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.440 at one time there was a lot of truth to it. 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.039 People did indeed do that, but Kim didn't need to 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.800 take any drastic measures to get a taste of that 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.240 circus life. Instead, herner told her that she could go 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.960 and roll inside shows school and one right in Coney 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.200 Island at that So Kim set her sights on enrolling, 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.240 and even better, she thought, if she could get paid 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.040 to do it. So she pitched the story and an 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.880 editor gave her the green light, and just like that, 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:22.720 it was go time. It was a muggy summer morning 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.960 on Coney Island. The air smelled like salt and hot 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.520 dog grease. Kim was sleepy, nervous, and didn't know what 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.800 to expect, and as it happens, she didn't have to 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.040 wait long to find out. I was definitely the only hustler. 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.120 They're handful of people. It was such a cool mix, 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:40.960 and some of them still in touch with There is 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.480 a husband and wife duo from I think Massachusetts there 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.920 and maybe they're fifties or something. They're retired and they're 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.440 just kind of daredevils. They're very cool, uh, there was 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.720 a magician's assistant from Colorado who had been doing amateur 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.480 fire eating and had managed to poison herself at one point, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.120 so she wanted to learn how to do it for real. 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:04.880 There was a magician from France. There was a chaos 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.920 magician from Chicago. Came in. Her classmates were welcomed in 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.240 by the head of school. At one point he was like, oh, now, 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.920 do we have any natural boards here? And I raised 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:16.720 my hand and never kind of turned looked to me 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.440 and were like, WHOA, And I don't think they've ever 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:23.600 had a natural born show up to take the classes. 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:28.840 She suddenly found herself sitting a little bit taller, like 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.000 it was the first sort of little lightning bolt moment 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.480 where it was like, oh, this is so in this 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:37.959 strange little world, like I'm like, I'm coming out on top. 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.679 While her hand never felt like much of a detriment here, 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.960 it was definitely an asset. This aspect of my existence 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.120 has always been a little bit of a thorn in 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.840 my side is actually regarded as something that's positive and desirable. 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.760 Even for the next week, she found herself working on 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.760 a bunch of new skills fire reading, sword swallowing, hammering nails, 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.640 upper nose, and setting mouse traps with her tongue, just 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.680 to name a few. The difference between sideshow and magic 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.360 is this ship is real, like you're really sticking tenant 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.280 is a steel down your throat or putting a burning 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.280 torch in your mouth or walking on glass. You just 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.199 have to figure out the way to do it that 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.200 it won't kill you. But it wasn't just the tease 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.680 of mortal injury that made this experience so exciting. It 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.160 was also the fact that Kim showed up here at 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.400 Coney Island at a pivotal moment in the history of 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:36.400 American entertainment. Coney Island isn't what it used to be. 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.599 In fact, it's far from it. Coney Island is a 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.240 neighborhood in Brooklyn, but it was also once one of 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.640 the most famous amusement destinations in the world. It was 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.560 Disney World before while Disney was out of diapers, and 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.280 the side show was a main draw. But the side 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.760 show as we remember it in this series has fallen 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.800 out of fashion in some of the most spectacular ways. Today. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.520 The side shows, with all of the trains, the glitz, 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.720 the glamour, the larger than life characters have almost all 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.920 but disappeared. When I go to the circus today, I 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.319 feel it akin to going to colonial Williamsburg, that it's 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:16.199 as much a um, a step back in history, museum 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:21.280 piece as it is an actual form of entertainment. This 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.920 is Dr Robert Thompson, or Bob as he likes to 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.800 be called. I'm a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.240 We still have traveling circuses, and we still have sideshows, 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.439 but he says they're stuck in time. They just can't 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.800 compete anymore. I can get way better entertainment watching nine 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.720 episodes of squid Game in a row than I can 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.320 watching a bunch of dogs jumping through hoops. I again 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.880 apologize to the circus industry. Bob studies the history of 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.800 mass entertainment television specifically, He's been doing this since the 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:58.640 nineteen eighties, back when ABC, CBS and NBC Reigns, Supreme 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.680 and weekly TV sides were a north star from millions 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.640 of people. I can tease Bob about watching TV for 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.679 a living, and there's a lot of truth to it, 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.640 but his journey has been far more expansive. And here 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.880 you mean he is far from a professional couch potato, 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:18.560 he's a curious seeker, a professional time traveler. They quickly 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:22.080 became apparent. To understand television, you really had to understand 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.040 what had happened in radio. To understand radio, you had 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.360 to understand what happened in vaudeville. To understand vaudeville, you 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.920 had to understand what happened in the circus. That leads 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.240 to the side show. The enduring appeal of the side show, 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.600 Bob says, was that you saw stuff there that you 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.480 just couldn't see anywhere else, and the fact that it 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.600 came straight to your hometown was a huge deal in 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.560 This formula worked for a really long time, But as 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.959 the twentieth century ticked on, the American side show began 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.120 to lose its hold on our attention and to lose 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:58.120 its sparkle. The American entertainment diet was growing. There were 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:00.800 now more in different kinds of excitement and write in 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.160 our own homes too, And at the same time, conversations 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:08.120 around disability were beginning to change. Back in the heyday 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.320 of the side show, you aren't necessarily going to see 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.120 disabled folks just kind of going about their day because 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.880 there are very few options for that day. You're either 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:21.000 staying at home with relatives, or you're institutionalized, or maybe 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.800 you're able to participate in society if your disability was 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:27.440 deemed acceptable. But really, the side show is one of 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.040 the very few options for people who are disabled to 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.640 work and get out in the world, and also for 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:37.439 you know, people who weren't to see people disabilities out 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.400 in the world. Famously, disabled President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.920 the Social Security Act, in which secured general welfare rights 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.920 for all Americans. Medicine has advanced as a disability rights 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:54.160 movement has made major gains. I think it's less yeah, 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.920 it's less exotic to see someone who's missing a couple 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.560 of bits and pieces on his stage. And in trying 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.920 to protect performers, laws started cropping up outlong human exhibitions. 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:10.160 Often this caused willing performers to lose their livelihoods. As 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.040 all of these changes were implemented, Kim says, the general 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.480 public began to feel more conflicted about human spectacles. Not 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:18.640 only were they not sure if it was right to 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.520 go see them, the visitors weren't sure if they wanted 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.080 to be seen at the side show, and at the 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:28.520 same time, travel was becoming easier too, and more and 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.560 more car more on our road than last year, and 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.720 there will be more next year. Highways have been around 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.280 for a minute, but thanks to a federal push, we 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.680 began to more seriously strive for roadway connectivity. In the 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.960 post Second World War economic boom, people were taking to 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.800 the roads in flashy new cars, recreating harder and faster, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.560 and in greater numbers than ever before. By the late 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.239 nineteen fifties, more than seventy five percent of American households 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.960 owned a car. Starting in nineteen sixty seven, over forty 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.880 miles of interstate were constructed under the Federal Highway Administration. 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.600 People didn't have to wait until the circus train showed 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.400 up once a year. Now they could go find fun 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:17.800 on their own. But in all of that, in the slippery, 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:22.400 shifting tectonic plates of culture, one thing didn't change, the 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:28.080 acute truth that time and attention was money, something of 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.920 course that P. T. Barnum had mastered. I think Barnum, 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.200 for the most part, really understood the sense that human 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:42.160 beings liked to see things that would amaze them, and 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.960 I suppose that's part of what defines us as humans 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:50.600 is that we are curious and we are constantly looking 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:55.680 for new stimulation. Barnum's legacy is, as you know by now, 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.440 really complicated, but we can't deny that he was in 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.360 the right at the right time to do what he did. 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:08.040 What Barnum did was to simply bring together all kinds 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:13.200 of things that were happening in the relatively young country 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:17.920 of the United States in an era where industrialization, a 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:22.320 new technologies, new audiences coming from all over the world 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.520 in waves of immigration. All of that stuff was happening 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.360 at once, and his visionary DNA, the double helix of 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.080 fact and fiction that made him so rich and so infamous, 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.720 can still be seen threaded throughout almost all of one 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.760 century media. In fact, the side show as pe Team 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:45.920 Barnum engineered it has simply relocated to our television sets 0:15:46.800 --> 0:16:04.880 Enter Reality TV, SMI Jam, First Person Voted off the 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:11.200 Island Sorry. The genre has been kicking around since the 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.920 nineteen fifties, and when it appeared, audiences loved the upclose 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.480 and personal feel and the surprise element of it too. 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.720 They clung to the alert of authenticity that they felt 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.960 unscripted television could give to them. After all it was 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.800 a look into other people's lives, and it's gone through 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:32.000 many evolutions and mutations since then. Today, reality TV is 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.520 a veritable treasure trove of characters. Flip through the channels 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.240 and you'll find every kind of head turner, from Island 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.320 Castaways two Giant Cakes, from rich Housewives to supernatural huntings, 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.120 all with the press of a button. And these shows, 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:49.880 without a doubt, have long been starmakers. They've created fortune, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.000 they've launched careers, and famously, as we saw in the 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:58.400 presidential election, even political campaigns and baked into this kind 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:03.600 of TV is something Quintus actually barnems clever editing big personalities, 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:10.240 dramatic storylines which altogether make for some pretty potent optical catnip. 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.320 I mean all this stuff that was completely fabricated from 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.800 start to finish, because once Barnum got ahold of you, 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.840 you may have been a real, living, breathing human being, 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:28.000 but you became the actor in a very complex fiction 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.840 of they're making not yours. When you agree to go 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.280 on Jerry Springer, when you agreed to go on the 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:40.000 Real World back then, you were essentially agreeing to be 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:45.199 an actual person going onto something called reality but you 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:51.680 were inserting yourself into a dramaturgical setting that someone else 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.399 was controlling. There's a whole genre of shows where the 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:59.080 body is center stage. Sometimes those bodies are being celebrated, 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.520 and sometimes they're suffering is put on display, and other 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.360 times it's somewhere in between. And maybe you've tuned into 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.119 some of the programming yourself. You know My six Pound Life, 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:15.119 My Strange Addiction, seven Little Johnston's, the Gypsy Sisters. On 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.399 these shows, the cameras work like a thousand electronic barnums. 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.480 They direct and even exploit our attention so that we 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.480 see exactly what they want us to see. They brought 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.000 us into shock, into awe, and into amazement. And it's 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.359 worth acknowledging too that some of the people featured in 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.119 these shows, such as Little People, Big World, are also 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.520 the executive producers. This gives them varying degrees of control 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.200 over their stories. We can see them as modern day 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.800 air as of performers like Lavinio, Warren Zip and Frank Lentini, 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.399 just to name a few. French philosopher Guide de Board 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.520 wrote that we live in a world united by our 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.640 consumption of two d images. He is a term for this, 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:56.560 the society of spectacle. Here, he tells us our reality 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:01.280 has been fractured into pieces, pieces which in turn become commodities. 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.000 We work hard at appear in a certain way every 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.520 time we post for a selfie or agonize over the 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.919 perfect caption we perform. Performance, of course, has always been 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.000 a part of social engagement, but it wasn't always captured 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.720 in two dimensions. Debor proposes that we have become a 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.639 world of isolated people, united only through collective exposure to 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:27.760 the same pictures. Debor died, but his words still hit 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.000 close to home at a time when we live our 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:34.800 collective lives on the digital stage. You see long Gone 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.000 or the side show barkers, but we still use their language. 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:42.359 We still have platforms. It's just that now instead of 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.480 the bally shouting for attention above the crowd, we are 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.680 the ones doing the work. The folks who we all 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:53.440 watch on these new pocket sized platforms Instagram, TikTok, YouTube 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:56.960 are becoming the main character of their own stories. As 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.840 gen Z likes to say, one person is no longer 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:02.919 in charge of the narratives of many, as Barnum was 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.080 in the case of choice, heth and in the case 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.000 of Julia Pastrana, Sarkee Bartman, and countless other people who 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:14.280 became ensnared in the Traveling sideshow world. Creators, the performers 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.119 are taking back control. They produce their own content, they 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.959 control their own storylines, and they make their own money. 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.280 And by they, I am very likely talking about you 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:30.000 and me. In September of the Washington Post published the 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.720 story of twenty two year old Coparanga Tatoyo, a woman 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.359 from the Tattoo indigenous community deep in the Amazon Rainforest. 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:41.199 Conaparanga is her own content. She posts about her day 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:45.440 to day life, her community, and her cultural traditions. Conaparanga 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:49.200 has over six point four million followers, a sizeable audience 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.440 Barnum could have only dreamt of. People come to learn 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:55.159 from her, They see things they haven't seen before, and 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.160 straight from the source. In the old school side show world, 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.919 we've heard countless tales of Indigenou people being conscripted into labor. 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.439 They've been given new names, wildly fabricated stories, and no 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.159 exit plan. It's hard not to be struck by how 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.200 much smaller our world has become. And now who gets 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.439 to control of the story As viewers Bob says, this 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.520 desire to have our attention captured is programmed into who 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:20.520 we are. Human beings are always going to want to 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:23.800 be amused, and I think they're probably always going to 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.879 enjoy being amused more than they enjoy doing this stuff 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:32.840 that they have to do. So Uh, entertainment is always 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:36.360 going to be with us. I think entertainment, like sex 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.000 and eating and keeping warm are is one of the 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.760 properties of things human beings are always going to be 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.399 looking for. Kim, on the other hand, puts it more simply. 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.400 I mean, hughes are pretty simple. From the dawn of time, 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:57.520 we wanted to see other people do crazy shit. If 0:21:57.520 --> 0:21:59.919 you were alive today, I'd have my money on Barne 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.200 being out in Palo Alto somewhere, trading in his coat, 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.119 tails for a hoodie and caviare for red bull. He 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.200 would be knee deep in the trenches of attention economics, 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.440 fine tuning those algorithms that riddle our brains with feel 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.520 good hits of dopamine. He would be making big money 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:18.119 to keep us scrolling for our next fix, and he 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.359 would be very very good at it too. Barnum was 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:24.120 able to capitalize on our very human need for novelty, 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:27.760 and now we hold his legacy in the palm of 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:32.280 our hands. And as for the quite literal, quite physical 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:35.160 entity of the Side Show itself, it continues to evolve, 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.640 and Kim is now part of that legacy. She would 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:40.639 have stayed on at Coney Island Side Show had the 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.440 pandemic not shuttered its doors, but she says, the form 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.800 and the community will continue to innovate as technology does 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.360 it always has. Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.240 performers have moved into more digital spaces, making a little 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.960 bit of magic in an otherwise dark time. I hope, 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:01.719 and I think that there's always going to be an 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.000 Apple date to see something a little weird and see 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:07.480 something a little freaky. It's one thing to watch a 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:10.240 performance on your laptop on your phone, but there's another 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:13.119 to feel the flames on your cheeks and see the 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:16.080 sweat pouring down someone's face when they're walking on glass. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.560 Now you can't replicate that until that time comes again. 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:23.679 Kim keeps busy. She hasn't been keeping up on her 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:27.240 new skills, but that's okay, yeah, right. All my nails 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:30.560 have gone all rusty this past year from my blockhead routine. 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:34.879 I gotta guess some new nails, COVID casualties. What we 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:37.480 do know to be true that whatever form the Sideshow 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:41.040