Review of “The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek” by Nathan Wakefield

Score: 96/100 (9.6 out of 10)

The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek by Nathan Wakefield may be our guiltiest pleasure of 2024 so far! It is one of the most interesting and entertaining books we've ever read! We found ourselves shocked and pleasantly surprised by this unexpected gem! It was a book that started hot and just kept getting better and better!

We totally did not expect to be wowed this much.

You wouldn't think that a book about something as niche and strange as the circus would hit this hard and hold your interest for this long. But why not? Circuses, their acts, and their performers are intrinsically fascinating, captivating the human imagination for hundreds of years. There's just something about it... the glitz, the glamour, the performances, and—perhaps most tantalizing of all—the weirdness and the risks involved.

And perhaps no circus acts are weirder or more risky than those of the titular sideshow geeks that are the focus and main subject of this book. Who are the sideshow geeks? What are geeks?

Well, the word “geek” has come to mean something far different than it used to. Many years ago, a geek wasn't a techy computer nerd or someone into comics, cards, and toys. No. Many years ago, a geek was one of the oddest, most bizarre, and most disturbing of all circus acts: the carnival performer who would devour dangerous objects and live animals—sometimes whole! If that sounds upsetting to you, then you're not alone. When we first heard about this, we were appalled too.

However, this is a phenomenon that we really should consider: what motivated these acts and the people who paid money to see them? Is there more to it? What does this say about humanity and how we've changed as a society?

It's almost akin to our fascination with serial killers or even Dodo Award recipients. They get a lot of attention that some would argue is unwarranted or undeserved, but there's a psychological reason for it. Human beings are fascinated by the strange, odd, and bizarre. We're captivated by anomalies. We're fascinated by pushing and breaking the limits of what's possible—whether good or bad. It says a lot about humanity and human nature.

It explains why we watch fighting and contact sports. That why the WWE and UFC exist. It explains why we watch horror movies. That's why Scream and Saw exist. People want to be shocked and awed. We want to know how bad it can get. We want to know how much a person can physically take without dying.

And that perhaps explains the fascination with geek sideshows and their performers. It explains why people would pay money to watch a person bite a chicken's head off (which is the standard geek sideshow act).

But it doesn't stop with chickens. The animals devoured in these shows include snakes (especially rattlesnakes), baby alligators, eels, rats, mice, and even (supposedly) a whole horse! It's absolutely disgusting yet absolutely fascinating at the same time. How did these people (called “glommer geeks”) do this? And why?

And these animal-eating glommer geeks weren't the only geeks. There were also “human ostriches” who would eat things like glass, screws, knives, razor-blades, and swords!

Again, how did these people do this? And why?

And that's kinda what this book explores: the stories behind these seemingly-insane, absurd, and ridiculous performers.

There are probably dozens of stories about these performers, but perhaps our favorite was that of English Jack, a sailor who found himself on a deserted island and resorted to eating whatever was available. He dreamed of returning home to marry his childhood sweetheart only to find out she had died before he could return. It is with this context that Jack pursued the one thing he still had: his ability to eat virtually anything and be paid for it. That's actually a very compelling story in itself. You can understand why he did what he did.

There's also the story of Michel Lolito, better known as Monsieur Mangetout, who actually had a psychological/eating disorder called pica, causing him to eat whatever was around including glass. He got his moniker meaning “Mr. Eat It All” and became a star by using his disorder to his financial advantage. He supposedly ate 18 bicycles, seven TVs, a computer, six chandeliers, and a whole airplane! You could probably give him first-place in the realm of human ostriches.

There was Henry Whallen, who ate long blades and a horseshoe nail that all somehow survived in his digestive tract for several years before having to be extracted.

The list goes on and on with performers like John Fasel and Henry Harrison eating things like watches, tacks, and even a lamp chimney.

Back to animal-eating glommer geeks, not all of these performances (as you might expect) went smoothly. Even the Great Waldo, who made sport of eating and regurgitating the same rats, was caught by surprise one day when his normal rats were not available. Upon devouring one that his producer had caught as a substitute, the rat got caught in his digestive tract and wouldn't let go, nearly causing him to choke!

While this book mostly concerns circus performers who eat odd things, they aren't the only focus. The book also talks about “Wild Men” who are usually paid actors who pretend to be savage, hairy beasts who can't speak a language—feral people. Perhaps the one we remember most was Oofty Goofty (probably because of his name), who was portrayed as a caged wild man who could only respond to people by saying “oofty goofty.” It's interesting that this man was actually rather brilliant and complex, although very troubled.

There were also “torture act” geek performers like the aforementioned Michel Lolito who had an extremely high tolerance to pain alongside his pica.

The book covers some of the other dark or disturbing things about the history of circuses like how they were used as opportunities to steal from people, normally in the form of pick-pocketing paid guests while they were distracted by the performance. There's also a section about headless chicken spectacles like the famous Mike the Headless Chicken.

Perhaps are favorite part of this entire book (well, beside English Jack's story) was the section about professional wrestling. Our suspicions were correct! Pro wrestling and the circus are undeniably tied! You could even say they were joined at the hip at one time, branching out from the same tree. There are a lot of similarities between the two including the spectacle, the shock & awe (particularly in terms of dangerous, risky physical performances), and the traveling from town to town.

The book made connection between the circus and wrestlers like Classy Freddie Blassie who we just realized would call people “pencil-neck geeks” in reference to the geeks in circuses! It also mentioned Kamala, who was portrayed like a savage, wild-man geek, and Marty Wright/The Boogeyman who would eat live worms like a glommer geek!

You really get the sense of why these geeks declined for ethical and other reasons as time went on.

Yeah, this book was a lot of fun and taught us a lot!

Check it out on Amazon!