Hellzapoppin’ Circus Sideshow,
billed as the world’s largest touring freak show, visits Winter Park tonight.
Hellzapoppin’ Circus Sideshow didn’t choose its name just because it makes for such a great Scrabble score. It has a very relevant meaning, said creator Bryce Graves. “The definition is that anything can happen and probably will,” said the Texas native.
Based out of Jacksonville Beach, the latest tour of Hellzapoppin’ is bringing the stunt and magic show to The Haven Lounge in Winter Park tonight (7 p.m., 6700 Aloma Ave., tickets are $13 at eventbrite.com).
Billed as the world’s current largest touring freak show, Hellzapoppin’ features a rotating lineup of 30 performers who specialize in such talents as escape artistry, sword swallowing, dangerous juggling and more.
“It’s a bunch of performers that do amazing things that most people never see in person,” said Graves, who performs under the name The Govna.
The show began touring in 2009, opening for the metal band Mudvayne. That modern hard rock spirit is something that Graves said the tour has maintained. “It’s loud,” he said, noting that there would be live bands at their Winter Park performance.
Performers include such luminaries of the trans-mundane world as Short E. Dangerously, known as a “halfman” who is missing the lower half of his body. Featured in publications by National Geographic and Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Dangerously takes on stunts such as walking on his hands across broken glass that’s on fire.
Jim Rose Circus veteran Ryan Stock has an act where he balances a running lawn mower on his chin and lets the audience throw things into the blades. Fans of “America’s Got Talent” may remember Stock’s appearance on that show when his partner accidentally shot him in the neck with a flaming arrow during a stunt gone wrong.
Despite accidents such as that, Graves said worrying is not part of the program.
“I’m never nervous,” he said, pointing out that their stunt could only hurt the performers, never the audience. “We practice for years before we put it on stage.”
For example, sword swallowing is more than gulping down steel.
“Your body has four gag reflexes and you have to get past all four,” said Graves, 45. “It sometimes takes years to get to that point.”
Graves himself is a fireeater and blockhead, meaning he nails things into his head. “I have a 5-inch drillbit that I drill into my nostril and then I have to hit reverse to pull it out,” he said.
He claims he has never had a true mishap on stage, though that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been hurt. “I get burned being a fire-eater so often, that just doesn’t even phase me,” he said.
Mostly, he said, the goal is to demonstrate human will in an entertaining way.
“There’s some shows out there that do their best to gross you out,” Graves said. “We don’t do that. We perform dangerous, death-defying stunts, but it’s mind over matter.”