THE FINE81 1 co-IDEMOIT! ENJOY THESE FINE RESTAURANTS DURING Sporting Events • The Opera • Theatre • Or just Because "Comfortable Suburban feel with a touch of downtown excitement." Linda W?sniewski, The Oakland Press Winner of the Channel 2 "Best Ribs Contest" Steaks that can't be beat!! Every Friday enjoy our Sauteed Perch 4421 Woodward 313-832-5700 A BARBEQUE GRILLE UPSCALE, INNOVATIVE FOOD FOR THE SOUL 546 E. Lamed 313-965-1700 X 0N 14 0 0 0* 11C: AIL IT ZO 267 Joseph Campau (at Franklin) 313-259-0909 3Em 311:1, M A) , 4265 Woodward 313-832-3200 loo W. Montcalm 313-961-1929 * * TI-4r FlP TR nIT IRWI CN KIPW C 624 Brush Street 313-962-7067 94 * the • * * Caucus • C1 uh * The Rhinoceros 265 Riopelle • 259-2208 1435 Randolph 313-961-0707 THE RATTLE NAKE CLUB 300 River Place • 313-567-4400 What's Jewish about the freak show? Step right up and find out. JONATHAN MARK SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS DUNLEVY'Z RIVER PLACE Yr, 0 w Coney Island: Wonders! Oddities! * 150 W. Congress 313-965-4970 live! The strange, the weird, the bizarre, the un- usual. Step right up. Freaks, wonders and hu- man curiosities. They're real; they're here, and they're alive!" In Coney Island's steaming heat, where the air smells of sweat and smoking shish kebab, where a sign near a kiddie ride warns about attack dogs, enter West 12th Street: In this bac- chanalian alley between the subway and the boardwalk, a carny barker seduces the crowd into the darkness of the freak show. Madam Twisto, her body like the purest form of rubber known to man," pretty and blond, stands in the sunlight with silver rings in her nose and ears. An albino snake, as long and thick as a fire hose, curls around her pale legs and calico clothes. Come and see Madam Twisto's friends, cries the barker: Serpentina the Snake Enchantress, the Illustrated Man, the Bearded Lady, the Sword Swallower, the Fire Eater, Koko the Killer Clown, the Human Blockhead, the Electric Lady, the Master of Magic. They're real, alive — and of- ten Jewish. So it is with the audience: Sruli and Zechariah, 12-year-old yeshiva boys from Borough Park, have no idea that these freaks are Jews. The boys sim- ply enter wide-eyed into the dimly lit area, more akin to a cavern than to a theater, past a flapping banner de- picting nothing but a s hand pointing the way. They find seats in the first row of a 150-seat wooden bleacher section. A Siamese-headed moose hangs over the painted green stage. The yeshiva boys are agog as the (Jew- ish) Fire Eater swal- lows the flame. They are rapt as the (Jew- ish) Human Block- head heaves ice picks up his nostrils and a Phillips screw- A driver down his throat. "Oh, my God," says Zechari- ah, laughing. "How'd he do that?" And now, says the (Jewish) Sword Swallower, "I will swal- low a steel bayonet used to de- feat the Germans in World War II." We must remember World War II because the survivors won't always be here to remind us. Then the master of cere- monies, Frank Hartman (the Jewish jack-of-all-freaks, who performs multiple wonders), locks Madam Twisto into the Chinese Execution Blade Box, slashing 15 metal blades into the enclosure. She remains — alive! Ladies and gentlemen, says Hartman, "There is an 11th unannounced act," strange be- yond Penguin Boy, strange beyond the mummified 19th- century Fiji Mermaid in a glass case along the wall, "some- thing so shocking' you must choose to 4 make the com- mitment to pay an extra dollar and en- ter into an eerily lit back room, or you can stay where you are. Sruli and Zecharia pay their dollar to Serpentina the Snake Enchantress and enter to wit- ness ... Of course, you do not want to be told what monstrosities and curiosities were in that devilish room. If any reader is offended at this point, please don't be. This is art, pal, subsidized by the New York City Department of Cul- tural Affairs, Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden and the Brooklyn delegation of the City Council. Dick Zigun is the grand im- presario of Coney Island USA, a nonprofit arts organization that is the parent orga- nization of Sideshows by the Seashore, as the freak show is formally known. "Being a nice Jew- ish boy," says Zigun, "I have two degrees in theater, from Yale and Bennington. But instead of aspiring to