k

Broadway, I thought Coney Is-
land would be a wonderful stag-
ing ground for my obsessions. I
grew up in P.T. Barnum's home-
town [Bridgeport, Conn.], so I
was already obsessed with
amusement parks and
sideshows and vaudeville."
The freak show entertains
50,000 every summer; 100,000,
says Zigun, if you count the won-
ders and oddities displayed on
the stage right there on the side-
walk outside the theater.
"We are performance-orient-
ed rather than gawker-orient-
ed," says Zigun. "We will never
put someone with a deformity
on display to be laughed at just
because of a deformity. Every-
one who works here, no matter
how unusual they look, has a
theatrical performance skill.
"Koko the Killer Clown is a
dwarf, but rather than just be
billed as a dwarf, we make no
reference to his size. He tells a
story — maybe it's true, maybe
it's not — about committing a
crime of passion and spending

Of course,
you do not want
to be told what
monstrosities and
curiosities were in
that devilish room.

10 years in jail. He is not likely
to kill again, but the circus won't
give him his job back."
Zigun, 44, who lives on the
second floor above the sideshow,
sits at the freak show's bar wear-
ing a sleeveless shirt revealing
a right arm decorated from
shoulder to wrist with tattoos:
The half-crazed Steeplechase
face, the logo of Coney Island
USA (Zigun describes it as a
cross between Batman's Riddler
and Alfred E. Neuman); a bare-
breasted mermaid; and an an-
chor.
Several years ago he was
walking on the boardwalk when
he spots Jennifer Miller, a beard-
ed lady, and invites her to join
his show.
Miller recalls, "I decided to try
it. I was always afraid of the
sideshow imagery, wanting not
to be a freak. But this has
brought out a strength I didn't
know I had. I'm not so afraid
now. I come from this vulnera-
ble introduction as the bearded
lady that people want to jeer at,
and I turn it around and devel-
op a loving exchange with my
audience. But you might come
and see me swear and stomp off
the stage."
Miller, who grew her beard as
part of her flair for "queer" as-

ODDITIES page 96

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