The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow – Interview

The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow

An interview with Jim Rose
At Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT
Interview and Photos by Rebekah Sue Harris

I arrived at the venue, Toad’s Place, and saw an enormous man running around, checking on things, from the club to the bus. Entering the venue, I asked for Jim, and was told, “He’s right behind you.” As I approached, I realized that the personality glowing from this man heightened his stature (I later found out that he stands 5’7″) – but you just don’t notice that unless you’re standing right next to him. The room-filling presence wasn’t my imagination; I noticed that people on the street stopped and stared at him, too.

Jim Rose was born in 1956, on December 21st. His parents are still together. He wanted to be a wrestler when he grew up; his heroes were Rick Flair (“WoooOOooo!”) and Evel Knievel. He attended and completed public school, went on to attend college, studying Political Science.

He’s smart, he’s quite handsome, he reads, he’s never been forcibly committed (I asked), and he even has a job… if it wasn’t for the wedding ring, he’s the kind of guy a girl could bring home to Mother. The only problem might be explaining his job: y’see, Jim Rose is the “one and only MC From Hell” of Jim Rose’s Circus Side Show, one of the weirdest conglomerations of human beings on this planet.

Jim grew up around side shows. They used to recruit the neighborhood kids and promised them a big stuffed animal for a week’s run. (The kids never got the stuffed animals.) That gave them access to backstage…

His stunning and even more diminutive wife, Bebe (with a trés charming accent au Français), comes from a circus family. He saw tons of stuff in Europe that he’d never seen in the States, much of which can be discovered in his book, Freak Like Me (Bantam/Doubleday).

Jim didn’t actually begin doing side shows himself until around 1987; he was in a Middle Eastern restaurant for a while with belly dancers. “That sold out. That gave me a local area. That means that every club in Seattle wanted me to perform…” Plain Jane in Seattle is his publicist, and his agents book the shows. That’s how he got hooked up with Lollapalooza…

Everyone in the Side Show has groupies. (If I were “that type” of gal, I’d be hard pressed to choose between Lifto, with the amazing strength in his penis! and Enigma, who’s got really lovely features under all that ink and the horns, when he’s not making a face for the camera.) Denise Robinson, who maintains the Official Jim Rose Pages at
, is “one of the original fans… before we did Lollapalooza, we did a tour of Canada, and she was there. I’ve always been in contact with her, she’s got a Jim Rose tattoo. But ya see, if you’re really an original groupie, usually you just wind up being a friend.”

Family… His parents attended a Jim Rose Circus show for the first time two weeks ago, in Phoenix. “My in-laws no longer think I’m an outlaw. They’re proud. Bebe is the glue. She also does some incredibly good stunts.”

As many of you know, Jim and the Mexican Transvestite Wrestlers were arrested in Texas. Jim was feeling crummy and coughed a lot, so I didn’t push him about it. Jim seemed weary of the topic. He did confirm reports that he missed his Texas court date, so he’s on the run from the law. I touched his sleeve… and swooned.

Jim’s “recruits” come to him to display their skills. “Like-minded monsters sit up in their crypts and come to audition when I hit the town.” The weirdest thing he ever saw in an impromptu audition was a guy push himself through a tennis racquet. (Yes, the guy got into the sideshow, but the guy who does it now isn’t the original. Can you believe there is more than one adult in this world who can do such a thing?) The freakiness is not only from within, but some is also man-created, and the man who did the non-traditional body art (laser art, Enigma’s horny implants) approached the troupe. (Not exactly what Hippocrates had in mind.) When the generic/general population looks at the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow as “freaks,” he’s “nonplussed.” Discovering that Jim finds the movie Freaks “classic,” I had to ask if non-enthusiasts think he’s exploiting his troupe. Jim’s response: “I give ’em a fifth o’ whiskey and a place to sleep it off. How’s that exploitation?!”

Aside from his book, and articles for Rip, he also writes the script to the sideshow. Anyone who goes should listen carefully; amidst the hubbub is some great comedy! When I asked him what he’d be doing if he wasn’t Jim Rose of Side Show fame, he said, “[long pause] I’m sure I’d be selling something.” So nonchalant… as if he was selling insurance, and was thinking of switching to used cars.

Doors at Toad’s Place were scheduled to open at 6:30, with the show scheduled to begin at 6:45. However, the show was canceled at 4:00. When the stage props were halfway to being reloaded onto the bus, it was rescheduled, despite Jim’s obvious illness and the animosity of the crew towards the club. Everything had to be re-set before the show could begin.

Two bands played first. The original plan was for Jim Rose’s all ages show to be an early one, and then bands would play; I therefore didn’t get their names. The first was country. The second wasn’t, but they were bad.

The crowd was split 50/50 – pierced and tattooed punks/Yale yuppie wannabes. I’m not sure if the Yalies were there for Jim or for the bands…

Security asked those closest to the stage to sit on the floor. I found a safe corner, and the lights dimmed.

Remember going to those ’80s metal shows? The lights would go down, the keyboards would begin, and you could feel the excitement swell in the air? Jim’s parody was better, he gave a freakish narration amidst smoke and music. The response was just as strong, making it hard to hear the comedy.

And thus the circus began.

There was Bebe, Jim’s lovely wife, who climbed a ladder of razor-sharp swords. She balanced a watermelon on the back of her neck, and someone tried to split it in half with a machete. (It didn’t cut all the way through, so Jim stopped that one.) Enigma, the all-over tattooed man with surgically-implanted horns, showed that he really is tattooed all over. Bebe came back out. She had metal strapped to her crotch. She held a grinder to the metal, creating sparks galore. That was the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Not erotic like, “I’m gonna switch to chicks,” but erotic like, “I wanna learn how to do THAT!” Enigma crawled between her legs, emerging unburned, and then went back in to light a cigarette from the sparks. Bebe left the stage, and Enigma inserted hooks into his eye sockets (with Jim’s barker banter telling us that, last year, Enigma had knocked out an eyeball, but there was no damage), and lifted weights with the cords from the hooks coming from his eyes.

At this point, I got dizzy and had to push my way through the crowd, nauseated. I stumbled to the bar amidst murmurs of, “Oh, God,” got a cranberry juice and watched the rest of the show from the relative safety of a table in front of a TV through which the show was transmitted. Yes, I am a wuss.

When my stomach had settled, I watched the Mexican Transvestite wrestlers fight to try to get a purple penis in, uh, his opponent’s mouth for three seconds. (I thought it was funny, hardly worthy of arrest.) One of the wrestlers squeezed, uh, himself through a tennis racquet. I could hear the cries of “Oooooooh!” from the club as the racquet slooowwwly went over his balls…

The lady sumo wrestlers were something else, close to 800 pounds, or maybe more, in the ring. The lighter of the two cleared 300 lbs. easily.

The comely Mr. Lifto hefted two household irons by the sheer strength of his penis. He then lifted said irons with the clamps in his ears, while simultaneously lifting a cinder block with the hooks through his chest.

There was some loud, buzzing stuff next, but I had another bout of nausea. It had nothing to do with Lifto; rather, I flashed back to Enigma’s eye thingy. I don’t gross easily, but there’s just something about fucking with your eyes that makes my knees weak.

The sideshow ended shortly after. I went out to the stage to pet the human zoo. Hanging my head, I told Jim how sick he’d made me. I think he was pleased.