My interest in this project lies in some very basic philosophical ideals about art, performance, popular culture and lifestyle. I believe fine art has done a terrific job in the last 50 years of completely isolating and alienating itself from the populous that it was once in service of. While there are great artists doing great things at the upper rungs of the fine art world, they exist in an elitist closed club house. As artists find themselves loosing a functional, utilitarian reason for existing, they justify there profession in aloof theory that pushes away average viewers. Fine art no longer celebrates creativity, it celebrates intellectualism. There is little joy in the gallery scene.

I’ve always been in love with the circus, and the sideshow. But in the last five years there has been a new intense revival in sideshow and burlesque that utterly intrigues me, that invigorates me. The circus is a magical creative environment that has always captured the minds of even the dullest hayseed, and has always existed completely outside of mainstream society. Like all true artists, the sideshow performers don’t have a career, they have a lifestyle. Like all new revivals, the true talents and ground breakers aren’t in the corporate expressions but scuttling around in the underground. When I speak of circus, I don’t mean the crusty watered down relic’s like ringling brothers, or the slick mega theatre productions like Cirque Du Soleil, I mean the west philly squatters collectives, the do it yourself troupes playing in biker bars, the clown crawls, the zombie proms.

While there is a great rise in this movement, what it is lacking is a unifying voice. Someone to come along and champion this culture, this talent and this lifestyle. A hundred years ago sideshow people were the rock stars of the day. I believe they should be again. I want this world exposed to people out there. I want kids everywhere to know they don’t have to fear being strange, or different. I want people to know that the cheerleader isn’t the only beauty esthetic, that you don’t have to go out for the foot ball team to be cool. I want to travel the country and infect people everywhere with ideas and alternatives to how they view their life.

I have always admired provocateurs. From Marcel Duchamp to P.T. Barnum to Andy Koffman. My dabbling in event promotion and my brief stint as Director of the Family of Shame gave me a sweet taste of playing puppet master. I loved it. I am not a circus performer. I am an admiring outsider who has converted to the cause and prays at the alter of the freak show. My goal is to raise an army of creative freaks and be the general who leads them into battle against a very boring world. I want to be the figure head that rallies and inspires, helps manage and maintain this beast as it grows. If I can make the world a little stranger, I have succeeded