Jim Rose Circus
Encyclopedia
The Jim Rose Circus is a modern-day version of a circus sideshow
. It was founded in Seattle by Jim Rose in the early 1990s. The sideshow came to prominence as a second stage show at the 1992 Lollapalooza
festival, then called the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. Rolling Stone
magazine called it "the absolute must-see act" and USA Today
termed Rose's troupe "Lollapalooza's word-of-mouth hit attraction".
's American Recordings that quickly became a cult classic
.
In 1994 The Jim Rose Circus was chosen to tour with Nine Inch Nails
and a then-unknown Marilyn Manson
, and later with KoRn
and Godsmack
. 1998 saw another world tour featuring women sumo wrestling, Mexican transvestite wrestling and chain saw football. The show landed Rose and troupe in Lubbock Texas Jail and was later banned from New Zealand. Both of those issues were settled 4 months later. "That was one of my highest grossing shows," Rose claimed. It reportedly netted over 4 million dollars.
Jim Rose was also the top ticket of the Melbourne (Australia), New Zealand and Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe and Comedy Festivals.
In 2009 Jim Rose joined with professional wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts for The Legends Collide Tour, a forty city campaign heralded as "Jake Roberts conquering his troubled past" amidst " pretty girls, wrestling, amazing circus stunts... and a fist fight". .
Rose himself performs in between acts, often committing masochistic deeds such as attaching paper currency to his forehead with a staple gun or driving a long nail into his nostril. During the show's final act, he would escape from a straightjacket. His most outrageous trick followed: he would invite audience members to stand on his head after he'd placed it in a shallow crate of broken glass.
The Amazing Mister Lifto (Joe Hermann) who hung heavy weights (cinder blocks, steam irons, beer kegs, etc.) from his body piercings, including those in his nipples and genitalia. At Lollapalooza Lifto would perform the "genital lift" feat after spraying shaving cream on himself.
Bebe the Circus Queen (Beatrice Aschard) would perform a variety of stunts such as having a watermelon placed on her back and split with a sword, lying on a bed of nails while weights were placed on her chest... or the "Plastic Bag Of Death", where she gets into a large plastic bag and one of the other performers sucks all of the air out with a vacuum cleaner. She would also employ an electric grinder in her act (for example, she would create a shower of sparks from a metal chastity belt covering her groin area).
Matt "The Tube" Crowley, whose moniker came from the seven feet of tubing that he would swallow. The other end of the tube was attached to a crude hand pump. Rose himself would fill the pump with a variety of fluids and proceed to pump it into Crowley's stomach, then back out again. Audience members were invited onstage to drink the vile concoction after it had been extricated from Crowley. He would also provide a demonstration of sheer lung power by blowing up a hot water bottle with his mouth until it burst.
Torture King
(Tim Cridland) had a segment that featured him walking barefoot up and down a ladder of razor sharp sabres, piercing himself with long needles and meat skewers, eating pieces of a broken lightbulb (he would hold a microphone near his mouth so the audience would hear the sound), and touching an electrical generator while holding a fluorescent lightbulb that would glow. In 1994, The Torture King left the Circus to create his own show. The Torture King Show toured the US and Canada many times. He currently lives and performs in Las Vegas.
The Enigma
(Paul Lawrence). Originally known as Slug , he was billed as a man who would eat anything (worms, grasshoppers), and swallow a variety of swords. He also doubled as the show's organ player. He body is completely tattooed with blue jigsaw puzzle pieces. He left the show in 1998 and has toured the world since, appearing in such acts as Ken Harck's Brothers Grim Sideshow, The Human Marvels and most recently, the Show Devils.
The Lizardman Completely tattooed performer with a surgically split tongue (featured on Ripley's Believe It or Not) joined Jim in 1999 on the Godsmack Voodoo Tour and in 2001 toured with just Jim and Bebe doing comedy clubs. He performed several acts previously done by members who had left (Lifto, Enigma, Matt the Tube) and added new acts and routines to the circus. He left the circus in 2001 to return to his solo show endeavors.
Cappy (David Capurro) Award-winning yoyo artist. Featured in The Jim Rose Twisted Tour.
Rupert (Ryan Stock
) performed the traditional sideshow stunts. He now stars in his own show on the Discovery Channel with partner Amber Lynn.
Preacher Muad'dib Joined the circus when he was 19 for an Irish tour. Now resides in the UK and is an internationally renowned Performer and urban martial artist who holds multiple Guinness world records. He and Jim Rose both refer to each other as 'my hero'. They most recently worked together opening for Alice Cooper in London, UK for Cooper's halloween spectacular.
John Chaos Performs traditional stunts. He now performs his own One Man Show called the John Chaos Sideshow but still performs with the Jim Rose Circus from time to time.
Jake "the Snake" Roberts
SiNn BoHdi (formerly of Carnival Diablo
, also known as Kizarny of the WWE)
Brianna Belladonna Female sword swallower who performed at Sturgis with the circus in 2010
Fatt Matt Worlds fattest contortionist
Amber Lynn
Leonid the Magnificent
Stormy Leather
Melody Sweets
Amelia Danger
Johnny Favor
Kinichi
Mark "the Knife" Fage
Throughout their tours, additional acts have included many other "fringe" artists, including wrestlers and Pyro-X.
, the Season 2 episode Humbug
which was set in a community of sideshow and former sideshow workers.
Homer Simpson
runs away and joins the Jim Rose Circus as The Human Cannonball
on an episode of The Simpsons
.
The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow video tape (1993 American Recordings) was re-released in 2003 as a DVD by Moonshine Music.
The Jim Rose Twisted Tour was a seven episode series that debuted March 2003 on the opening week of the Travel Channel, although only five episodes were aired. It was released in 2006 on DVD, which includes all episodes.
Jim Rose appeared in the movie "Doubting Riley", a film by HBO's Project Greenlight alumni.
Jim Rose voiced the character Psymon Stark in the snowboarding video game SSX Tricky
. The reason he was chosen was because he best suited Psymon's psychotic nature and stunts.
political campaign during a time in his life when he was addicted to heroin. He was quoted as stating that "[Mo] ran against Jimmy Carter
and I was his fund raiser... I used to do fundraisers with like Gregory Peck
and Robert Redford
, actually while I was on heroin. They didn’t know... actually I forgot to tell them.”
.
His PR company now reps Fulltiltpoker.com and does publicity for top poker players.
Rose has been hired by corporations including Microsoft
and regularly speaks as a consultant for PR firms; in this regard he has been pictured on the cover of The Wall Street Journal
and Fast Company magazine, and is featured in the new marketing book The Deviants Advantage.
In 2008 Rose was hired as spokesperson and performer for Dos Equis in the Jim Rose Most Interesting Show In The World U.S tour
and Sledstorm 2, both EA Sports
products.
"Freakmania is spreading unabated"
–Newsweek
"The line in Salt Lake City stretched all the way to the Mormon
Temple. They had to turn hundreds away"
–Wall Street Journal
"His delivery is brutally comic. He plays the highly-strung audience like a violin"
-The Independent, London
"Amazingly, it is actually fun. It may not be everyone's idea of entertainment, but then what is? It certainly does not deserve to be banned."
–The Times Magazine, London
"We all went home satisfied, entertained and suitably appalled to the depth of our being"
–New Music Express, London
"I've seen a lot of things in my time. I must see 40 circuses a year, but this lot…They came on in their street clothes and then…They're beyond anything I've ever seen. They
shocked me"
-Gerry Cottle (circus proprietor) in Sunday Telegraph, London
"Jim Rose is a cult hero"
–Tucker Carlson, CNN
"Audience reaction in largely that kind of revolted amusement more commonly associated with tourists at a bullfight"
–Melody Maker, London
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
. It was founded in Seattle by Jim Rose in the early 1990s. The sideshow came to prominence as a second stage show at the 1992 Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
festival, then called the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine called it "the absolute must-see act" and USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
termed Rose's troupe "Lollapalooza's word-of-mouth hit attraction".
Tours
After Lollapalooza, in 1993 Jim Rose headlined seven world tours and released a self-titled video on Rick RubinRick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
's American Recordings that quickly became a cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
.
In 1994 The Jim Rose Circus was chosen to tour with Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
and a then-unknown Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
, and later with KoRn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
and Godsmack
Godsmack
Godsmack is an American heavy metal band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is composed of founder, frontman and songwriter Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola, bassist Robbie Merrill, and drummer Shannon Larkin...
. 1998 saw another world tour featuring women sumo wrestling, Mexican transvestite wrestling and chain saw football. The show landed Rose and troupe in Lubbock Texas Jail and was later banned from New Zealand. Both of those issues were settled 4 months later. "That was one of my highest grossing shows," Rose claimed. It reportedly netted over 4 million dollars.
Jim Rose was also the top ticket of the Melbourne (Australia), New Zealand and Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe and Comedy Festivals.
In 2009 Jim Rose joined with professional wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts for The Legends Collide Tour, a forty city campaign heralded as "Jake Roberts conquering his troubled past" amidst " pretty girls, wrestling, amazing circus stunts... and a fist fight". .
Performers
The Amazing Mister Lifto (Joe Hermann) who hung heavy weights (cinder blocks, steam irons, beer kegs, etc.) from his body piercings, including those in his nipples and genitalia. At Lollapalooza Lifto would perform the "genital lift" feat after spraying shaving cream on himself.
Bebe the Circus Queen (Beatrice Aschard) would perform a variety of stunts such as having a watermelon placed on her back and split with a sword, lying on a bed of nails while weights were placed on her chest... or the "Plastic Bag Of Death", where she gets into a large plastic bag and one of the other performers sucks all of the air out with a vacuum cleaner. She would also employ an electric grinder in her act (for example, she would create a shower of sparks from a metal chastity belt covering her groin area).
Matt "The Tube" Crowley, whose moniker came from the seven feet of tubing that he would swallow. The other end of the tube was attached to a crude hand pump. Rose himself would fill the pump with a variety of fluids and proceed to pump it into Crowley's stomach, then back out again. Audience members were invited onstage to drink the vile concoction after it had been extricated from Crowley. He would also provide a demonstration of sheer lung power by blowing up a hot water bottle with his mouth until it burst.
Torture King
Zamora the Torture King
Zamora the Torture King is the stage name of Tim Cridland, an American sideshow performer.Zamora was an original member of the Jim Rose Circus where he performed painful feats as entertainment. His stunts include fire eating, sword swallowing, body skewering and electrocution...
(Tim Cridland) had a segment that featured him walking barefoot up and down a ladder of razor sharp sabres, piercing himself with long needles and meat skewers, eating pieces of a broken lightbulb (he would hold a microphone near his mouth so the audience would hear the sound), and touching an electrical generator while holding a fluorescent lightbulb that would glow. In 1994, The Torture King left the Circus to create his own show. The Torture King Show toured the US and Canada many times. He currently lives and performs in Las Vegas.
The Enigma
The Enigma (person)
The Enigma, born Paul Lawrence, is a sideshow performer, actor, and musician who has undergone extensive body modification, including horn implants, ear reshaping, multiple body piercings, and a full-body jigsaw-puzzle tattoo...
(Paul Lawrence). Originally known as Slug , he was billed as a man who would eat anything (worms, grasshoppers), and swallow a variety of swords. He also doubled as the show's organ player. He body is completely tattooed with blue jigsaw puzzle pieces. He left the show in 1998 and has toured the world since, appearing in such acts as Ken Harck's Brothers Grim Sideshow, The Human Marvels and most recently, the Show Devils.
The Lizardman Completely tattooed performer with a surgically split tongue (featured on Ripley's Believe It or Not) joined Jim in 1999 on the Godsmack Voodoo Tour and in 2001 toured with just Jim and Bebe doing comedy clubs. He performed several acts previously done by members who had left (Lifto, Enigma, Matt the Tube) and added new acts and routines to the circus. He left the circus in 2001 to return to his solo show endeavors.
Cappy (David Capurro) Award-winning yoyo artist. Featured in The Jim Rose Twisted Tour.
Rupert (Ryan Stock
Ryan Stock
Ryan Stock is a Canadian based TV stunt man from Edmonton, Alberta who has a show on the Discovery Channel called "Guinea Pig". Stock and his fiancée Amber Lynn Walker travel around Canada and the United States and perform stunts which involve electrocution, automobile crashes, and intentional...
) performed the traditional sideshow stunts. He now stars in his own show on the Discovery Channel with partner Amber Lynn.
Preacher Muad'dib Joined the circus when he was 19 for an Irish tour. Now resides in the UK and is an internationally renowned Performer and urban martial artist who holds multiple Guinness world records. He and Jim Rose both refer to each other as 'my hero'. They most recently worked together opening for Alice Cooper in London, UK for Cooper's halloween spectacular.
John Chaos Performs traditional stunts. He now performs his own One Man Show called the John Chaos Sideshow but still performs with the Jim Rose Circus from time to time.
Jake "the Snake" Roberts
SiNn BoHdi (formerly of Carnival Diablo
Carnival Diablo
Carnival Diablo the Ultimate Sideshow is an award winning traveling sideshow operating primarily in Ontario, Canada. Performances by the troupe follow a traditional Ten-in-One format featuring such acts as fire-eating, sword swallowing and a human blockhead, with show times lasting two and a half...
, also known as Kizarny of the WWE)
Brianna Belladonna Female sword swallower who performed at Sturgis with the circus in 2010
Fatt Matt Worlds fattest contortionist
Amber Lynn
Leonid the Magnificent
Stormy Leather
Melody Sweets
Amelia Danger
Johnny Favor
Kinichi
Mark "the Knife" Fage
Throughout their tours, additional acts have included many other "fringe" artists, including wrestlers and Pyro-X.
Television and other media
Both Jim Rose and The Enigma were featured in an episode of The X-FilesThe X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
, the Season 2 episode Humbug
Humbug (The X-Files)
"Humbug" is the twentieth episode of the second season of American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by Darin Morgan and directed by Kim Manners. Morgan had previously appeared in a guest role as the Flukeman in an earlier episode of that season called "The Host"....
which was set in a community of sideshow and former sideshow workers.
Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
runs away and joins the Jim Rose Circus as The Human Cannonball
Human cannonball
The human cannonball is a performance in which a person is ejected from a specially designed cannon. The impetus is provided not by gunpowder, but by either a spring or jet of compressed air...
on an episode of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
.
The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow video tape (1993 American Recordings) was re-released in 2003 as a DVD by Moonshine Music.
The Jim Rose Twisted Tour was a seven episode series that debuted March 2003 on the opening week of the Travel Channel, although only five episodes were aired. It was released in 2006 on DVD, which includes all episodes.
Jim Rose appeared in the movie "Doubting Riley", a film by HBO's Project Greenlight alumni.
Jim Rose voiced the character Psymon Stark in the snowboarding video game SSX Tricky
SSX Tricky
A soundtrack was released in 2002. It features the following songs:#"It's Tricky " - Run-D.M.C.#"Smartbomb " - BT#"Finished Symphony" - Hybrid#"King of the Beats" - Aphrodite#"Board Burner" - Mix Master Mike...
. The reason he was chosen was because he best suited Psymon's psychotic nature and stunts.
Publications
- Jim Rose wrote the autobiographical Freak Like Me (Real, Raw, and Dangerous)Freak Like Me (Real, Raw, and Dangerous)Freak Like Me is a non-fiction book by Jim Rose with journalist Melissa Rossi first published September 1995. The book describes both the early years of Jim Rose and a stream of consciousness on-the-road account of the Jim Rose Circus tour with Lollapalooza.The phrase "Freak Like Me" is a take on...
(Dell 1995 ISBN #0440507448) He also released the book Angles in 1999 and Snake Oil (Life's Calculations, Misdirections, And Manipulations) in 2005. The cover art was by Gail PotockiGail PotockiGail Potocki is an award-winning Symbolist artist utilizing the skills and techniques of the Old Masters in the 21st century...
. Jim Rose also wrote the introduction to the book Gail PotockiGail PotockiGail Potocki is an award-winning Symbolist artist utilizing the skills and techniques of the Old Masters in the 21st century...
: The Union of Hope and Sadness in 2006.
- Rose was written about extensively in Marilyn Manson's autobiography 'Long Hard Road Out Of Hell'. The stories refer to the 1994 'Downward Spiral Tour' with Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.
- Road Manager Jan Gregor wrote Circus of the Scars (Brennan Dalsgard Pub 1998 ISBN # 0966347900) about the group's formation and first tours.
Politics
According to an interview with Oddities Magazine (ISSN 2159-4708) Jim Rose claims to have been involved in fundraising for the Mo UdallMo Udall
Morris King "Mo" Udall was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Arizona from May 2, 1961 to May 4, 1991...
political campaign during a time in his life when he was addicted to heroin. He was quoted as stating that "[Mo] ran against Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
and I was his fund raiser... I used to do fundraisers with like Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
and Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, actually while I was on heroin. They didn’t know... actually I forgot to tell them.”
Consultant
Rose served as a spokesman for Gordon's GinGordon's Gin
Gordon's is a brand of London Dry gin produced in the United Kingdom and under licence in New Zealand, Canada and several other former British territories. The top markets for Gordon's are the UK, US, Greece and Africa...
.
His PR company now reps Fulltiltpoker.com and does publicity for top poker players.
Rose has been hired by corporations including Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
and regularly speaks as a consultant for PR firms; in this regard he has been pictured on the cover of The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
and Fast Company magazine, and is featured in the new marketing book The Deviants Advantage.
In 2008 Rose was hired as spokesperson and performer for Dos Equis in the Jim Rose Most Interesting Show In The World U.S tour
Video games
Jim Rose is the voice of the popular character Psymon on Play Station 2's SSX TrickySSX Tricky
A soundtrack was released in 2002. It features the following songs:#"It's Tricky " - Run-D.M.C.#"Smartbomb " - BT#"Finished Symphony" - Hybrid#"King of the Beats" - Aphrodite#"Board Burner" - Mix Master Mike...
and Sledstorm 2, both EA Sports
EA Sports
EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...
products.
Media Quotes
"The absolute must-see act is the Seattle-based Jim Rose Show" –Rolling Stone"Freakmania is spreading unabated"
–Newsweek
"The line in Salt Lake City stretched all the way to the Mormon
Temple. They had to turn hundreds away"
–Wall Street Journal
"His delivery is brutally comic. He plays the highly-strung audience like a violin"
-The Independent, London
"Amazingly, it is actually fun. It may not be everyone's idea of entertainment, but then what is? It certainly does not deserve to be banned."
–The Times Magazine, London
"We all went home satisfied, entertained and suitably appalled to the depth of our being"
–New Music Express, London
"I've seen a lot of things in my time. I must see 40 circuses a year, but this lot…They came on in their street clothes and then…They're beyond anything I've ever seen. They
shocked me"
-Gerry Cottle (circus proprietor) in Sunday Telegraph, London
"Jim Rose is a cult hero"
–Tucker Carlson, CNN
"Audience reaction in largely that kind of revolted amusement more commonly associated with tourists at a bullfight"
–Melody Maker, London