E496 A Carny

Today's guest is a carny out of the New England area, and his family has been involved in the carnival business for over 100 years. I'm excited to learn all about the behind the scenes of the food, the games, the prizes, the debauchery, everything that goes in to the carny universe. Today's guest is carny Mitch Candiano. Mitch, a carny, baby.

Good to see you. Thank you, man. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on.

We just want to learn about carnies and carnival employees, fairs, everything like it. Is carny an appropriate term? Yeah, I was born and raised a carny. My grandparents were carnies.

My parents were carnies. My brother and his kids were carnies. No way. Oh, yeah.

It runs deep, man. 1918 he started. Can I say before we really get going? I've got to thank you for having a poor pedestrian like me on.

Because I don't wear a watch and I don't use a washcloth, so Tom will never have me on. I appreciate that. Oh, yeah. He doesn't like the force.

He doesn't like the force. I don't know why. I like the great people. Yeah, look.

I don't have a washcloth. I probably should have one. That's what I use. He hates washcloths.

Oh, he hates them? He hates them. Yeah. Yeah, I think.

I'll use a washcloth to get in here, though. Yeah, right? I mean, how do you get in there? I try to use my fingernail and get in there and just putting it like that into the drain or whatever, but I don't think that's enough sometimes.

Especially as you get older. Yeah. You know, but yeah. Do a wet willy.

You got to do a wet willy on something? Yeah. Yeah, I remember doing that. I'm going to sneak one up on you later.

Just wear a condom, man. Oh, I will. Okay, that's all I'm asking for, you know. I mean, it's the least you can do.

Oh, sure, man. It's not first time hanging, too, so I'll definitely keep it covered. Yeah. But, dude, thanks.

Yeah. So, I guess I'm just curious, like, so what is a carny? What is the term? So, a carnival, you know, carnival worker, I guess, is where it came from.

And so that's who we are. And I know there's all different versions. I know people sometimes think of, like, somebody that just got out of prison, coming in tattoos, smelling like cabbage, you know, missing a couple fingers, and they think that's a carny that's working a ride or something like that. Oh, yeah, that Irish deodorant.

Yeah, you know. We carnies don't call them carnies. We call them, like, 40 milers or green help or something like that. We call 40 milers.

And those are guys that are just kind of, like, maybe just got out of doing some time and they're just trying to... Try to get a job and, you know, get out of town. And get out of town. Just trying to get there for just something.

Yeah. And so a lot of times the carnival will hire folks like that just because they need, like, It's tough to find help out there. You know, people that want to travel and just be out there every day, you know, living at the carnival. Yeah.

In a different town every week and, you know, you don't get much time off. So it's just wild. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, it's kind of interesting.

It's kind of similar to comedians because you go to a town or a city for a few days and then you hit the road and you go to somewhere else. Yeah, yeah. I'd say, like, that's like the... Calling, like, an open mic or, like, a comic is kind of like calling one of those right guys a carnies.

It's kind of like the same thing. Okay, I see what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah, that makes good sense, man.

And your family's been doing, you said, hundreds of years? Well, since 1918. My grandfather started selling cotton candy in 1918. Wow.

And what brought him into that? I'm really not sure. He came over from Italy. He was born in 1900.

And so he was about four or five years old. Came over on the boat to Ellis Island and all that. And I was 18 years old and started selling cotton candy at, like, street fairs and little things like that. And, yeah, that's just kind of how we started and got into it.

I actually still have some cotton candy machines that he built handmade, like, you know, belt driven, like, old, old school. They obviously don't work. But because now they're, like, all sturdy metal, like, you know, industrial looking. Oh, yeah.

Whirlpool makes them. Yeah, yeah. Something like that. But, yeah.

We have a fucking sock in it or whatever. Like, this is like one of these you're looking at? Yeah. So we have a couple like that.

I was older. Those are kind of like the, those kind of seem like residential ones that you can kind of, like, buy for your house. So your grandfather came over and he started selling cotton candy. So he started selling cotton candy.

He started selling cotton candy. And then, like, what? He just gets a job. He stays, like.

He just kept doing it. And then, you know, he had kids. And then my father got into it. And my father and mother started their own whole carnival business.

Oh, yeah. So they started buying rides and games and food and everything. And, you know, we had a whole carnival called Candy Ones Amusements, you know, way back before I was born. And then when I was born, they kind of split up.

And my dad started working for bigger carnivals, like the real big ones that did big, the big like food and games and stuff for them. It was a lot, man. So what, and so did you, what was one of your first jobs in the carnival? Yeah, yep.

So what's the difference between a carnival and a fair? Because we had, the fair would come a lot. Yeah, so the fair is just. The same thing?

Yes, basically. Except the fair is they have, like, the animals and everything like that. Like, you have the whole agricultural part of it, you know, and sometimes they'll have, like, demolition derbies and all that. And, like, the races and all the agricultural, like, the pigs, the cows, all that stuff.

So that's what kind of distinguishes it from a fair to a carnival. And they've kind of been long running. Like, where we are, we have a top field fair. It's been around for, like, 150 years or something like that.

Yeah, but how does that 4-H element fit in? Because that's also a whole different element than the rise in the game. Yeah, that's kind of. You would always, like, I remember we'd always have to walk over to, like, the livestock shed or whatever.

It was like a bombshell or whatever. It had a bunch of pigs in it and stuff. And you have to go over there and. They have pig races.

You ever see those? Yeah, they have, like, the kids' art. Like, you won in third place. It was pretty bad.

A lot of people were like, Jesus Christ. Like, they hid it over here behind the goats. It wasn't that great of art. But you'd be able to go over there and, like, they had, like, crocheting and a lot of local crafts.

But did you guys ever have beef? Was there, like, a lot of, like, beef between cornies and the livestock? Beef was in the carnivals. Between the carnivals.

Wow. Like, so, during the spring, when they're doing just carnivals, we would split up into, like, three different sections. So you could do three cities at the same time. But then when we got to the fairs, we would all get together.

And then the fights would break up. Oh, yeah. Like, crazy fights. So what was a lot of the beef between the people, the workers?

Oh, I'm a first unit. No, you know, you're just a lonely guy from the third unit. Like, you know, you shouldn't be over here, like, with us, or partying with us. Like, you know, they kind of look down on you, like, just like anything else, you know, the first unit got all the big rides and the nice stuff.

And then the second unit was kind of stepped down. Oh, yeah. And then the third unit was, like, they got all the shit, all the bad rides, all the bad stuff. So whenever they all teamed up, there was all these beefs going on, like, you know.

Territorial stuff. Territorial stuff. Yeah, yeah. Huh.

So, like, what was your first job in it? I think my first, I think I was probably some kind of candy. I mean, in the floss, we call it the floss, there was the one that did candy, snow cones, popcorn, and candy apples. Ooh, yeah.

Yeah, caramel apples with sprinkles. I love that, man. I still make caramel apples. Oh, they're so good.

They're so good, man. And people don't think about them that much. No. If you ask somebody, what are you thinking about, they never say caramel apples.

That's true. It's just, you know, it's like something you don't hear as much as you wish you should because it's so good when you get them. They're so good. Yeah.

They really are. And was that, like, what goes into making cotton candy? Like, what is it? Sugar and coloring.

Oh, okay. Sugar and coloring. Yeah. And it's honestly not a lot of sugar.

But what, how does it get the cotton around? It heats up. So it heats the sugar up so it gets real stringy and like fluffs out like that. It goes in the machine so that head there in the middle spins really fast and it heats up.

Some people get crazy with the cotton candy. Have you seen the people that make the animals and stuff with the cotton candy? Uh-uh. Oh, no?

You should check that out. Really? Oh, they get crazy. They make all kinds of animals and stuff with the cotton candy to give to the kids.

I don't know how they do it. I got a girl that works for me, one of Mitch's bitches. Yeah? Yeah, she wants to start figuring out how to do that.

Really? Yeah. And that's why you call them Mitch's bitches? I don't call them that.

They love themselves that. Oh, yeah. So don't cancel me, guys. No, it could be a union.

Yeah, a lot of different unions. Yeah. There's a lot of different unions. He's always yelling about something.

But, um... Yeah, these girls, they call themselves Mitch's bitches. Huh. Yeah, they all made shirts that say Mitch's bitches on it.

It's pretty wild. And those are your friends? Yeah, friends. Yeah.

I pretty much hire friends or they become friends real fast once they start working for me. Yeah. Like, still. Love you, babe.

And so what about this? Bring that back up. I'm just trying to learn about this. So, cotton candy is made by heating and liquefying sugar and spinning it centrifugally through minute holes.

Minute holes. Causing it to rapidly cool and re-solify into fine strands. It's often so that fairer circuses carnivals. Wow.

So you just put some sugar in the hot... Yeah, and I think that spins in the middle. You pour sugar in there. And you call it sugar ahead of time.

Okay. And you start spinning. And the next thing you know, it makes cotton candy. Yes.

It's coming out crazy. You got your stick and you're going to whip it around. How fast? How long does it take?

It doesn't take long to fill up a bag. Wow. But I don't know if this guy's going to get crazy. Maybe he does.

I don't know. I've seen some... There are some people that really make some intricate stuff with the cotton candy. Yeah, there's a machine.

That's kind of like the one I have. Just like that. So that was like my first gig. You know, like, there's a picture of me.

I was born in the summer. So, like, as soon as I was born, my mom had me right out on the road with her. So there's a picture of me sitting in my little car seat, sitting by the cotton candy machine while she's making cotton candy. You know, a month old.

Seriously. So you kind of was just out there. Oh, yeah. And so, like, what towns was that usually?

Oh, man. We did, like, the Topsfield Fair, the Marshfield Fair, the Bangor, the Skowhegan Fair up in Maine, Rochester Fair in New Hampshire, Hawkington Fair in New Hampshire. It was a really big one in Connecticut we did. Wow.

Yeah. And then in the spring, it was just all... The spring was always... Sometimes you do a lot of the same stuff, but a lot of times it would get switched up.

Because, like, if you didn't do that well the year before or whatever, you know, they would try to do another place to go. Yeah. You know, towards the end, I don't do carnivals anymore. I'm still in the business of, like, selling food and stuff like that, but I don't do carnivals.

Because towards the end of when I was doing it, they were still, like, we were doing, like, these closed-down strip centers. You know what I mean? Like, all Ames and Kmart parking lots where everything's boarded up. And we're in the parking lot trying to make nobody's coming.

You got, like, you know, nobody there. So this is somebody making cotton candy right here? Yep. Is this the machine you're talking about?

Mine's similar to that. I don't know if they have a different speed or heat. It might be the same, but it does seem like a different consistency than the one I use that I make. And so with it, the sugar's in there just spraying it out really hot?

Yep. And it cools off immediately. Oh, wow. So this is...

That's all cotton candy. So this is a cotton candy machine right here? Yep. Okay.

So the sugar's inside of that... See that little thing? Yeah, that's spinning super fast right in the middle. It's spinning so fast.

Yeah, you can't even tell it's spinning. Yeah. And it's just blowing hot sugar out of it? Just blowing hot sugar.

Oh, yeah. And now this... Wow. And this is a Korean guy.

Oh, he's getting down, huh? Yeah, look at him. He's gonna make an umbrella. It looks like he's making, yeah, like maybe a UFO?

Yeah, something. Wow. Yeah, these guys get creative. I don't know how they do it.

So you guys never do anything like this at the fairs, huh? No, no. I didn't even really believe it on sticks that often. Because I wasn't that good at spinning it.

Because you want it to be, like, nice and big and fluffy on a stick when you're these people. Yeah, that's true. And so I wasn't even that great at that. I would always put it in a bag and sell the bag of cotton candy.

Wow, this is unbelievably creative. Oh, here we go. Now, do you get jealous when you see somebody taking it to another level? Of course.

I know, me too. Except when you see somebody that's just that great. They're crushing it on stage. Yeah, but you come down and you're like, ah, damn.

I'm just a regular cotton candy. Oh, man. You want to be on the same level? Come on.

Oh, that guy's so funny. He is. Oh, he's so funny to be around. Thank you for saying it.

It's nice you to say that. Okay, so you work in the cotton candy. That's how you get started out. What kind of groups are at the carnival?

Yeah, we definitely say separated. Okay, what kind of groups are at the carnival? Are there, because there's the games, right? There are the joinies.

What is it? We call them joinies. Joinies? Yep.

And what is that? The joins. The trailers, we call them joints. Okay.

And so they work the joints. Okay, so they work the games. They work the joints. And then there's the food.

Yep. And then the concessions. Concessions. And then there's ride jocks.

Ride jocks. Yep. And are those groups kind of like, they keep to their own a little bit? Yeah, for the most part.

The joinies and concessions will mingle. And, you know, I mingled with everybody. I knew everybody. But, you know, a lot of times, some of the ride guys would mingle with some of the concessions a little bit.

And, you know, they would mingle a little bit. But for the most part, they were with their own crews, you know. Yeah. Did you ever work the rides?

Yeah. Yeah, I did it all. Because, you know, I was just out there. When I was a kid, before I even, like, worked officially, I would, like, I knew everybody.

So I would jump on the ride. Hey, let me run this ride for a little while. Or I would work inside the haunted houses, scaring people when I was, like, you know, 12, 13 years old. Right.

You know, and, like, they had the walk-in, you know, haunted houses or the ones you ride through. And I would go in there and, like, scare the people coming through and stuff like that. And, you know, that was always fun. Why is your family so tied in?

Just for doing it for so long. Right. Honestly. And, you know, even before my father, you know, I had my grandfather around the same time, I guess.

Well, yeah, I had a great uncle. Or he was my father's great uncle, I believe, or cousin. And he was already big in the circus business. He was one of the biggest freaks in the world.

He was our most famous three-legged man, Frank Lintini. Frank Lintini? Yep. There he is.

Oh, wow. Yep. He had three legs, four feet, two dicks, sixteen toes. Oh, wow.

He had two wieners on? Yep. Oh, my gosh. Two peepees.

Dude, I couldn't even... You could serve... You could serve... Yeah, it's almost like a damn soda fountain.

Leg, dick, leg, dick, leg. Oh, you could have urine in in France. Yeah. And they both worked.

Really? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. How did y'all know that?

Did they write it down somewhere? Yeah, well, because he was so... Everybody wanted to know, you know? So, like, when he was traveling to the freaks, he was really well-spoken.

They called him, like, the mayor of the freaks, because he would go and speak for everybody. Like, when he'd be like, you know, we want more money, or we want better working conditions, or whatever. He'd be the guy that would go talk to him. He'd work for Ringling, Barnum & Bailey, he'd work for all the big free shows and circuses.

Wow, Frank Lentini was one in Sicily in 1881. He was the fifth of 12 children. Yeah, and they didn't... His parents didn't really like him that much, gave him to his aunt.

No. Yeah, they were kind of ashamed of him. Because he had three legs, each of the different lengths. Now, that's a lot, too.

You know, because then you're like... Throwing your head, like, that's going to be crazy. Yeah, it's got to be tough on your joints. A fourth foot that stuck out of one of his knees, 16 fingers, and an extra set of genitals.

Wow, running on that spare genie, dude. Keep the lights on, bro. His condition was the result of a parasitic twin that was attached to his body at the base of his spine. Wow.

It was too... They couldn't take it off, especially back then, I'm sure. But they definitely... It was too dangerous to try to remove.

He would go on to work with every major circus, including Barnum & Bailey. In his act, he would kick a soccer ball, ride a bike, and skate. He'd kick it out of his third leg, like, hold the ball, a football, and kick it with his leg. Oh, bro, that's got to be so incredible, huh?

Yeah. Imagine if you're running, and you just kick somebody with your third leg while you're running. Imagine if you play footsie with two wins, and you still have an extra leg. In different directions, yeah.

And one extra foot to tap to the music. Yeah, listen to. What a time, brother. His career spanned more than 40 years, and he came to be known as the king in the surface energy for his hard work and presence.

He married and had four children. Wow. All children came all fine. He got a lung failure.

Damn. You'd think he got one of his legs caught in something. You don't think there's the odds. Because every now and then, I almost get one of my legs caught in something.

Wow, look at that. Zoom in on one of these photos, please. I love the one on the right, where he's got each other foot on a stool. It's such a trip.

Yeah, it almost looks like a... No, let's go with the other one he was talking about. Yeah, you mean the black and the leather? Yeah.

Wow, look at those pants. Those pants have to be like, what the fuck are we doing? Yeah, he said he would buy two sets of shoes, and he would give his fourth shoe, an extra shoe to a buddy that lost a leg. Oh.

So they all went to use. Oh, that's beautiful, man. Yeah, you just don't see that kind of stuff anymore. That's the toughest part about stuff.

Wow, unbelievable. Look at that. Oh, there he is. There's an old man down there.

Yeah, can we get one more picture of him? Unbelievable. There was a picture of him on the back of an Alice in Chains album. Was there?

Yeah, they have a three-legged dog on the front, and he's the three-legged man on the back. I think I remember that. Yeah, it's actually the best album. Down in a hole, damn.

Yeah, yeah. I like to fly. Yeah. dude that's so incredible so this is a relative of yours yeah yeah he was my dad's either great uncle or cousin I can't remember I tried to like really narrow it down but it's you know so long ago and my dad's not with us so I can't ask him anymore I'm sorry to hear that man it's alright 23 and me though they might not even have these guys yeah my brother actually started doing that so I'm back to see what's going on he's got the ancestry going on so he's trying to put it all together so I tried to find out some more information about him through that I know he had four kids they all came out normal parasitic twins there wow so yeah being a parasitic twin can you bring that up for me first of all I've always thought twins should have to fight to see who who gets to make the shots who gets to stay alive that's got to be tough and I'm not saying that nobody deserves to be alive but it's just like because it's kind of crazy when you meet one guy and then you meet and you know they're kind of just each half of a guy at least you two get together and decide what you want to say and then come tell us because it's a lot of extra kind of like back and forth a parasitic twin is a type of conjoined twin where one fetus stops developing but remains attached to its twin wow the other twin continues to develop but is usually born with the limbs organs or other tissue structures from its parasitic twin still attached it's a very rare condition gosh dude imagine two to see oh no that's another child oh that child looks like tequila tequila a little bit you know what I'm talking about like Doja Cat that's Doja Cat bro that's fucking hilarious dude I don't even know what Doja Cat looks like what are you oh I don't know dude no that kid has longer hair than Doja Cat I think yeah imagine being a parasitic like imagine knowing that your brother or something was like a part of you and now that they're it's almost like you got to live it's like nature like you must feel alive there must be a lot of responsibility you know and then seeing your brother's wiener if you look at your own wiener does that make you gay if you jerk off that wiener no dude it just makes you a cool brother I think touche dude to not polish your brother off once a year someone day after Christmas or whatever it's not rude I think it's just well if you don't ever let him come yeah that is kind of rude it's uh I bet when you get to heaven he's going to be like hey come on guy 36 years and not one nut yeah but I left that thing down there for a reason yeah I'm going to help you I'll give you the third leg I'll give you a fucking job you know that's wild man so people like Franklin Tini what was that group that group is called what is it Freaks Freaks and that was popular did you ever work with that like we had the ripoff of the lobster man and I actually think he was a relative of the original lobster man but he had fake gloves that he would put on to make himself have fake lobster hands oh really that's not real no we had a lot of that yeah so it was a lot yeah because they had like the freaks were like the bearded lady I remember you would hear about um what like the four-titted sister they always have something you know the lispy Jew they always have something the lizard man or something like that a real life mermaid they'd have a girl in a tank with a fake suit on like she was a real mermaid oh yeah the four-shouldered Italian they had that guy oh the smallest horse I met the world's smallest horse oh we used to have that too yeah Tom Tom is the one that I met I don't know the name of the one I had yeah but yeah he was at the fairs with the agricole he'd be there he'd pay 50 cents he'd get to walk up he'd walk around he'd go in yeah they had a dollar I remember they had one dude at the fair in our town it was like if you gave him a dollar he would tell you if you were fat or not yeah like guess your age or your weight or like stuff like that but this dude I remember you give him a dollar and he'd just call you fucking fat oh really and then you just yeah he was like the fat dollar guy he'd just walk off he'd be like Jesus Christ I think he was just out to hustle people he might not even have worked with the condom that guy could have been working different here's a couple of them right here General Tom Thumb Charles Sherwood Stratton was actually a relative of P.T.

Barnum when Barnum learned of Stratton's dwarfism he sensed the opportunity Barnum took Stratton under his wing and taught him how to sing dance and impersonate famous historical figures wow there was a lobster boy oh here's a lobster boy right here as shocking as his appearance is Grady Stiles real life story is even more shocking Stiles's condition was known as ectrodacty which caused his hands to fuse into claws yes the condition ran in Stiles's family in fact he was the sixth generation in his family to have it his father was already performing in the circus when Grady was born so he entered circus life early as the lobster boy wow that was his kid pinching ass and taking names wow look at him and there's a picture right there of bearded lady and lobster boy they fell in love oh that's romantic a valentine's day love story huh wow I wonder what that kids would come out like huh yeah yeah it'd be interesting I mean it would probably be something yeah you'd see it like one of those fancy omakase places or whatever you know I don't think Benihana would be running that probably not you know get you a cut of freaking hair lobster you know it might be who else did they have let me see a few more of them these are all the freaks right Lionel the Lion-Faced Man born Steven Bibrowski in 1891 Poland Lionel the Lion-Faced Man endured a medical condition known as hypertrichosis which is commonly associated with werewolf syndrome for obvious reasons in an obvious fate his mother was convinced the condition was caused by her witnessing his father being mauled by a lion when she was pregnant still that was a coincidence albeit a crazy coincidence wow I haven't heard of him unable to handle his appearance any longer she put him up for adoption when he was four years old oh no yeah they don't have and they had I remember what was that thing they had a dime I want to think because they almost had one of the time a dime museum can you look that up I thought you were talking about something that pays a dime a dime museum and freak shows from the popular Coney Island amusement park in New York City traveling circuses and sideshows exhibits that feature people with physical differences with some sort of the most prevalent attractions in the 19th and early 20th centuries wow dime museums often featured humans who were considered different for the public to view and experience yeah because I think they had some places where you could pay a dime I guess was the name I'm assuming from 1840 until 1940 freak shows rarities worthy of exhibition wow so you have other people included Tom Tom there he is a person with dwarfism the Aztec twins albinos and many other living curiosities wow dude that's almost like a deep fraternity somewhere it really is I mean it's different but it's probably similar so you cross past with some of these guys but it wasn't like yeah not like like I said the lobster man that was with us I had heard that he was a relative of the actual lobster man but he had fake claws that he put on we actually had one of the last living munchkin that was out there touring with us at the freak show he was one of the dwarfs he was one of the original munchkins I think he was that old I was young but I'm pretty sure he was up there and he was a little guy yeah he was a munchkin from the original movie from the Wizard of Oz he was in Wizard of Oz you smoked dope with the Wizard of Oz munchkin no way dude that's incredible man it was pretty wild god dang that's lucky yeah that's crazy man because just to be able to do something like that yeah wow I watched that movie a bunch Jerry Marin that was the guy this was one of them the last surviving adult munchkin okay when did he die what's it say that 2016 okay yeah it was probably him he said he was the last one bring up a picture of this dude wow and there he is right there I was at the carnival wow oh yeah that guy that's beautiful so the Freak Sport is as much of a part of you guys' universe not as much no and now what about the rides because I want to go through some of the different stuff because by us they would have the rides would come right the fair would come we were excited we lived right down the street from the fairground so we'd walk over there and the day before the fair you could go and for 50 cents you could get on a ride but they were just plugging them bitches in yeah man you were the test subjects oh dude you would I was going to line off oh the zipper we'd go in that dude you remember the zipper the zipper's my favorite ride oh bro all my money I'd have to save up my allowance I would go down there because the day before because if you went regular it was $8 to get in you'd be like fuck that dude you know I got $2 I'm going in I got my quarters in my pockets but the zipper would shake all your money out of your pockets oh yeah it was on purpose oh dude it was horrible I get out I had no more money I had to vomit it was shaking I remember I shook a couple of my teeth like my baby teeth I was like I believe it yeah you get out you had no enamel you had no money yeah because they could really get it going when they want they know how to run it so they could like really get you the fair with my father and the rides weren't open yet they kind of were only there they were supposed to be going to the 4-H stuff and all the agricultural stuff and so I would go over and sneak over someone I'd grab my friends from the chaperones and bring them over to the rides and the ride guys would let us all ride the rides while the rest of the school was at the 4-H section oh that's nice so it was pretty cool oh yeah because you were kind of dialed in huh yeah I knew everybody they all looked out for me I was like oh it's a little bitch because I was running around as a little kid so everybody knew and they would copy a little bit of drugs or something sometimes oh yeah it was wild was there drug use out there a little bit yeah it's a little bit and what were the drugs really what were some of it I mean we eat yeah of course we eat alcohol I mean especially I mean when we were at the fairs you're open for so long like you close at 11 at night you gotta open 11 in the morning so we're crushing beers as fast as we can once we close to get as drunk and as fucked up as fast as we can to go to sleep or just have fun yeah just have fun and were people doing drugs too like what kind of uppers are we talking cocaine oh yeah yeah plenty of cocaine oh yeah I'll tell you just a step up though they have straight no these days they drug test and all that shit bro if you drug test the guy who's working the fair ride for me get fucked you want a good ride or not I want a real ride a real drug using American that's what I want yes okay dude we used to go we would get on the Gravitron right Gravitron was great we would throw so many parties on that at night bro one guy would get in there right and I remember like you would get against the thing and it would like slowly move you up the wall and start spinning and there was a guy in the middle who was like are you ready to rock who the fuck is he talking about this guy was always just in his own world and the thing was spinning and I swear one time this dude got his wiener like we were just showing his wiener to people and he was playing a nice day for a wide wedding and you were so you couldn't even turn your so even though you felt like you were visually being molested you couldn't turn your head to look and see if anybody else knew what was going on so you get off and everybody was afraid to say I think we have seen that guy's wiener you know to November rain you know oh that's pretty sweet there was some parts of it were nice when they would play some of the ballads in there but that was harrowing going in there that's pretty crazy sometimes a guy would get out if you got a really wild guy he would get out and he would hang on the pole and hang on the pole while the ride was running oh god I forgot about that yeah he kind of was like the guy at the skating rink that kind of was like the dude would go through and do the backwards skating and like skate through your girlfriend's legs or whatever who the fuck is this guy yeah it kind of reminded me of that guy you know oh here he is right here this is somebody on a Gravitron this is somebody trying to sit up on him yeah he's trying to push it off on his own yeah we used to like flip ourselves upside down and be upside down in there against the wall yeah we'd move all around oh wow yeah we didn't know we were too small to do some of this this is like late teens oh that kid looks about ourselves oh yeah he's standing straight out oh yeah oh yeah he does that was fun we used to throw a lot of after parties in the Gravitron in the Gravitron yeah take me through some of that is it men and women come too or no yeah I mean we had some girls out there working for sure some of the guys were definitely better looking yeah but we had some ratchets I mean if you're gonna work a ride and travel to the carnival especially if it was 20-30 years ago yeah yeah you gotta be a tough chick you sure do and like there was some of them I mean this one girl they had crazy this girl bust a nut on me tattooed on her ankle oh yeah you know head hoe was another one tattooed on her wow these girls some of them had the lot lizard tattooed on their feet really oh yeah so it was women that were probably just doing their best out there that had been through a lot probably yeah I mean you got good ones too bust a nut on me is a lot that was pretty rough well it's like a win yeah I thought it was sexual harassment every time she walked past me I was like this is she wasn't good looking oh yeah well she's not saying marry me but still that's all yeah that seems to be yeah bust and then what do you even say now that she's married as a family what do you even adjust those letters like um yeah what can you change that to oh you can do us you me I think bust if you put the B and T bust A take out the A nut on me take out the on just me does that make any sense not really it's probably still better than bust a nut on me yeah it would just say you I would say us you me yeah make it work I think you know what if you're at the grocery market it's going to go way better because if you're walking everybody's cabbage you get some hella fresh produce on your back you're like where's that from what you told me that's the freshest produce they got yeah take me to like a good party night out there well the party night's like in the Gravitron yeah because they had a rich town system in there already you know you had the walls so you can get in there and like you know really be able to party and get loud and not to bother too many the you know the bosses because you know the bosses still stayed out there in their trailers too so you know you didn't want to wake them up in the middle of the night and have them come out you're like where's everybody getting here where's everybody you know we open in three hours so yeah and what was the sleeping quarters like so I mean to be honest with you my family didn't care where I slept at that point like I was 13, 14 just sleeping wherever wow yeah mostly in games I sleep in the game at night one of the games no way really yeah wow that's wild yeah it was I mean I've even slept I mean wherever sometimes especially when you're going over the road like everything's torn down manic almost yeah it's wild I mean for the most part when we got a little older you know yeah were there bunks like where did everybody sleep so they had bunks the ride guys had bunks okay so the ride guys had bunks yeah they would put most of those guys up in bunks and were they like a trailer like what type of bunks yeah it was just a giant trailer they would buy like they almost looked like one of the like an 18 wheeler trailer and they would just turn it into bump rooms they would just chop it all up okay some of them they had some that were built professionally they had those ones too and they would I mean those were it was pretty tough because it was like two bunk beds and you know you're in there and it was kind of like a closet with just two beds yeah and you know that's where they had the ride I got the games and the journeys were on their own. What do you mean on their own? Like people would sleep in sleeping bags or people would sleep in motels or what? Yeah, wherever you could.

Like if you made enough money to get a motel, you get a motel. If you didn't, you didn't. You'd sleep in a tent. So at a point after I stopped staying in the games, when I was younger, I ended up bringing a couple of my friends out on the road with me.

And so as soon as high school was done for the summer, we'd go out on the road until school started back up. And so I'd bring a couple of friends with me out there, do DJ. And we'd set up our own tent city away from everybody so we could party and not bother anybody. Yeah.

Yeah, we'd have a nice campfire. We used to travel with a lizard with us too. We always brought him with us. We had a nice little cage for him.

He was a little buddy. We'd set him up. Yeah, we'd just drink. We had all our tents and nice fire going and we'd party out there.

A couple of men in a lizard, bro. It's like a Bible. You know, like whatever the new Bible will write. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it was fun, man. And a lot of people slept in their games. So that would be it.

You just crash in there and they would just pop it back up in the morning? Yeah. And what were some of the other rides, man? Do you remember the Sky Master?

The Sky Master? Yeah, they call it the Apollo sometimes. It was too, um... Yeah, like two, like, boats.

Oh, and they would go upside down. So you were closed in. And they were supposed to like this. They were opposite.

They would swing opposite of each other. And then they'd go upside down. And sometimes they would hold you up there. Yeah.

And hold you while you're upside down. And you could shake it and, like, shake everybody's money out of their pockets. Oh, yeah, there it is. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, this was for the big kids. I don't think I went on this at the time. Yeah, I used to run that sometimes. So it was really easy to tear down and set up.

And sometimes I would run it. And you're in the doghouse. And, you know, it's just a remote control. Like a little joystick.

You gotta go and you rock it back and forth until you get enough energy to get it up and around. And you can hold it up there. And you hold it and you just shake it a little bit and wiggle it so it would go back and forth a little bit. You start shaking the money out of their pockets so it all falls down.

Although one time there was a bad scene. Because you're always supposed to wait until the end of the ride to go pick up the money. Well, a kid who ran it all the time was trying to be a daredevil. And he ran through to get the money while the ride was up top.

Ended up getting hit. Oh, yeah. It was pretty wild. He lived.

He lived. He did live. But it was a mess. I wasn't there at that carnival affair when it happened.

When I was at the next one. And you lose a limb. They put you just right over in a freak show. Yeah.

Now you go right to a freak show. And they punch you right over in a freak show. Well, it could be a game after that, too. You know, because you work a game with one arm.

Yeah. Or in a wheelchair. Wow. So a guy got damaged up pretty good.

Yeah, he got hit pretty good. Damn. That was pretty crazy. Is that one of the worst accidents you've ever seen out there?

That was probably the worst. Yeah. We were running that side out one time. And you know how you got the shoulder bars that come down?

It had let go while the girl was in there. But your cage didn't still, too. But she was swapping around while I was going around. Like, while she was upside down, the shoulder bars came up.

And she fell into the cart. And, like, just getting just banged around. Just getting banged around while I was spinning around. And how long if somebody's not doing well on a ride can you shut it down for them?

Does it take a few seconds? Yeah. It'll take. Sometimes some take longer than others to slow down and come to a stop.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, there was one. The freak out.

I don't know if you've heard of the freak out. The freak out? Yeah, it's a pretty dope ride. Now that's my favorite ride.

Really? Let me see. It's kind of like it's an arm. And it's got these other arms that come down.

And I remember, yeah, we would get on that swing. One of them was like a swing set. You just face out. Yeah, the swinger?

Yeah. And it would just, people would just be, people would be vomiting. Like, people would be, like, standing watching you. And then literally come around and just splash.

And they would just dose them up with that fucking, with that tummy seat. They would vomit. Yeah, you gotta watch out a lot of puke on some of those rides. They get a lot of pukeers.

We had one. I don't even remember the official name of the ride, but we called it a puke barrel. What's what I'm saying, dude? You guys were making shit up.

Yeah, that was the name of it. A puke barrel. And I was like, okay, I don't even know the official name. And what ride caused the most vomit, you think?

The puke barrel. Really? Probably. It was, it looked like one of those metal 55-gallon drums, you know, those metal, like, garbage can barrels, but it was huge.

Okay, yeah. You know, and so it was massive. It was on its side, and you go in, it had a sliding door, and you go in, and there were two seats that people could sit in circle seats, and those spun like this, while the floor rocked back and forth like this, and the outside barrel spun like this, with strobe lights going on inside. I mean, who's not gonna puke?

Yeah. It was pretty wild. Yeah, it was good stuff. So we actually owned one of those.

My mom and dad owned a couple of them, actually. So they split up when I was like a year old, so they ended up, I was too young to kind of help with the business. So my mom sold most of the rides by the time I was, you know, a teenager or so. We still had some stuff, kiddie rides and stuff, but we had gotten rid of all, she had gotten rid of all the major rides that she had had.

Yeah. Bring that video up, you're going to show us? And now what do you do when something, what is this? What is this here?

Oh, that looks like the, we call them the Thousand and One Nights. I'm not sure what this version is called, but that's what it was. Okay. Yeah.

It looks like the whole thing is shaking, so people are going to jump in on the side to like, hold it Is that a realistic approach, you think? Is that safe? I mean, it could be. Oh.

That was one of the things about the carnival, you always felt like nobody had your back in a way. Yeah. Which was something exciting about it. And definitely alarming.

And you felt like if you died, they wouldn't tell your parents. Yeah. I mean, we probably buried some bodies out back. I mean, in a haunted house, probably some of those bodies in there are probably kids that just never made it out.

Yeah. I'll be honest with you though, the carnival rides are a lot safer than probably amusement parks. Really? Yeah.

Because they get inspected every week. So you're getting state inspectors every single week. Every time you set up, they have to come in and give it a go ahead. So what's the worst accident you've ever seen out there?

So that was, I mean, I didn't see the kid get hit by the sky master, but that was probably the worst. Although at one fair that I was at, it's also a fair. I forget the name of the ride, but somebody did come flying out of it, but they didn't die. Or I wish I can remember the ride.

But they always say those people didn't die, but you never see those people anymore. Yeah. That's true. You know, or like, they're like, yeah, yeah, Janet didn't die.

And they're like, well, then why isn't, yeah. Where is she? Yeah. Oh, she went to Florida.

She retired. Yeah, people, yeah. If she retired, she's 11. Yeah, where did she?

So that's just the thing I think sometimes about that kind of stuff that seems like a little bit tricky, man. But like I was saying, they do inspect them a lot more than like your regular music parks that are just out year round. They only get like one or two inspections a year. Oh, yeah.

And so, but the carnival, like they have to get state inspected every week, every time they set up in a new place. So, okay. Wow. I did not expect that.

Yeah. Because it seems like they're not even. You know where the shady part comes in is where like, say something breaks or something happens during the week, and then it gets fixed, not up to par. In between inspections.

In between inspections. And you just got to have the ride. You got to have it going. You got to make the money.

Yeah. And then so you have, you have your main ride guys. So all the ride formants have to do a once inspection every day. And they have to fill out a form saying they inspected their ride.

I mean, but. Yeah. And then you have the ride super who's in charge of all those guys. And is he, yeah.

But it's like how, how real, how, if they're locked in, cool. If they're not, then it's whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

I was a ride super dude. You're like, yeah, okay. You're just taking the forms. You're like, yeah, everything's fine.

Yeah. Oh, you know. Yeah. People ain't going to be, everybody not going to be living.

I'm a ride super dude. To be honest, no offense to anybody. Okay. So you got the rides.

I'm trying to think of the other rides there were. Oh, there was some. You know what we used to do too. Remember the super slide?

Yeah. Super slide was pretty fun with that burlap sack. Yeah. You know when it's really fun?

During the rainstorm and you got a black trash bag. Really? Oh yeah. You don't even touch that bottom hill.

Oh, that's awesome. You're going to open up the fence at the bottom of the ride because I've seen people, oh, hit that fence so hard. Oh yeah. Go right under it, hit it hard.

Just get scalped on the way. Oh yeah. They got that fish in that face for the rest of their life. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. There's nothing like this. After hours, you know, getting drunk, going down. Sometimes we just ride it on our own.

We get a hose and soak the slide and grab a trash bag. Yeah. That sounds like fun. Would you guys have some fun like that?

Oh yeah. I mean, there was one crazy party we were at. We were all partying. It was like the beginning of the year.

It was like the second or third carnival. So we were all like warmed up. Now we're like, all right, let's have this. Because we'd have parties where everybody would party together.

Like the ride guys, everybody, food joints, even some of the owners, you know what I mean? Some of the parties once in a while. And so this was like a beginning of the year. Like let's get, you know, let's have a welcome home party everybody's in.