CAB hosted “Freak Show and Tell” on Saturday, September 8. The writer and star of the event was Thom Britton. He grew up in Louisiana and has been living and performing in Chicago for a little over a decade now. He is 27 years old, with a circus background beginning when he was only 16 years old. Since then, he’s committed his life to the art of freak shows.
His performance was about science more than anything else. He only performed six actual freak acts, but then explained them in way that made them seem less freaky. He insisted from the beginning of his show, however, that it was not a magic show. He wasn’t trying to perform and act for us, but he was trying to show us that freak acts are not all that crazy, but entirely explainable.
While these acts may be possible and explained by simple physics, they’re not things that anyone would want to do. He eats fire, shoves a nail into his nose, turns on a lamp with the touch of his finger, lights a fire with his finger, steps on a pile of broken glass and gets his face stepped on into a pile of broken glass.
Britton has a degree in applied sciences, which is something that some may find unusual in a circus freak. He used his show as a platform to explain the history of electricity and other scientists who used the circus as their medium for teaching. He then used his “Freak Show and Tell” performance as a medium for teaching, just like the scientists he taught about. He called himself a “redneck science carny dork” and made a lot of comparisons between the “redneck” style carnivals and his more elite college-educated approach to the show.
Although the show was more about explaining his acts, it was very entertaining and mesmerizing.
“I liked how he explained all the physics behind it,” said sophomore agriculture business major Madelynn Sneed, “It was much more interesting than just a regular magic show.” There were many occasions where the audience couldn’t believe what he was doing on stage. I even heard someone say they were going to get up and leave while he was hammering a nail into his nose because it was so outrageous. It was just too crazy not to watch, so that girl ended up staying.
He wanted people to leave the show understanding why he wanted to learn how to perform these crazy acts. During the show, he made several self-deprecating jokes, telling kids to “stay in school,” and that he was only doing this because he didn’t have any other skills. Despite this, by the end of his performance, it was clear he wanted to learn because it makes the “freak” seem less freaky and makes the impossible seem possible. We all could use that every once in a while.