And you thought your family was a freak show? There’s no
comparison to the circus family
Absinthe now playing
at the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport – not unless you had
a sister who could stick an entire table leg down her esophagus
or another who pulled red hankies from her pussy. And then
there’s the brother who’s a trapeze artist – in the bathtub,
where he also becomes a living water fountain. And two other
brothers who get a kick out of balancing each other – on top of
their heads. And the nymphomaniacal chanteuse with the killer
fuck-me pumps who’s a bit of a sadist, and the sister suffering
from dipsomania, who also happens to swallow scissors, and
another who apparently spends hours in her room shaking her
booty with four hula hoops, and another who’s a contortionist
acrobat, and meanwhile, the head of household, the master of
ceremonies, as it were, counsels every and all to drink up,
drink another, because there’s more to come.
And, of course, why not
because this is Spiegeltent, one of a series of traveling
mirrored-and-glass tents from the early 20th century,
and possibly this is the very spiegeltent where Marlene Dietrich
used to sing – or sang once, at least. Or maybe not, not that
it matters too much when you’re out in the beer garden alongside
the East River, the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge and the
Woolworth Building lighting up the indigo sky, and it’s another
summer night in Manhattan where all the freaks come out to
play. No wonder you feel right at home.
Best always,
Mark and Robert
