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.