Current Sideshow Alley - Carnies clowns & various cons - what are your experiences?

[Kurve]

Mostly through the summers, carnies take on the work of the 'Carnival Circuit'. It could be a bit rough back in the day with seedy operators and few checks on workers. The games rigged so it's impossible to win and the best you could hope for after spending your last cent trying to shoot just one duck down with every gun on bad sights, was they took pity and gave you a stuffed monkey anyway.

Looking at the history of sideshow alleys, more specifically Glenelg in South Australia through the 1960s, what jumped out was that there was almost nothing there to find although searching through social media there are so many who remember it being such a central part of their summer at the beach. It's almost as if the powers want that era erased.

What are your experiences in sideshow alleys? I haven't been anywhere near them for years now.

 

[GreyCrow]

Havent been near one for about 15 years and the ones at the Royal Show would have been the last

You knew they were dodgy but even more concerning was voicing an opinion after getting ripped off ie smaller prize and getting told to run along before somebody gets hurt

 

[HAPPY BUDDHA]

Yeah i once asked a worker there if he thought the current show was more profitable than previous years as the news had been talking it up as the biggest attendance ever.
He arked up and told me to mind my own business and stop worrying about “his” money.

People started looking at this grubby, grown man berating and trying to stand over me - I was around 13 or 14 at the time - as he fully let loose and loudly announced to the immediate vicinity that “MY MONEY IS MY BUSINESS AND ITS ALL LEGIT!!!”

Ok, whatever you say bud, nothing to see here.

 

[Hojuman]

Are these things still around ? Haven't seen one for years.

 

[Kurve]

Are these things still around ? Haven't seen one for years.

I think so, they set up around holiday towns over the summers but I haven't seen one either for a long time.

 

[imho]

Are these things still around ? Haven't seen one for years.

am i mistaken, or did i read there was one either in or nearby rockingham at the time of the gerrard ross disappearance?


other than the annual royal shows, i'm unaware of any in recent times, but they perhaps still operate in the guise of public forums.


imho

 

[Hojuman]

am i mistaken, or did i read there was one either in or nearby rockingham at the time of the gerrard ross disappearance?


other than the annual royal shows, i'm unaware of any in recent times, but they perhaps still operate in the guise of public forums.


imho

Remember going to some in the 60's & 70's in outer Melb. They were rough and ready but exciting at the same time. You'd only see them in country towns nowadays yeh ?

 

[HAPPY BUDDHA]

Remember going to some in the 60's & 70's in outer Melb. They were rough and ready but exciting at the same time. You'd only see them in country towns nowadays yeh ?

Not much room to set one up any closer nowadays I reckon. Imagine the laws they need to adhere to plus the fees and council approval to even get a license.

 

[FR0GGY]

Sideshow alleys are at every single country show you can think of.
I run a mobile catering business throughout SA, VIC and NT for the last 16 years.
They are the pits of the earth, stay anywhere there is free water and power, they go from event to event.
I’d be happy if I never saw another one again.
The biggest insult I can receive is to be called a carnie.
But:
1: I have a house I go home to
2: I shower
3: I haven’t slept with a family member.

 

[Iworkthecircus]

I work the circus

 

[AvantGardener]

Old girl let me loose at the local show with $100 when I was about 11. Considering she was single parent working part time was a lot of money. Some guy scammed me on a basketball game. At first I won but he claimed he didn't see it. Then I just kept playing trying to win again until all the cash was gone. Sorry Mum.

 

[Paul Kersey]

I knew a local bloke who was a carnie for a bit in his late teens. Fitted the cliché too - he did time in his 20s.

 

[emuboy]

The Bow Tie Serial Killer (played by Seinfeld's Michael Richards) certainly didn't have a high opinion of clowns who worked at carnival side show alleys in the 1990 movie Problem Child:

CLOWN (jumps up from behind carnival stall holding balloon animal): Look, a giraffe!
BOW TIE SERIAL KILLER: Look, a fist! (punches clown in face, clown falls to ground)