Shep Huntly is known for suspending a live car battery from his nipples. Sparks fly as he receives electric shocks to his chest. Some have voiced concern that he risks heart attack, but he assures them that the shocks are intermittent rather than a steady stream, lessening the risk. While there are many circus acts that could be deemed “extreme,” there are those that push the envelope–such as Huntly’s act described here–by purposefully displaying visceral sensations. These include sword swallowing, suspension acts, human pincushion, human blockhead, fire eating, body modifications, and mental flossing.

This final article of the Circus Bodies series is a trio of mini-interviews with three internationally renowned sideshow artists who are experts in one or many of these skills. In addition to Huntly, I was joined by Faux Pas le Fae and The Lizardman. In a robust and thorough fifteen minutes, each artist described their personal background, the history of their disciplines, and detailed an act that they perform. They spoke about what their body feels like when performing these extreme skills as well as common audience reactions. Independently of each other, they all insisted that to truly succeed as a sideshow artist it takes more than the ability to simply demonstrate a skill. Despite being naturally provocative, the skill must be wrapped in artistic storytelling and excellent showmanship. The conversations wrapped with only two follow up questions that harken back to the original purpose of this series: the cultural impact of performing circus bodies. I asked the interviewees, ...