THE BALLY: Carnival miracles for free

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
Marcel Proust

When I was younger, I always doubted the value of shrinks for me because as soon as I got close to figuring myself out, I was already changing. They’d be stuck studying the old me, while I was already onto another self.

America also is a moving target and a year spent on its roads with carnivals will register America detected, not discovered.

It will hint of what America looks like from backstage at carnivals.

In the world of sloughs, marks, jointees, junky ride jocks, freezing the tip and church calls, the language and vision of the insular world is at times a moveable fun house.

It’s also a world I currently have little insight into but in this ‘bally,’ or come-all-ye, I say – gather round for a year of storytelling from a carnival wheel.

So my bally is the story of America, folks! Hey you. Ya you. Come here. Come here.

I’ve searched the world over. I’ve searched the Internet. I’ve hired the world’s greatest experts. And no storyteller has endeavored to spend a year in a carnival to write about it as it happens, with pictures and short films.

So step up and see what has never been seen or read before. It’s free, my friends. Free! Free! Free! And think of what you will see!

On the road, I can promise you drama, love, death, sex, violence and even a carnival miracle. Maybe there will be many, even I don’t know when to expect a carnival miracle.

Meet Cotton Candy Connie, Monster, Country Love, Golden Voice, Steak Tonight, Millionaire Carny and the carny who wrestled Hulk Hogan.

Carnies aren’t all lugubrious mountebanks, they have pathos, souls, the eternal spark of human dignity. There’s a ghost in those big rigs. There’s a zeitgeist in those mobs of kids.

Hear about a carny hanging and other dastardly deeds. Hear about acts of kindness and love that will bring tears to your eyes.

Get insights into their strange carny lingo and ways of celebrating sacred events such as Easter.

Eat the madeleine cake with a side of deep fried elephant ear. See the world with new eyes.

God help the bunnies! God help you. God help me. It’s Free! Free! Free!

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