Jim Rose is famous among connoisseurs of the bizarre as ringmaster of the world's more extreme freak shows. Lately, however, he's been wondering if he hasn't been upstaged by George W. Bush.
Disgusted by the way his native US is going, the Las Vegas-based performance artist and professional poker player has gone into artistic exile in Europe -- bringing his latest frontal assault on good taste with him.
"The Jim Rose Dubya World Circus of Freaks," which opened yesterday in Bristol, in the west of England, includes among its many eye-popping acts Big Mak, a contortionist who tips the scales at a whopping 205kg.
Besides twisting himself into knots, Big Mak stuffs himself on stage with unseemly quantities of doughnuts and hamburgers -- a living symbol of the obesity epidemic gripping the US today.
"Certain incarnations [of Rose's circuses] in the past have definitely centered around freaks of nature," Rose, 47, said as he slumped into an orange swivel chair, battling jetlag, at his publicists' office in London.
"This year's show high-lights freaks of nurture," he said. "This is an anti-George Bush show, so we give you a mirrored reflection of what's wrong with American society -- and we bring what could be considered typical Americans who can do amazing things," he said.
"This 450-pound kid wouldn't turn a head in the United States, but he's a freak of George Bush's society. He's a freak of nurture ... and he'll make your jaw drop because he's the world's fattest contortionist."
Other acts include SuperDelinquent, an ex-crack addict with dollar bills stapled to his body; Mighty Konn, a native American who gets his testicles smashed with a sledgehammer ["a hysterical high point in the show," a press release says]; and a guy who swallows a Rubik's cube, then regurgitates it -- solved.
Held over from earlier Jim Rose circuses is "French nationalist" Bebe Aschard, whose speciality is blowing fire out of her vagina in what Rose calls a "bush-burning" act. Off-stage, she's Mrs Jim Rose.
Strange as it sounds, Rose enjoys a devout cult following, not only in North America where he hosts a weekly TV show, but also in Europe where he was five times a hit draw at the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
His "Dubya" spectacle is set to play 16 cities until Oct. 11, including Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris.
Rose said he originally conceived the show for US consumption, only to discover that with the US presidential elections in November fast approaching, promoters didn't want to touch such hot political content.
"So we're going to live in Europe and the United Kingdom until George Bush is out of office," he said, and in the process introduce Europeans to a more twisted side of his homeland.
"Europeans have got a Hollywood view [of the US] for the most part, glamor from movies and TV," he said. "There's a whole America out there that they're only vaguely aware of. We're going to go ahead and put it front and center."
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS