With over 130 shows just this year, The Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow made their mark at the Whiskey A Go-Go on Sunday, Nov. 18. Fans of curiosity and all things “weird” attended the small venue for a night of twists and turns- you’ll see what I mean later.

The opening act was Love N Revenge, a 80s glam/hair metal rock band who knew how to entertain the crowd. With all the guitar riffs and high pitched singing, everyone seemed to be engaged and dancing along. Each guitar solo brought the audience to roaring screams and cheers. The lights also perfectly reflected off each of the member’s glitter and rhinestones.

After leaving the audience in anticipation, the circus sideshow finally began with the Ringleader, Govna Bryce Graves, stepping onto the stage. He asked the now packed crowd if they were ready to witness such unbelievable sights.

The entire show consisted of six members: The Ringleader, Half-Man Daredevil Short E. Dangerously (or Shorty), The Lizard Man, World’s Smallest Escapist Nik Sin, SideShow Starlet Brittany Shaara and Eric Ross, The Human Pin Cushion. Each member’s act intertwined with each other, and they all helped each other out.

At three feet and two inches, Shorty started the acts for the night. His first act was him doing a series of different handstands and dancing as he referred to himself as the “applause meter,” which got the crowd wild and ready.

Once Shorty stepped off the stage, the Ringleader takes the stage again to introduce Sin. A quiet Sin gets carried onto the stage and shows the audience a razor. He slices a piece of paper with it to prove that it’s real, and then puts it in his mouth. He then takes out two more razors, and one by one, swallows them. After he swallows the razors, he takes out a string and then proceeds to swallow the string. Next, Sin carefully removes the string from his mouth, but with all the razors lined up on the string.

The crowd raises their hands with devil horns as The Lizard Man walks out. In his hand, he has a cork with a long, spiraling screw attached to it. He then proceeds to stick the screw into his nose, where it eventually makes its way out of his mouth. With his mouth wide open, he shows the audience the inside of his mouth, proving that it’s definitely not a trick.

As the night continues on, the acts keep getting crazier.

When Shorty gets back on stage, him and The Ringleader shatter an empty bottle of alcohol in a bucket, and lay all of the glass on a platform. Shorty then starts to walk all over the glass with his hands. After that, he gets placed on a ladder and jumps from the top onto the platform again. He reveals that his left hand was scratch free, but his right hand ended up being covered in blood.

As someone who hates needles, the most traumatizing act for me was when Ross took the stage. He brands himself as a human pincushion, so you can probably see where this is going. He takes a thick needle and starts to push it through his tongue, but it doesn’t stop there. Once it’s through his tongue, he continues to push and it eventually pokes out from under his jaw. One would think that the act ends there-but it doesn’t.

Ross pulls out another needle and starts to stick it through his bicep. Yet again, he’s still not done. He grabs one more needle and starts to stick it through his right hand. It goes straight through, without a hint of pain. Everyone in the audience squirmed a little as they continued to cheer him on.

The last event of the night involved Shaara. The Ringleader put her into a box with multiple slashes on the top. He then began to put blades into the box and said she was bending her body in multiple ways to avoid the blades. The Ringleader invited every person in the audience to form a single line and to step onto the stage to see her contorted body in the box.

If you missed the chance to see this event, don’t worry! Hellzapoppin will be opening for Mushroomhead in the spring of 2019.