In my high school history class, it was referred to as the “dirty thirties.” But still visionary Wayne Van De Graff was enthralled by the magical fringe life of the 1930s and was inspired enough to create the Carnivale Lune Bleue. I was fortunate enough to attend this delightful festival yesterday evening in the small town of Kars, near Manotick, just half an hour outside of downtown Ottawa.
At a first impression, the Carnivale seems a modest affair — set in a snug fairground environment, with only a few stage tents, two rides, a midway, a freaky museum, and a simple restaurant. Since it was only a Tuesday evening, it was not filled with crowds of people, as I imagine it could be over the weekend. I recognized several Ottawa actors working as carnies and entertainers. For the most part, it was quiet, quaint, and generally demure.
That is, until, you enter the stage tents! The three mainstage productions were simply phenomenal. And all entirely different from one another. At under an hour each, these shows were the perfect length for children, but enough to keep everyone satisfied. Since each performance runs two or three times every evening, it is possible to catch all three shows, and I definitely recommend them all.
Carnival Diablo was hosted by a devilish character named Nicolai Diablo, who promised to shock and amaze us by defying all types of bodily pain. He did some amazing things like hammering a nail into his nose, drinking boiling water, and swallowing three razor sharp blades. It was disgusting, and honestly I have no idea how he did it. He was joined onstage by a sword-swallower and a strong man nicknamed “the human dart board.” That’s pretty self-explanatory, I think. This trio was especially impressive, I think, because they were so engaged in their over-the-top style of performance. Their costumes, their voices, their movements, and their interaction was so theatrical. They knew how to make us laugh, make us cringe, and make us gaze in disbelief at their death-defying feats.
While I had an incredible time at these three impressive shows, it was the Carnivale’s simplicity and unpretentiousness that I found the most charming. It didn’t have that commercial feel of the Ottawa Ex, and yet there was ample entertainment to keep you busy from the opening at 6pm until the closing at midnight. And that little restaurant actually has gourmet food from the time period: it looked delicious. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for the entire evening, but I did have the chance to mount the authentic 1930s ferris wheel before returning downtown. It reminded me of a chapter from E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” when the little girl named Fern gets her first kiss atop a ferris wheel at the county fair. There was something so sweet and nostalgic about just sitting there in a two-seater, feeling every rock and flow of the contraption, like riding your favourite old bicycle around a suburban street corner.
