The Freaks are Back in Town

By James Martin

Certain brave individuals may recall venturing into a shadowy world of mystery last summer. A world of mermaid corpses and killer ventriloquist dummies. A world where you could indulge your darkest fantasies. A world where a man hammered a nail into his head and hung weights off his tongue. Now get ready for round two. Carnival Diablo is back.

The exhibits may be gone (certain museums have expressed interest in giving the Feejee Mermaid and friends a permanent home, though), but the Diablo family of unusual humans has expanded. "I believe that I have some of the best sideshow perfomers in the world - and these people are Calgarians," says Scott McClelland, the aforementioned human blockhead and founder/demonic ringmaster of Carnival Diablo. Carnival Diablo is McClelland himself, who welcomes the audience to the two hour show with feats of telepathy, telekinesis, and mindreading. Then he swallows a few razor blades. "I don't regurgitate them," McClelland is quick to stress. "I let them go down my gullet and I'll pass them another day - so the show actually hurts twice."

Although McClelland makes no secret of the fact that Carnival Diablo is out to entertain, to help put the "show" back into "sideshow," there is more to the performance than theatrics. "We're not only giving the audience a spectacle, but something to chew on for a while," he says. "We're not making fun of what we're doing - you know, 'Watch this, it'll freak you out!' Instead, we're saying 'Watch very carefully and you'll see something truly astounding.' We aren't doing blood. We're there to amaze, not gross-out."