ANASTASIA THE LIVING MERMAID
In 1977 I witnessed an attraction that I have NEVER been able to get out of my mind.During that year my grandfather Prof. N.P. Lewchuk had taken me to my first International Brotherhood of Magicians Convention... and I was never going to be the same again.
Apart from meeting some of the most influential people in the industry... I had the pleasure of meeting Bob and Jerry Bell. Bob was from England and was now living in Canada with his wife. They had taken me under their wing during the convention and had made this 11 year old feel comfortable in a world of professional adults.
On the last day of the convention there were ALOT of activities.... and during the evening there was a performance by many of the greats in the Magic industry. But, the turning point of the evening was the Attraction that was set up in the foyer of the theatre.
I remember it as if it were yesterday... on an ornate Victorian table was a fishbowl... and in the fishbowl was a Mermaid. Now understand, this was not a projected image or a hologram, but a 3 dimensional person that was only 7 inch's tall... breathing water!!!
The Amazing object of my adoration was none other then Jerry Bell herself!
How the Hell did Jerry get so tiny? Bob was presenting her as the 8th Wonder of the World... and as far as everyone around me was concerned ... THAT is exactly what she was!
I couldn't believe my eyes! In the fishbowl was a miniature human that looked ALOT like a real mermaid!
From that day on I felt that anything was possible.
Flash ahead 28 years...I still couldn't get the image of a living mermaid out of my head.
In 2001 I had made one of my dreams come true by creating 'Carnival Diablo's World of Wonders'... and now I wanted to expand and set out to create a NEW Attraction so that I could bring to the public even more Wonder and Intrigue.
I immediately knew what I wanted to do... create a 'Mermaid Show'!
This was not as easy I thought it would be... first I had to find out how the HELL Bob and Jerry pulled off that AMAZING illusion. I tried to track them down first... but 28 years later was a long time... and they could not be found.
I got in touch with my old mentor Micky Hades, who had produced Doug Henning's and Reveen's shows back in the 70's... but the instructions to this great mystery were not on the market anymore. So...I contacted the illusion designer for David Copperfield... and he wasn't exactly sure how it was done... so I phoned and emailed a dozen other people in the industry... and none of them had a clue how it was done!
After 5 months of searching and banging my head against the wall ... I received a lead on a person that had worked in Vaudeville in the 1930's... he was now in his 90's and lived in England... he had an old set of instructions from the 1940's that he was willing to sell me for $75!
IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME...
SHAZZZZAM! That was all I needed, I sent him the money and a couple of weeks later I received the package. The blueprints were as brittle as old wax paper and at times very cryptic.... but I now had the secret in my eager hands.
Now it was time to put my plan into action...I first had a tent custom made by a company called 'Advanced Tent and Awning' to hold this Amazing Attraction... and then I set out to create the banners and the banner line.
) Advanced Tent and Awning |
Now this was not something that I could have done alone, I am very fortunate to have a group of wonderful friends that were willing to give freely of their time... and with their help the task of creating a Mermaid Show was under way.
Jennica aka 'Lascivious Lu Lu' and Vanessa aka 'Countess Vanessa' worked like little monkey's to help get all of the details done so we could be ready for the Conklin Season.
) Vanessa working on Exit Sign |
I was also lucky to have a friend that lived across from me that was a master at carpentry and electronics Michael Breau... so with his craftsmanship we set forth on building the attraction.
) Mike with drill |
We worked hard 24/7 trying to make the deadline... it was ALOT of work! (And I thought it would be easier to create a tentshow... HA!)
I painted banners for 3 months straight......
) Scott priming canvas banner |
Each banner took me around 3 to 4 weeks to paint. And the banner line had to be built from scratch...NO ONE had done a outdoor Sideshow Attraction in Canada in around 35 years! So I had to research the way a banner line was built. This wasn't easy... there are very few working carnival sideshows left... and even fewer people have any idea about the mechanics of how to rig one.
I had two great options for information though... Ward Hall the King of Sideshow and Al Stencell one of Canada's original high grass Circus owners (and also the writer of some great books on carnival life)
Ward was an amazing wealth of information... I had phoned him asking about how to build a sideshow bannerline... and he sent me in the mail a cardboard moquette of how the braces and the banner line should go together. We actually used the cardboard cut outs as a template for the banner braces!
Al Stencell told me how to rig the banner line and make it sturdy for high winds.
Its funny... we had NO idea if the banner line would work until we set it up at our first carnival at the start of the season!
All in all... we worked until the very day we had to leave.... and the paint was still drying on the banners when we loaded it and prepared for the road!
) Half painted banner |
What a crazy time! I am so thankful that I had such a great support group of friends while building the attraction, without them I would not have finished it on time.
Now of course you can't have a Mermaid Show without a Mermaid... so I had the fortune of morphing Jennica and Vanessa into this mythological creature.
Yes... they would come on the road and work as 'The LIVING Mermaid'
When I created 'The World of Wonders' I had taken the name loosely from my grandfathers show 'The Tentshow of Wonders', and I propagated his history by putting on show his Freak Exhibits. This New Attraction had to have a bit of family history in it also... so I called the attraction 'Anastasia the Living Mermaid' (Anastasia was my grandmothers name). She was the driving force in my grandfathers life and career.
And so the attraction was ready to go on the road.... what an adventure we were in for!
ON THE ROAD
Our first stop was going to be in Winnipeg Manitoba.
We arrived one day before opening and commenced on setting up the Attraction for the very first time. It was like putting a puzzle together. In theory everything we had done to date should work.... but now we were going to find out if it reeeally does work.
We had NEVER set up the banner line or the tent before.... so it was a big learning curve for all of us. Luckily, Jennica loves puzzles and Vanessa enjoys a good challenge, so we set out to put the tent and banner line up our selves (just the three of us).
We found out reeeeal quick that we needed a few more hands to help put the massive banner line up in the air.
) Banner Ghost |
This is what I love about the carnival, you can always count on your fellow carnies to pitch in when there is a problem.
) Carnies help |
At around 4 in the morning I had 5 able bodied carnies ready to help. The head of the bunch was Stuart (affectionately known as Stewy) on the lot. He became a valuable ally on the road, in every city he would go out of his way to help set up the banner line. It takes a certain breed of person to work on a carnival lot ... and I think that there are many great spirits working the carney today.
) Vanessa pounding stakes |
) Setting up the inside |
We worked until the sun came up...
) Jennica painting a pole |
and then we prepared to open.
We opened Canada Day weekend... and the people LOVED it!
) We are open! |
The line ups were steady and we had our Attraction set up right next to our 'World of Wonders'.... it was perfect placement.
) Canada Day |
I was so proud to have the tent and banner line up .... this was something I had always dreamed about doing.... and then suddenly I wished my Attraction was made of brick and steel.
One day as we were open, around late afternoon, the sky started getting dark and the clouds turned green. I had heard about what that meant... and I wasn't happy to see this new change in events. Coming down the midway was a couple head staff of the carnival and they were warning everybody to secure their Attractions and concessions.
A TORNADO was coming... and it was going to materialize in the field across from us!
I immediately went into safety mode.
I started pounding all of the tent stakes deeper into the ground and had the girls secure the inside. I took the banners down and closed the attraction waiting for the worst.
The tornado touched down about 2 miles away from the carnival... but luckily was not attracted to the carnival ... it had other plans.
It was then that I realized that owning a Tent Show was going to be a special new challenge. And I now knew why they called the city 'Windypeg'... that was a close call.
From Winnipeg it was off to Calgary for the Stampede! This is also my old stomping grounds and I enjoy coming back to it every year. I had performed my Old Tyme Medicine Show there from 1979 thru 1985 and had many fond memories of the carnival and what it had to offer.
This was a nice relaxing time...NOT! We had to work extra hard to pull the people to our attraction because we were given a 'Doniker' (carney term meaning 'toilet') location. It was in an area that was a bit hard to find... but we turned lemons into lemonade reeeeal quick!
One of the first celebrities to visit us was my old friend Brett Hart, we had worked together on the 'Lonesome Dove TV series' and it was great to see him again.
) Brett Hart and me |
) Vanessa, Brett Hart and Jennica |
Half way into our run at the Stampede I was working the front when I noticed that there was a couple of guys filming my bannerline. They had pro cameras and they were chatting excitedly to one another.
Suddenly it occured to me... the one guy with the beard looked VERY familiar.
I looked a bit closer and I had to find out if my hunch was right...I walked up to them and asked what they were doing.
The guy with the camera said that he was filming his friend next to him.... so I played dumb and asked for his name ...
It was Ewan Macgregor!
He told me that ever since he had worked on 'Big Fish' the movie, he had a close affinity to sideshows. He said that when he heard that there was a Sideshow at the Stampede... and that it was a 'Mermaid Show'... he HAD to come and see it!
) Me and Ewan Macgregor |
He loved the attraction, and he said while he was looking at the mermaid... " are you seein what I'm seein? This is GREAT!" he then told me " I work in films with multi-million dollar budgets and computer generated special effects... but this...THIS is right in front of me... and I can't tell how its done!
I can't believe my eyes!"
) Ewan and me chatting |
We spent a good hour chatting about the industry and he said to me outside of the tent.."You live a very charmed life"...I was incredulous I told him that he had it backwards, I said, "you have been in some of the most impressive movies to date....Moulin Rouge, Train Spotting, Star Wars and Big Fish....I told him that he is one of the few actors that can play fantasy rolls and make them believable much like Johnny Depp or Jack Nicholson." He said..."Hmmmm...I guess your right".
He was so down to earth and a real gentleman I will always remember the day that Ewan Macgregor came to see our Attraction.
BEING A MERMAID
When I had started working on the idea of a 'Mermaid Show' I never knew what it would be like for the girls that worked as the 'Mermaid'.... BOY! Were we in for a few surprises!
Yes...I was ready for some people to go inside and try and figure it all out.... but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
We found out that because the Mermaid was confined to a fishbowl, that many people took it upon them selves to be VERY Strange when they saw her. Some people would jump around and do weird dances... others would stand and make faces at the Mermaid for hours... and a multitude of people would find great joy in giving the Mermaid the finger. This one thing seemed to be universal everywhere that we went (and everyone that did it thought that they were being sooo funny) sigh ... and then there was the guys that would pull there shirts up over their shoulders and yell 'Show me your tits!'... oh well... we can't all be winners.
But then there were the people that would just not get it.... one spectator looked at the mermaid and turned to her friend and said...'Oh THATS just a human shaped like a fish'.... another said...' Thats not a REAL mermaid, because thats not what 'REAL' mermaids look like!'... then there was one blonde teenager in the tent with some of her friends and she was yelling at the Mermaid...
" I am smarter than you because your head is reeeeally tiny and my head is sooo BIG!"
The sad thing was... she was serious.
One of the dangers of having a Mermaid Show was preteen brats that would try and throw rocks into the fishbowl or even worse... at the fishbowl trying to break it.
We were constantly kept on our toes... and every day was just as surreal as the next.
Jennica and Vanessa have even MORE stories... and I will post those as soon as they write them down. I am very proud of both of them, they worked LONG hours and put up with more strangeness than a psychiatrist at an Insane Asylum would have been able to take... and the girls did it all with a smile.
) The beautiful mermaids and our biggest fan |
All in all the summer was a GREAT success and we have some great memories for what it was like to bring out something so whimsical in this day and age.
Anastasia The Living Mermaid was a collective effort and Jennica and Vanessa need a Medal of Honor for the BEST Mermaids in Sideshow History!
) Full bannerline just before closing |
The Adventure continues as Carnival Diablo prepares to unveil a completely NEW Attraction for the 2005 Season.... come on out and live the MAGICK!
SEE our New Tourdates in the "Tour Dates' section!
