On our second day at the beach house, we decided to take a short trip up the coast to Venice Beach. Jeremy and the boys love watching AMC's Freakshow and this is where it is located. This beach was definitely not Newport... it was dirty, crowded and full of weirdos. Before our trip we had read that this wasn't the best family area and that you would see a lot of pot-smoking, drunk people and they were right. To get to the Freakshow, we had to walk down the boardwalk past a plethora of shops, street performers, and various vendors lining the walk. About every block there were little shops advertising pot. We even saw people smokin' their joints right there in the open. Defitnitely not a place you want to be for long!
We finally made it down to the Freakshow building just as they were setting up. We got to talk to Todd, the owner, before it opened and he was such a nice guy. (Jeremy and Noah were stoked.) While we were waiting for them to open, we were entertained by some looney on a bike. He kept telling us about how it was National Bellybutton Day and how we needed to thank our moms because they gave us our bellybuttons. He was actually pretty funny, just a huge loon. There was also another weird bike guy who as he rode up and down the walk he would beat this little drum pad and yell, "Are you easily annoyed? I am too *$d#1!" and so forth.
Finally the
Freakshow opened and we went in. They had a bunch of odditites in jars and items on display. It was pretty cool, kind of things you might see in
Guiness Book of World Records. Then we got to see a short show featuring Asia Ray and Morgue. This was so awesome! The kids and Jeremy LOVED it! (Both Jeremy and Noah like Asia, so they were stoked again to meet her, as well as other castmates.) We were able to take pictures with them and they were all so nice. Creature even helped me carry my stroller down the front steps.
As we were leaving crazy land, we encountered this other weirdo. She was old, drunk or maybe just "not-all-there" and was obviously wearing someone else's clothes and shoes. She went up to this guy drumming buckets and started dancing. After a minute, she took off her t-shirt and threw it away (yes, threw it away). Her too-small bikini top was shifted too far to one side but she didn't care and her large belly flopped over her belly as she danced. Next thing I knew, she started randomly flashing people. SO GROSS! It was pretty funny, but N-A-S-T-Y! We quickly hurried past and went back to our good beach.
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| Conjoined lizards (they were shown on the show recently) |
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| Some of the oddities in their show |
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| Asia Ray swallowing fire. |
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| Morgue drilling into his nose. He then released the bit and sucked it up in his nasal cavity. |
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| Morgue sniffing up the bit. |
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| Morgue, with a meat hook through his nose and mouth. |
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| Asia Ray, aka "Rubber Girl" |
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| Billy. Years ago cancer took his eye socket and upper jaw. He know can reach through his mouth and out his eye. He puts candles in his empty socket area now and is a human jack-o-lantern. |
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| Danielle Ray (wife of owner Todd) and Rocky, the 5-legged dog. |
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| Morgue swallowing a sword. He is only one of 40 or so sword-swallowers left in the world. |
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| The bearded lady |
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| Freakshow performers. They were super friendly. |
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| Creature, with the boys. He has the most tattoos and piercings. He also was very nice! |
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| Larry Gomez with Jackson. He is covered in hair and has been featured in Guiness Book. |
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| The freaky lady on the boardwalk. This was prior to shirt removal. |
