Get ready to be astounded, shocked and amazed when the world’s greatest international touring circus variety show, Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow Revue drops anchor and pulls off the road for a night in the Hammer on Friday, April 19/13.
Hellzapoppin is a rock and roll freakshow that is truly a kiddie show for adults and billed as the Greatest Show in Hell! A great man once said “You don’t stop going to the circus when you get old, YOU GET OLD WHEN YOU STOP GOING TO THE CIRCUS.” He was right, and this show is a hellacious fountain of youth.
The revue arrives in a modern day pirate ship, wearing the outer guise of a red prison bus, capped with Texas longhorns and spouting the religion of the sideshow in the guise of its creator Bryce ‘The Govna’ Graves and his sword swallowing, fire breathing, boob bombing, balancing act.
The large, red, prison bus carries its crew of freaks city to city to enchant and well…entertain, the audiences that gather to watch.
“In this jaded and turbulent world, the aim of Hellzapoppin is to provide entertainment to an audience that thinks they’ve seen everything!” says Graves. “It’s our job to prove them wrong! We take great pride in watching a jaw drop or a grown man faint. We call these falling ovations.”
The old fashioned feel of the backdrops take the viewer on a roller coaster ride back to childhood sensibilities and the rock music that traditionally opens the show is a very modern day counterpoint.
“We challenge them to believe their eyes, laugh, scream and ‘Oh my god’ as we go about our business of showing them they haven’t seen anything yet…”
The crew of the S.S. Hellzapoppin is made up of sideshow’s best and brightest. Chelsea NoPants from New Orleans and The Amazing Boobzilla from Oklahoma City are two of the world’s 15 female sword swallowers among their many other talents. Trixtah Rodriguez is a world famous acrobatic break dancer and physical phenomenon. And, of course, Hellzapoppin mascot, the loveable wonder dog Mr. Buggles from Kentucky.
Among their collective achievements; appearances at Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Guinness Book of World Records, America’s Got Talent, America’s Best Dance Crew, national television commercials with NASCAR/Tony Stewart, Reebok and T-Mobile and even appearances with smutmeister Jerry Springer.
The Govna likes to say the bus is steered by hopes and dreams of the people willing to put themselves through whatever it takes to get the spotlight trained on them and get that ‘gasp’ from an audience.
“We survive on the applause,” he said “It’s our bread and water, it’s our goal.”
It’s a lifestyle understood and craved by a select few less interested in security than they are in applause. They carry on a tradition of wandering minstrels dating back hundreds of years. They put everything on the line, willing to die very literally, for their art if necessary.
The Govna taps his music past by booking his crew on tour with bands. They’ve travelled and performed with the largest rock festivals in the US and Europe such as Pedal to the Metal with Mudvayne, Static X, Black Label Society, Suicide Silence.
Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow Revue
April 19/13
Molson Canadian Studio Theater, Hamilton Place
1 Summers Lane, Hamilton
Show start at 8pm.
Tickets are $21.75
Get your tix here.