[NYguy]

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categor...id=31&id=34317

‘Girlie Freakshow’ Coming To Coney Island This Summer



03-23-2010
By Jess Goodwin

The ladies of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow do not mess around. Beautiful, dangerous and daring, they eat fire, swallow swords, hammer things into their heads, contort their bodies into unimaginable shapes — all for their audiences’ delight and pleasure. They are, in a word, badass.

And they’ll be featured in their very own show — the Girlie Freakshow — this season at Coney Island. Mistress of Ceremonies will be Insectavora (aka Angelica).

“I’m excited and honored that [Mayor of Coney Island] Dick Zigun has me as the Mistress of Ceremonies heading the Coney Island Girlie Freakshow, and I’m really happy to be back home this year with all the fun and exciting amusements coming to Coney from Zamperla and the folks from Victorian Gardens,” says Insectavora. She now climbs ladders of swords, walks on glass, and more than likely, intimidates most everyone she comes across. She boasts an impressive fire act, including fire-eating, -breathing, and -twirling, as well as “X-rated fire from below.”

Joining her will be Serpentina (aka Stephanie Torres, Miss Coney Island 2007-8) and Remy Vicious. Kryssy Kocktail, currently expecting her third child, will be performing as much as she can, alongside a number of other guests.

“Seeing as I’m a high risk pregnancy it doesn’t really leave me a lot of options,” says Kocktail. “I guess this really isn’t the safest line of work to be in if you’re supposed to be housing another being, but permitting all goes well, I’d like to try and do a couple [shows].”

Kryssy Kocktail may be one of the Sideshow’s most well-rounded ladies. She has electric chair and bed of nails acts, not to mention fire eating, glass walking, balloon sculpting, human blockhead and blade box acts. She also, according to the show’s web site, “plays accordion poorly and tends bar.”

“I bartended for 15 years,” she admits, “and the men that I meet in bars are definitely bigger jerks than anybody I’ve ever met doing a ‘family-oriented’ show.”

Before joining the Sideshow, Kocktail worked at Coney Island for two summers doing odd jobs. She took classes with the Sideshow school, and soon Mayor Zigun brought her on as the bladebox girl.

“[My kids] love it,” says Kocktail. “Where else can they hang out with a man [Donny Vomit] who thinks boogers are fun, and have Auntie Stephantina (Serpentina) let them pet her snake?”

Serpentina, whose 6-foot stature has earned her the nickname Glamazon, has been working the Sideshow for over a decade now. She, along with Remy Vicious, will be snake-charming. She can also light torches with her tongue and fingertips.

The Circus Sideshow, at the corner of Surf Avenue and West 12th Street, will perform on Saturdays and Sundays, while the Girlie Freakshow will perform during the week, Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday evenings at 10 and 11 p.m., starting April 3 until the last weekend in September. For more information visit www.coneyisland.com/sideshow.shtml.