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And you
thought your family was a freak show?
There’s no comparison to the circus family
Absinthe now playing at the Spiegeltent at
South Street Seaport – not unless you had a
sister who could stick an entire table leg
down her esophagus or another who pulled red
hankies from her pussy. And then there’s the
brother who’s a trapeze artist – in the
bathtub, where he also becomes a living
water fountain. And two other brothers who
get a kick out of balancing each other – on
top of their heads. And the nymphomaniacal
chanteuse with the killer fuck-me pumps
who’s a bit of a sadist, and the sister
suffering from dipsomania, who also happens
to swallow scissors, and another who
apparently spends hours in her room shaking
her booty with four hula hoops, and another
who’s a contortionist acrobat, and
meanwhile, the head of household, the master
of ceremonies, as it were, counsels every
and all to drink up, drink another, because
there’s more to come.
And, of course, why not because this is
Spiegeltent, one of a series of traveling
mirrored-and-glass tents from the early 20th
century, and possibly this is the very
spiegeltent where Marlene Dietrich used to
sing – or sang once, at least. Or maybe not,
not that it matters too much when you’re out
in the beer garden alongside the East River,
the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge and the
Woolworth Building lighting up the indigo
sky, and it’s another summer night in
Manhattan where all the freaks come out to
play. No wonder you feel right at home.
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