Farewell To The Venice Freak Show ... A Spirit, Not A Building

Yesterday was a roller coaster of emotions all day long. It was the final day of the Venice Freak Show (I don't call it Venice Beach, because Venice is called Venice) in their Boardwalk location, due to the corporate greed of Snapchat and purely evil gentrification. Sunday was an all day celebration and protest, to show the Freak Show how much we love them here in Venice, and to make our voices heard against the awful tech companies attempting to decimate the spirit of Venice. The equally outraged, sad, defiant, and proud citizens of Venice turned out in force to show that the spirit of freaks, and of Venice (where we're all freaks of some kind, proudly) cannot be found in a building, but in the hearts and souls of the members of the community. But still ...

It was a hot and sunny day, in what would be a glorious day at the beach if not for the sinister component that we were all there fighting against. The Boardwalk was packed with supporters, from the front doors of the Freak Show all the way to the sand. One side was the Freak Show happenings with a bumping D.J. Him, while the other had booths organized around protesting the awful yellow ghost of Snapchat.

Venice Dogs (locals outraged about the community turning into a corporate campus) manned bullhorns ("Evil Spiegel wants everyone to know that Snapchat is just for rich, white people!" - he really said that.) and held signs all day ("Make your kids delete Snapchat. It's the #1 site for child pornography!"), letting all the tourists know that if they dig Venice in any way, they should really be deleting that immature, ridiculous app that contributes nothing to society in any way but wasting time. I honestly think less of people that use it ... like they just don't care about what this lame company is doing to a historic town.

 I also place rightful blame on the people that are selling to them. Like, really? You can't see the bigger picture? That soon there will be no reason for people to come to Venice, when it's just as homogenized and douchey as every other "White male imperialist" town, as one bullhorn speaker said. We cannot allow this to stand. There is nowhere in the world more suited to hosting the Venice Freak Show than than the Venice Boardwalk. Period. And now it's gone, to make way for even more Snapchat offices. Because you know tourists love to come and stare at office buildings. Idiots.

Todd Ray is the Ringmaster of the Venice Freak Show, and even if you'd never stepped foot inside (which I'm now finding many locals had not - "I'd always meant to, I just assumed it would always be there!" - and are now painfully regretting), you will miss his voice impelling you to stop and see the two-headed turtle, or to come inside (the best $5 you'd ever spend on the Boardwalk) and see all the other animals, oddities, and performers like Larry the Wolf Boy, Morgue who feels no pain, Richie the Barber, whose face is permanently tattooed like a clown, or Jessa the Bearded Lady, or any of the fantastic characters/Family seen on their AMC show's two seasons. I wrote about them shortly after they opened, and it was the first article featuring the new Freak Show on the Boardwalk. I even got them all a gig opening for Jane's Addiction at The Roxy a few years back, which was excellent. We became friends for life on that interview day, and I've carried wisdom that Todd and his wonderful wife, Danielle, shared with me ever since. Like, deep, spiritual, meaningful wisdom. It seemed like they'd always been there from the moment they opened, and people were right - it did seem like they'd always be there. Until Snaphat began their takeover, that is.

This is a family's lifelong effort and dream come true. Todd Ray knew from the age of 12 that he wanted to have a Freak Show one day, after attending a show featuring Otis Jordan, the Human Cigarette Factory. He could roll a cigarette with no arms and no legs, and told a young Todd that if he could do that with no limbs, Todd could do anything. That set his future in stone, and he's spent a lifetime accumulating incredible oddities for his future Freak Show vision ... that are now all in storage, waiting to see what happens. If the Rays can find a new space for their cavalcade of curiosities - though there is no place better than the Boardwalk, with all its foot traffic passing by.

And that foot traffic yesterday got an earful. It seems that many people who use Snapchat had no idea of the complete destruction this nightmarish corporation has been raining down on Venice, so we told them - and urged them to delete that app right there in front of us. The Freak Show went on all day, this time with a free show outside on the steps. Ray told the assembled "We lost our space to corporate greed and development in Venice", which drew loud boos. They passed around buckets for donations (and a donation site will be put up online asap), because this rug was pulled out from under the Rays with no real time to act. It costs a whole bunch of money to reconstruct a new Freak Show somewhere else - plus they were threatened with a huge lawsuit if they didn't vacate the premises by today. How kind. Snapchat really doesn't see to get how badly their actions reflect on them. There's this thing called karma though - they will.

There was one last day on the beach to see Asia Ray (Todd and Danielle's daughter) perform her sword swallowing act. We saw Morgue put a meat hook through his face. We saw Bob the Bubble Boy rip his shirt off in triumph over his skin disease, to uproarious applause. We saw Señor Stretchy Skin put clothespins all over his face, including his eyelids. We saw the beauty behind it all, as each of us are unique and one of a kind, none more so than these brave in every way people. The Freak Show has always celebrated that above all else. What a beautiful lesson every day they were there.

We also saw the wedding of Jessa the Bearded Lady to her new husband Craig, there on the steps of the Freak Show. Thousands of well-wishers were in attendance, guaranteeing them a happy life together, for sure. Jessa's voice broke when she said her vows, and I broke then too. It's all so very sad, watching our Venice being demolished by greed, and the emotion of a wedding got to me. Tears ran down my face, and then laughter came when Todd asked if she would take Craig to be her husband, and she said, "Damn Skippy, I do!" To which Craig, replied, "Hell yes, I do!" It was great.

When Todd asked Jessa how she felt after it was official, she replied, "Fucking awesome!" And I think we all did in that moment. It was beautiful, it was fun, and it was complete solidarity together as Venetians. A truly special, though terribly poignant and nostalgic, wonderful day.

There was a makeshift reception outside the Freak Show and I shared cake with Jessa and Craig while offering my congratulations. They were both beaming so hard, and so happy, you could absolutely feel that it was true love. I wish them so much happiness in their future, and with such a wonderful ceremony, cheered on by thousands of strangers, I think they're good. Real good.

So was this lady who nearly knocked me over to catch Jessa's bouquet ... that HAS to be good luck!

With all that's going on, Todd and Danielle still waded through the crowd, handing out sandwiches and chips and drinks to people standing around. They're still caring about the well-being of others while their whole life's work is being crushed. At one point, Todd thanked "The Dirty Kids on the Hill" and had the entire crowd turn around and applaud the travelers that hang out on the grass near the Freak Show. "They're the freest people you'll ever meet, and they've always supported the Freak Show." It was pretty touching, as I'm sure those kids have never been applauded, and they reveled in it. The Rays are wonderful people, and great friends of mine, who I love. I take this personally. More so because a day after Todd said to the crowd that this could happen to any one of you in Venice - it's happening to me. Yep. I got the letter today saying my lease wouldn't be renewed in July, I guess to make room for fancier people. I can't believe it. I can't accept it. I will fight it, though it's getting harder and harder every day. Please keep me in mind if you hear of any reasonable lodging around town. UGH.

We were down there all day, and it still wasn't long enough, but the time finally came at sunset to truly bid farewell to the Freak Show. A little tiny girl took the mic and said simply, "Thank you!" That's all you could really say. Todd gave a touching, heartfelt speech as the day's finale, and I'm pretty much still choked up as I re-live it. "Venice is magical and chaotic, with incredible people where everyone can be themselves. This will never be a Robotville Silicon Beach, because we're not going to quit. We do it for you. I've stood here for 12 hours a day talking on this microphone (and he did his whole mic schtick to everyone's cheers), and we do it to keep wonder alive. You're all wonderful and magic yourselves. Hold that in your heart. And when someone tries to put you in a box, tell them to kiss your ass! Normal is dead (they actually held a funeral procession for "Normal" last Summer), there is no such thing as normal. That is not a slogan, that's a way of life. Remember that, and you'll keep the Freak Show alive."

There were many tears (and shouts of righteous anger) and cheers for that, but more when Todd said, "This is our last moment here. We'll see you all at the new Freak Show!" We all cheered for each performer, the entire Ray family (including son Phoenix, who will one day take over the show), and also for ourselves. We are the real Venice community, who will keep both the Freak Show and Venice itself alive, through actions, words, and memories. For sure.

"In this business, we don't say Goodbye. We say we'll see you down the road. I love you, Folks!" That demanded a chant of "Freak Show, Freak Show!" and no one wanted to leave. No one wanted to admit that it was real, and this was truly the last day of this iconic Venice treasure on our Boardwalk. But it was. As I was saying goodbyes (or see you down the roads), I heard a man tell his friend, "All this fun? ... Gone."

Not all. Not yet. As yesterday showed yet again, the people that really, really care are still here, and we are standing up to it. But we can't do it alone. Others have to realize that money isn't everything, and that one of the last places on Earth to be free and different and special is in serious danger, and it's only about greed. Please stop and look at the bigger picture before you bend over and take the evil tech money. Think long and hard about JUST the fact that the Freak Show on the world famous Venice Boardwalk is now gone, only to be boring offices. Little kids don't want to see office buildings on their first trip to the Boardwalk in Venice ... they want to be amazed and dazzled and have lifelong memories like the Freak Show provided. I heard one little boy, shocked to hear it was the Freak Show's last day, say "Where can I make a sign?", wanting to join the protest himself, which he did. Even little kids get it, Snapchat fools. Why are you so slow?

It's truly shameful, and very clear to see whose hands are bloody in it. I'm so mad and sad and bothered and outraged and now nervous for my own future in Venice, that I don't even know how talk about it anymore today ... so I'll just be like that little girl for now, and say a profound THANK YOU - from the bottom of my heart, where I truly will keep the Freak Show alive for always.

Best of luck, any help I may offer, and eternal love to the Ray Family and their extended Freak Show family. You helped make Venice even more special, and you'll never be forgotten. See you down the road, Friends!

*Stay tuned for where the Freak Show will re-open!

** Happy May Day, Workers of the World!

Normal Is Over - Venice's Freakshow on AMC!

I am thrilled to report that my good friends at the Venice Beach Freak Show are getting their own reality show on AMC, called, appropriately, Freakshow, which starts airing TONIGHT, Valentine's Day, February 14th at 9:30 pm.

Todd Ray, his wife Danielle, kids Asia (now the youngest sword swallower in the world!)and Phoenix, and their extended family of performers invite you into their world, where "Normal is relative". I first got to know and write about the Ray family in 2010, and am so happy to see their message of fun and acceptance blowing up all over the world.

"Normal is an illusion, there is no such thing is normal ... some people have a problem with the word 'Freak', but we should have a problem with the word 'normal'," explains Todd, as everyone has a struggle to fit in and appear "normal," but no one really knows what that is. So the Freakshow cast decided to have a funeral for Normal, and held a parade carrying Normal's casket all the way down the Venice Boardwalk, celebrating its death, and our differences. Todd old-timey preached the funeral, asking for a moment of silence for Normal. When it was through, the entire Boardwalk erupted in two minutes of joyous shouting, proclaiming that we are ALL Freaks in our own way. That funeral will be in the show, along with supercool things like the Freak Show performing in a huge tent during Fashion Week in New York, and also just the every day happenings that make it all tick.



Venice is as much the star of the show as any of the performers, and beautifully portrayed. The Tallest Man in The World (8 feet!) joins Amazing Ali (the tiniest lady), Larry the Wolf Boy, Murrugun The Mystic and all their friends at the Freak Show, in a real behind the scenes portrait of Todd Ray's childhood dream not only coming true, but growing and growing.

While you're learning the story of the Rays and Freakshow, you're also learning what Venice still means to so many people around the world. Todd is inspired by the place that another man with a dream thought up long ago. Abbot Kinney would appreciate the renaissance that the Rays are trying to bring back to Venice, and as Todd says, "We NEED it here now. It's a piece of history, and a piece of Venice that is positive and creative. Everything we love about Venice is in this show."

That's all I needed to set the dvr for every single episode. Join us Freaks, starting February 14th on AMC. That's TONIGHT, People. 9:30 pm.

Happy Valentine's Day, with LOVE from Venice!!! XXXXX!

Beach Alien Seen In Venice!

Today was the first day of what my friend Jenny and I call our "Mermaid Triathalon". We bike, walk, and swim out to the flag by the end of the Venice Pier. On the walk part of the deal, we came upon this freaky creature, that when we bent down to check it out, was very much alive.

 I've never seen anything like it and have no idea what it is. I have alerted the Venice Beach Freak Show that this guy was cruising Venice today. Oh yeah, and we still went on the swim part, because we are brave.

*Brave up-close photo by Jennifer Everhart

Live On The Sunset Strip ... JANE'S ADDICTION!

There may be no better way to kick off a weekend of celebrating Independence and Freedom than to have your mind blown by Jane's Addiction. BLOWN!

Juana's Adiccion kicked off the Bing Sunset Strip Summer Concert Series at The Roxy last Friday night, in a show for FANS, called "Fan's Addiction". They weren't fronting. The people crowding the house were ALL Superfans, - you could tell. Fans that may not have ever seen Jane's live, or if they had, it had been a loooong while. The only way to get tickets was to win them from the band's website, Tweeting with Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro to win, or standing on line at The Roxy all day long (Rewarded in most cases. That's how packed it was). That makes for an extra special show, as out were the jaded seen it all types, and IN were the fans that count Jane's as one of their ALL-time favorite bands.


Like me. At the first Lollapalooza I literally somehow healed myself from too much sun and tequila & oranges ruin just in time to squeeze down front and scream along with every word Perry sang. That was the only time I've ever bounced back so dramatically, and it was because of the music. Now THIS night, I felt great to begin with, so it was all even better. Years have passed, both since that first Lollapalooza Jane's experience, and since Jane's recorded their first album - Jane's Addiction - in this very same venue. I am now blessed to call (longtime/former Venice dwellers) Perry and Etty Farrell friends, but that hasn't affected the fervor with which I revere the music, not one iota. It does, however, help a bit to get in the door to such a memorable evening.

Not an easy task. Those people had been lined up all day with the hopes of getting in The Roxy, and they were going to go OFF once inside. To behold such a spectacle, that - leaping ahead - HYPER ... I heard a lot of chatter after the show saying it had been the very best show many had EVER seen.

That show began with an opening set, not by some random up and comer band like usually is the case, but by a custom-made (by Perry) revue designed to shock and awe, put on by our own Venice Beach Freak Show! Todd Ray yelled "Where are the Freaks in the house?!" to unanimous applause from the house, and his cast of characters - Larry the Mexican Wolf Boy, Murrugun the Mystic, Brett the Sword Swallower, and The Rubber Boy - came out and had the crowd screaming the entire time.


Larry was hairy, Brett swallowed three swords at once (!), the Rubber Boy was jump-roping with his own arms, but Murrugun was the craziest. He pierced his flesh with metal skewers, all the way through, to where you had to either look away or risk throwing up. Yipes. The screams and gasps were authentic, and there's much more of that craziness to be seen each weekend on the Venice Boardwalk.


The skewers did not stop there. As tangible excitement built (like that old feeling you used to get pre-BIG show), next to take the stage were two tattooed and lingerie-clad ladies, one of whom took metal longass needles and inserted them through one cheek and out the other, licking it when it came out for good measure. More shrieking went down for that, but NOTHING compared to when both girls were suddenly hooked up to harnesses attached to metal rods in their backs ... flesh stretched out and crazy to where I had sympathy pain in my own piercing the next day, no joke.


Up they flew, swinging around from the ceiling, when the curtain dramatically rose and Jane's Addiction was revealed, blasting the opening notes of "Whores"!


To say that people went absolutely eyes-crossed crazy is too subtle ... all you could do was just scream senselessly at how Amaze-balls it all was. Perry dodged the girls as he sang, sometimes stopping to give them a swing push, as Dave tore through a possessed-like solo. I talked with many music biz folks after the show, and all agreed that it was one of the all-time Best Openings To A Show. Ev. Er.


The band was in perfect form from the outset: Perry smiling and having a ball; Dave skulking about the stage tearing his guitar to pieces, Stephen Perkins grinning like a little kid as he beat the daylights out of his drum kit, and Duff McKagan replacing Eric Avery seamlessly on the bass. The stage was done up as kind of an altar, with white Christmas lights hanging around a saintly painting and colorful Day Of The Dead-like accessories.


Awesome. (I'll be using that adjective a lot as we continue, I suspect).


"Ain't No Right" and "Had A Dad" immediately followed the spectacular opening number, and found Perry slapping fives with everyone down front, swigging from a bottle of red wine, and shimmy dancing along with the band he's fronted for over two decades, but performing his heart out like it was his first time.


He is the ultimate front man, he really is, and you can see the joy he gets out of these kind of moments coming off of him, like heat wave mirages (though it may really have been heat mirages, as it was a sweaty inferno of excitement in there). Dave calmly puffed away on a cigarette and shrugged his classic riffs out like it was no big deal. But it was.


Awesome. The crowd alone could tell you that, as they were SO into it for every last note and word played, you thought some would have to be carried out on gurneys.


Between songs, Perry said, "I'm talking to my homies in L.A. ... Kiss my ass, Boston!" (Referring, of course, to our recent NBA Smackdown with the Celtics - Ha!) L.A. was more than receptive too ... particularly when the "Everybody, everybody ..." opening to "Ted, Just Admit It" began, and Mrs. Farrell and her dancing partner, Stephanie Spanski, came out in black lingerie with feather butts, to bump and grind around the band. The guys (probably a bunch of girls too) in the place needed bibs at this point, so hot were these two.


Etty is a gorgeous woman - inside and out - and somehow managed to look like a wind machine was permanently on her - as cool and vampy (despite the heat), she pranced around her husband. The true love between them shone as bright as the spotlights. (I don't exaggerate in this case. They're the same at home as they are steaming up a stage. Theirs is a real and enviable love. So there.)


When the opening chords to "Mountain Song" started up, the audience was just GONE. Completely out of their minds. I personally was so happy to be there, I felt like I was vibrating like the breeze that comes out of speakers when you're too close - especially when I got a little Perry shout-out ("Cash in now, Carol ... Cash in now!") that pretty much made my Summer. When the resulting furor rose at that behemoth of a number's end, Perry said, "Do you know how much I love hearing that shit?!" Mad adulation - We meant the song, but he meant the cheering. There was a mutual love fest going on in the room, no doubt about it.


It continued with a crazy tearing through of "Been Caught Stealing", with Perry taking someone's cell camera and mugging for it, shaking his ass, and generally beaming throughout, while Stephen's curly-haired mohawk flopped around as he delivered a proper flogging to the song. Dave is just a blast to watch, and Duff is straight badass.


The slightly ominous tones of the dramatic "3 Days" started up, and Etty and Stephanie came out to flank Perry ("Three lovers in three ways ...") wearing black gags. Sexy, dark, edgy, DOPE as ever. For real, this band has held up almost miraculously, and makes a whole lot of newer bands seem like lint to pick off. Tight, almost telepathic tone changes, illustrated how being in it for the long haul makes for serious musical excellence. Duff as the new guy crunched out the bass lines like he was practicing them in night school after his GNR day job. Perfection. The song builds and builds, until Perry singing "All of us with wings .." felt undoubtedly true. Perkins took a blistering solo, and then it all exploded in such a way that left the room breathless ... but still yelling.


"Ain't life great?! I'm having such a fucking good time!", yelled Perry after that one, but it could have been said by anyone there. Strangers would pass by and high-five me, unprovoked. The resulting photos of the night show nothing but joy on every face you focus on. The real kind of happy that can't be faked. Shiny, excited, wild eyes were everywhere, and they lit up even more when the band revved up again for "Stop!" Perry was as dancing maniac, and the band showed zero mercy to the surging crowd. When it got to the "Hum ... along with me, hum along with the t.v. ... Whoa-oh-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh-oh, Whoa-oh-oh-OH-oh ..." part - ALL voices joined as one, and you could tell the entire band was thrilled, knowing that their heydays were far from over.


The entire Sunset Strip was thrilled (if the noise carried like I think it did) for "Ocean Size". It was done to epic proportions, and as Perry sang, "Wish I was Ocean size ...", I wanted to tell him, "Perry, You are." Nothing felt bigger at that moment in time, and as they rocked us to our collective cores, nothing but that feeling felt better. The stoke that comes from a good old- fashioned rock out cannot be diminished, nor can the camaraderie that comes from sharing that experience with a bunch of other like-minded new friends.


That was it for the regular set, but it started the frenzy anew, as rabid men and women shouted for more. Pretty soon, some roadies came out and set up some steel drums, which earned their own cheers. Uh-oh. That could only mean one thing ... and it did.


Stephen came out and stood at the steel drum set, Dave and Duff brought out acoustics, while Perry and the Girls danced around to the more than classic, "Jane Says". There wasn't one word of it that wasn't shouted along with by the entire room. Not one. When they brought up the house lights for the band to see the crowd sing-along, all the faces reflected the same pure giddy happiness. By the way, I don't care if you think I'm being gushy about all of this, I'm merely reporting the simple facts of a SPECTACULAR show. It was truly one for the ages.


"How are you all?" {{ ROOOOOAAAARRR!!! }} "Remember how vibrant the music scene used to be in L.A.? {{ WOOOOOOOOO!!!! }} "Well, I don't keep track, I just keep going!"
{{ AAAAHHHHH!! }} "We recorded our first album here in 1987, and I insulted every record executive in this whole city ... I invited 'em all to come check out my balls!" {{ A-HAHAHAH! }} "Tonight felt like the Good Old Days ... but these ARE the days!" {{ YEAAA-whistles-AAAAA-shrieks -AAAAAH! }} And with that, Dave, Stephen and Duff each began banging on big drums in unison at the front of the stage, signaling the opening to ... "Chip Away"!


You could barely stand how great it was in there then. That song has always felt just HUGE to me, and tonight it was that much and more. Like Ho. Ly. SHIT (That was the dominant phrase being uttered by nearby fans)! Etty and Stephanie were leading the clapping, the guys in the band were banging the drums senseless, and everyone else was just jumping up and down (waitresses, bartenders, security, EVERYONE!) as Perry screamed, "I don't, I don't, I don't feel easy!", over and over until the fever pitched and it all finally had to come to an end. Not that anyone wanted it to.


Jane's Addiction came to the front of the stage, arm in arm, and stood there just soaking up the adulation for a beautiful moment of complete triumph. After all the years, hardships, fights, yes, addictions, memories, and completely righteous shows like this, they're still standing. And so are we. Not just standing either, but SOARING. The arms of everyone present did not come down and the throats did not stop straining with ragged effort and noise until the house lights came on, and we all realized that it was over over. And with that realization came the accompanying one: group-think/talk of it having been "One of the greatest shows I've ever ever seen, Man!"


It really was. Like old school shows, where people didn't want to leave, they just wanted to keep talking about it. When they were finally forced to leave, they kept talking about it on the sidewalk outside, and on up until right now, when I'm still talking about it. And I'll for sure never stop smiling about the memory of it.

So as the Summertime begins to roll, I thank Jane's Addiction for sharing their gifts, and that feeling of being rocked until you're hyperkid when relating the tale. For me, it's an escape, a treasure, and ...

"It brought peace to my mind in the Summertime ... and it rolled ...".







*All photographic excellence was committed by Paul Gronner.com.

Wild! Weird!! Wonderful!!! - The Venice Beach Freak Show!

The Venice Beach Freak Show came to my attention a couple/few years ago when wandering down The Boardwalk. I immediately went in and befriended the couple who ran it, Todd & Danielle Ray, and did a little article about them opening up at the time ... mainly because I was thrilled that someone was doing something old-time-y feeling, and reveling in the fact that since people call the Venice Boardwalk a Freak Show anyway, there should really be a real one.


Since then, it's only grown bigger and more successful, with an expansion into a bigger space in their building (a reproduction of the former Bath House of old time-y Venice's Pacific Park) on The Boardwalk. It's packed with people on the weekends, with Todd growing hoarse on Mondays after doing his Side Show barking all weekend long outside. They're so packed that there's never time to chat on the weekends, so we sat down yesterday with each other so they could tell me their whole story, while they fed and looked after the various animals that live at the Freak Show. It was one of my favorite conversations in a long time, and I remain thrilled ... first, that such cool people exist in the world, and second, that they share their coolness with an openness and generosity that is increasingly rare in our g0-go-me-me times.


Todd grew up in South Carolina, and Danielle grew up in Brooklyn - and both have the perfect accents to go with each locale. Todd was into magic ever since he was 6 years old, doing tricks to amaze even the adults. An elderly woman whose late husband had been in the Circus knew of Todd's interest in magic and circuses, so gave him a big trailer of her husband's artifacts from his Carny days, beginning what would become a lifelong collection - much of which can be seen today at The Freak Show. When he was 12, he went to a Carnival Side Show in his native South, and saw Otis Jordan, The Human Cigarette Factory (to whom the Venice Freak Show is dedicated, by the way). Mr. Jordan had ossified limbs, so his arms and legs were all curled up, and he really only had the use of his shoulders and face. With only his mouth, chin, and shoulders, the guy would take out a single rolling paper from a pack with his tongue (try that!), lay out a perfect line of tobacco, somehow roll it with his lips and tongue into a PERFECT cigarette ... and THEN get a match out of a matchbox, strike it, and with the match and cigarette both in his mouth (without lighting the whole box of matches aflame), light it, and happily puff away. Todd was simply amazed ... especially when Otis Jordan told him, "You can do anything you can dream of." Well, that stuck with Todd - clearly - and you can sense his and Danielle's joy and wonder just listening to their fascinating stories and super positive outlook on life in general.


As a teen, Todd also got real into music, and soon after starting medical school to be a Doctor, Todd changed his mind and decided he wanted to be a Hip Hop DJ! He moved to New York to follow that dream, and it was there that he met Danielle when he lived next door to the place where her Mom got her hair done. She came over to wait for her Mom and chill, and they've been together ever since that day, and what a wonderful couple they are! They soon married, and after some a bunch of struggles and a few lucky breaks, Todd finally found work producing those Hip Hop beats he was so into. He produced the likes of Nas, Cypress Hill ("Ain't Going Out Like That"), Santana's Supernatural album, etc ... and has three Producing Grammys to show for it.

Rap interests merged into Rock, and Todd began coming to L.A. a lot to work with the likes of Ozomatli and Snot. Driving along the PCH from Malibu to Santa Barbara began to seem a lot more appealing when there was three feet of snow on the ground back in New York - where two kids had come along to Todd and Danielle, a daughter, Asia, and a son, Phoenix - both of whom work with the Family Business today. They made the move. Todd was doing great with music, and the living he made was more than solid, when he started to dislike the direction Corporate labels were going in, and he began to feel like he was working in a factory that made generic music for the masses, with no use of his creativity. He and Danielle came to Venice one weekend, and sat on a bench across from where the Freak Show now resides. There was a space available to rent, and Todd realized that this was his chance to make his childhood dream become a reality. So he did.


They already had a huge collection of crazy stuff, so it was just a matter of creating the space, which the family did together, a complete labor of love. From Day One, Todd will tell you that the place was ALIVE, and full on. As he puts it, "I'd rather show kids a two-headed turtle all day and see the look of wonder on their faces than win a Grammy." Todd stands out front of the space all day on the weekends, urging people to come in and be amazed. And HE is constantly amazed standing out there ... at how robotic people (from everywhere and every ilk) have become ... like they're in Venice, they know they're supposed to be having fun, but they've let the world get at them too much and they just pace along, feeling pressure to be the same. So Todd will say through his microphone, "Look up! See that blue sky, that's the beginning of Outer Space! You can go get your $5 coffee at Starbuck's or you can come inside and $5 will buy you a lifetime memory of Venice Beach!" He's not kidding ... the things you will see inside - and out, like when Todd gets passersby to come up and staple a dollar onto the Man Who Feels No Pain with a staple gun (even a sadistic little suburban blonde girl did it - into the guy's armpit!) - you won't soon forget.


From his collection of Circus memorabilia and Pitch Cards (kind of like baseball cards, Freak Show performers used to sell their photo cards with their stories on the back, to give you more a sense of the HUMANITY involved behind it all) - of which his collection is the largest in the world - Todd began to accept live animals into the mix. Once he saw his first real LIVE two-headed turtle (after amassing a bunch of taxidermied specimens - e.g., The Cyclops Chihuahua!), he was hooked by the again, MAGIC, of it all. That "Life is a magical thing, a two-headed thing is magic. It has two souls and one heart, and is a magical animal. Myrtle/Squirtle the Turtle is actually a symbol of the mystery of life!" He would approach farmers, vets, breeders, pet hospitals, Youtube, whomever he thought would come across these rare animals - who would often be killed due to their "deformities" - and get them to give them to the Rays to care for. Which they do, beautifully. Their dog, Rocky, has five legs and had been in a cage pretty much its whole life, so was real mean. They took him on "The Dog Whisperer", and Danielle now counts him as another of her babies.


From the animals, Todd naturally has expanded to human beings that have their own special talents ... like Mr. No Pain (Digger), Brett the Sword Swallower (who the Rays took in as a kindred spirit, a guy who wanted to swallow swords since he was 8, and found Todd on a Magician's website - they took him in and now he's living his dream at the Freak Show each weekend), The Tree Man, The Bed of Nails Guy that lets tourists stand on him atop a bed of nails, Little Miss Firefly ("27 inches small!"), among a bunch of others in the rotating cast, and even their daughter, Asia, is now in on the act, doing contortion acts ("The Rubber Girl!"), acting as a current in an Electric Chair, and more recently, Fire Swallowing. Phoenix is a co-owner, and helps work the door, and is also becoming quite a proficient juggler. The Rays sometimes put on a more intense evening show (The Super Freak Side Show & Revue!) that features old school burlesque and a guy that impales himself with needles so gnarly that people faint.


But the Venice Beach Freak Show is a family affair, not only for the Rays, but for everyone that walks by. "If there's anything that we represent here, it's that 'normal' is an illusion", says Todd. "We want to be a symbol of the future, born from the past." Which is why they want to keep alive that moment in time that you can see in old black and white books on Venice, when it was an Amusement Park atmosphere and Abbot Kinney created a sense of place from his own dreams. Now days, Todd feels they are conjuring up that same feeling. They get messages from all over the world with various questions; one woman waited to save up her vacation just to come to Venice to the Freak Show; another flew from Virginia to see Rocky after watching him on "The Dog Whisperer"; an old man on what Todd says may have been his LAST day, as he was in a wheelchair, half out of it, with extra-labored breathing, but when Todd showed him the two-headed turtle, his eyes flew open wide and Todd saw the 5 year old boy he'd once been. And as Danielle cracked me up with, "Do you know how many Flat Stanley's have come through here?!"


"There's nothing curious anymore. We're here to create a sense of wonder again, and we're very serious about it", Todd proclaimed, and added, "We're celebrating the beauty and the majesty of creation." From the beauty of the beach that the Freak Show looks out on, to the willingness to applaud our differences, inside and out ... Venice is the perfect place for them to be.


They think so too. I can just keep quoting Todd, because he puts things into such wondrous perspective, like when he said, "People come here (Venice) wanting it to be something magical. This is where the Freak Show needed to be. We're all alive, but it's up to us to realize it ... Are you your body or your soul? ... This is LIVING Art!" Again, what Venice was conceived to be all about. Todd knows that the term "Freak Show" causes discomfort to some, and he tries to ease them past that word, and flip the thinking from "Abuse of the needy" feelings, to "A re-teaching of the so-called 'normal'." When you witness the way the Rays' eyes light up when telling of rescuing an animal or helping a person make a living out of what some might deem a handicap, and their excitement of future possibilities (perhaps a Magic School for Kids, where they can perform on the Freak Show stage!), you know that their own hearts and souls are in the most kind, positive and generous place.


The Rays have built a Museum of Oddities that I hope will long be a part of the Venice Community. Artists and Performers on The Boardwalk all know the Rays well, even sending their kids down to Danielle to watch and show them any new arrivals to the Freak Show. Danielle said she loves that she can stroll down to get pupusas at Lidia's and have everyone wave and shout out like on "Cheers", calling her "Freak Show Mama". The artistry and camaraderie of the Boardwalk performers and vendors make them feel at home, which the Rays in turn do for any and all comers ... anyone who is willing to step inside and suspend the outside world for a moment, to realize that life itself is Wild! Weird! ... and absolutely WONDERFUL!



The Venice Beach Freak Show
909 Ocean Front Walk
310.314.1808
(open every weekend)