This week's show is a deep dive into the history of an oft-underrepresented and very taboo aspect of carnival sideshows- the geek act- with author and variety arts performer Nathan Wakefield. Nathan is the author of the excellent book The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek: Snake Eaters, Human Ostriches, and Other Extreme Entertainments, and in this episode he and AP go over a wide variety of acts, personalities, and techniques described in its pages- and still only cover a fraction of the wonderfully weird history it contains! Listeners will hear about various acts associated with geeking, what constitutes a geek act, performers ranging from skilled magicians to shameless provocateurs, and even famous animals such as Mike the Headless Chicken. Beyond that, cultural threads are pulled upon in talking about William Lindsay Gresham's book Nightmare Alley and its film adaptations, the long shadow of the geek in shock rock antics, and even connections to professional wrestling!

Performing under the name Nathan McScary, this week's guest has a unique perspective as a juggler and variety arts entertainer which provides a valuable foundation in explaining the darker and more controversial aspects of sideshow. The book is well-researched and entertaining to read, and proves Nathan to be a wonderful historian, storyteller, and advocate for variety arts that might otherwise have been lost to time.

You can find the book here: https://outsidetalkerpress.bigcartel.com/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-sideshow-geek
And while you're there, check out the other great titles from Outside Talker Press!

and follow along with Nathan's work at https://nathanmcscary.com/

This week, AP is joined by Simon Hesselager Johansen for a fascinating discussion about UFO contactees that are not well known outside of Denmark and other select locales within Europe. Simon is a writer and researcher with HidDenmark, a group which chronicles and maps high strangeness, folklore, and mystery throughout the country, and in his recent work on the site he has done a deep dive on those claiming contact with beings from other planets. In this conversation, he first explains the history of HidDenmark and his contributions to it, and a bit about some historical encounters with UFOs such as the Aarslev Enge case of 1600. He then presents his wonderful research into a Polish born Danish mechanic named Josef Maliszewki and his encounters with beings from Zutorn, which allegedly pre-date the earliest American contacts. AP and Simon then talk about a later contactee, a taxi driver named Knud Weiking and his channeled messages from Orthon. Simon explains how these contacts culminated in more recent claimed contacts in Czechia and Slovakia with another name familiar to those conversant in UFO history, Ashtar Command, through personalities such as Ivo Benda and a healer called Branjo.

Throughout the conversation comparisons are made to American contactee accounts, with a particular focus on George Adamski and his worldwide following through his contact with another Orthon. They also dissect origins of Space Brother narratives, making distinctions between those drawn from Theosophical traditions and others which seem to have a Christian focus. Along the way listeners will hear about anomalous light phenomena, doomsday bunkers, the finer points of extraterrestrial couture, and even Tintin's encounter with ancient astronauts!

It was a wide-ranging and in-depth chat, with Simon expertly presenting a history of Scandinavian ufology that's largely unknown or ignored by English speaking flying saucer enthusiasts!

To follow along with Simon's work, be sure to check out HidDenmark here: https://hiddenmark.dk/category/english/

This week, AP is joined by John C. Meyers for a wide-ranging and joke-filled discussion about movies, franchises, and fandoms. John is the co-host of two great movie based podcasts, John and Alexx Hate Stuff and This May Hurt a Bit. On the latter show, John and his co-host James Strayer review every movie in a horror franchise, so having John on was a prime opportunity to discuss sequels, reboots, and remakes, and the many ways those can go wrong. Along the way they get into topics such as what makes horror movies great, trends in movies more broadly, taking franchises into space, and the looming encroachment of AI.

Other topics covered include: the trickiness of making good horror comedy, whether or not M. Night Shyamalan is secretly as serial killer, comic book culture in the movies, the finer points of bouncing decapitated heads, and the evolving nature of the cinema going experience.

Make sure you check out John's podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-and-alexx-hate-stuff/id1241812993
and here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-may-hurt-a-bit/id1623226464