Images from Martyn Burke

Carnivals

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Fat Man Paul Fish - Lobster Boy Grady Stiles

Filmed across America's eastern seaboard in the 1970's, Carnivals is an homage to Speedy, Yak-Yak, Obie, Lobster Boy  and all the other carnies who lived and worked on Amusements of America.  Theirs was a world within a world traveling through the chaos of post-Vietnam America as community of freaks, strippers, clowns and bosses.  To them, their world was sane; it was the rest of America that was crazy.  In an era when Vietnam madness was still tearing at the country the carnival was their refuge, their home.  From the tough, yet benevolent bosses like Johnny Vivona, to Tony the truck mechanic and strip show choreographer, to Speedy McNish who rode the motorcycle Wall of Death to honor his beloved son killed in Vietnam, the characters of Carnivals make up a unique portrait of America at a time of upheaval.  click here to see and excerpt from the documentary Carnivals by Martyn Burke Carnivals Fat Boy and Lobster Boy - martynburke.com