Bally Master
Produced in: USA
Completion Date: June 2007
Running Time: 22 minutes
Experience a guilty pleasure as you are drawn into the bizarre world of Scott Baker, master of the Bally stage at Coney Island's "Sideshows by the Seashore".
Watch Scott as he performs hardcore sideshow — geeking acts such as razor blade eating, straight jacket escape, "The Human Pin-Cushion", "The Human Blockhead" and watch, if you can, as he consumes a meal of glass chards. "Professor Scott" also talks about how many of these outrageous routines came about.
"It's all REAL,
it's all HERE,
it's ALIVE!"
Meet fellow sideshow performers who share the stage with him such as Insectavora (the sensual Coney Island fire-eater), Bambi the Mermaid (burlesque star and unofficial Queen of Coney Island), Serpentina the snake charmer as well as other Coney Island personalities and habitues.
Scott talks in depth about his life, the sideshow, and of geeking (and by geeking, we mean biting off the heads of live chickens, not sitting at a computer all day).
Many of the legendary performers who influenced him such as Harry Houdini, Frank Lentinni, Melvin Burkhardt and Gypsy Rose Lee are discussed.
Scott was filmed live on the bally stage at the Coney Island Circus Sideshow as he worked the crowd and in other locations throughout New York City.
Trailer