Not a single one of my claims or records is shady, I think it's wrong to outright lie to someones face, and to undermind another performers hard work and dedication to achieve something, so to make a claim of being the first or only or whatever; it's just not me.

Wrong to outright lie to someone's face? If you can prove your claims, so much the better, but sideshow performers do it all the time.

Tell that to all the blockhead performers who claim "I will hammer this deadly nail into my skull (as they do their best to make the nail look like it's being hammered instead of sliding right in) or the bed-of-nails performers who tell their audiences that "the razor-sharp spikes threaten to rend my flesh to the bone" or the blindfold act who pretends that he can't see anything at all. And of course never ever claim that "this lovely girl will grow hair and fangs and turn into a savage gorilla".

By the way, this is positively the one and only Feejee Mermaid caught in a deep-water net in the uncharted South Pacific and studied by the Smithsonian Institution where scientists certified that no other specimen of its kind..." and while you're at it, see the legendary Chupacabra right behind this curtain. Next door you can see the most amazing freaks, past and present, you'll see [photographic standees of] The Elephant Man, The World's Smallest Horse, and The Living Unicorn. Please do not feed them!

I see that Ross is actually a Sideshow fan! He gets it! If we don't have the showmanship involved then it's not really Sideshow.

I am a sideshow fan (else I wouldn't podcast about it) but ... but ... but I thought all these other folks in this thread were, too! Look at them ... each and every one!

I've found ways to word things in such a way where I don't need to stretch the truth. Presentation is one thing, but using someone else lines is the same thing as a kid magician repeating the dvd he learned the trick from. Use your own presentation and don't lie. Magic you lie, its a trick, sideshow is real, no need to lie.

The same is true for both performance and PR. If you have a leg to stand on, you don't need to BS.

I've NEVER fluffed my numbers. EVER, I've had the PA Dept of Weights and Measures attest to it. Now....... my inspirational performer Rasmus Nielsen touted lifting anvils of 250 pounds and higher.... I have also been told that his anvils may have been cast of aluminum and his numbers were highly exaggerated, this being during the height of his career in the 1930's...... in this, the 21st century, there is no room for BS. I stand by my records, and am VERY proud of my accomplishments. I also have deep respect for rejection. I prefer rejection over neglect anyday.

Hate to break the news to you... Rasmus's era Paycheck w/ Gaffs works out to a Hell of lot more money when ajusted for Inflation today Then todays Nippilini with the real deal...I Love ya man! But Cash trumps Guiness...

Sideshow performers are just about the last ways the public can come into live, un-televised, right-in-front-of-you contact with the extraordinary (the remainder of the extraordinary is on sale in boxes at Best Buy). Performers like Nips who do certifiable verifiable feats are the purveyors of modern-day legends to those who witness their performances - people will tell people "what they saw that guy do" for the rest of their lives. And those performers can rightly take pride in their skill and courage. But I don't think I'll ever see a performer who will shy away from making a crowd-attracting claim on their banners (even modern-day banners like HuffPo articles). It's just one of many approaches that have traditionally been used to draw a tip, and it works.

Those who hang out here know the difference, and can choose to argue about the approach other performers take ... or not. It might be a lose/lose proposition to complain about other performers' claims, because the public will never hear about it and if they did they wouldn't care even a little bit. The Huffington Post headline was forgotten the very next day by everybody except us.

There's no point to tearing down some other performer's bally. The topmost text over on sideshowworld is right: Call a talker a liar and he's ready to fight, but when you tell him, "you really made a strong opening with nothing in the show to back it up," he's proud. Or as Hollywood put it, "Rock Hudson is America's favorite leading man, and he's deeply in love with Doris Day ... I mean Susan St. James ... I mean Liz Taylor ... come see their new movie!" Or as Kipling put it, "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right!"

You GOT it Jim... that was my whole point! The man HAD to puff and gaff, did it every day for YEARS!!! He was a legend, and yes comparatively to todays dollars, he made WAY more than I did with my teats.

I am arguably the best sword swallower in the world.

Words are fun. Promo is like a political campaign. How far you are willing to create spin is up to your beliefs and your staffs support or lack of.

I like it! They really are, whether you want to hype yourself up to obviously unbelievable levels (like Eric the Exceedingly, Enormously, Extraordinarily-Excellent does) or just generate a litte buzz.