Geek chic
By MATT GLEASON 7/9/2004
"What does it mean to be a geek in society?" asks Baker. "It's either the guy who bites the head off a live chicken . or it can be the performer of shocking, depraved acts." Courtesy Photo
Tulsan returns home with fire-eating, razor-blade spitting show
Native Tulsan Scott Baker, the man behind "Geek Circus -- the Twisted Shockfest," eats fire, glass, lit cigarettes and live crickets.
He pounds nails into his skull, escapes from strait-jackets, regurgitates razor blades and, well, he does a whole lot more.
He sings, too.
"I do the world's only singing glass-eating act," Baker said in a recent telephone interview. "You know the Hank Williams song, 'I Saw the Light?' Well, I sing, 'I Ate the Light' and eat a 75-watt light bulb."
He's also "the world's champion blockhead."
"I pound giant, 30-penny spikes into my skull," he said, "and live to laugh and joke about it."
Baker, who is a alum of the classic late-night Tulsa comedy television show "The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting" featuring the notorious Mazeppa Pompazoidi, said the circus gives insight into being a geek.
"We dramatically get to look at the hapless people who are exploited to become a geek," he said. "What does it mean to be a geek in society? It's either the guy who bites the head off live chicken and drinks the blood, or it can be the performer of shocking, depraved acts in the carnival.
"We sort of look at the geek in all of us."
Baker, who regularly performs at Coney Island, is overjoyed to bring his circus to his hometown.
"I'm thrilled to be doing it in Tulsa because Tulsa is where I first saw a show like this," he said.
The year was 1954 and Baker was mesmerized by all the gruesome feats.
"The thing that drove me crazy was a guy eating fire, breathing fire, spitting fire and licking flaming torches just as you would an ice cream cone," Baker said. "I said to myself, 'I have to learn this.' This is when I was 6, mind you."
He was always into magic as a kid, but the sideshow offered something much wilder.
He thought to himself, "This is the wacky stuff. This is the stuff I really have to learn. This is the stuff that intrigues me, excites me and stimulates me beyond belief."
As he watched that sideshow, Baker didn't realize how endangered sideshows actually were.
"Little did I know that I was watching the end of an era," he said. "The only place it's still performed, in terms of the traditional sideshow, is at Coney Island, where I do it."
Baker learned the ways of the macabre trade from the professionals -- carnies.
"They will teach you if you have 'the stuff' to learn it," he said. "I'm one of the handful of people they thought had 'the stuff.' "
Baker said the allure of being a sideshow performer has always been powerful.
"I was on Broadway for 12 years in 'Oh! Calcutta!' I was the lead for many, many years," he said. "But I always wanted to learn these incredible sideshow skills, so I started pursuing it.
"Little did I know that I was on the cutting edge of what was going to become a happening trend."
So is there anything a that can make Baker afraid?
Yes, there is.
"Lack of employment," he jested.
GEEK CIRCUS -- THE TWISTED SHOCKFEST
When: 8 p.m. July 9-10
Where: Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. 4th St.
Admission: $15 at the door