The Great American Sideshow is alive and well across the United States.

It is a uniquely American phenomenon. Borne from the roots of PT Barnum, the Sideshow fell into disrepute in the 1960s, as television, more advanced political views and medicine marginalized it to the point of near death.

However, the American Sideshow has, in the past few years, enjoyed an enormous resurgence, as it heads into the mainstream as an art form all its own. Much like tatooing, American Sideshow is now not only acceptable, it is absolutely fascinating.

From State Fairs in Mississippi to performance artists in NY to a resurrected carny in Venice Beach to the boardwalk in Coney Island, the Sideshow is back in a big way. Instead of the old school ‘freaks’, the carny attractions are now artists in their own right, and their acts, as well as their lives, are absolutely mesmerizing.

Our guide to the world of the American Sideshow is Todd Robbins.

He is the modern day P.T. Barnum, the Robert Ripley of our times, the postmodern master of the sideshow, the Chairman of the Board of Coney Island USA, the world’s greatest purveyor of amazement…Todd Robbins. Besides being an award-winning performer with more than one hundred TV appearances under his belt and the star of the off-Broadway hit Carnival Knowledge, Todd is the perfect guide through the dark back alleyways of unorthodox entertainment because THIS IS HIS WORLD.Though on the surface he seems the epitome of class, authority and refinement; underneath it all is a twisted soul that has made a career being the world’s foremost glass eater! Chances are that if you have seen someone on TV biting into a light bulb and gleefully consuming the jagged glass, it was Todd doing it.In addition to chowing down on over four-thousand light bulbs, Todd has become well known for such acts of intimate dare-deviltry as walking over broken bottles in his bare feet, swallowing and regurgitating live cockroaches, hammering a huge nail into his nose, sticking his hand into an animal trap, blowing up a hot water bottle until it bursts with only the power of his lungs and much more. And all of this is wrapped up in a cutting edge sense of humor. There is a reason that Howard Stern has said, “This is an amazing talent” We’ll say it simply – Todd Robbins is a god!Todd is a consummate showman. He mixes wit, intelligence and classic carnival bombast together with reality at its most shocking and amazing.