PUEBLO — Jim Zajicek calls himself the curator of the unusual. But he isn’t afraid to call what he offers by its more common, yet less-sensitive, name: “freak show.” “That’s what we are,” Zajicek said proudly of his “Big Circus Side Show” on Friday, the opening day of the 137th Colorado State Fair in Pueblo.
He argues that if he hadn’t rescued Sonny, his six-legged steer, which has two legs hanging limp from its top front shoulder blades, the critter would have become dog food a decade ago because he is too freaky to be hamburger.
“It’s kind of a throwback to the ’40s and ’50s,” said Chris Wiseman, the fair’s general manager. “It’s certainly a unique attraction.”
It’s been decades since the fair, which averages about 500,000 visitors a year, has had a sideshow of this type, with two-headed animals and a “cyclops” baby that was freeze dried in 1977, he said. Fair officials want to see what people think of the show and decide whether to bring it back next year, he said.
Jackie Molen, a 24-year-old woman Zajicek bills as the “human tripod,” said she doesn’t mind being grouped with Misty the Mermaid, Tyrone the Giant Rat, a fossilized monkey skull and a devil baby with horns, fangs, pointy ears in a casket instead of a crib.
Molen was born with a rare condition called proximal femoral focal deficiency and has one leg roughly the size of her foot.
She said freak shows got a bad name when doctors started diagnosing the medical conditions of people in the shows: They weren’t amazing anymore, just ill or disabled people, she said. Displaying them became distasteful exploitation. Now there are only four such sideshows with living exhibits in the country, Molen said.
But Molen said she enjoys what she does and is well paid.
“I’m missing my femur. I’m the world’s smallest acrobat,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt. People see me in this wheelchair, and they have no idea I can hop out and do cartwheels. I’m a musician so I’m used to being on stage.”
Her boyfriend, Josh Bladzik, 26, is “Flame-O,” who can swallow fire, juggle knives and blow a stream of flame 10 feet while riding a unicycle. He also works at Zajicek’s freak show.
He said his girlfriend has a way of changing people’s minds about her performing in a sideshow. When people see her on the street they look away.
“When they meet Jackie (at the show) and she talks to them, they come away saying, ‘I never would have thought that way,’ ” he said.
Outside the sideshow, the fair is what people have come to expect, with 48 carnival rides, a rodeo, star music performers and a beer-tasting contest attracting home-brewers from across the country. There were so many brewers, home-brew coordinator Kristin Taylor lined up 25 judges.
“You’ve got to have that many judges to drink that much alcohol,” Taylor said.
Judges must swallow the beer and let it burn down their throats, she said. They set limits on how much one judge can drink and provide a shuttle for them to get to their hotel safely, Taylor said.
The fair has taken precautions this year linked to swine flu, or H1N1 virus.
Wiseman said the pigs displayed by kids in 4-H and from farms will go to the butcher once the show is over, and the pigs in the petting zoo will be quarantined for two weeks after the fair.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
Going to the State Fair
The Colorado State Fair opened Friday and runs through Sept. 7. Grounds in Pueblo are open each day from 10 a.m. to midnight.
Admission is $5 Monday through Thursday and $8 Friday through Sunday.
Events may have additional charges, as do rides. For more information, see
