Volume 3, No. 19. October 10,2003
Stunt
publicity
Supplementing its annual Fright Fest with a freak show-type sideshow, Six Flags
Marine World in Vallejo, California, called on a good old-fashioned, in-your-face
circus poster look to mount its media campaign.
Jeff Jouett, the
park’s public relations manager, was partly responsible for the park booking
sideshow performing artist Harley Newman for Fright Fest which already has two
haunted houses, a hypnotist show and a trick-or-treat trail. “My sister
in St. Louis has a friend who is a sideshow aficionado,” Jouett said. “He
gave me a nice review of the best sideshow artists and recommended Harley Newman.”
The Pennsylvania-based
Newman, who studied under French mime Marcel Marceau and theatrical movement
master Jacques Lecoq, does such stunts as lying on a bed of nails while a motorcycle
passes over, stopping electric fans with his tongue, sticking power drills up
his nose and shaving with a blowtorch. He plays these stunts for laughs and
so has become a frequent guest on television talk and comedy shows. He will
combine his month-long residency at Six Flags Marine World with an appearance
on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
“October is
a really busy month for freaks,” Jouett said. “They get good work
in October. You’ve got to book them early.”
Such an act was
rich publicity fodder for the creative mind of Jouett. “We decided to really
play it up and go to the old-style sideshow look with almost cartoonish art,
the wonderful pointing fingers everywhere, hundreds of exclamation points and
bursts,” Jouett said. Brian Masuga, an artist with Lunar Cow Design in
Fairlawn, Ohio, came up with the artwork, and Jouett derived the copy, including
the title “Freak Me Out.”
Jouett started
his media campaign with a series of four postcards, each showing a different
Harley stunt like the Barbed Wire Futon!, The Human Blockhead!, Breathes Fire!
Eats Fire! and Harley Parks A Harley On Top Of Himself On A Bed Of Nails! The
weekly-delivered postcards led into the press kit, with more stunt art on the
cover and even the press releases printed on circus poster stationary with such
headlines as “Harley’s Gnarly!”
“The sideshow
unapologetically manipulates your attention,” Jouett said, and that he
did. The first day Harley arrived in Vallejo he had local radio and television
interviews lined up. “We’ve gotten a lot of calls,” Jouett said.
“It’s been really fun. You send out a postcard of a guy pounding nails in his nose. How often do you get to do that? You can use wildly, weird contrasting type fonts next to each other and write about somebody who staples their tongue to a board after studying with Marcel Marceau.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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