9:00am Saturday 14th January 2006
By Mark Edwards
ALL the fun of the fear comes to the city when the Circus of Horrors brings its troupe of pickled people, human angle-grinders and fire-blowers to the Alban Arena.
Overseeing events will be crepuscular ringmaster Dokter Haze. I caught up with the not-so-good doctor setting up for another date on their exhaustive international tour, which he describes as venturing from "Argentina to St Albans".
Haze was born in the circus but soon realised that the traditional big top with its clowns and trapeze artists didn't appeal to his more macabre tastes.
He says: "I wanted to mix circus, horror and rock n' roll."
He put his ideas to friend and leading circus empresario Gerry Cottle who provided the tent when the Circus of Horrors played its inaugral show at the 1995 Glastonbury Festival.
For the line-up, Haze cherry-picked the circus world's most bizarre acts.
He says: "Circus is exciting anyway. We just took all the most exciting acts from all over the world such as Tanzania, Mexico and Russia. They've often spent their whole lives in the circus. I have assembled my dream, or nightmare, show."
It is not always Haze and his associates that do the searching. When the troupe played a show at The Roundhouse in Camden, north London, a woman approached the ringmaster after the show.
Haze takes up the tale: "She said My husband's got really stretchy skin'.
"As it turns out it is a medical condition and there's only two people like it in the world. Ours has the stretchiest skin in the world."
The botox-shy man was taken on by Haze and is now billed as Gary Stretch. Haze says: "He's become famous over night since joining our show. He's gone from being a scaffolder in London to performing in Hollywood."
Stretch is a new addition to the show, which having run for ten years is always being revamped to keep the fans returning. Haze says: "We try and change it every year and get some new acts for the fans."
The tour which hits St Albans will also feature new boy Demon Dan. The 4ft 1inch artist's act comprises, according to Haze, "eating lightbulbs, doing strange things with a hoover and opening bottles with his eye".
There will also be old favourites the pickled people, who are contortionists which can squeeze themselves into pickle jars, a man that can pick up bells with his nipples and flying vampire trapeze artists that hang by their hair.
All the acts are driven along by Haze's live rock band, The X-Factor, which he fronts and writes most of their original material.
Despite acts from the show making appearance on such family TV shows such as The Ant n' Dec Show and Richard And Judy, Haze warns that the show is "for all the family. As long as you're name is Addams".
There is some nudity and swearing so parental discretion is recommended.
The show is on Tuesday, January 24, and begins at 8pm.
Tickets can be booked by telephoning the Arena box office on 01727 844488.
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