By Michael G. Glab
“It wasn’t something I owned or ran. It was just a place for me to go.”
Right now, Darke’s performers are preparing, each in his or her own way, for the show. Mark “the Knife” Faje sits on a sofa and stares straight ahead, oblivious to the growing crowd, his concentration almost palpable. Dontinion “Dante” Ingram chain-smokes, her glittering ruby red gown reflecting the candles’ flickers, as she checks and rechecks items in her equipment case. Standing at the bar, Scott Sabala, who bills himself as T-2 or the One-Eyed Man, sips from a martini glass and exchanges raucous jokes with his wife and some friends. He hands out promotional photos of himself. “The original living breathing man with a hole in his head” is printed on the back. Darke disappears behind a dark curtain and changes into his performance costume: harem pants tucked inside high, lace-up boots and a puffy shirt, open to the navel–all in dark colors.
Dante then opens a broadsheet newspaper wide in front of her. Faje cracks his whip, shearing the newspaper in successively smaller pieces in her hands until there is nothing left of it.
Then he has them sit in a square in folding chairs arranged so they can lean back, each torso supported by the next guy’s knees. Darke and Faje pull the chairs out from under them, leaving them locked in their human truss. The two performers wave good-bye and exit the stage, leaving the four the uncomfortable task of wrestling their way out of their Escher-like mess.
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“Because it became illegal to put a person on display in so many places, Jeanie and Dickie found themselves out of work,” Darke says. He scratches his head, contemplating what happened. “If you’re dancing, if you’re doing magic, aren’t you on display? Don’t get me wrong–I don’t believe in showing somebody just for the sake of showing something different. I want to show something different with skill. If somebody doesn’t have any arms and legs I’m not going to set them on a pillow and say, ‘Come on, look at this person for a dollar.’ Now, if they can roll a cigarette with their tongue, I’d pay to see somebody do that if they had arms and legs!”
