Side Show: My Life with Geeks, Freaks and Vagabonds in the Carny Trade

Cultural Writing. Memoir. Howard Bone was a sideshow magician virtually his whole working life. During a long, eventful, and adventurous career he lived every aspect of outdoor show business in its golden era. SIDE SHOW captures the flavor of those boisterous times -- the characters, the scenes, the scams, the dodges, the joys and sorrows of carny ways as only an insider could know them. An appealing, amusing and down and dirty glimpse into the rarely depicted nether regions of show business -- Ricky Jay, magician, actor, and author.

Howard Bone was a sideshow magician virtually his whole working life. He lived every aspect of outdoor show business in its golden era.

Daniel Waldron is uniquely qualified to help bring to life the vivid riches of a vanished world. From the circus sideshows he saw as a boy in Big Rapids, Michigan hometown, to his long friendship with Howard Bone, he has written extensively on the subject.