313 Clinton Avenue Carnival of Carnage!!!

A tap dancing mermaid at the Clinton Hill Carnival of Carnage

Happy Halloween! Tonight the good people at 313 Clinton Avenue put on their yearly Halloween show, and it may have been their best ever! The theme this year was “Carnival of Carnage.” As always the production value was top notch. The folks working on the show include some past and present theater folk from the Great White Way who know their way around sound and light equipment. They also know how to edit your favorite Disney songs to give them Brooklyn specific lyrics over the familiar music. Most of the ghouls and monsters in this year’s show crawled out of the ooze of the Gowanus canal, including the mermaid in the picture above, tapping her way into the hearts of the many children in the audience who were enchanted by the spectacle. (It seemed like half the audience was under three years old.)

Speaking of the crowd, one mother who was standing near me opined that it was the largest she’d seen at the event. I estimated (very roughly) one hundred people, including children. The entire affair is very child friendly, but there are jokes enough for the adults. For example, the tomb stones in the front yard had a decidedly political bent.

There were some plain funny ones too.

Most of the acts were a funny send up of carnivals and side shows with the obvious Halloween theme, but I was pleasantly surprised by the four performers who worked with fire — literally. It was very much real circus work, and added immensely to the illusion that this was in fact a carnival of carnage.

Check out the rest of the acts — the bearded lady, the strong man, lobster boy and his mermaid companion — the the picture gallery below.