‘Freaks’ tests physical limits of performers, squeamishness of audience

One of the performers in the adult production “Freaks” skewers himself. The show started at O’Sheas beginning Friday, March 13.

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Courtesy photo

Two performers in the adult production "Freaks, which started Friday, March 13, at O'Sheas.

If you’ve never been invited to a Halloween party thrown by comic magician Amazing Johnathan, you can get a taste of his macabre sense of humor in “Freaks,” the new show at O’Sheas.

Producer Anthony Cools discovered some of the acts at the Johnathan events.

“I thought of the idea for ‘Freaks’ a couple of years ago,” says Cools, a hypnotist as well as producer. “I’ve been looking for the right people for a long time and I ended up meeting about half the cast over a course of two years at Amazing Johnathan’s parties.”

A couple in the show are human skewers, penetrating skin and muscle with long needles. One of the skewered cast members has a hand drill with a corkscrew bit that passes through his nasal cavities. There’s some glass eating and sword swallowing.

“There are a couple of topless parts in the show,” Cools says, “but they’re wearing pasties. We’re not even in the top five for risque shows.”

But No. 1 for squeamish.

“It’s a fast-paced show and there are points in time where you can’t take your eyes off the stage and there are points in time when you wince from what’s going on. Nothing has been done like this on the Strip.”

Cools, a native of Calgary, Alberta, has been a Strip fixture for the past three years, starring in the “Uncensored Hypnotist” at Paris Las Vegas, a show that pushes the sexual envelope. He recently signed a contract for four more years.

He also produces a show with topless female magicians, “Ooh La La,” which shared the Paris room with his hypnotist act but is looking for a new venue.

For now, he’s obsessed with “Freaks.”

“I was looking to do something a lot different from a traditional freak show where you turn on the white lights, give a guy a bullhorn, pass a bucket around to do a show,” he says. “I wanted to do something on a Broadway level and I think I’ve managed to come up with something new that’s never been done before.”

Like a Broadway show, “Freaks” has a story line.

“Sideshows don’t have story lines,” he says.

The 70-minute production takes place in the 130-seat theater on the second floor of O’Sheas, a boutique casino on the Strip owned by Harrah’s Entertainment. Outrageous comedian Vinnie Favorito headlined the room until he moved next door to the Flamingo, another Harrah’s property.

“We reoutfitted the theater with a bunch of staging, new lighting and sound,” Cools says.

The show had a soft opening on Friday the 13th.

“That was by design,” Cools says. “Our grand opening will be April 1, also by design.”

There are two shows a night, Wednesdays through Saturdays. Eventually, he says, there will be shows seven nights a week featuring two casts rotating every three or four days.

“These people can only do this to their bodies for so many days a week,” Cools says. “Like the guy who does the full-blown suspension — he has meat hooks in his back and is suspended above the stage.

“Vegas has been dying for something different for a long time.”