A Saturday at the Circus and Week 1 Previews & Picks

College football returns for its first full weekend of the season, and a circus follows the game.

A few summers back, I read Liam Rourke’s excellent biography of former Miami University All-American defensive lineman turned pro wrestling star, the late Brian Pillman.

via the Cincinnati Post

Rourke’s exhaustive reporting in Crazy Like A Fox details how in the mid-1990s, shortly before his death, Pillman drafted a blueprint to earn as much money as possible before his 40s in order to build a nest egg for his family.

Pillman, working in an industry built entirely on deception, researched famous hucksters and conmen as part of his plan to become both must-see attraction for curious audiences and a master negotiator against deceptive wrestling promoters.

Among the more infamous stunts the college roommate of John Harbaugh planned, though didn’t pull off, was using Pittsburgh radio personality Mark Madden’s press credential for Super Bowl XXX to gain entry into Sun Devil Stadium. Pillman would then chain himself to one of the uprights during the Cowboys-Steelers game.

Pillman died 26 years ago this October, yet he remains an intriguing figure for journalists like Rourke and others a generation later because of his outlandish behavior. And yet, Pillman’s presence was rooted in ideas that date back at least to the late 19th Century when P.T. Barnum gained fame — and wealth — as one of the first nationally renowned entertainment promoters.

Barnum’s racket could be, and is, also described as “carny.”

The word comes from carnival barker, a late-19th Century and pre-World War II 20th Century “promoter” who shouted to passersby and crowds pitching shows or events — for a price.

We’re not talking yesteryear’s version of the weird guys who snap cards at you while you’re walking the Vegas Strip, however. Nineteenth-Century carnival barkers needed a certain showmanship; a style so distinct, it’s remained a part of popular culture in more recent times.

Few present-day carnies operate in tents hastily set up and moved from town-to-town. Today’s carny is on TV, on the internet; their chosen field could be politics or sports.

College football has long-held ties to carnies. The sport boomed in its earliest years thanks in no small part to carnival barkers, albeit not necessarily of the vaudeville variety.