How the Coney Island Sideshow Still Throws Crowds in the Age of Netflix
What makes for an “authentic” experience these days?
It’s the seaside destination that was once reserved only for New York City’s upper class. It’s the birthplace of the hot dog, the roller coaster, and soft-serve ice cream. It’s Coney Island — and it’s making a comeback.
Once a great American landmark destination, whose popularity peaked during the first half of the 20th century, it declined rapidly during the 1960s. Later years saw it fall into neglect and disarray — a landscape littered with broken amusement park rides, and faded pavilions.
At the center of this rebuild is Dick Zigun, a fully-tattooed Connecticut transplant who has tapped into the soul of Coney Island’s once-fantastic past to create not one but two authentic spectacles that are capturing the attention of today’s discerning audiences.
But in a landscape littered with brands and media conglomerates attempting to connect with a new generation of audiences through immersive storytelling, what ultimately makes an “authentic” experience these days?
As it turns out, building authentic experiences starts by being a stone-cold ‘authentic’ yourself — particularly when you don’t know what devastating surprises lie in wait for you around the corner.
Bright Lights, Curious Sights
If there is a higher power, it couldn’t have plotted Dick Zigun’s entry into the sideshow business more perfectly.
Born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut — the hometown of circus magnate P.T. Barnum — Zigun was thrown into circus culture from the moment he could walk.
In a diner across the street from his 100-year-old Coney Island Sideshow building, Zigun explains. “At seven years old, I’m already a Barnum scholar, and I’m a know-it-all who’s convinced that elephants and dwarfism are patriotic,” he says, between bites of a cheeseburger and sips of a monumental chocolate shake.
“My grammar school was literally next door to (Barnum performer) Tom Thumb’s house. Around that age, I also went to the James E. Strates Show, the largest sideshow at the time, when it came through with the town’s annual Barnum festival. One of my sisters threw up at the performance so, naturally, I fell in love with sideshows immediately.”
