Nye, Jody Lynn - What, And Give Up Show Business

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What? And Give Up Show Business?

Jody Lynn Nye is perhaps best known for her popular collaborations with Anne McCaffrey (The Death of

Sleep, Treaty on Doona, etc.) and her guide to McCaffrey s world of Pern called, appropriately. The

Dragonlover's Guide to Pern. On her own, she's the author of one contemporary fantasy series

(Mythology 101 ami Mythology Abroad) ami one science fiction series (Taylor's Ark and Medicine

Show), as well as a number of short stories.

WHAT? AND GIVE UP SHOW

BUSINESS?

BY JODY LYNN NYE

"Hey, kids, come on in!" Ben Barber called out the oversized door of his sideshow booth. He waved a

friendly arm to the passersby. The children and adults shyly sidled in past the sign that said "World's

Fattest Man" and stood looking around at the room, their eyes wide.

All the furnishings looked gigantic, but it was really an optical illusion for the paying public. The stuff

nearest the door was oversized, but if any of them got close enough to Ben to notice, the chair where he

sat enthroned, wearing his bright red suit and yellow necktie, was built to an exaggeratedly small scale to

display him as much bigger than he really was. He stood six foot three, but barely tipped the scales at

450.

A couple of teenage girls glanced up at him, and he winked. They giggled and blushed.

"Nice to see you ladies," he said. "Are you enjoying the show?"

"Oh, yes," one of them gasped out. Still tittering, the pair made their way around his "apartment" tableau,

gawking at the oversized television, a pair of enormous boxer shorts big enough for Ben and a sumo

wrestler to share, and the giant layer cake under a dome on the table. It wasn't edible, of course, being

made of a kind of shiny plastic that looked like buttercream. They picked up the huge fork and spoon that

lay on either side of the pizza-pan-sized plate set in front of the single, heavily reinforced chair. Ben

glanced around at his other guests.

Maybe being a sideshow attraction wasn't the most glamorous job in show business, Ben admitted to

himself as he dug a hand into the garbage-can-sized container of peanuts at the side of his chair and

pulled up a fistful of nuts, but it was show business. One of the little boys stared at Ben's peanut canister.

Ben offered him a nut, but the child turned his gaze at the fat man's stomach and shook his head.

"You're so big!" the boy said.

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What? And Give Up Show Business?

"One peanut never did all this, kid," Ben said, cracking the shell in his teeth. "Hey, thank you all for

stopping by," he called to the people who'd finished their look around. "Come again soon."

They smiled back at him. In the next booth, Fatima the snake charmer, real name Ellen Miller, played

with six soporific pythons and a boa constrictor. Act One naturally gave way to Act Two, but Ben hated

to see his audience go. He waved as they left.

Ben Barber couldn't remember a time when he didn't want to be on the stage. He loved the attention and

the applause. Ever since he was a little boy, he had dreamed of fame and fortune, of seeing his name

above the title on a marquee: "Ben Barber, starring in The Great American Movie." Or below the title. Or

even somewhere in the credit crawl at the end of any picture whatsoever. He didn't care. He wanted to be

someone that people gawked at in admiration, and went away wishing they were him.

The circus had seemed like a good starting place for a career. Ben had taken the spot in the freak show of

a ten-man fleabag circus that came through his upstate New York town one summer day. It'd do for him

until he got his big break. And then reality landed on him like the guy for whom the boxer shorts had

originally been made. There weren't any leading roles for a twenty-something man who weighed three-

hundred-something, no matter how good-looking he was.

Undaunted, he continued to go to every audition for plays advertised by community groups in the towns

where the circus stopped. He wanted a role—any role—so badly he could taste the lines in his mouth.

They tasted sweet.

The local directors turned him down, with varying excuses. His strong jaw, fine, thick, black hair, and

blue eyes with long eyelashes would have been honest-to-God box office under other circumstances, but

more, in this case, was not better. Ben didn't stop auditioning, but he began to lose hope.

Once in a while, the Ringman Circus rolled into a town where a film was shooting on location. In

between setups, the crews came in to see the show. Ben was thrilled beyond words when the first live

movie cast and crew visited him. He made a lot of friends in the industry, most of whom were

sympathetic to his dream. But though he tried desperately to interest them in hiring him, even as an extra,

so far no one had given him a shot.

"If you want the truth," one location manager told him privately over a drink after the sideshow had

closed for the night, "no one will ever cast from a carnival. Everything looks too shopworn. People in the

film biz like everything brand-new—fresh coat of paint, something they've never seen before. Blame

Hollywood. They have the idea nothing's good that wasn't thought up just yesterday, if not today,

especially if it was their own idea. A circus that's been traveling for fifty years—that's too old, too tired.

Sure, big guys have made it in the industry, but you're here, in the show, so you're associated with it. It's

too bad."

After the man left, Ben felt depressed, and polished off most of a half-gallon of ice cream. The circus

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