Books
Vaudevisuals Press is Proud to Present Their New Imprint, Outside Talker Press. OTP is Excited for “The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek.”
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Before “geek” became synonymous with computer wizardry, the term referred to the lowest of all carnival acts. Wild-eyed and unkempt, the geek would bite the head off of a chicken or rodent, splattering blood and crunching bone, as the animal writhed in death throes and horrified audiences looked on in disgust. Steeped in cruelty and controversy, not to mention dubious hygienics, geek shows are now largely a thing of the past. For hundreds of years, however, geeks were a popular form of entertainment, though farfetched promotional puffery, hyperbolic portrayals in books and films, and the sheer lack of credible information regarding the lowest of all lowbrow entertainment, have made it difficult to separate fact from fiction.
“The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek” is the first book to present a detailed and unflinching history of the sideshow geek. Variety entertainer Nathan Wakefield sifts through historical documentation to answer all the burning questions about this gruesome variety act: “Who was the first sideshow geek?” “How did geek shows operate?” “What were some notable geeks?” In addition, the book examines adjacent genres of live entertainment including wild men, stone eaters, human ostriches, and competitive goldfish swallowers.
Outside Talker Press is an Imprint of Vaudevisuals Press.
“An impressive survey drawing back the curtains on one of the most strange and macabre corners of the history of popular entertainment and a must read for sideshow fans and performers… Step right up and peak inside (if you dare).” – Mistress Kali, The Southern Sideshow Hootenanny
Nathan Wakefield (Author) is a variety performer and sideshow historian from Southeast Michigan. Under the stage name “Nathan McScary,” he specializes in macabre juggling acts and innovative fire entertainment with exclusive props. Wakefield enjoys exploring the creative possibilities of object manipulation, re-creating 19th century gentleman juggling tricks, and studying performance styles that are just plain weird.
James Taylor (Forward) is the planet’s foremost authority on sideshow. He is the mastermind behind Shocked and Amazed! – On & Off the Midway, the only journal devoted to variety exhibition and life in the sideshow, published through Dolphin-Moon since 1995. Taylor has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, the Learning Channel’s Sideshow: Alive on the Inside and NPR’s The Derek McGinty Show.
Presales: March 8, 2023
Publication Date: June 1, 2023
Retail Price: $24.95
Presale price: $20 + postage & tax
Discount code: sideshow
Website: http://outsidetalkerpress.com
Books purchased during pre-sale will be shipped after the publication date.
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Joe Reina has published a new novel, "Shadows over Scottsdale: An Unsolved Murder Mystery," built around a scenario true-crime statistics make uncomfortably familiar: a man commits a devastating crime and simply disappears, leaving investigators and a grieving community with no resolution.
The book follows a character named Robert, who flees the country using forged documents and a cargo ship after an act of destruction that leaves behind, as the publisher describes it, charred remains and an unanswered investigation. The case goes cold. The novel, according to its publisher, is less concerned with the mechanics of the escape than with what happens afterward, to the people left waiting for answers that never come.
Reina, now retired in Scottsdale, spent decades in international business across apparel, footwear, and real estate, with extensive time in Europe and a particular connection to Italy that shaped two earlier books, "The Goat Sleeps in the Kitchen" and "A Love Affair in Tuscany." "Shadows over Scottsdale" marks a different direction, built instead around the real scale of unsolved homicide in the U.S. The publisher’s materials cite roughly 346,000 unsolved homicides since 1965, with more than a dozen occurring unresolved each day. Separate reporting on the book has cited a figure of about 7,778 murders in 2023 alone, which it similarly frames as more than a dozen a day going unresolved.
"Writing ‘Shadows over Scottsdale’ forced me to confront uncomfortable questions about justice itself," Reina said, according to the announcement. "Too many crimes go unsolved, too many families wait endlessly for answers. I wanted readers to understand that behind every cold case statistic is a real story, real suffering, and real questions that may never be answered."
The publisher positions the novel as an examination of institutional limits as much as a crime story: the toll of a case gone cold on the people who can’t move past it, and what it means for a community when accountability simply never arrives.
"Shadows over Scottsdale" is published by Covenant Books and is available in paperback and hardcover through the publisher’s website and major retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.
Cold-case statistics tend to get cited and then forgotten. Studio CarryOnHarry is curious whether fiction built directly around that number does more to stick with a reader than the number alone ever does.
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Joe Reina has published a new novel, "Lost Masterpieces: Three Paintings, 500 Years A Journey Through Time," built around an imagined scene from Renaissance history: the night before Leonardo da Vinci leaves for Milan, when three fellow painters each hand him a small work carrying a private message.
According to the announcement, those three gifts come from Sandro Botticelli, Titian, and Andrea Mantegna, each painting standing in for a different kind of counsel. Botticelli’s piece is described as layered with allegory and coded warnings about power and patronage. Titian’s is framed as warm and sensual, suggesting reinvention and a break from convention. Mantegna’s is austere and classically precise, encoding discipline and endurance. According to the announcement, these three paintings form a wordless exchange between masters, transmitting wisdom, mutual regard, and assurance across generations through visual means.
Reina comes to this material from outside the art world. His career was built in apparel, footwear, and real estate development in Chicago, and the publisher’s materials trace his interest in European history, and in Italy specifically, to years of international business travel. He has published several previous books, including "The Goat Sleeps in the Kitchen," "A Love Affair in Tuscany," and "Shadows over Scottsdale," before turning to this account of a fictionalized moment at the hinge of the Renaissance.
"I wanted to capture that extraordinary moment when masters speak to each other across time through their work," Reina said in the announcement. "These paintings represent not just gifts, but a conversation about what it means to pursue greatness while remaining grounded in purpose and principle."
The book is published through Covenant Books and is available in hardcover and paperback, as well as through Apple Books, Amazon, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble.
Studio CarryOnHarry is intrigued by novels that build fiction around real historical figures at a specific, dramatized turning point rather than attempting straight biography — the approach succeeds or fails based on how seamlessly the fictional moment integrates with documented historical fact.
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