Zamora the Torture King will lie on a bed of nails. And then he’ll invite the four largest people in the audience to stand on him. Besides him will be Frank Simon, a man with eight Guinness World Records. He’ll hold up a lady from the audience who weighs about 100 to 110 pounds on one foot by using only his teeth. Chelsea NoPants will swallow 27 inches of steel — think a very long, cold sword. “When you come to the show,” Zamora said to us via phone, “when you are a few feet away, there’s absolutely no question that it is real.” Zamora is part of Hellzapoppin, a clan of sideshow performers.
Zamora says the art of sideshow activity appeals to him because: “It was real magic. No wires. No mirrors.” How does this work? Well, Zamora feels no pain — sort of. “I can feel pain,” Zamora says, “but I can change how I react to it.” When prepared, he says, he can “turn off the part of my brain that reacts to pain.” That’s the trick.
For the 21-and-over crowd, tickets cost $10. For 18 to 20, it’s $20. Show starts at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Speakeasy Lounge (129 N. Federal Highway, Lake Worth); call 561-337-8844. And it all happens again at midnight on Friday at Alligator Alley (2006 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood); call 754-234-3865.
Thu., Feb. 23, 9 p.m.; Sat., Feb. 25, midnight, 2012