Drew Friedman Turns Sideshow Freaks Into Fine Art

Go ahead, stare at the freaks.

That's what artist Drew Friedman wants you to do in his new book, "Drew Friedman's Sideshow Freaks" (Blast Books), featuring full-color paintings of 50 unique individuals from the sideshow world. Each includes a brief biography on the subject.

"The way I'm presenting them, they're just normal people looking at us, the reader, like, 'What are you looking at? What's the big deal?' " Friedman told AOL News. "They're in show business just like anyone else who's in show business. And they're proud to be in it."

Friedman, 52, has illustrated countless celebrities over his 30-year career for magazines such as The New Yorker, Esquire, the New York Observer and MAD, as well as several books, including "Old Jewish Comedians." But freaks are something he's been eager to draw for many years.

"I've been fascinated by them since I was a little kid," Friedman said.

It began after his parents took him to see the movie "Freaks" (1932) by Tod Browning at a New York City theater in the 1960s. The film features real sideshow freaks, including conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton, armless woman Frances O'Connor, and legless man Johnny Eck.

"That stuck with me," Friedman said.

The aforementioned freaks, along with several others from the movie, are portrayed in Friedman's book.

His childhood also included frequent visits to Coney Island, where he had the chance to witness a few live human oddities at the freak show. One his most vivid memories is of 700-pound fat man Jolly Jere.

"I realized after seeing him that he was putting us at ease," Friedman said. "We walked in and were staring at him and felt kind of nervous about it, but he was joking, telling self-deprecating jokes about his wife leaving him. They're just normal people who happen to look different."

The personal experience made Jolly Jere one of Friedman's favorite freaks to paint.

"The Mule-Faced Woman," Grace McDaniels (1888-1958), is another personal favorite. As the book describes, McDaniels suffered from "a rare congenital disorder that caused a large port-wine stain on her face and thickened, distorted folds in the flesh of her face."

"I wanted to present her in a beautiful idyllic setting," Friedman said. "It's one of the most grotesque faces you can imagine, but I put her in a beautiful fall setting, with leaves and a nice dress."

He noted that despite their anomalies, women of the sideshow still cared about their appearance. "It seemed like all the females always had bows in their hair, they were made up with lipstick," Friedman said. "They still wanted to look presentable and pretty, which is nice."

Friedman realizes there will be people who take issue with the book's title and will be sensitive about the subject in general. "We were a little worried about using the word 'freak,' but I was insistent on it," he said. "In this PC world we live in, we could go the polite way and say 'special people' and things like that, but I just wanted to keep the word 'freak.' "

"People have asked, 'Why would you do freaks?' Well, better they were working in that world and enjoying it and loving it and making money than sitting in a hospital or a ward or something," he added.

In the book's foreword, by magician Penn Jillette, he addresses the same question: "Why would anyone draw caricatures of freaks?"

Jillette responds: "The important parts of Drew's drawings are not the extra leg, or the tiny pointed heads, or the folds of fat or loose skin. The images that kill me deader than a doornail up Melvin Burkhart's nose are the parts where these human beings are just eating an apple while we stare at them. We want to look at them because they're different from us, but we keep looking at them because they're the same as us. No one is better at capturing what makes us all the same than Drew."

Drew Friedman will be signing books at Book Soup on Sunday in Los Angeles.

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