Coney Island Freaktoberfest

Last Friday TONY checked out the first annual Coney Island Freaktoberfest, a bacchanal of live music, sword-swallowing carnies and burlesque beauties, where the freaks and geeks of craft brewing gave beer lovers a taste of new and vintage seasonal batches. We were greeted by the neon grin of the Coney Island Funny Face and a cigar girl from Barrette Burlesque offering us candy and matches, as we entered the Sideshow school on Surf Avenue with a wrist band and a five-ounce beer glass and got to work.

Surrounded by a crowd of tattooed and pierced bodies better suited for a punk show than a beerfest, we made our way to the Shmaltz bar. Michelle, a knowledgeable newbie, told us (with chutzpah to spare) how you couldn’t get more Jewish than a kosher beer brewed with figs—whatever that means. She also hooked us up with Freaktoberfest, an eyebrow raising blood-red lager that she could only say was made with vampire juice. Not a drop of Red Number 40, she assured us; the beer was all natural, and definitely well suited for Halloween.

We took a break from drinking to catch an energized Chin Chin while the Barrette girls (pictured) shook their tassels on stage. We also got to chat with some of the more notorious members of Coney Island’s cast, namely, an unmasked Raymond "Shoot the Freak" Palermo who serenaded us with dirty jokes about hearts with Afros (hmmm). Meanwhile, we learned from an organizer that there will definitely be a second Freaktoberfest next year. We’ll be there, if Coney still will.—Travis Delingua