Ballycast

3 Responses to “Episode #011 – Kevin Morra of “Diary of a Carny””

1. showpeople, on February 16th, 2008 at 3:12 pm Said:

   [Edited by Moderator]

   This is Tom Hoey, editor of the site http://www.carnytown.com. Listened with interest to your interview with Kevin Morra of “Diary of a Carny”

   On our social networking site we have hundreds of Carnival Showmen and Showpeople who are both carnies and show folk. Kevins view of Carnival life today and in the past seems a little different than our view of it. For instance he mentions the fact that the “lingo” is not used any longer and he has not heard it. Many of us are quite amazed at that as terms such as marks, suckers, beef, patch and other common words have even crept into ordinary language.

   And although he is quite correct in saying that the outdoor amusement business industry is becoming more refined, we have to point out that, that is the goal, not the reality. [remainder mostly redacted]

   We all have stories to tell. Check out the jackpots on http://www.carnytown.net and come and talk to us at http://www.carnytown.com – We do agree that most carnival folk are good people, have families, respect the customers and their government officials and are making a lot of moola.

2. Kevin41, on February 17th, 2008 at 5:05 am Said:

   My response to Tom can be found on my site Normally I don’t respond but here I had to.

   http://www.diary-of-a-carny.blogspot.com

   I don’t censor myself.

3. Wayne Keyser, on February 17th, 2008 at 11:34 am Said:

   [Moderator replies:]

   Sorry to be the cause of irritation, enough to make you wake your sleeping blog back up.

   Kevin. when Tom wrote “Kevins view of Carnival life today and in the past seems a little different than our view of it” it looked to me like it might be a way of saying ‘everyone has their own individual experience.’

   But I thought it best (sorry Tom) to let the comment end there, and I removed most of the rest – I will not foster a flame war about who is a “real carny” and who isn’t. My interviewees are free to give their views without challenge from me, and I’m gratreful for every one of them.

   I’d already arranged, weeks ago, to have one of Tom’s forum members share her poetry with us, and I’m just waiting to record it until I can wrap my poor brain around the need to let her express it straight from the source without any editing or meddling on my part, and that’s the way you’ll get it – and hopefully, that’s the way you’ll receive it.

   Thanks, to both Kevin and Tom, for your deeply-felt responses.