It's only skin deep...
Erik Sprague, known professionally as The Lizardman, has performed a sideshow-style act for over a decade. In addition to his full body transformation project, he is adept at fire performances and enjoys working with American flesh hook suspension group TSD (Traumatic Stress Discipline). His aesthetic project has so far included over 650 hours of tattooing, teeth filing and extensive subcutaneous implants. He was also, in 1997, one of the first people to undergo voluntary tongue splitting: there are now estimated to be around 500 selectively split tongues in the world. He is, however, unwilling to rely on just his looks to make a living. "Today's audience demands more, I only survive by offering it." His sideshow skills include weightlifting with his pierced body parts, escapology, sword swallowing, and a traditional 'blockhead' act where concrete blocks are smashed on his groin and six inch nails hammered into his nose with a powerdrill.
He says that he "started out with fire-eating and fire-breathing - just because I liked playing with fire. From there I began to experiment and learn more things till I had a whole bunch of things I would do - sometimes for friends - and eventually I decided to write a show around them." That show has become one of the most popular, though controversial, modern sideshow acts. The tradition of the Freakshow is one that Erik, along with a handful of contemporaries - Jim Rose, Mr Lifto, ThEnigma, The Great Orbax - has resurrected. Although hugely popular in the Victorian era, advances in medical knowledge caused the demise of the sideshow. As Jane Goldman put it, "a crowd that had clamoured to see a sheep-headed man...balked at looking at a microcephalic in a loincloth." Erik acknowledges the troubled history of the sideshow, like much of body modifications, but states that we must "take the bad with the good historically - but only try to perpetuate the good."
The process of becoming the Lizardman was a slow one. "It began with the conceptual idea of a transformation done via body modification, then it was about four years of designing and re-designing, and now for the last eight to nine years I have been getting things done." Given this level of dedication and forethought, it is no surprise that he says he has never regretted his modifications. But was it hard to adjust to the special kind of celebrity that publicly visible modification brings? "Not too hard at all, I had braced myself for it with all the planning and as a performer I was a bit broken into it..." I probe further: doesn't he ever wish he could have a 'day off' from being an object of curiousity? "Everyone has their days!" Perhaps it is a testament to how far tattooing has been accepted in Western culture that Erik claims that he gets asked most often about his tongue and implants. Erik agrees that society is becoming more blasé to ever-more radically individual appearances: "I think we are gradually shifting towards a more understanding paradigm whereby people will be allowed to 'get away with' more so long as they are otherwise decent and productive members of the society."
Erik is clearly productive: his career has supported him financially and allowed him to travel all over the world for more than ten years. Unlike his most famous full-body transformation forebear, The Great Omi (a WWI major who tattooed himself with zebra stripes after falling on hard times), Erik was not forced into performance. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Hatwich College, NY and abandoned his doctoral work for a career as a professional freak. The label is one he embraces: "I always take it as a compliment regardless of how it is meant when others use it." His reputation as the 'academic freak' has generated much media interest, and he has appeared on programmes like Ripley's Believe it or Not!, in college textbooks on the psychology of physical deviance, and in many magazines such as Maxim and Bizarre. He also writes a monthly column for Body Modification Ezine (www.bmezine.com) and has extensively documented the stages of his transformation there. This is how I first encountered him, a wide-eyed 16 year-old looking to make sense of the world and my place in it. The body modification community faces serious challenges - not only attacks from those outside, but also in-fighting between those who believe that a Britney-style navel jewel is 'worth less' than more extreme modifications. Erik has a high profile within this community, but denies there is some shared brotherhood of the modified, "Modifications do not make a community - people do. It is positive interaction with others that makes me feel like part of something larger." But, I ask him, should individuality count - what if someone else copied his Lizardman project? "If someone else wants to modify themselves extensively - more power to them, but I would bet they would be happier in the end if they chose something on their own rather than imitating me. Some people have been inspired by individual mods and gone the same route but no one has copied the overall lizardman theme to my knowledge."
With all this writing, does he feel a Lizardman book coming on? "Everyone may have a book in them - whether it's worth the read for anyone else is debatable. I have a few book projects currently in the works - the primary one is an art manifesto-style book on being a freak." Art is key to an understanding of the Lizardman show beyond the basic 'Urgh!" reaction, "My body and performance are my primary mediums as an artist - it is very much art and my artistic expression...if had not pursued this career, perhaps I would have stayed with teaching but most likely I would have gone on as a performer or artist in some respect." So is it performance art? "That's how I often describe it - I see myself coming from a lineage of early dadaists like Beuys down through to more modern artists like Schneeman, Burden, and Conti." Eat that Tracy Emin, I can't help thinking...
Say the words 'Oxford' and 'fashion' in the same sentence and most people think of a puntful of tweed-clad toffs, pashmina-ed rahs falling out of Freud or just plain dull 'we're too busy with our three essays a week to look stylish thanks very much'. Just look at the trendier Brookes students strutting their stuff and it's clear that the brainy denizens of Oxford simply languish in the fashion stakes. This is why it is always welcome to see an event that challenges our perceptions, in the shape of the most stylish event of the term, the forthcoming Sex and the City fashion show, and the only place to be seen next Wednesday evening.
RAG has gone all glamorous in their flagship event of Michaelmas, and the fashion show committee have put themselves through the gruelling ordeal of trawling streets, meadows, lecture-halls and cocktail parties to scout the cream of Oxford's catwalk talent to model clothes from designer to High Street, with a few charity shop gems thrown in.
There have been several highly successful fashion shows to hit the university scene in recent years, but what to expect here is a refreshing twist on the usual rigid schedule of classic day and evening outfits.
In the four walks, inspired by the cities of street-chic New York, gangster-era Milan, decadent Moscow and finishing with some saucy pieces in the theme of Rio, its all about fashion that is fun, modern and glamorous, (and the audience will be expected to look the part as well). Tuxedos and ballgowns will feature, but not the kind you see at your college ball.
The result is a fashion show that is eye-catching and breaks all the rules. For those still dithering, read on, because all of the money raised by the event will go to charity. So after a night of sipping wine, gazing at scantily-clad models,
and dancing the night away at the after-party, you can still go home in the knowledge that worthy causes including the British Heart Foundation, Barnardos, KEEN and Terence Higgins Trust have benefited from your revelry.
Some of the best outfits will be auctioned off, as will the models wearing them, so bring your wallet if the thought of a free meal with one of this array of beauties is a temptation you can't resist.
The models certainly enjoyed themselves at this fitting. For a show to inspire and turn heads, don your glad rags and bring some fashionista friends to experience some international chic in the confines of the debating chamber. Leave your essay aside for a few hours to feel the metallic click of stiletto, glimpse the swishes of bright fabric, turn to the frenzied flashing cameras and strike a pose...
The Sex and the City fashion show and auction takes place on Wednesday of 7th week (26th November) from 8pm in the Oxford Union debating chamber.
For tickets, pidge post cheques payable to OUCRAG to Josefa, RAG, OUSU. Tickets cost £7 in advance or £8 on the door, including free drinks reception and an after-party at Thirst cocktail bar.
13th Nov 2003