Mario Tama/Getty Images Patrick Wall, the house manager at Coney Island USA, cleaned a water-damaged player piano last fall after Hurricane Sandy swept through.
Patrick Wall The storm left the place quite a mess inside.Sideshows by the Seashore in Coney Island â€" hom to some of New York City’s finest sword swallowers and contortionists â€" was battered last fall by Hurricane Sandy, as water from the ocean and from Coney Island Creek inundated its gift shop, its theater and its on-site watering hole, the Freak Bar, causing nearly $400,000 in damage.
Dick Zigun, the founder of the Vaudeville group, was personally homeless for weeks after his loft in the neighborhood was flooded. He spent much of the winter bedding down on other people’s couches with not much more to his name than his cat.
Patrick Wall Much of the interior was left flooded.Now, however, with the sideshow trying to reopen next month, Coney Island USA, its parent organization, is holding a fund-raising event this Saturday â€" tomorrow â€" at Webster Hall in Manhattan, at which Mr. Zigun and a cast of dancers will perform a theater piece called “The Burlesque Manifesto.â€
The evening will also include appearances by Insectavora, a razor blade and fire eater, and Serpentina, a 6-foot-tall snake charmer with additional expertise in the bed of nails.
The event is scheduled to run from 7 to 11 p.m. Tickets, beginning at $60, can be purchased online at coneyisland.com.
Patrick Wall/span> The freaks hope to be open for business next month.