The Juggalette

Campside media. This episode contains strong language. Can I hold this anywhere? I have to hold it down here. Are you serious? Hold it like you hold a dick. I thought you listened to my raw tape. So that's my oldest trick in the book. Right to your fucking mouth. Are you good at Mike? Should I hold you? No, I know how to hold him Mike. Sure. Yeah. Hey everyone, it's Vanessa Grigory-Audis and welcome to Anphamès. For the last couple of weeks, we looked at the politics of the most influential newspaper in America. We looked at some of the decisions that the reporters and editors made that helped lead our country into an incredibly destructive war in Iraq. A war that lasted more than ten years. It was a story full of powerful politicians, secret agents in their tailored suits, gold watches, leather briefcases, carrying top secret information. But as you've probably figured out by now, we like mixing things up on Anphamès. And so this week, we've got something a little different. It's almost on the opposite end of the spectrum. It's not exactly war, but you could say it's a different sort of hell altogether. ♪ Fuck you wicked clowns ♪ ♪ We're like to say what's up ♪ Now, you may have heard about the insane clown posse and the juggalos because their unofficial title is The Most Hated Band in America. And if you haven't heard about them before, don't worry. I have a friend here who's going to tell you all about the ICP and the juggalos and their absolutely off the rails festival. Oh me? Yeah. Who I? Who me Zoe Nightingale? Oh, oh, oh me. Yeah. Well, hi there, Vanessa. So, where are my pleasantries? Oh my God, it's so nice to see you. Oh my God, it's so nice to see you. I've got to what an honor. It's been a while. So Vanessa. Zoe, you and I have known each other a few years. I've heard news that you were taking the Godfather of my children and going to the juggalos fast. Well, the first thing that you should really be thinking about is how come he's your Godfather of my children? I have a word that I have. Because when I all I had to say was Jug and Brendan was it. There was no convincing. There was. It was this. It was oh, yes, with one eyebrow up. So yes, I took the Godfather of your children to the gathering of the juggalos 2021 and it was fabulous. Why did you want to go there? I've wanted to go there for a decade. And why is that? I just don't even understand the question. Why wouldn't you want to go there? Because it's like a bunch of people who dressed as clowns and you have to like camp and it's like dirty. You've got a burning man. It's like it's sort of bad. Burning man. I mean, true. So these are just poor burners. Right. It's pretty much the same thing. Most of the people told me that literally 360 days out of the year, they are just miserable. But they have this to come to. So it's like a pilgrimage. It's like a ritualistic sort of like New Year's Eve ceremony of like turning a page. Yeah. And you go there to fill your little heart up with love and then you go back to your shitty fucking actual life and then you wait for the next one to come again. So there's this band in the insane clown posse. You know what I'm saying? It's the insane clown posse. That's what I said. You're running through it. What am I supposed to say? Insane clown posse. That's exactly what I just said. I did it faster. Okay. So there's this band then. No, you're making me. I'm sorry if it has that. Okay. So there's this band, the insane clown posse. And so what did you know about them before? Nothing. Of course nothing. Zero. Zero is I'd seen like a vice thing for three minutes like 10 years ago and I was like this is somewhere I want to be anywhere that large amounts of people follow one kind of thing I'm excited about. But this in particular seems so outrageous and so outlandish and I love the makeup. I just I really respected their like, you know, middle finger to society. Like fuck you guys. This is what we're doing and I don't care what you think. So what's their music like? Their music is is really the thing that people don't understand is that their musicals, their music is very farcical. It's a lot of really intense comedy. There's a lot of illusions, devilance, a lot of illusions to childhood trauma. They talk about a lot of trauma in their in their music. And really letting people in on like the immense amount of pain and trauma and pedophilia and like sexual abuse that happened in their lives and they're laughing at it. And it's like heavy metal. No, no, no, no. It's like it's like. God, I don't know how to describe it. It's like Halloween rap music. It's got very spooky kind of night remember for Christmas kind of vibe. And I'm called for the earth. Are the ancient crafts of Negro music. And a lot of like creepy clown laughter, a lot of like chainsaw sounds. It's like you're trapped in a haunted house where people are rapping at you. What does a makeup look like? It's insane. It looks like it looks like like the happy and sad theater. Greek theater faces. It's basically black and white oil makeup. It's very it's not the world's best makeup for your skin. We'll put it to that way. It's basically like a paste. It's an oil paste. So it's like mime. It's very, very mime. It's black and white and very theatrical. Basically they look like jack-o-lanterns. So there's like lots of triangles and lots of crazy jigsaw mouths. So what is a juggalo? How did that term come about? My definition of juggalo is very simple. It's somebody it's it's it's a person. Well, one who loves the music of the insane clown posse. Very important. Two would give you the shirt off their back. Three might throw up get right back up and keep partying. What is it? I got a low. You drinks like a fish. And then these guys hugging people like a drunk bitch. It's really just it's really anybody. It's anybody that kind of feels forgotten by society and forgotten by their family. And I don't want to pigeonhole them like this, but the juggalo is open to everybody. It is really a warm blanket of which to wrap anybody up in who believes that they need. They don't have family or community. It's it's it's for everyone. And so what's the gathering? The gathering is there once yearly festival where all the juggalo and jugglettes all come together and they come together to be with their family. It's basically people tenting outside at the Legends Valley campground in Thornville, Ohio. And they come together and they camp out and they share stories and campfires and they share, you know, they get drunk together. They cry together. And can you tell me what the gathering of the juggalo is? It's a fucking family reunion. Everybody's welcome. You do what the fuck you want. They know I'm going to judge you. I mean, honestly, you know, everybody thinks, you know, it's all about drugs. It's all about getting high and getting drunk and everything. Which it is. But honestly, but honestly, everybody here is welcoming. You know, nobody, I mean, everybody looks violent, but I mean, honestly, I mean, ask these people. They're all welcoming. Everybody looks out for each other. Everybody's fucking here for each other. I mean, shit, you don't wear a fucking thong. You wear a fucking thong. I mean, shit. Okay. So you got Brendan. Oh, yeah, he's willing to go. And what happened? How do you guys plan this out? We didn't have a plan at all. We rented a beat up Ford Explorer, white Ford Explorer for like 40 bucks a day. I brought exactly 14 suitcases with me. Maybe more. I can't tell. And the most important thing is we brought Sarah Jane, Saturday's Panties with us, who is a real professional clown, a real Mosher, a real jugglelette, a very dedicated and incredibly talented seamstress, costumer, clown, performer, whatever. So we brought Sarah Jane. And Sarah Jane basically looked at all of my suitcases and threw everything I brought out. You're not going to like electronic music festival. We're going to be clown festival. And she had to teach me literally resilomie. And I learned so many things like socks or gloves. I mean, everything I had brought was wrong. I just looked like a dumb, you know, aging, you know, Jewy raver, you know, with too much sparkles, too much sequins, too much. Too much joy, too much of blinky lights. And she totally restyled me. And I looked like Chuck E. Gone Wrong. I mean, I looked great. You know, seriously, I've never looked. I never felt better, honestly. So you had on like a striped skirt with like, oh, I was full. I looked like Raggedy Anne, but possessed by the devil. She had these really scary nipple pasties and really were terrifying. I mean, I looked in the mirror and I literally didn't even know who I was. What's a scary nipple, just like, fuck it. It's got like bonded shit on it. It's like spiky and it's just like, say the fuck away from my tits. So you guys are in the Ford Explorer or whatever it is. We drove like three hours and then we go to Kmart and we buy a tent and like a sleeping pad and so and we get like, I think like a couple of jugs of Gatorade and like a couple granola bars and we go to the festival. All right. So we, we're here live from the, where are we, the what? Gathering of what? Jug-a-loves. What year is it? It's 2021. What day is it? That's a good fucking question. What hour is it? That's even even better question. Who am I? I don't even know. Who are you? Blake. What up, Blake? I remember that. What does it look like? It looks like a giant favorite. It looks like any other festival except that people are head to toe covered in crazy tattoos or they've got gauges in their ears or nose or lips or like, it looks like you've wandered into a haunted house tattoo parlor from the 90s where everyone has done too much math and decided to get face tattoos and ear gauges like the size of like, you know, dilated cervix. Anyway, the moment you walk in there, you just, everybody's drinking Fago right away. Fago is everywhere. What's that? So Fago is a Detroit soda company that makes Lisa Frank on acid colored sodas. After you drink the stuff, your pee is like literally neon yellow. A million percent sugar, very inexpensive soda that the jugglers embrace because when they were growing up in Detroit, it was like the only thing that they could afford at their deli or something and they spray it like the greatest, the greatest joy you can have as a, as a juggler is to be on stage with the juggler and they spray you with a Fago hose. You want to talk about immersive in this word that is overly used. This was so unbelievably immersive from the moment you walk in there. People are psychopaths. The fireworks are like right in the crowd. Oh yeah, it's fucking awesome. Oh, fuck. Jesus fucking Christ. Why? Why? That was not a firework. Why did- Hi, I'm Jake Catlstein, author of Tokyo Vice. I've been covering Japan's criminal underworld for 30 years and I've seen more people disappear than I'd care to. Having my old accountant, who as it turns out, was getting up to a lot more than taxes. My co-hosts Shoko Plambek and I are tracking him down and along the way, we're exploring what's really happening with Japan's missing people. We call them Johatsu-Sha or The Evaporated. From campsite media and Sony Music Entertainment, The Evaporated, Season 1, Gone with the Gods is available now. Subscribe on Apple Podcast to binge all episodes or listen weekly wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to 8thmas from campsite media. Guys, it's my first time. What do you think about that? Do you have any tips for us? I do. Okay, tell me some tips. Best four days of your life, make sure you fucking kill it. Damn. I never pick money up off the ground because it is covered in shit. Why? Because it's a poop dollar. I understand. Someone gonna wipe their ass with it and sit on the side and watch you come pick up a shit dollar. Why would they do that? I don't know. I'm a juggalo. Why wouldn't they do that? Any other tips? If they tell you what drink is electric, it's gonna have LSD in it. So watch for electric Fego. Electric Fego. Show everyone your butthole. Drink a lot of water. And just be confident. The way the juggalo's greet each other is show me your butthole. Not like just show you like a bent over butt. They will open up their cheeks and show you their inner eye. So then you walk outside of the tent and then all the people are showing their buttholes. So what the hell is that? No, no, no, hold on a second. People are showing you their butthole from the moment you walk in the door. I don't understand. What do you want me to do? Show me your buttholes. Show me my, show you my butthole. Show me your buttholes. Okay. And what happens if I do that? Nothing. I just get to see a butthole. That's it? Yeah. So we got a backtrack to the beginning of the festival. And this is something that I was not prepared for because I had done a lot of research before I went there, but no one said anything to me about large amounts of grown men showing me their non hygiene buttholes. What? It's a festival girl. God. And it was honestly, I've only seen how many buttholes have you seen in my life? Like six, I don't know, like actually like look into stare the devil in the eye. Wait, so you were in shock the first time and Brendan and none of you knew that. No one knew that this was going to happen and it took Brendan exactly one day to start showing people his butthole. Anyway, so you walk in the festival and right away people will start saying, will start saying, do you show me your butthole? What are you supposed to do when they're doing this? Do you be like your butthole looks nice? That's a very nice asshole. What was the perfect asshole? Come on. You could do a game over that asshole. I do. You do. It's not even about that. So it's them asking you to show them your butthole as a fidelity thing, as like a pledge of allegiance to the community of jugglers. Like, I'm here and I'm ready to party and I'm part of your crew. Here's my butthole. We all have a butthole. It's not even sexual. I'm telling you. It's just like shaking hands. It's exactly it is the way they greet each other. And it's how it's how they know that you're in the know and that you're not ashamed to be a juggalo because jugglers until you are in, you're not in. You kind of have to like prove your fidelity and show them that you're there and you're serious and that you are not making fun of them. It's like, we all have buttholes. Why is it this big deal? And I really liked that about them. They're there with their family. They're safe. They're going to show their buttholes. They're going to do weird shit. They're going to cry and hug different people about their sexual trauma and they're going to talk about their successes over the year. And they're going to be with their family and fuck you in general, get in or get out. It's our offering you stuff. Do you want, you know, a cold fago? Yeah. Not shaking one though. That's okay because it's the vibe, right? So like some people are mean to me. Other people accuse me of being a big media journalist like right away because I had my microphones and like a small setup for a camera like a iPhone mount with a stabilizer. They're like, you from CNN? I'm like, mm. Yeah. From CNN. You got it. Anyway, so I started going to activities. One of which, you know, was the lecture series with with Chris Hanson. Right. So Chris Hanson with Dateline NBC and we're doing a story on guys men trying to meet teens on the internet. So that was like day one was this giant meetup of all of these pet these people who have been sexually abused and who are rapidly, rapidly going crazy for his hands. Because he catches part of pedophiles. Okay. So set the scene. So you walk into like what? A tent? Like a big white tent? Right. So let's say it's 2 p.m. It's 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. But everyone's clown makeup is dripping off their face because it's oil based. It's a tent full of hay barrels. So everyone's sitting on like big haystacks. Chris Hanson comes in. He is dressed to the nines. Like like full crisp, striped, like, you know, like Brooks Brothers T-shirt, press denim, like, like literally Todd Moccasin's no socks looking great. So Chris starts talking. All right guys. Are you around the main street tonight? What's he talking about? He's just talking about we need to get the molester. I mean, he's talking about the show, how the show started, about the why he's a juggalo, the support of the juggalo is how wonderful it's been to have, you know, this community back up the show and all the letters that he receives and how much he really feels for this community and how happy he is that he can contribute, you know, taking one pedophile off the street and people are starting to go crazy. Like kill the pedophile. Like my dad raped me like just crazy. Just started yelling. You know, it's mostly guys saying it's us. Oh, wow. It's all the festival is. I don't, again, I don't want to quote 70% men. It was a very intense atmosphere and Chris handled it like a fucking pro and people started sharing stories about them being molested and how amazing and what how this show has really positively affected their life that someone cares that this is happening to children. But it was kind of beautiful. I mean, it's like, it's energy that you can't make up and you can feel the collective fucking pain, man. Like it's not a joke. You can really feel how hurt people have been by, by sexual trauma. And it's big guys and it's big guys talking about sexual trauma. I've never been in this. I've never really been in a situation where I've seen so much openness and honesty around about male rape in my life. Mostly I've been involved in a lot of women talking about their trauma. And this is a place where I thought it was really cool that guys had a safe space to talk about it. I mean, I witnessed so many different versions of like group therapy, mostly through laughter and just sort of storytelling and people, you know, crying, hugging a lot of a lot of really positive male relationships. Guys like really holding each other, like really sharing like deep felt emotions with one another in a way that was incredibly beautiful. And then there's a lot of really crazy shit. What is the weirdest thing you've ever seen? Oh my goodness gracious. Start from the beginning. The pain's on your definition of weird. That's true. Whatever yours is. Well, I've seen a man covered in peanut butter. Wandering around asking for words, jellywoes. I have seen a sculpture of a turtle made out of poo from a quarter time. That is the grossest thing I've ever had. It was awesome. What did you just say to me? They have stapled their nuts. They have stapled their nuts. Sabling their nutsacks to girls' tops. Who was doing that? Some couples. What do you mean? What are you talking about? What is wrong with these people? Confirm or deny that you saw couples staple one nutsack to one tongue. Yes, they did. How many did that? I don't know, but they did. Okay, and did the people like were they in excruciating pain? Yes, they were hurting bad. The legend of Dr. Ronald Dante spans decades, movie stars, fugitive yachts, continents, if you believe his version of events. He is Ronald Pella, a legendary compan. No one but Ron could pull that off. From campside media and Sony Music Entertainment, Chameleon Season 5, Dr. Dante is available now. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes or listen weekly. Forever you get your podcasts. You may have heard of the podcast Juicy Scope. Wondered what it is? Why aren't you listening? Well, I'm its host, created it, been doing it for seven years. I'm Heather McDonald of Juicy Scope with Heather McDonald. Now, I could tell you why I should be listening to my show, but my listeners wanted to write the ad for me and hear some of the things they said. Not your regular Juicy podcast. Watch up on all the Juicy topics from Hollywood and pop culture to true crime and beyond. Heather McDonald's Juicy Scoop always has great guests, great laughs and great gossip. It's a comedian's take on the hottest headlines. Juicy Scoop is the pop culture news you want to hear. No BS, no filter, no filler. Raw, real and in the moment, throw in the hilarity of amazing comedians that you will instantly be obsessed with, a juicy crime story and a dash of normal life in LA moments. You've got yourself an amazing week of Juicy Scoop. Two episodes every week, every Tuesday and Thursday. It will never let you down. This is Infamous from Campside Media. Does something a little bit about where you grew up, where you come from? So I'm from Iowa. Perry is where I live currently and it's like fucking Tweaker fucking city, bro. It's meth. There's so much meth. It's insane. I grew up around it. My dad's a tweaker. The first time I did any drug or anything I do with my dad, I was going into eighth grade. Are you kidding me? No. When you grow up with a dad who does meth, do you think it's normal that he does that? Well, I thought that's what it is. Like all his friends, everyone else around that said what we did, like pills, meth, drinking, that's what we eat. When did you realize that maybe this was not a normal father-son relationship? When I got out of prison. I'm not funny, I'm sorry. Donnie. Did you tie me? I was homeless and just kind of going to whoever's fucking house I could to do whatever drug I could, you know. This was 18 and 19. My mom tried to kill herself when I was seven in front of me and my sister and she lost custody to me and I went to go with my dad. Did she ever say I'm sorry for doing that? No. We lived in this, like it was like a cult, bro. This weird Christian house that- You were living in a Christian cult? Yeah. Okay. So it was like a house full and they wouldn't let you go to town and shit. Like it was fucking weird. So the Christian cult made- Did they make you wear clothes? Did you like learn? No, but they fucking threw away all my shit that was like not religious or Christian and like all the CDs and shit. The worst movie they had and I would just- Harry and the Hender since, have you ever seen it? Then Bigfoot thing? Yes. There's one part in the movie where the kid says like, God damn and I used to rewind, play, rewind, play just a fucking watching this laugh because it was like, I don't know, it was so forbidden. It's so fucking weird. If people are going through hard times, which many are, could you share any words of wisdom to how to get through some hard shit? Yeah. Doo meth. Now I'm just fucking hurt. That was actually that. I might be embarrassed. That might be a part. They are storytellers and they've been through so much that it's almost, it's a honor to sit with people who are survivors of this level. I couldn't imagine being able to survive the kind of hardship that this community has gone through in terms of everything and the sexual abuse that the lack of upward mobility is actually, if you think about the American dream and what we're all supposed to have access to. I'm talking about just this idea that this is all races, all people, all, you know, there's like gender, there's all different kinds of genders, there's all different kinds of political backgrounds. A lot of these people come from so, so much hardship and they have found so much love in this community and they would really, they really will give you the show off their back and have nothing. This is the only place I can be safe and be here so. Well, you can't be safe at home. I'm safe at home but I feel like whenever I go out on public, like as a big girl it's hard for me to like, you know. You are fucking celebrate. Yeah. Out here, like nobody judges me and talks about me. So this is the only place I feel safe to dress how I want to be. It's people who are looking for community. It's a lot of people who have fallen through the cracks of the support networks and systems that were supposed to educate them, take care of their health, take care of their mental health, take care of their families' mental health. A lot of people who have been incarcerated because the towns they come from no longer have any viable works but, you know, it's just the forgotten American poor. Here's the thing. You've got nobody to call family. Whoop of me, man. You're my brother. You're my fam. That's what this shit is all about. It is about just accepting everybody in no matter how weird or how different they are. You keep being your fucking weird ass self and how much is just keeping fresh over here and you've got a home dude with me. Judgment-free zone. And that's what this is literally all about. It's just weirdos and rejects. All together under one roof. Making this amazing, amazing thing. It's awesome. It's truly awesome. So, what was your big takeaway? What did you get from this? I don't know. I just, I just, incredible gratitude and I was just kind of really blown away. People could survive. The reason really that I wanted to go is because I always like proving people wrong about a culture and a group that everyone thinks is so scary and they're like, you know, they're like, it's either like sex communities or like, it's never, people are never scary. They're always just looking for love and acceptance and I wanted to go to the juggle festival to prove people wrong and to show them that this was another just community of people trying to figure out how to live life and to get through the day. And I think I did that. A lot of us juggle those, especially around my age, we grew up with this shit. We grew up with lyricism, the acceptance and a lot of us came from broken situations. Some of us not, but we all relate to one thing and it was the unity and the acceptance that came out of the juggle world that was created by in St. Clown posse. It's all about the music and unity and togetherness and fucking just bugging out everything's wild, everything's just random and it's honestly all walks of life. Nobody is excluded. I had a real revelation there. I've always been a clown and I've always wanted people to see the absurdity of life and the light side of life and I've always looked at pain and hardness and smiled and I can't really describe it, but it was like a religious experience. I do feel like this is a new part of my family and I love them. I love it and I will go again and probably again after that. All right, thanks for listening to Infamous This Week. Zoe Nightingale is a comedian and a podcaster. You can find more of her work at zoeinightandgale.com. So next week we're going to take another swerve and tell you a story that's set in the world of high fashion. It's about what happens when two people in the business of selling dreams fall in love out of love and then way to war. Infamous is a production of campsite media and Sony Music Entertainment. It's created, executive produced and hosted by Gabriel Sherman and me, Vanessa Grigory Otis. Shoshish Malavitt is our managing producer and editor. Rajiv Gola is our senior producer and editor and Lily Houston Smith is our associate producer. This episode was sound designed by David Devereaux and recorded by Ewen Lytrumulen. See you next week. Bye. the next week. the next week.