The show doesnt stop when comedian Erik Sprague exits stage left. The full-body tattoos, forked tongue, Teflon horns and sharpened fangs make sure of that.
Aka The Lizardman, Sprague has undergone a series of body modifications to help him become, by most appearances, a lizard, and the crowds attention is always on him.
My body is a gigantic coloring book at this point, Sprague said.
He hatched the idea for the project as a graduate student studying the philosophy of language. After reading litanies of diaries from sideshow freaks and old circus performers, he approached his body as performance art and social experiment not only by altering his body, but learning a sword-swallowing, suspension and laying over a bed of nails. I braced myself for being totally ostracized and outcast, he said. As it turns out, the overwhelming majority seems to think its cool.
In a lot of cases, an encounter on the street leads The Lizardman to making a persons day. Just by going outside and walking around, I can have a pretty profound effect on people, Sprague said. Cars swerve and cause accidents and things like that. Its weird to think I have that involvement in other peoples lives just trying to make myself happy.
He
doesnt claim to be doing divine work, but he has done his fair share
of motivating people to strive for their deep desires, however weird.
If
someone can see me onstage and I inspire them, thats great, he said.
Even if I just make them laugh, Im all set. Im not changing the
world, but theres a chance for impact.
While
sideshow stunts and the like remain Spragues bread and butter, he
increasingly has focused on storytelling and stand-up comedy. His show
is an amalgamation of all his interests stunts included and hes got
a wealth of oddball experiences to pull from for his act.
The
nice thing about being a professional sideshow freak is that a lot of
weird things happen to me, he said. My own life provides a lot of
jokes.
His style has
been compared to Henry Rollins, Doug Stanhope and Joe Rogan
but The
Lizardman is quick to point out he is one-of-a-kind.
Ive
got a unique take on most things, Sprague said. Im pretty much the
only guy with a green face talking about any of these things.