Circus Side Show Ads an Oddity

Times readers browsing through concert schedules in advertisements for the Coach House and Rhythm Cafe in the Oct. 29-Nov. 4 edition of OC LIVE! might conclude that the Jim Rose Circus Side Show has a truly surprising trick up its sleeve: playing two competing Orange County clubs on the same night.

Although ads for both the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Rhythm Cafe in Santa Ana list the raunchy freak show as their Nov. 15 attraction, Rose and his band of human curiosities will, in fact, be appearing only at the Coach House.

According to Coach House owner Gary Folgner, the Rhythm Cafe originally had secured the Jim Rose date by making a higher bid for the act, which regaled fans on the Lollapalooza ’92 tour with a circus midway attraction that included a weightlifter who chained large objects to his nipples, and a fellow who drank human bile. Folgner said that Rose’s booking agent called the club on Wednesday, saying that the Rhythm Cafe had decided to pass on the show after all. Folgner said the agent offered it at the price the Coach House had originally bid.

John Branigan, agent for the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, and Rich Meaney, a Rhythm Cafe partner and concert-booker, had no comment regarding the reasons for the switch. Branigan said the move “doesn’t have anything to do with” any competitive wrangling that might be developing between the well-established Coach House, Orange County’s dominant concert club since 1986, and the Rhythm Cafe, which opens tonight and will vie with the Coach House for top attractions.