It will feel a little bit like 1889 on Stittsville Main Street in a couple of weeks when a Victorian-style circus sideshow, complete with a big top tent, rolls into town.
Carnival Diablo: The Strangest Show Unearthed will be set up behind Stittsville Main Street Dental, near Brae Crescent, from Aug. 9-12. It features Scott McClelland as Nikolai Diablo, the circus ring master who “has a burning hunger for the freakish and the bizarre,” according to the show’s website.
“Nikolai butters his bread with the desires and dreams of his audience, performing miracles and feats beyond the natural realm. In a flash, he changes from the grinning barker who draws you into the show, to the FREAK who makes you sorry for your stares.”
McClelland’s family has some history in the circus business — his grandfather went as “Professor N.P. Lewchuck” and operated Canada’s largest traveling sideshow from 1920 to 1968, according to a 2016 article in Ottawa Life Magazine.
Joseph Carbonetto, a Stittsville resident who was behind the Manchester Hill Seance spook show last Halloween, started working with McClelland about five months ago to bring the show to Stittsville.
“Old Stittsville Main, going back to the mid-1800s practically, I think it was just a real cool fit for it,” Carbonetto said.
It should be a big boost for businesses along Main Street, hopefully with lots of people choosing to take in dinner at nearby restaurants, Carbonetto said.
There are up to seven shows each day, about an hour each, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Carbonetto wouldn’t divulge the details of the shows, but hinted at elements of magic and an old-fashioned freak show.
“People will be amazed at what this guy can do,” he said.
Tickets are $9.50 and are going very quickly — Carbonetto says the Friday and Saturday night shows are almost all sold. Tickets are available online, please use the promo code CENTRAL for discounted tickets.