Videos

35:51:

"'At just the precise moment, I would quickly snap my hand down and out from a little pouch hidden inside my sleeve and would pop my favorite extraction forceps. I would gracefully complete the performance by raising my other hand over the patient and then abruptly thump the patient on the chest with the palm of that empty hand. I did this for two reasons. It drove the wind out of the patients lungs so they couldn't scream. And it forced them to open their mouth at the same time, instantaneously and instinctively. My other hand holding the forceps drove into the victim's mouth and came out holding the offending tooth. Then I quickly hid the forceps from sight. I would then jaunty and victoriously parade around the stage, showing off the tooth in my hand. Any moaning sounds made by the patient at that time were effectively muffled by the loud music and the screams and cheers of the crowd.'

"Despite what was advertised, Parker's patients did not always walk away satisfied. Many did not. Many complained of the pain and humiliation of being in his shows. When enough disgruntled patients would get together to confront him or get the law involved, he would just leave. He would he would just leave town."

39:32:

He gets a good job in New York. But at this point, he's helping to support his parents and he's paying for his brother to go to dental school and there's no birth control, so the babies start coming out and it's not enough money. And that's when he makes a strange friend in his landlord, a man named Bill Bibb, who used to be a manager for PT Barnum Circus. Bibb's like, "Whoa, okay. I I love your whole thing. Okay, not not this current thing. No, no, no. The the thing from before, the whole like traveling circus dentist thing. That was kind of cool. We should do that, but profitable this time. Listen, listen, man. I can show you the world."

40:22:

So Painless and his wife sit down and they have a serious family discussion. They say, "All right, okay, so we're 26. Uh, birth control has not been invented yet. Do you think we should spend literally the last of our money on hiring a circus manager?" "Yeah. Yeah. You know, actually, I think Yeah, that sounds that
sounds pretty good. Yeah, let's do that." Shockingly, shockingly, this turn this turns out to be one of the best financial decisions they're ever going to make, because Bibb makes it happen.