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Elly del Sarto in c. 1910

In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction. Its proper name is a "Ten in One", referring to the practice of having a revolving show of ten acts under a single tent. When a single person or object is featured, it is known as a single-o.

• Barnum's Sideshow
• Showhistory.com
• HouseofDeception.com

Today only a few "Ten in One" shows remain active in the United States. The Sideshow by the Seashore sponsored by Coney Island USA in Brooklyn, NY is perhaps the oldest. Hall and Christ's World of Wonders is one of the few shows that still tours the fairground circuit. Former phone salesman Jim Rose ran a modern sideshow called Jim Rose Circus which last know performance was in October of 2005 at the Fright Dome at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, NV. A number of "Single O" attractions tour carnivals to this day, particularly on the East Coast, including The World's Smallest Woman, The Strange Thing, World's Smallest Horse, Angel the Snake Girl, Giant Snake, Giant Pig, and Giant Horse shows. A few performers are attempting to create a bright future for this art form, such as; Todd Robbins, Tyler Fyre, Harley Newman, Brett Loudermilk, The Bros. Grim Sideshow. There is also one institution in perticular that has created a "home away from home" for sideshow acts called "The Palace Of Wonders" in Washington DC.

A few modern day shows have toured extensively. The Jim Rose Circus, The Bindlestiff Family Circus, Zamora's Sideshow and Girly Freak Show fall into this category. Circus Historian and collector Ken Harck runs the Brothers Grim Sideshow, which toured with the Ozz Fest music festival in the summer and 2006 and has been rebooked for 2007. Most other shows are sedentary to a city or region, with a few doing spot dates in different locations. There are also numerous solo sideshow artists performing across the US, mostly in spot engagements and corprate events.

The Club scene was a boon for sideshows during 2002-2004 time period. This resurgence has been largely attributed to the rebellious image of sideshows. 2005 saw a marked decline in spectator interest in sideshows on both the club and corporate events scenes. Opinions on the reasons for this decline range from too many poor quality performances (this issue is often raised in the New York area), to audience fatigue, or a "been there, done that" mentality among the college set. The saturation of performers in the New York area may also be a factor.

Interestingly enough, the Jim Rose Circus continues to see large audiences, despite the general down-turn of the sideshow. The Jim Rose Circus performs only once or twice a year, with its last performance at Fright Dome at Circus Circus in Las Vegas in October of 2005.

Most of today's sideshows consist mainly of 'working acts' and 'made freaks' as well as the classic curiosity displays.

• Bros. Grim Sideshow
• Cut Throat Freak Show
• Captain Howdys Flying Circus
• Carnival Diablo
• Cheeky Monkey Sideshow
• Circus della Morte
• Erik "The Lizard Man" Sprague
• Girly Freak Show (no longer active)
• Harley Newman
• Anton James
• John Chaos Sideshow
• Know Nothing Zircus Zideshow (no longer active)
• Jeff Lang of the, "Jason and Jeff show"
• Madman of Magic
• Mysterion the Mind Reader and Canada's first family of FEAR
• Matt The Knife
• The Pickled Brothers
• Roslyn Walker - Eccentric Entertainment
• Ses Carny
• SideShow Bennie
• Swami Yomahmi
• The Human Marvels Mystery Show
• The 999 Eyes of Endless Dream Carnival Sideshow of the Damned
• Todd Robbins
• Brett Loudermilk
• Turbo Tom's Freak Show
• Tyler Fyre
• Zamora's Sideshow
• Miss Satanica

Many history projects chronicling the amazing, yet virtually untold sideshow past have recently sprung up, including:

1. http://showhistory.com
2. http://sideshowworld.com

Sideshows of old had a hierarchy of performers in terms of prestige, with "Born Freaks", people with congenital physical peculiarities, at the top, followed by "Made Freaks" such as tattooed men and women, and "Working Acts" such as sword swallowers and fire eaters. Contrary to contemporary perceptions, which holds the term freak show to be pejorative, many of the "Born Freaks" were not looked down upon by their fellow performers, and many were in fact the owners and operators of the shows.

Today the hierarchy is largely based on the abilities of the performers.

Fire breathers risk burns, both internal and external, as well as poisoning in the pursuit of their art.

Main article: Circus skills

The sideshow world includes a wide array of performers and performance types. The major categories include Human Oddity Acts (Natural acts, such as the fat lady, etc), Working Acts (acts people train to be able to perform, such as Fire breathing), Animal acts (such as a Flea circus, or Snake Charming act), Illusions, and Museum Shows (including pickled punks).