Industry Insiders: Dick Zigun, Last Emperor of Coney Island

Coney Island’s phony “Mayor” and freak king Dick D. Zigun on going head-to-head with fellow politicos, the dignity of the American stripper, keeping Vegas glitz away from Coney Island grit, and why only Obama can save us.

I'm sorry, Dick Zigun, I forgot to turn on my tape recorder -- what were you saying? As I was saying, the organization is 30 years old. We do a number of different programs, like the sideshow, the Mermaid Parade, and the Coney Island Museum -- which we are best known for. There is other stuff as well, such as the film festival or the creep show that you just saw.

How did you start working at the sideshow in Coney Island? I deliberately came here 30 years ago when I got out of graduate school at Yale and moved to New York. I just thought that Coney Island could be an interesting staging ground for the things I wanted to do. I first came here as an individual looking for a cheap loft, and started the organization, then did my first show in 1981. I did the first Mermaid Parade in 1983. I first rented a building and went full time 23 years ago, in 1985.

How do you wake up each morning and muster the passion to keep Las Vegas away from Coney Island? If you pick something you like doing for your profession, it’s work, but it’s also fun. I made a good choice for myself personally, so I don’t want to do anything other than this. So whether it pays well or didn’t pay at all, whether it’s been a struggle, I’ve stuck with it for 30 years now, and it’s because I still like doing it.

I’m here to run an arts organization and be the best artist I possibly can. That is my job, and that is what I like doing. I like being a phony politician on TV: “The Mayor of Coney Island” whose job is to tell you to come down to the fireworks or for a parade. I don’t really enjoy going head-to-head with real politicians in the media and criticizing them. I’m not enjoying it, but over the years I’ve been the spokesperson for the [Coney Island] Amusement Park. So I created this character of the Mayor of Coney Island as a public relations person, and over the years the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce and the Astroland Amusement Park have hired me to be an official spokesman. When I haven’t been paid, I’ve done it anyway, and over 30 years the press has come to rely upon me to speak for Coney Island. When I saw what was going on and felt that the amusement park was getting betrayed and getting the shaft, I started speaking out. It is not fun, but I think it is my patriotic duty to defend my neighborhood.

Has it gotten weird enough for you yet? Yes it’s gotten weird enough. I have trouble with reality and normalcy, and instead of getting strung out or weird or committing suicide, I found this very cartoonish neighborhood I love. Here professional people that run businesses entertain themselves with weird amusements. Literally in the summertime, you walk around the neighborhood, and people are dancing in the street. There’s a soundtrack everywhere you go. Reality in Coney Island—and even the business people—is sort of cartoonish. That works for me.

Can you save America? I have already had the privilege of changing America, but I cannot heal America—that’s Obama’s job and God bless him for being there to do it. When I was young, you couldn’t get a doctorate in sideshow studies. There weren’t all these books written about burlesque and freaks, there was no school that took it seriously. My professor thought I was nuts. We created this organization to defend the honor of American popular culture and take things that were totally intellectually disreputable, like tattoos, freaks, and strippers, and defend them as legitimate indigenous American popular art forms. It has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. We were all about taking underground culture and putting it into art centers that published a schedule and invited audiences. Making these things accessible because they existed but were underground. So if you were simple-minded like Bill O’ Reilly, and you wanted to blame one person in America for every suburban teenager having a tattoo and a pierced tongue, it’s as much my fault as anybody’s. I’ve actually seen in 30 years this go from something very fringe to incredibly influential. Actually I’ve had a part in changing the culture, but healing America and bringing everyone together: that’s Obama’s job.

What are you doing tonight? To save a couple of dollars—because the economic crisis affects everybody and we’re pinching pennies—although I’m the founder and artistic director, I’m running the cash register and selling tickets.