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The freaks will come out for Dr. Creep

Springfield benefit concert will raise money for Dayton's ailing horror host

The Rev. Tommy Gunn (aka Thomas Nealeigh) will show off some classic, carnival-style sideshow stunts Saturday at a concert to help the ailing Dr. Creep.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 11:12 AM Thursday, July 16, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Thomas Nealeigh would make one heck of a motivational speaker.

After all, let’s just see Zig Ziglar lay on a bed of nails or lay face down in a pile of broken glass — then have people step on him.

“I’ve had as much as 1,000 pounds of people on top of me and I’ve gotten up, unhurt,” Nealeigh said. “So if I can do that, why can’t you lose those 10 pounds? Or ask your boss for that raise? There’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it.”

As the Rev. Tommy Gunn — ringleader of the FreakShow Deluxe, a troupe devoted to the old-school sideshow arts — Nealeigh has launched a career based almost solely on mind over matter.

But the 40-year-old Greenville native has something weighing heavily on his mind — the man who served as his first guide into the weirder side of life, Dr. Creep, is sick.

A bunch of Creep’s Springfield fans will band together Saturday, July 18, for a benefit concert in Snyder Park.

“You work your whole life and you have some health problems and you lose everything,” said Nealeigh, who will perform between bands Saturday.

It turns out there’s more than meets the eye to some things in life — Dr. Creep, the Dayton horror show host who starred on Channel 22’s “Shock Theatre” from 1972 to 1985, is actually just a mere mortal named Barry Hobart with a mounting number of medical bills.

But it turns out, with other things, what you see is what you get.

“Fire burns. They tell you not to play with it for a reason,” Nealeigh said. “I know and I understand, but there’s real risk.”

He started the FreakShow in 2001 as a simple way to entertain people in line at a haunted trail in Xenia sponsored by the now-defunct outdoor drama “Blue Jacket.” (Nealeigh acted in the show and later became its director of marketing.)

By 2005, Nealeigh and the FreakShow had their own theater in Hollywood.

A stuffed pygmy elephant once owned by P.T. Barnum stood in the lobby; Danny Elfman attended opening night.

People in L.A. at first acted like they’d seen it all.

“To see somebody stick their arm in a bear trap,” he explained, “it’s a very visceral experience. It really gets you in the gut.”

There are now three FreakShow Deluxe troupes on the road and 40 performers.

“We’ve provided a bearded lady for Gene Simmons’ ‘Family Jewels.’ ‘America’s Got Talent’ calls every year,” said Nealeigh, who divides his time between L.A. and Dayton.

He’s trying to pitch a reality show of his own.

“Being a ‘pain-proof man,’ ” he said, “it’s not that it doesn’t hurt. It’s the mental ability to overcome pain.”

He swings cement blocks from his ears, eats fire, hammers nails through his nose and lets people staple items to his body.

“It’s entertainment,” he said. “The risking of death and dismemberment for other people, that’s a tradition that’s tens of thousands of years old.”

And this time, it’s all for a good cause.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.

How to go

What: Chaos in the Park 2009, a benefit concert for Dr. Creep with bands, sideshow acts, food, raffles and more

When: Noon to 9 p.m. Saturday

Where: Snyder Park band shell

Cost: Free

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