The Captain's Halloween Massacre
Bora Bora Club, 2415 N. Walker
9 p.m. Saturday
$10 in advance, $15 at the door
557-1105, www.myspace.com/boraboraokc
There aren't many people in the world willing to suspend themselves in the air by jabbing hooks into their skin, but on Saturday, three of the top suspension teams in the region will string their bodies up for The Captain's Halloween Massacre at Bora Bora Club, 2415 N. Walker.
This year's event won't simply be about body suspension, but rallying help for a kindred spirit in need.
Arwen "Spliff" Rosa is, executive director of New York-based DisGraceLanD Hook Squad, joined a group of body suspension artists from Oklahoma and Texas for an event in Los Angeles. A tire blowout en route caused a car wreck, sending all the passengers to the hospital. Rosa was the most significantly hurt, suffering head trauma and spinal cord injuries.
Although the other members have since been released, Rosa remains in a rehabilitation center as his wife prepares for the birth of their child. Groups from around the country are staging benefits to help the family pay mounting hospital bills.
"As far as I know, every suspension team in the country has been doing benefit shows," said Rick Pierceall, part of Tulsa's AGRO Suspension Team. "There aren't a whole lot of people that do suspension, maybe a couple thousand in the entire world doing it in a modern way."
Pierceall said there are two types of body suspension. What attendees will see Saturday is of the carnival sideshow variety, performed for entertainment and shock value. The other kind is more of an emotional release, done in private, which is part of what has helped bond the suspension community on a spiritual level.
"I have a son who has had four heart operations," Pierceall said. "Around the time he is having heart operations, my wife would do suspension. It is her way of dealing with the pain and anxiety of the trauma of having a child going into a major operation."
The show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. For more information, call 557-1105 or visit www.myspace.com/boraboraokc. "Charles Martin
