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While I believe this is the most comprehensive glossary of carnival terms to be found anywhere on the Internet, I didn't mean to make it a "dictionary". I put this here to help my readers understand me when I write about life on the carnival midway.
I am not a circus or carnival historian. I am not even an expert. These are the words I use on the midway and what I mean when I use them.
Having said that, I'm still grateful for all the help I've had from kind readers, especially Sheila and Brian, since we started this site helping to extend and refine this carnival talk list. I really hate the fact that our carny language and culture are disappearing.
This is not Carny language. Yes, carnies have their own language. At least the old timers do. It's not that difficult to learn but, if you're not "with it", you don't need it.
There are several other sites on the Internet that have carny lingo, some different than ours. Please see our Links pages for some of these.
If a word in a definition is enclosed in single quotation marks ('), that word is also defined here. These links will take you to each alphabetical section
The easiest thing if you are looking for the meaning of a particular word is to just use the search box at the top left of the page. Yes, I know it doesn't look like a search box yet but just type in it and hit "enter". Voila! You searched our site.
A-D
E-H
I-O
P-S
T-Z
50-miler - 'Green help'. New workers who have not made at least a 50 mile 'jump' with the 'show'.
86 - Almost the same as D.Q'd. Banned totally from the lot. This can happen for any number of reasons. It can happen to 'marks' as well as agents or owners.
AB (Amusement Business Weekly) - The magazine of the trade. In the old days, before its name change, it was The Billboard. Covers arenas, concerts and the like as well.
ADD 'EM UP - See 'Count Store'.
ADVANCE MAN - The man who goes ahead of the show and sets up their right to play a certain fair or town. Usually done far in advance nowadays.
AGENT -Any carnival game operator.
ALASKA - Former carny, a legend in his own mind, his reputation goes before him. Even now, twenty years after retirement, old-skool carnies are still cutting jackpoints about his many exploits (and some of 'em are even true, or at least, nearly true).
ALIBI - A carnival game with very little chance to win, but usually not 'gaffed'. Instead, the agent gives you an explanation of why you lost, usually gives you a better offer.
ANNEX - In the case of a sideshow, another name for the area where the 'blowoff' is located.
BABY NEEDS MILK - When carnies see another carny flirting with the townies, they will often go by and say this just to mess up their buddies 'score'.
BACK END - The sideshows, games and rides. Concessions, no matter where located, are part of the 'front end.'
BACK FORTY - See backlot.
BACKLOT - The area behind the joints, trucks, etc. that is secluded from the midway. Town marks are not usually welcome in these areas, unless accompanied by someone who's with it.
BACK-FORTY INSPECTION - Ducking out to a secluded area, usually to smoke a quick joint, etc. Aka, inspecting the ground rod, checking the water hose for leaks, etc, etc...
BAG MAN - Any official on the fair board or local authorities where the carnival is set upto whom protection is paid.
BAIL THE COUNTER - Usually, the only way out of a joint is to jump over the counter.
BALLY - A free show given outside a side show to attract a 'tip'. The platform upon which this is done is also called a 'bally'.
BAMBOOZLE - To trick someone or take something by deceit.
BANK ROLL or B.R. - A wad of money. As in, "Did you see that 'mark's' B.R.?"
BARN - Winter quarters.
BECK AND CALL - See Call.
BEEF - A complaint from a 'mark' , a cop or the office concerning anything about your game. Or any complaint about the show. Or any argument anywhere. As in, "I had a beef with the guy in the bar last night."
BILLBOARD - See AB.
BLANK - (1) A nothing 'spot' or 'loke'. No people, no money, no fun.
BLOW (TO) - (1) A 'piece'.is to give away a nice piece of stock, usually in hope of attracting more marks, when they see that it is possible to win at your game. (2) To blow, or blow the show is self-explanitory; to quit, usually abruptly.
BLOWOFF - To blow off (two words) someone or something has the usual meaning as when the marks use it, but blowoff (one word) refers to the crowd comming away from some major attraction, like a sideshow, or a grandstand. A choice spot to be in (usually costing more) is directly in the path of a big blowoff.
BLOW YOUR PIPES - Carnies often get hoarse and raspy-voiced from screaming at 'marks' all day long. This is called 'blowing your pipes'.
BOZO - Agent in the water tank or "drop joint", usually has persona of obnoxious clown.
BUCK - $100 usually. As in, "My speeding ticket was a buck forty", $140.
BUILD UP - A type of game where you trade small prizes for larger ones.
C-NOTE - $100 bill.
CALL - As a verb, what you do to get 'marks' into your 'joint', i.e., "HEY, BUDDY!", "HEY, YOU WITH THE DIRTY UNDERWEAR!". As a noun, a particular saying. I was best known for "Are You Having Fun Yet?"
CALL, WORK CALL - The time the carney is expected to be present on the midway. "We spring at 6:00, so call is at 5:00, so you'll have time to flash yer joint (or grease your ride, etc)."
CANVAS - What the 'joints' are made out of, even though it is more likely plastic rather than canvas these days.
CARNIVAL - A cooperative business arrangement between independent showmen, ride owners and concessionaires to present outdoor amusement for the public.
CARNY or CARNEY - Someone who works in a carnival. The term is also applied to the carnival itself.
CARNY ROLL or CARNY 'BR' - A carny bank roll is a large wad of money where the large bills are on the outside and the inside is all singles or sometimes even paper. Intended to impress usually the marks with how much money the agent has to gamble with them.
CENTER JOINT - A carnival game set in the middle of the midway that can be played from more that one side.
CHART or CHART STORE - A carnival game, usually a numbers game where the agent uses a chart as a reference to how many points, which prize, et.
CHECK UP - When the money is taken out of the agent's aprons and taken some other place. The money is counted in front of you. You get your cut later.
CHUMP CHANGE - Pennies, nickles and dimes taken from 'marks'.
CIAZARN - See kizzarney.
CIRCUS JUMP - Long moves from one place to another for the show. Usually resulting in having to tear down, set up and go to work without sleeping.
CLEM - Another name for 'mark', probably came from Red Skelton's dumb guy, Clem Kadiddlehopper.
COOK SHACK - A food joint, usually with seating and where the 'office' help, ride and otherwise, has a credit account for their food.
COP -To succeed at something, i.e., "the 'mark' 'copped' a prize"; "did you 'cop' a feel?"
COUNT STORE -A carnival game in which you add up your score to determine if, or what, prize you wone. The agent could 'outcount' you to beat you but, usually, the odds are just in his favor.
COUNTER - The front of a joint where the carnies play the game with their marks. Can actually have a physical counter accross front. This can also be called the 'lay down'.
CRACK - A phrase carnies use. The word can be used in many different contexts. Usually means "what you say" "when the 'mark' says". As in, "What'd you crack to the man that made him so mad?"
CUT - Your share of the money you have made. As in percentage.
D.Q. - See 'disqualified'.
DISQUALIFIED - To be run off the lot. Usually, for stealing or messing with something you shouldn't be. Can happen to 'marks', too.
DONIKER - A rest room or toilet wherever it is.
DONIKER JOINT - A kind of game where you thow either a roll of toilet paper or ball through a toilet seat. Can also mean that your 'joint' got a bad location on the 'lot'.
DOUBLE - $20 bill.
DRAW - Money collected from your boss or the office before it is earned.
EDUCATED - Knowledgeable. A good tip that you are playing a 'mark' who has been 'with it' is that he is too 'educated' for the game.
FAIRBANK - When the agent cheats himself to get the player to bet higher and higher sums.
FIN - $5 bill.
FIREBALL - A lot that is 'wide open'. The game 'agents' are allowed to do just about anything to make a buck.
FIRST COUNT - Means the person who earns the money counts the money first. As in, "The boss here don't pay good. Don't matter I got first count."
FIX - A higher authority figure on the carnival who will 'patch' a 'beef'.
FLASH - In the old days, this meant expensive prizes like transistor radios, TV's etc. Now, it pretty much applies to any type of prizes hung in a 'joint' to attract players.
FLAT STORE - A gaming concession that really has no winning numbers, or ways to beat the game.
FLATTY or FLATTIE - The operator of a flat store.
FLOSS or FLOSS WAGON - Cotton candy and a 'grab joint' that sells cotton candy.
FRAME -A Joint - To build a new game tent.
FREAK - See the FREAKS PAGE if you must.
FREAK SHOW - A show where human oddities and freakish working acts performed. In practice, these shows were often ten-in-one shows and usually had a high percentage of working acts like sword swallowers and fire eaters or 'made freaks' like tattooed people.
FRONT - How many feet along the midway a 'joint' has. Sometimes a 'center joint' is counted on two sides, sometimes four. Can also mean the outside of a show where the money is taken 'out front'. Can also mean to give someone some amount of money to run an errand before they do it.
G-NOTE - $1,000 bill.
G-TOP - Gambling tent or 'top'. For Carnies only.
GAFF - A gaffed game is one where there is a mechanical or other means of controlling the outcome of the game. A gaffed freak show is where the freaks have been faked.
GEEK - See the freak page if you please.
GIRL SHOW - A show in which dancing women are the primary attraction. Some of these were actually stripper shows, some not. These went by the way early in my day as stripper bars came into being more prevalent.
GLASS BENDER - A craftman who makes glass art items called spun glass using little more than glass rods and a propane torch. Many times these are 'independents'.
GLASS PITCH - A carnival game, usually in a 'center joint', where dishes and glassware are artfully stacked and the 'marks' throw dimes and try to win by landing one in the prize. I have seen a new version where ping pong balls are used for the toss and cost 25¢ apiece, probably a better game for the concessionaire as the glass doesn't get chipped and he gets a little more for the 'stock'.
GOING OUT HORIZONTAL - Working until you literally die on the lot or in winter quarters. Something not common among carnies.
GOING SOUTH - Stealing money from your boss. Putting money in your pocket that you haven't earned yet.
GOON SQUAD - On some shows, a group of the tougher, rangyer guys that take care of the office's dirty work. Beat up a carny cause he's cheating the office or his boss. Beat up a mark cause he's cheating a carny. Nice jobs like that.
GRAB JOINT - An eating concession where the customer is served directly over the counter. Some carnival food joints are called grab joints even if they have seating these days.
GREEN HELP - New help on the carnival. Usually townies just working for the spot.
GRIFT - Any kind of crooked illegal activity, whether carried on by the carnies or lot pick pockets or just plain theives.
GRIFTER - A crooked operator of any kind.
GRIND - In the spiel from a show front, the "Harree! Harree! Step Right Up! blather intended to get you inside. Also means to stay in the joint and work away especially when the midway is barren.
GRIND SHOW - A show or attraction that never has a 'bally'. Front men and ticket sellers just grind away all day. Most of the shows on carnival midways today are grind shows, the grind blaring over the midway from an audiotape loop and sound system.
GRIND STORE - Usually a small game that needs a lot of action to make a profit, generally one that operates on pennies, nickels, or dimes.
GRINDER - An agent who is usually in his joint working. Can also mean the ticket seller of a grind show.
GYPSY - Usually means someone of gypsy descent or who pretends to be. Many are fortune tellers. Can also mean an agent who jumps from show to show to work.
HANDLE - Like the c.b.-er's, someone's nickname or possible real name. As in, "What's your handle?"
HANKY-PANK - In the old days it meant a game where a you win a prize everytime. Now it is usually used to apply to any straight game.
HARD - All change. Quarters, nickels, even silver dollars and loonies.
HEAT - Several meanings. Usually means a problem between the carny and a patron or a concessionaire. Can also mean cop.
HEAT SCORE - A transaction with a 'mark' that ended up having to be settled by someone other that the agent.
HEY RUBE - See Rube.
HOLE - A place to work. How many 'holes' a 'joint' has depends on its frontage. A 16' joint usually has four 'holes'.
ICE - To line someone's pocket. Usually the fair board, show owner or local authorities.
INDEPENDENT MIDWAY - The midway concessions booked in separate from those with the carnival. In a fair, for example, the independent midway could consist of booths for local businesses, food stands raising money for fraternal organizations, even shows such as might appear on the carnival midway such as reptile shows, 'motordromes', etc.
JACKPOTS - Carnies stories of their former escapades, often exaggerated. Cuttin' up jackpots is the expression given to swapping these stories.
JOINT - The physical location of a game. It can be a canvas tent or a trailer joint. Even a game right out in the open is still said to be a joint.
JOINTEE - A person who works in the game end of the carnival, an agent.
JUMP - The act of moving the show from one location to another. Sometimes meaning for an agent to go from one show to another.
KEISTER - A rear end as in "are you still sitting on your keister?" Can also mean a doniker location on the midway.
KEY TO THE MIDWAY - A non-existant thing that carnies amuse themselves with as in sending pesky kids that are asking too many questions to go get the 'key to the midway' or 'lightbulb grease' or a 'left-handed monkey wrench'. Any number of amusing non existant things, they will often send the kid to a specific carny just to bug them, too.
KICK - Refers to the pocket where carnies keep the money they 'swing' with, i.e., "I saw Gizmo put that 'fin' in his 'kick'."
KIZZARNEY - Carny language. Actually a sort of 'pig latin' sometimes mixed with a little double talk and a lot of lingo. Haven't heard much of it spoken fluently on the 'lot' for many years and believe it could be considered a dead language.
LAYDOWN - Usually the place on the counter where the 'mark' puts his money to bet, but can also include charts that show odds, payouts, etc. Can also mean the actual act of giving you the money.
LECTURER - Individual who talks inside a sideshow, lecturing on the various acts. Often, acts lecture on themselves, especially the human oddities.
LINE-UP JOINT - A joint along the sides of a midway. Usually with just one working 'front'.
LOC or LOKE - Your location on the midway. If you are near the major rides, it is a good loc. Near the kid rides is usually a 'doniker' loc.
LOT - The show grounds.
LOT LIZARD - Rather derogatory term for ladies who sleep around on the midway, townies or not.
LOT MAN - The person on the 'lot' responsible for the layout of the grounds. He marks where individual games and rides will be set up.
LUGEN - A really dumb, easy 'mark'.
MARK - A carnival term for townspeople. Particularly, the ones who become their cusomers.
MIDWAY - In my usual sense, the location where all the concessions, rides and shows are located. In the boadest sense, the world wide web.
MIND MAN/WOMAN - Performer, usually working with an assistant, whose act consists of 'reading the minds' of the patrons.
MITT CAMP - A fortune telling booth on a carnival.
MONEY STORE - A game that pays off with cash instead of prizes.
MOOCH - An exceptionally good 'mark'.
NATURAL - A person who takes to the carnival business like a duck to water. Someone with natural talents for being an agent.
NUT - The operating expenses of a show (daily, weekly or yearly). Can also mean the operating expenses of individual joint owners. So a show always sought to 'make the nut' and start making money above its expenses. A show that hadn't yet 'made the nut' was said to be 'on the nut' and one that had was said to be 'off the nut'.
OFFICE - The carnival office wagon or trailer.
OUTCOUNT - In a numbers game to count faster, and, usually, more inaccurately than your mark.
OUTSIDE MAN - Someone employed by the carnival or the carny to play the game and keep it rolling or the bets going upward.
OVERCALL - To call 'marks' when they are not yet or still in your 'frontage'. Considered unethical unless an agent has established eye contact with a 'mark'.
P.C. - See percentage.
PATCH - To fix a heat score before it goes to the office or higher authorities. Also the person who does this. Requires good people skills. Sometimes, the office is the 'patch'.
PERCENTAGE - How carnival agents are usually paid. Also the part of a showman's gross receipts that must be paid (usually in addition to other costs too) to the carnival owner for the right to play the spot.
PIECE - (1) piece of stock - A prize awarded to the winner of a game, usually a stuffed animal (2) a firearm, usually a pistol.
PITCH - A type of joint that sells things rather than letting people 'win' them. Also means selling merchandise by lecturing and demonstrating.
PLATFORM - The raised staging where acts perform. It can refer to those inside the show or the bally platform on the front of the show.
PLUSH - A better piece of stock, made of soft furry material known as plush. A stuffed animal given away as a prize at a game.
POSSUM BELLY - Racks built underneath the semi-trailers that are used to haul excess cargo.
POSSUM BELLY QUEEN - Derogatory term for ladies that sleep around with all the carnys, yep, sometimes in the possum belly.
PROFESSOR - Title often taken by any showman considered expert in their chosen field. It was seldom a true indicator of academic pedigree, though it could well represent a wealth of knowledge about the public at large.
PROP or PROPOSITION - Percentage of your overall take that you are working for. As in, "What kind of prop did you get in your last joint?"
PUNK - A young person or animal. A child or an unusually immature young person. Also a type of sexual pervert.
RAG - A cheap piece of stock, made of plain cloth.
RANGY - Worked up, often in a vulgar way. Typically, a show could be rangy (say, a kootch show; usually, though, this would be termed a 'strong' show) or a lot of rangy patrons (drunken, disorderly, disruptive) could be in a show. Pronounced like what you did to the bell.
REHASH - Usually means to replay a 'mark' that already played your game with you or another agent. Can also mean to reuse anything. As in, "You got any rehash corn dogs?"
RIDE JOCK -A person who works or runs the rides in a carnival.
ROUGHY - Middle management in the carnival business.
ROUTE - List of towns and events played each year.
RUBE - Any kind of physical and sometimes, verbal fight. Originally meant a big fight between the carnies and the townies. When a carny saw someone hit a co-worker, they yelled "Hey, Rube!" and everyone who could bail a counter piled on. Also, a not very affectionate term for the towner himself.
SAWBUCK - $10 Bill.
SAWDUST IN THE BLOOD - A compliment for a long-time carny.
SCHLOW - To tear down the show and haul it away.
SCORE - To take money off a mark. Also used in the sexual sense of the word.
SET UP - The act of taking the show off the trucks and turning it into a carnival.
SHARK - An unusually skilled agent. Or, sometimes used to refer to an unusually 'hungry' one.
SHARPIE - Someone very good at a skill game often used as a 'shill' to get others to play the game.
SHILL - One who pretends to play a game, or to buy a ticket to an attraction, in order to entice others to join or follow him. Without a good shill, and entire 'tip' may stay perfectly still after an opening. All with the cash in their hands, and not one of them will "break" for the ticket boxes, unless some brave soul leads the way. Shills fill the need for brave souls. Also, someone paid to play your game and make it look easy to win big prizes or someone paid or unpaid who just walks around with a very nice prize and tells you where they got it.
SHOW - The carnival itself. The show moves from spot to spot but it's always the same show unless you go to another show.
SHOW BANNER - Huge, gaudy banners on canvas hung in front of side shows depicting the wonders to be found inside.
SHOWMEN - A person who works in the entertainment industry. Especially one who belongs to the "Showmen's Association". Many "showmen" do not like to be called carnies
SIDEWALL - The canvas wall that hangs below a canvas 'top,'on the outside of a 'joint'. What most outside the business would call a 'tent' is, in reality, the canvas top with its sidewalls attached.
SIMP HEISTER - A carny term for the ferris wheel.
SINGLE O - A show consisting of a single attraction. Can also mean a one dollar bill.
SLACK WIRE - A wire act, usually performed low as opposed to high wire, in which the wire is slack and bows under the wire artist, allowing for a periodically more comic (though just as difficult) act than usually seen on the high wire.
SLICK - To slick somebody doing something is to catch them in the act. Also a nickname for a sort of slimy, suave character.
SLOUGH - See Schlow
SLOW - See Schlow
SLUM - Cheap prizes, bought in bulk, always worth less than the price of the game.
SMOOTH - Settle down angry marks or authorities. Smooth things over. Also used to describe a carny with very subtle style.
SPIEL - The speech made on a show front by the talker to the gathering crowd.
SPOOF - A spoof is a small trick or gaff. Can also be "a white lie".
SPOT - The location of a carnival. As in, "What was the best spot you played last year?"
SQUARE - To settle a dispute without use of the Law or the fists. Also used by the legal adjusters for the "fixing of a town" at City Hall, and the lavish use of passes on the lot to keep the Law happy.
STASH - Bankroll. Amount of cash in your pocket or on the books.
STEW - Money. All money taken in is stew.
STICK - A 'shill'.
STICK JOINT - A 'joint' framed from lumber, as opposed to a 'trailer joint'. Used to be the norm for joints, now the opposite is true.
STOCK - Your 'inventory' of prizes. Also adding that inventory to your joint, i.e. you stock after you set up.
STORE - Another word for 'joint'.
STRAIGHT UP - Honest. Can apply to game, person or thing.
STRONG - Another highly versatile carny word. Usually means "good", as in, a "strong" joint or agent. Can also mean exceptionally agressive, as in, "Did you have to play that 'mark' that 'strong'?"
STRONG ARM - A joint where a lot of pressure is put on marks to play or play bigger odds. Also an agent capable of running this kind of joint.
SWING - To steal money from your boss.
TALKER - Never "barker." The man who makes the "outside openings" and "talks" in front of an attraction. If he talks inside the attraction, he is a 'lecturer'.
TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT - Do anything to get the money. Also "work strong."
TEN IN ONE - A carnival midway show with ten attractions inside. It is usually an "illusion" show or some other "string show." Can be either a "pit" or a "platform" show. Most of them worked on ground level though. "Also '10-in-1,' etc." Can also be 5-in-1 or anyother number these days.
THE MAN - Any authority figure. Could be your boss, the show owner or the cops. Generally, used as "Uh oh, here comes the man".
TIP - The crowd gathered in front of an attraction by the "ballyhoo." They listen to the talker, watch the free exhibition on the bally platform, and if the talker is convincing enough, they buy tickets and go in to see the promised show. When entire tip has been "turned" by a talker's "opening," it is said that he has "cleaned the midway." You seldom see these in a modern carnival as they do not normally have side shows. A crowd gathered in front of your joint to watch people play your game is sometimes referred to as a 'tip'.
TOP - See definition for 'sidewall' above.
TOWNIE - A local person from the town you are playing, a 'mark'.
TRAILER JOINT - A 'joint' that is contained within a trailer rather than framed from lumber, as in a 'stick joint'. At one time this was considered sophisticated and flashy, now, there about all you see on some midways.
TROUPER - A person who has spent at least one full season on some type traveling amusement organization. By then, they are usually hooked.
TRUCK SHOW - A show which travels by truck, the situation of most carnivals today.
TURN THE TIP - Now days, to gather a good crowd in front of your joint and get many of them to play your game.
WIDE OPEN - A show or carnival where anything goes, where the shows can play as "strong" as they want, meaning raunchy in this case, and the games can take the marks for anything they can by any means possible. Such conditions never existed without the approval of the local authorities, usually after big pay offs from the carnival people.
WINTER QUARTERS - Location where a show stays during its off season, that is, the quarters in the winter. A show's winterquarters need not be in a temperate climate zone, though a number of them are in the South.
WITH IT - (as in, "with it and for it") An expression by which one trouper may know another even though they have never met before. Warning: Do not attempt to use this word unless you have been properly instructed in the manner by which to deliver it.
YARD or YARD-NOTE - yard is $100. As in, it cost me 2 yards to get my car fixed. Yard note is $100 bill.
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Carny Lingo 
