Inside a Coney Island theater devoted to circus sideshows, a crowd watched as longtime sword swallower and strongman Adam Rinn presided over a mock funeral, complete with weeping mourners and an open casket carried by pallbearers.
The deceased, Rinn told onlookers on the cold February afternoon, was not an actual human but rather “our beloved Mermaid Parade,” should a proposed casino and entertainment complex known as The Coney be built on site.
“We hope that this is not going to be the reality,” Rinn said, adding for effect, “Mourners, please be seated.”
Rinn is the artistic director at Coney Island USA, a nonprofit group that operates the Coney Island Circus Sideshow and the hugely popular Mermaid Parade, which draws hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.
