Remember the local carnival? That time of the year when meat is eaten off a stick, the Gravitron is spinning and tons of cash is wasted on trying to knock fluffy dolls off a shelf. Have no fear. Thanks to the dudes at Circus Punks you can play the game every day, but this time the prize is a signed and numbered piece of art by your favorite low-brow artist. Just don’t throw the bean bag too hard. Life In A Bungalo got a chance to chat with Paul Fresno (one-third of the team braintrust behind Circus Punks along with Steve Richard and Wade Krause) to find out why Circus Punks are so damn cool.

What made you choose Circus Punks a medium for screen prints?
To be honest, I had been a toy collector for the last five years, and I just looked at an old punk and thought that it would be perfect to paint something on. I immediately called Tim Biskup who I lived with and work with, and he was stoked, but he was already involved with a lot of toy and art projects. So we blew it off for a couple of months, until he called me one day and said tonight we are going to start working on it.

We had originally planned on making only one, and we really like it. Then the goal turned into just making a whole wall full—then we’ll quit. And here we are today. The way I look at collectors who buy these punks, is that we are partners in a way—we each buy them and we fill up our walls. We are so not a company. It’s kind of cheesy, but it’s true. Well, we’re not making any money off of the Circus Punks, so it must be true.

Do you still hand make the punks? Looking through my collection, I can see different quirks and qualities to each punk. Can you tell me the process you go through to physically make the punks?
When we started, we were printing them ourselves, sewing them, stuffing them, cutting the wood, illustrating the wood ourselves, and then putting them together. Incidentally, the first eight were stuffed with swamp cooler pad shavings. I would just pass by a swamp cooler pad manufacturer, fill trash bags full of that stuff, put it in my car, and we would have stuffing for a month. That killed our hands and our noses, so we got rid of that. By number 12, we decided to see if they could print and sew the punks in Hong Kong, so they could at least take over a part of the labor. We all still had full-time jobs and this was taking some time to do. In Hong Kong they actually print better than we do in the States, and then all we have to do is stuff them and put them together. It’s all pretty much still DIY, but how you define that is different for everybody.

How do you generate artist involvement? You have a lot of dream artists involved, like Baseman and Kozik, how do get them involved?
We started with people we knew like Tim Biskup. That was a no-brainer—he pushed it through. Then we expanded it to people we both knew. I then started approaching artists I liked, and we got an onslaught of art that I still have waiting to go.

You started out printing small runs, and it fluctuates every now and then between 50 and 150. How do you go about determining how big a run is?
Some people can answer a question like that with some sort of specific formula, but honestly, we decide edition size by the [popularity] of the artist. Sometimes I don’t make enough; such is the case with Ness’s Bad Ass Baboon. Sometimes I make a few too many. In a perfect world, I would make just enough so that the primary market can get them when they are released. I don’t want to see them on eBay for $4 tomorrow, nor do I want a fan to pay $500 tomorrow.

One of the reasons the Bad Ass Baboon was so popular, besides the fact that it was limited to only 50 pieces, was because it was personalized by the artist with a mini-sketch. Ness is a good example of an artist who got a shot at doing something big like this and he wanted to go over the top with it. And he did, and people responded favorably. People just love that punk.

How did you get involved in the art scene? Was this kind of your way of giving back to a scene, much like editors making zines in the punk rock scene?
Early on I got involved in punk rock (in like 1980) and by the time I was 18 I was making fanzines and putting on shows. Then I started a record label. So I was always part of an alternative subculture from the business end. I like doing business, and doing it by treating people right. And to be honest, I wanted to see Circus Punks on my shelves, and that’s why I did it. At this point it’s more of an intrinsic reward, rather than a financially reward. I’m proud of what we’ve done. I think the perfect recipe for success is approaching something from a fan perspective. Hell, I’m 39 and I’m still into punk rock.

This whole new art scene that we see happening really reminds me of early punk rock, because you see a lot of artists just doing their own thing without a care in the world. They just use what’s out there—it’s so DIY.

The mini-punks are a great way to get punks into the hands of younger people or fans without deep pockets. What was you goal in creating them and have you succeeded?
I don’t think there was an outright goal, so much as a way to produce a big series for people who can’t afford the full-size punks (which are more than fair price) to collect. There are also a lot of kids who collect them and that’s awesome.

Do you ever get annoyed with people who complain that punks are just expensive toys?
We don’t get too many complaints other than what’s on a message board. Usually when someone complains the fans rush to our defense, and I come on with a big explanation. But if you really step back and think about it, the punks are really good deals. All of our punks set at the same price. So if it’s a really prolific artist, then it’s an even better deal.

What do you have planned for the New York show coming up in early October? I hear there is going to be about 160 handmade, one-off punks.
I’ve seen some of the other [platform] show—I’m a big Qee and Dunny collector—but I think the Circus Punk lends itself to customized design more than any other platform, because they truly are canvas and have been hand designed for the past 130 years probably. That’s a long time. The title of the show 100 (Circus) Punks Rule NYC, which is a take off the old Generation X song “100 Punks Rule.” I just liked the name of the song. You can bet for upcoming shows we’ll come up with similar names like (Circus) Punks Not Dead.

I’m anxious for the show and it’s been a lot of work. Communicating with hundred of people over a span of six months and figuring out whose name is going to be on the poster… that’s a lot of tedious operational work. More than anything else I am anxious to see the labor of all the artists. We’ve made a lot of friendship from the East Coast, and we have about 60 people coming in from the West Coast. There’s a lot of love going into this. This is New York—there’s nothing bigger than this.

I know there a lot of artists involved in the show that haven’t had their own mass-produced punk. Are there any dream artists that you still haven’t been able to get to do either show or an actual punk?
We’ve had some artists that just have never responded. About 90 percent of the artists responded if we asked. Maybe nine percent didn’t respond at all, and only a couple of artists have actually said no. Two have said no, and one hasn’t responded at all after numerous requests. And those three are probably the closest in parallel to my life and what we’ve been through, and our ages and all that. It’s kind of weird that I’ve actually been a collector of all of them. But I think if that we work hard enough, and the idea is respectable enough that most artists sign on. We also pay very well based on platform. Depending on how they do, an artist can make a couple thousand dollars making a Circus Punk.

What’s next after the New York punk show? Are you guys making a mad dash for Christmas?
We don’t have these grand plans. In fact, we are pretty inconsistent. There were a couple of months where we didn’t put out anything in preparation for New York, put out a whole lot during Comic Con and through July. We are going to see that again through September and October. During holiday time we are going to calm down with three and three in November and December. We really should do something more formal so that we don’t stress the collector’s pockets.

Looking for punks in the New Jersey area? Head on over to Orbit Gallery Space (Edgewater, NJ) to find the latest punks and a few really rare ones.