Cheeky peek at legendary star of the show

NEWCASTLE Show has had many memorable characters over the years.

One of its most outstanding and colourful figures, who was once Newcastle's longest-serving showman, was the late "Snow Cone Joe" Redman.

He began working country shows in the 1940s with a shooting gallery in sideshow alley. Ever inventive, he soon came up with the idea of turning water into gold by producing coloured snow cones, always popular on hot summer show days (plus Pluto pups).

To mark the staging of the annual Newcastle Show this weekend, it seems an appropriate time to tell his remarkable life story.

For Joe Redman was privy to many sideshow alley secrets in an earlier, different era of 'open shows', then featuring attractions like exotic African pygmies, strippers and boxing tents, before they were banned.

Besides appearing at Newcastle Show regularly, the ever-smiling Joe was a bit of a legend, a household name on the agricultural show circuit in the Northern Rivers.

He even found time to call harness races from Taree to Grafton for 47 years, and, on retirement, became a Port Stephens councillor for 16 years (1979 to 1995), serving five terms as deputy shire president.

Port Stephens Council rewarded him by making him a very proud Freeman of the City when he finally exited local politics.

According to his son, Gary, although his late father was born and raised in Dungog, he lived in Newcastle and Port Stephens his entire life.

"He was a joker and a battler, but made good and gave plenty back to the community," Gary first told Weekender in a letter soon after his dad passed away in October 2012, aged 90.

"Dad was also very fortunate to be honoured by Port Stephens Council, unusual whilst anyone is still alive, by having both a street and a park named after him; Redman Place at Soldiers Point and Joe Redman Reserve at Salamander Bay.

"Port Stephens Wines also produced a Joe Redman Muscat to celebrate its 10-year anniversary," Gary said.

In 2004, the veteran showman also inspired author Wendy McCormack to pen a wonderful, but now probably rare, biography of this larger-than-life character Clyde Joseph (Joe) Redman.

Entitled Show & Tell, the story of Snow Cone Joe, the book reveals a true Aussie character with a fascinating past who was a familiar face on the show circuit for decades.

In the book's foreword by Test cricketeer and relative Doug Walters, Joe is described as being such a good salesman that he could probably sell ice to Eskimos.

Author McCormack wrote there were many sides to Joe Redman: inventor, broadcaster, horse breeder, businessman and tireless practical joker. Before showbiz beckoned though, he dabbled in a variety of occupations, from water divining and cockfighting.

"But his real passion has been for the sights, sounds and smells of country showgrounds and the interesting people he encountered," McCormack wrote.

Speaking about the former characters of Sideshow Alley, Joe Redman also spills the beans on what went on behind the show scenes: what was the trick behind the dancing ducks, the bullet-proof lady and the pig with the golden tooth?

Redman revealed the horrible truth behind a sideshow's dancing ducks was that as music started, a hustler had them dance on a heated steel plate hidden by a tablecloth.

Joe Redman admitted he, too, was initially fooled (like the crowd) as the 'trained' ducks started jitterbugging on the concealed hot plate.

Another time he discovered the secret behind the 'bulletproof lady'. The sideshow's crack shot would 'shoot' a blindfolded girl through her body. She would squeal and a mirror behind her would break from a hidden pipe attached to a wire dropping, hitting it.

But behind the bullseye on her stomach, a lead plate was strapped under her clothing.

Redman revealed the lead protection plate hadn't been changed for a while when a bullet actually penetrated the lead shield and went into the girl's stomach.

The girl squealed more loudly this time, and there was blood. The bullet was finally removed with tweezers. It was fantastic publicity for the next show, but the girl resigned and another human 'target' had to be recruited.

Another time at Tamworth, a desperate snake-pit operator trying to drum up business faked his own 'snake bite' recovery to excite customers to fill his sideshow tent.

Later, in Darwin, another operator copied the trick, even puncturing his wrist with a fork and telling medicos on their arrival he had been bitten by a king brown.

He pretended to lose consciousness, was given an antivenom injection, and four hours later he was dead.

Equally as intriguing was Redman's memory of the attraction billed as the pig with a golden tooth. Joe remembered wandering into a showman's tent early one day to see the pig only to be told: "I haven't dressed him up yet."

The pig's owner then applied some gold paint with a toothbrush to the porker's famous tooth. But the ruse was soon rumbled when a well-meaning youngster gave the animal an apple to munch on, and the paint ran.

Undeterred, the operator at the very next show erected a large sign reading: PLEASE DON'T FEED THE PIG!

After Joe's death, Craig Baumann, the then Port Stephens MP paid tribute to his former close friend and "born practical joker" in a speech in NSW Parliament.

Baumann ended by remembering the time they both attended a conference in distant Perth. A rather imposing lady then sat at their table talking non-stop, monopolising the entire table conversation. The situation became stressful for the jet-lagged pair.

"Following 15 minutes of mindless conversation, Joe, who was sitting next to the lady, dropped a spoon which he then picked up," Baumann recorded in Hansard.

The woman then erupted out of her chair and hastily left.

"We then noticed Joe grinning like a Cheshire cat and obviously guilty," Baumann said.

"We grilled him and Joe said, 'When I dropped the spoon I simply ran my hand up her calf and it looks like she didn't like it'."

Baumann said that Joe was inordinately proud of his Freeman jacket and wore it at every opportunity. Later, at his funeral, the then Port Stephens mayor Bruce Mackenzie quietly asked why Joe's Freeman jacket was not on the coffin, and was told old Joe was wearing it, having been buried in it.

"A community stalwart until the end. Vale Joe Redman, a truly great Australian", Baumann said.