Shangri-La was the first joker card I heard, but that was kind of old hat, too, by the time I was getting into it. My first ICP album was the Calm, and I guess there wasn’t as much of an obvious dark carnival presence on that album so I wasn’t yet hip to that jive. My decision to buy Shangri-La first was more influenced by fact that I didn’t have a lot of money and I was looking to buy what would give me the most material. I bought Shangri-La because it came with a DVD (seminar disc that actually educated my ass a bit about ICP’s history) and Mutilation Mix because it had a long track list. I started collecting the cards in mostly random order after that.

I don’t believe I’ve met anyone who believes religiously in any dark carnival. There’s probably some out there though. I think there’s a good few non-juggalos with the misconception that we all do actually worship ICP and/or the dark carnival religiously. 

I don’t know about any websites dedicated to joker card speculation or whatever. This is basically the only juggalo site I bother to come to. There’s enough speculation and analysis in these forums though.

I only found out about ICP after the Wraith dropped when I was in primary school still. I was like six then and always heard psy

music being played at my cousins’ when they babysat me. I  didn’t actually take any sort of interest in ICP (except for some of

the catchier songs that I now find played out) until about a year after EOTS when I was 12. I was rummaging through my

cousin’s stack of about 200 miscellaneous rap cd’s and found COC and Ringmaster. It was the reissues by island (but coc for

some reason still had all 16 tracks) and had just the face of the card, a black background, the album font, and the business shit

on it. I was drawn form the work and asked if I could  borrow it, instead he gave me them as a gift. I had no fucking idea about

the dark carnival, pychopathic records, juggalos, or even what the hatchetman was. I didn’t even know who the CD’s were by.

By pure happenstance I put on COC first cause I liked the shiny colors used on the cd and was intrigued and a little frightened

by how ominous the intro was. Track 2 weirded me out kinda but at the end of it when heard “And now it’s time for THE I-C

MUTHAFUCKING P” I knew I was in for a treat. Before scooping my brains of the floor and putting them back in my previously

blown wig I knew that a new part of my life started. I put on Ringmaster next and by the end of Wax Museum realized that

they were by the same artist and were conceptual. I played those fucking cd’s alot over the weekend and researched ICP as

much I could when I was at school the next week. I cheapened the rest of the dark carnival experience by google

album/carnival analysis.  I soon started getting music burned for me by my cousin friend (who has every major psy release yet

doesn’t consider himself a juggalo). I really became a fucking clown boy though and starting living by the dark carnival, which

morally wasn’t a bad thing. And then B!P!B! came out so I geeked because “The dark carnival was back”. That seems ages ago

because i’m young as hell. I held juggaloism and the carnival itself in much higher regard back then but I still feel very strongly

about both. Like most of us I was never to popular and carried around that “Scrub Hora” as J’s said, and listening to the 6 and

ICP’s in general made me get over depressing thoughts and embrace the enlightening thoughts. I turned myself into a popular

kid by taking chances and giving less of a fuck about the way people perceived me. I got my dad to actually acknowledge that

the dark carnival is wholesome and good thing. I know there wasn’t that “mystery” that the OG’s were so lucky to have

witnessed and I didn’t get that anticipation for the 6th and the end of the world but I still feel all the magic (that I even forgot

about until I started writing this post). I’d like to end by saying that since I’ve starting lurking this forum last year that my faith

in Juggalos and has forever been restored. For any who may actually read this I am grateful for all of your input, information,

HUMOR, and love. Yall are the best motherfuckers on the interwebs.

piggofdoom said

Klaent said

piggofdoom said
I got lucky because right as I became down, Halls of Illusions was a huge juggalo website, and so it was super easy to learn up on ICP history. I mean, the site had lyrics, history, beefs, and their height and weight for fuck’s sake! Faygoluvers had a lot of cool info before the format changed, too!

Nice to see that Halls of Illusions is still remembered. I was mod/editor on that site pretty much from start to end. I wrote a lot of those fun facts we had, people loved to complain to about those… 

 

Now that I think about it, I also remember when we wrote down a “map” of all their tattoos, you know circled them with red and a number, then a description of what they all was. I feel like a poser today compared to how into it i was back then. Good times tho, good times.

 

Sorry for going offtopic, getting all nostalgic over here.

I fucking miss that site, man! I remember being a a little fuckin 12 year old trying to talk to juggalettes on AIM and Yahoo messenger, calling them up and video chatting. I remember juggalo radio being the shit and being internet homies with one of the dj’s lol.
NOSTALGIA ALL UP IN THIS BITCH

Now that you mention radio, I remember that we ran a radio station on HOI for a while, is that the one you’re talking about? I might still have some of our jingles on my computer.

I dont remember what the name was =(