Shoot the Freak was an attraction on the Riegelmann Boardwalk at

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, that operated from 2000 until its demolition in 2010. The game was located on West Boardwalk in Coney Island. The game was considered one of the distinctive attractions of Coney Island. A successor, called Shoot the Clown, opened in a different location on the Boardwalk in 2013.

Game play

The game consisted of a raised platform above a yard filled with obstacles and other objects. A high

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

wall defined the back end of the yard; the walls of adjacent buildings defined the side boundaries. A carnival barker would draw passersby to play the game, using trademark calls of "C'mon, ya pineapple!" Players would fire

paintball Paintball is a competitive sport, competitive team sport, team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called Paintball equipment#Paintballs, paintballs that b ...

rifles from the platform at human targets in the yard below. Playing the game required purchase of ammunition from the proprietor. The targets (the "freaks") were unarmed, wore plastic armor, and would taunt and insult the players while dodging paintball fire. No prizes were awarded and there was no scoring system.

Demolition

As part of its contract with the

New York City government The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a Mayor–council government, mayor-council system. The Mayor of New York City, mayor is electe ...

to reconstruct and modernize Coney Island and create a new park called Luna Park, the Italian firm

Zamperla Antonio Zamperla S.p.A. is an Italian design and manufacturing company founded in 1966. It is best known for creating family rides, thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The company also makes smaller coin-operated rides commonly found in ...

tried to coerce several existing Coney Island boardwalk attractions to close or relocate, and Shoot the Freak was among those that refused. Over the 2010 winter holidays, Shoot the Freak was bulldozed without proper permits and sealed off. The owner and operator of Shoot the Freak was Anthony Berlingieri, who also owned Beer Island, another Boardwalk business that had been threatened with eviction by Zamperla. Berlingieri had been battling Zamperla in court and had been formally served

eviction Eviction is the removal of a Tenement (law), tenant from leasehold estate, rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosure, foreclosed by a mortgagee (often ...

papers on November 1, 2010, but the eviction had been stayed on

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

and court hearings were not yet under way. Zamperla was fined for the illegal action.

Shoot the Clown

After Superstorm Sandy decimated Coney Island in October 2012, proprietors scrambled to replace the attractions that had been destroyed for the following spring. The old Derby Racer space, on Bowery Street in Coney Island, became the site of Shoot the Clown. The rules, layout and setup of Shoot the Clown are identical to those of Shoot the Freak. The proprietor of Shoot the Clown is Caesar, the operator of a number of other attractions.

In popular culture

* A band based in Brooklyn is named Shoot The Freak. * In the game ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's ''Grand Theft Auto: San And ...

'', a non-playable storefront in Firefly Island in Broker is called "Shoot Em Down." The sign is in the same style as Shoot the Freak's sign.Firefly Island – Grand Theft Wiki, the GTA wiki
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References

External links

– page with pictures of the Shoot the Freak game. {{coords, 40.5740, -73.9803, display=title Carnival games Coney Island