Known as the "King of Clowns", and Chieftain of the "Circo Tulala", or Tribe of Clowns, Pucky Luxx is perhaps the most controversial figure in the last half-century of Carnipelagian history. The life story of the entertainer and politician is often embellished with legend and obfuscated by conflicting accounts of many its details and events. Luxx himself offered glimpses into his life in his many writings, but embellished so many of them with such fantastical details that they are rarely ever taken literally. It is clear, however, that "The Little Man", as he was also often known, rose from quite humble beginnings to become one of the most powerful and enduring figures throughout the archepelago.

Even accounts of his birth are shrouded in legend and blurred detail. He was born in Springfield Bluffs around the Carpelagian year 1038 (approx 1915) as Paolo Luz, the only child of a young, unmarried Clown tribal burlesque dancer, Petra Luz. His father, though not immediately known at the time, was a pirate captain who had seduced the strikingly beautiful dancer after attending a show while his ship was anchored in nearby Cetus Cove. At first, the young single mother withheld the name of the chid's father, creating a minor scandal amid her fellow Clowns. It is told that Miss Luz was so beautiful and talented that several of her male tribesmen began to claim their paternity to the infant, in the hopes of becoming the groom in one of the tribes' regularly arranged "pop-gun weddings." Such weddings, featuring an already impregnated bride, were so common in Clown culture around the turn of the century that they became the norm, and all but institutionalized. In Clown weddings, the titles "best man" and "maid of honor" was richly deserved, since the man and woman chosen would also serve as the couple's midwives, often accompanying them on their honeymoon.

Such was not to be the case for young Petra, who would risk a severe punishment for the out-of-tribe pregnancy and eventually divulged the details of the child's paternity and conception. According to several opinions, Petra preferred taking a harsh cropping and two-year suspension from the stage over a pop-gun wedding with any of the willing braggarts that were positioning themselves as potential husbands. Others have claimed that Petra actually looked forward to the cropping from the tribal "elders", and that the two year suspension was probably just about the amount of time she would need to bear the child and reclaim her highly-celebrated figure anyway.

Fortunately or unfortunately for Petra, depending on the account that has the most verity, no punishment was forthcoming. Pirates were common visitors to the small, young volcanic islands at the time and were perhaps the only group that Clowns, famous for their own wildness and graft, actually feared. This led to many of her tribe considering her "a victim" of pirate "violation", even though she never claimed that the relationship was anything but consentual. In fact, she regularly insisted that it was. But while her date with the riding crop and subsequent "maternal leave" was never sentenced, the bellowing of clown men making claims to the child's paternity instantly ceased.

Often shunned by his young peers as a 'half-breed', and the son of a single mother who continued her career as an entertainer, Paolo in his early childhood spent many hours alone honing skills that would serve him well in the future. By the age of six he was adept swimmer and angler and displayed an almost acrobatic prowess at climbing the many coconut trees that dotted the edge of the Mauvais Jungle. He was so skilled at providing food for his mother that many observers around Springfield Village began calling the precocious boy "The Little Man", a name that would remain with him throughout his life.

At the age of eight, according to most accounts, young Paolo was abducted by his natural father while spear-fishing on his own in the crystal blue waters of Cetus Cove. The perpetrator and details surrounding the abduction were not known until many years later, so at the time the disappearance of the boy led to one of the most high-profile crime investigations of its era. After exhaustive hours of searching for the boy and interrogations of hundreds of possible suspects proved fruitless, it was assumed that the child had swam too far out to sea and perished one way or the other. Attention to the case eventually dissipated and life in the small tribe went on without him.

For the next several years, unbeknownst to his fellow Carnipelagians back home, the lad lived with his pirate captain father, Myron Silverman, usually aboard his swift tramp steamer, the SS Luxx. Captain Silverman, or "Rubberhead Mo" as he was sometimes called, had apparently intended to name the ship after the boy's mother but could not remember her first name and misspelled her last. In fact, his faulty memory and spelling skills were what took Captain Silverman seven years to locate his prodigy after a chance encounter with mother and child in a Moon Island saloon. There are many, including Luxx himself, that insist Petra knew of her son's whereabouts during the entire time he was with his father. Luxx would later write that once or twice a year he would visit with her in secret along the southern shores of Fornax Island.

Perhaps giving creedence to that claim is the general consensus of those who knew him then that the boy never seemed homesick and, in fact, seemed to enjoy his life aboard the pirate ship, acting more as a willing and enthusiastic passenger and nothing like a captured prisoner. Furthermore, according to some, even in his prepubescence, he was more than a passenger and regularly took part in several of Rubberhead's infrequent raids, gaining the respect of his father's crew as an adept and often vicious participant. His bravery and determination earned him the name he would officially adopt in later years, "Pucky", a mispronunciation or misspelling, by his father, of the word "plucky".

While in his early teens, the showmanship that would spellbind thousands later in his life was beginning to emerge. During long periods at sea, Pucky would entertain his father's crew with song, dance, and comedy routines that he would invent, often performing from the roof of the quarterdeck. His weekly "Poop Deck Pucky" shows would eventually form the original nucleus of his legendary nightclub act. His father encouraged the teenager to develop his act, often bragging to his men that someday he would be able to leave his life of "piratecy" and become his son's agent or "accounter". And indeed, all around him agreed that Captain Mo was much better with numbers than he was with consonents and vowels.

Just as he had been as a youngster in Springfield, the sea-faring Pucky was particularly athletic. He was known to scale masts and riggings that few would attempt and often, if close enough to the starboard edge, dive from their lofty heights into the sea below. Spearfishing was still his favorite athletic skill and he made use of every anchorage to explore the depths of the waters around him. His propensity for holding his breath and staying submerged for as long as four minutes was frequently quite unnerving to those watching nearby.

In stark contrast to the aquatic skills of his progeny, Myron Silverman, the fearsome "Rubberhead Mo", could not even swim. Despite his reputation as a cutthroat bandit, the captain of the Luxx rarely left his cabin without one of his impeccably custom-tailored kapoc-filled lifejackets, even while storming a seized ship and terrorizing their crew and passengers. He was so averse to the idea of getting wet that during raids he frequently wore waterproof goggles with a rubberized bathing cap and nose clips. This idiosyncrasy gave him his curious nickname. It also gave his commands to both his men and captives, peppered with mangled mispronunciations, an unforgettably nasal drone.

But Silverman's peculiar style of "swashbuckling" attire and the odd aversion that inspired it may have been somewhat prescient. In 1930, during a lively "Poop Deck Pucky" show, Pucky, then 15, treated the crew of the Luxx to a salty and satirical tribute to his father on his 39th birthday. According to several eye-witnesses, the most amused among the crowd was "Ol' Rubberhead" himself, especially when his son unveiled his birthday presents, a cork-filled lifejacket bearing the inscription "World's Greatest Dad" and a pair of black and white wing tip golf shoes. After much encouragement, Silverman agreed to climb up to the makeshift stage above the quarterdeck to try on the shoes and lifepreserver. It is debated whether or not the cleats of the shoes caused him to lose balance or slide backward, but the entire crew was stunned as their captain suddenly tumbled to his death over the stern and into the screws of his right propeller. The shoes fit, but he never had a chance to try on the new lifejacket.

It is not known whether or not Myron Silverman ever played golf.

Despite his youth, Pucky's leadership skills and popularity led practically the entire crew, from boatswain to fireman, to ask him to assume command of the ship, offering to teach him whatever remaining skills he didn't already glean from his father. For days, the lad secluded himself in his cabin, apparently stricken with guilt and grief, refusing food and water, but several times a day called for a member of the crew to sit with him alone for an hour or so. None of the members of the Luxx crew were excluded from these private visits and each one made a promise not to divulge the details of any conversation they had with him, or his physical condition to the other crew members. After nine days, the teenager finally emerged to find his cabin surrounded by a curious collection of crewmembers awaiting his final decision.

"I want to go home," he stated in a dehydrated croaking voice, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the afternoon light, "and I want a tunafish sandwich." And as his beloved mates nodded silently, perhaps predicting this outcome all along, he added, "But not necessarily in that order."

The Little Man's surprising return to Carnipelago was met with great fanfare once his mother confirmed that he was, indeed, the child who had disappeared in Cetus Cove seven years earlier. To allow the boy to reunite with his mother and extended family with some modicum of privacy, Pucky was taken to an old junkyard that had been willed to Petra by one of her many admirers two years earlier and finally claimed as Circo Tulala property after an out-of-court settlement with departed's stunned family. The junkyard featured an old trolly car that had been hastily converted into a home for the boy and his mother to allow for more seclusion than her small apartment on Main Street could provide. Both of the tiny nation's daily newspapers, the Carniville Barker and the Springfield Daily News, competed with each other to be the first to uncover the details of the boy's abduction, setting up camp outside the dusty yard, which became known as "The Junk Palace". The dispute over the property itself had made sensational headlines already and now the press was back to mine an even bigger story from within its chain-link fencing.

But news was not immediately forthcoming. In a brief statement given to reporters and the growing throng of gawkers outside the rusty fence, Petra claimed, "I now have closure. Please let me enjoy my closure."

With that, the curtains within the old passenger car closed and Carnipelago's "Closure Watch" began. While several high-ranking Clown Tribal officials would come and go through the chained gate, entering with groceries and rum and leaving with a "no comment" for the reporters and on-lookers, people around the Islands began to debate how long it would take for Petra to finish enjoying her "closure". Homing pigeons, still a common practice in the archepelago at the time, mysteriously fluttered in and out of the yard behind the trolly. One cynical prognosticator from the Carniville Barker editorialized that Petra's "closure hoarding" would last "a day before the entire Empire loses interest in her and her son's story."

He might have been correct. Just as the attention to the mother and child began to turn from eager support to weary impatience, the pair emerged from the trolly. Behind them was a dozen members of his tribe and a pair of Ancient Keeper strongmen that his mother had hired as bodyguards. One of the massive Geeks was carrying a small caged homing pigeon. But the crowd and press that were expecting lurid details about the child's "abduction" and his life as a "captive" were treated to something much more significant. With a serene composure that belied his immaturity, Pucky, holding a written statement in his hand, addressed the crowd with a remarkable announcement.

"The Rubberhead is dead," he began, "And I have his ship."

Without a single reference to Silverman being his natural father, or any of the details of what went on aboard the dreaded pirate's steamer, the boy calmly explained that the Luxx was now his personal possession and was "at this moment" anchored in Cetus Cove. Without any explanation of how he had obtained one of the most feared ships in the Sea of Secrets, he made a stunning offer: he was ready to give the ship to Her Eternal Radience (the proper honorific for the reigning Empress of Carnipelago) as a "donation" to the people of his homeland on the condition that seventeen members of its crew were not only granted complete immunity for their actions at sea, but also that they be given full status as members of Circo Tulala by the Imperial Bureau of Naturalization. He produced a list of the seventeen members' names but did not seem to need to read the list as he named them all, one by one. Three or four of the names produced gasps from the crowd as they were also recognized as former children of Carnipelago. He promised that the men were weary of their life of treachery and were each in their own way looking to find a better way of life.

As a final touch to his stunning announcement, he also stated that he had changed the name of the ship, as a sign of good faith, from Luxx to Mae Farpada, in honor of the original Empress, the famed Bearded Lady of Carnipelago. And finally, he said with a smile, "And Her Eternal Radience has accepted my offer." With that, the man holding the cage released the pigeon which immediately flew off in the direction of Cetus Cove.

Though he did not need to read directly from the statement he held, apparently memorizing its contents, he signed it with an unusual name. And from that day on, the precocious Paolo Luz, the secret son of Rubberhead Mo, was known as Pucky Luxx.

In 1930, as the world-wide Great Depression began to whip like a tsunami through the oceans around the Sea of Secrets, the Mae Farpada was a substancial gift to a small, poor nation left behind by many of the technological advances the rest of the world was beginning to enjoy. The Empire had a desperate need for ways to provide its people with the means to export their own natural resources and even more so, to import much-needed manufactured goods and raw materials that most Islanders previously had little hope of obtaining. While many were suspicious of the offer and clamored for an investigation, the price seemed small to the reigning Empress at the time, Inocente III, who lauded the teenager as a "national hero."

His periods of seclusion, both on board the newly dubbed Mae Farpada and at the Junk Palace had little to do with grief, guilt, or "closure", although there was certainly some element of that. The boy was using this time to broker his deal, both at sea, convincing all but three of his men to join him as members of his tribe in Springfield, and on land, creating a consensus among tribal leaders and Her Eternal Radience herself.

Since the turn of the century, Circo Tulala's numbers had twindled to the point where they were barely holding on to their official tribal status. At the nadir of Circo population, during Luxx's 'captivity' at sea, it is estimated that there were as few as 45 pure-blood members left, compared with a Caseme Arvore (Acrobat) population holding steady in the hundreds, an Ancient Keeper (Geek) number impossible to count but assumed to be around 1,700, and a booming Carnival Guild, the tribe to readily accept naturalized foreigners, far beyond that and into the tens of thousands. Despite this glaring inequity in tribal populations, each tribe still held exactly one vote in the Carnipelagian equivalent of a congress or parliament, Tribal Council. The only thing that kept them holding that precious Tribal Council vote is the Carnipelagian attachment to tradition, a devotion that traces back to their earliest days of their accidental settlement and almost heroic survival on an untamed and forgotten group of tiny islands. There are four bony landfish in the Carnipelagian flag, surrounding the spouting whale, and a part of every native wanted it to stay that way.

But the Clowns at this point in island history were doing absolutely nothing to deserve that traditional clout. There was no Circo chieftain to speak of, just a collection of elders that had all but resigned themselves to the idea that they were a dying clan, content to ride out their days in a drunken and drug-induced stupor, living off what little tribal inheritances they had left. The "drug of choice" for Circo was "Pudim" or "Pudding", a cheese-like substance excreted by or extracted from an orchid species indigenous to only Carnipelago, Epipactis Carnipeligus, or "Pudding Plant". Ingested orally, often spread on ricecakes and licked like a creme-filled cookie, or dried and nasally inhaled like cocaine or snuff, pudim had a narcotic effect similar to morphine, but with the dooming side effect of impotence, or erectile dysfunction as it is known in this modern day and age. Since marriage outside the tribe was still considered one of the most egregious violations of the Circo Tulala, Circo woman were finding fewer and fewer capable partners to "pop-gun". This is one of the many reasons, some speculate, that Petra Luz refused many of her enthusiastic suitors.

The former mates of Luxx, the "Rubberhead Seventeen", as they became known, created an influx of new blood to the tribe. As part of a bargain they made with Luxx and one he made with Circo, they were all trained by the tribal elders in the ways of the Clown, with mixed results. It was Luxx's vision, one of many, and an idea hatched, perhaps, during his days of "Poop Deck Pucky" shows, that a "Circo Renaissance", complete with a vibrant circus show would bring new life and respect to the troubled tribe. So, before the Rubberhead Seventeen could enjoy the other portion of the bargain, which involved a pop-gun for every one of them, they had to demonstrate some type of ability that would be useful to a Circo Renaissance performance. Fortunately there were many and various skills one could master to obtain this certification of sorts. While a handful actually mastered the stilts or unicycle, and even juggling, more generally settled for being shot from a cannon or rudimentary slapstick, usually finding humorous and clever ways to prat fall or have their oversized and garish pants drop or tear. Many of the training sessions, which took place at the Junk Palace, were observed with keen interest by groups of young Circo females, pressing their noses to the chain link to size up the 17, following their progress and debating their various merits and suitabilities. Their biggest concern was finding a man to wed before he, too, succumbed to the lure of the pudding.

To the other three tribes and many unaffiliated citizens, Luxx's attempt to revive a dying art with a rag-tag crew of former pirates was laughable at best, and suspiciously dangerous to many. Regardless of their opinions of the boy and general scorn for his new endeavor, they were immediately benefitting from the fruits of the Mae Farpada just the same. The steam-driven ship was faster and could carry more cargo than any of the tiny Empire's previous vessels and eager hoards of consumers greeted each of its arrivals at Carniville Harbor, bringing delights and necessities from around the previously unaccessible world. Now crewed by members of the Carnival Guild and Ancient Keeper tribes after the original crew took up residence, for the time being, at the Junk Palace, the ship was maintained and managed by the Four Tribes Transportation Authority under the watchful eye of the Empress and her Administration. Many eagerly sought employment on the vessel, not only for a steady paycheck, but a chance to see a world they had previously only imagined.

Meanwhile, Circo Tulala continued evolving. With little income to support the growing tribe, now with seventeen new members little by little siring new Clowns to feed, the "new" Circo developed better ways to harvest the fish they had survived on for decades. Many of the former pirates in their midst began the tedious task of building nets from whatever fibrous materials they could find, and extended their reach with small boats which would circle the main island clockwise, beginning from Cetus Cove, down around the vast black beaches and rock formations of Costa Preto to the south, and up along the wilderness of the western shore, sometimes stopping in the small village of Carnopolis Corners to sell whatever they could on the private market, then arriving at Carniville Harbor to sell the rest of their surplus to the state-run Bureau of Fisheries. Luxx would often accompany the men on the weekly trip, which could take several days to complete.

The trip and its route, the "Circo Circo" as it became known, had the unintended benefit of giving Luxx and the Clowns an excellent knowledge of the various nooks and crannies of the main island's coast. Even more so, it gave Luxx an opportunity to make contacts with several members of Caseme Arvore whose treehouses happened to overlook the banks of the breathtakingly beautiful Vermelho Flume and many of the Ancient Keepers who built their unusual homes along the rocks and caves of Costa Preto, in the dark shadow of the Volcano, Mt. Blowhole. While their little boats and burgeoning nets were anchored just off shore, the "Circo Renaissance" first took shape as a sort of traveling road show, with Luxx and members of his tribe treating many of these outlying Carnipelagians to uproarious performances of song and skits often by the light of torches or campfire.

While most Carnipelagians who lived in the growingly urban villiages of Carniville and Springfield and even the fishing village of Carnopolis knew nothing about these shows, strong ties between the Circo angling entertainers and their rural audiences, particularly the Ancient Keepers, who were not used to anyone coming to their eerie domain on their own accord, were forming. It is rumored that Circo often traded more than fish and burlesque-by-torchlight on their routes and that often before one of their shows, quite a bit of pudding changed hands. It is often said that the young Luxx 'hypnotised' hallucinating audiences, taking advantage of their altered state and vulnerability to the power of suggestion for more than just entertainment purposes. While this rumor is resoundingly refuted by many historians and even eyewitnesses, the men and women of the Circo Circo were frequently returning to their headquarters in Springfield Bluffs with increasing amounts of currency, known as "clams" to Carnipelagians, better boats and nets, exotic birds from the Mauvais Jungle, and even wild boars ready for roasting. And little by little, the Circo Renaissance performers began to polish their act, hoping for a triumphant return to the Ring, where they had historically entertained hundreds.

Luxx's first proposal to bring the Clowns back to Carniville Park's famed circus was flatly refused by the Imperial Ringmaster at the time, Pepe Panasca. Carniville Park and its circus was the crown jewel of the Islands, and as sea-travel became more and more accessible to people within a few day's sail of the tiny archepelago, was the Empire's main tourist attraction. The Carnival Guild, from whose ranks the Ringmaster traditionally came, was becoming increasingly affluent from of the tourist trade since most of the attractions in the park were owned by the "Carnies", even if originally built by the Ancient Keepers. The circus itself was a national treasure. Featuring the remarkable athleticism of Caseme Arvore's finest acrobats and gymnasts, hundreds of flaming props and batons, dozens of animals trained by the Carnies, and a stirring soundtrack performed by the Imperial Orchestra, the Carniville Circus was a unique program, and one that was gaining in respect beyond the Sea of Secrets as one of the most unusual and inventive shows in its genre. Despite his growing popularity among the Empire's rank and file, Luxx and his ex-pirates were deemed as 'inappropriate' for the well-oiled machine and cash cow that the Circus had become.

Now 20, and after spending five years developing the acts, both at his Junk Palace yards and on the Circo Circo seaside tours, Luxx felt like he had a worthy product and was surprised and clearly disappointed by the refusal. He was not used to rejection and his anger was palpable to all around him. This was the genesis of his long-standing and well-documented hatred of the acrobat tribe, Caseme Arvore, and their leader, the Empress herself, beginning with the one that had just five years earlier declared him a "national hero", Inocente III. He realized right away that Ringmaster Panasca was pressured by the Empress to nix the proposed clown shows, and would eventually work with Panasca on a comprimise that would not require Imperial approval. But first he would need to change the political landscape enough to give him the clout to forge onward.

Despite taking a leadership role since arriving on the tramp steamer and rejoining his tribe, Luxx was still not officially a tribal leader in any form. During the weekly Tribal Council meeting that followed his rejection by the Ringmaster, he was even more enraged that the elders who attended on behalf of his tribe did not bring up the issue to the other tribes, Ringmaster and Empress, who were all present as required for a quorum. The elders had let him do whatever he wanted within the tribe, but backed down before the other tribes. They were, in fact, as impotent in island politics as they were with their Circo women.

Realizing that it would take more than the support of the tribal elders to bring his plans and visions to fruition, he took an unprecedented measure to gain political and official control of the tribe. For the previous five years, the increasing assets that came as a result of his men and their Circo Circo fishing tours were held in a tribal bank account instead of a personal one. Luxx made the deposits himself, and allowed the elders to withdraw and distribute the profits as they had for decades with the twindling tribal inheritances. Circo Tulala members shared most of their money and assets with each other, under the direction of the elders, and there was little in the way of personal property among them at the time. The Rubberhead Seventeen had all married, pop-gun style, as promised, and with their wives now numbered 34. Luxx, with their support, threatened to take the elders to Imperial Court to retrieve the deposits that he and the seventeen had contributed, which was now the majority of the account. Prepared for an historic intra-tribal fight, Luxx instead got exactly what he wanted. The four tribal elders produced a proposal to name the 20-year-old as their new "king", subject to periodic votes of confidence, which the rest of the tribe, enamoured with the young man, readily accepted. This agreement gave Luxx complete control over the tribe and its assets, as long as he continued to survive the elder's periodic votes of confidence, which could come at any time they wanted. As there was no part of Carnipelagian law that dictated how each tribe could assemble their own governments and appoint members to its Tribal Council, there was nothing the rest of the nation could do to prevent the young man from becoming Circo Tulala's so-called "King of Clowns". Though the title of "king" was not well-received at first by the other three tribes, and least of all the Empress, most Carnipelagians were actually relieved that someone was going to finally take responsibility for their embarrassing little Circo Tulala tribe.

Now armed with an official Tribal Council vote in his pocket and the growing financial assets of Circo, Luxx presented Ringmaster Panasca with a plan to provide roving entertainment within Carniville Park, allowing the Clowns to finally "earn their keep" as parts of the entertainment-driven economy. Circo would provide the jugglers, stilt-walkers, troubadors, and unicyclists to breath life into midway and fairway and make it an even more appealing destination for the slowly growing tourism trade, as long as the Ringmaster would pay them a small wage for their efforts. Panasca agreed, with the condition that every midway performer would have to audition for him personally before they could aquire permission to perform and receive payment for doing so.

Encouraged by this, Luxx made first purchase with Tribal funds. Having forged a strong friendship with the leader of the Ancient Keepers during his Circo Circo visits to Costa Preto, Luxx obtained two of their park buildings, a large warehouse on the edge of the park, used as a repair shop by the "Geeks", as the A.K. was more commonly known, and a small tent-like gazebo next to it. It was the first property that Circo held in the park for decades, and it was immediately put to use. The warehouse was used as a place for the Ringmaster to audition his midway performers and the gazebo was to become a headquarters of sorts for the performers to rest or perform standing shows like magic and music for tourists that would pass by it.

While he was impressed by Luxx's eagerness to make the plan work and ability to aquire some significant park property to do so, Panasca was even more impressed with the performers the King of Clowns brought him to see. Brightly colored clowns performed acts that had not been seen for ages, including some that rivaled the athleticism, balance, and daring of the Empress's famed acrobats. In addition to these jugglers, mimes, stiltwalkers, street magicians, and unicyclists, Luxx gave the Ringmaster a glimpse at some of his more risque and downright seductive creations. Circo women, like his mother Petra, were known for their voluptuousness and beauty, in stark contrast to the waif-like Acrobat women and often deformed Ancient Keeper females. Luxx called it "voluptuousity" and insisted that his troupe of a dozen or so scandalously clad women would be as much of a tourist attraction as any trapeze artist or dancing elephant.

Perhaps fearing a backlash from Her Radiance, the Ringmaster warned Luxx that his sultry and unusually buxom dancers did not have a place in Carniville Park, and to his surprise, perhaps, Luxx agreed to a certain extent. Rumor and legend has it, however, that each time the Ringmaster came to the warehouse, he would be greeted and escorted through the building by a steadily increasing number of Pucky's alluring "assistants" wearing garments of steadly decreasing fabric. Panasca, however, who was single and lived with his mother and three cats, was a suspected homosexual, a fact that, if confirmed, could jeopardize his career. Despite the liberties that Carnipelagians enjoyed, even during the so-called Victorian era of the 19th century, homosexuality was not something one would make public in the 1930's and 1940's. According to written correspondence unearthed after the Ringmaster's untimely death years later, Luxx knew about the suspicions, of course, and made the Ringmaster an unusual offer. He and his "Lucky Ladies" as they could come to be known, would actually fabricate a rumor that would ruffle quite a few feathers at first, but would ultimately lead to giving the confirmed batchelor Ringmaster a reputation as not only a confirmed and proven heterosexual, but also a rather virile and talented lover, something that would potentially enhance his career in some ways.

In return for this unusual favor, the Ringmaster would have approve his plan to convert the warehouse to a small nightclub of sorts in the far edge of the park that would only be open to ticket-paying park visitors. The park would also pay a monthly fee to the park administration of 25 percent of its gross revenues. If successful, meaning that the club could sustain itself debt-free and not create any disturbances in park life, the Ringmaster would immediately benefit from the extra clams it would generate for the park, and if not, the club would close amid a scandal that Panasca was regularly engaged in sexual activities with not one but many of the Lucky Ladies - in return for the opportunity to go foreward with the venture to begin with. At any point, Panasca could give the order to go foreward with the scandal hoax whether he was closing the club or not. In addition, Panasca could actively participate in the makings of the rumor by availing himself of a private room at the club if he was so inclined, despite his alleged sexual preference. Since the Ringmaster did not have to get Imperial approval for any businesses or activities occuring outside the Ring and the Circus itself, he had quite a bit of power, including the power to approve Luxx's club. And he did.

But the suspicions about Panasca were dead wrong as he regularly availed himself of the Luxx's dancers' charms much to their unpleasant surprise. He was quite heterosexual and believed that this secret deal would allow him to have sexual relations with any of Luxx's "Lucky Ladies" that he chose. This would create a problem for Luxx and the Circo woman that would last for several years until Panasca's mysterious death. There are many that debate this, and Luxx has never said one way or the other, but legend has it that Luxx's secret deal with Panesca was signed and sealed with silvery wax, giving the most notorious of all Carnipelagian attractions its name, "The Silver Seal".

The Silver Seal was a success, so much so, that the ticket sales and fees generated for the Park by the club would have made closing it more difficult to handle than tolerating the lurid details, factual and fictional, of what went on there. The Imperial Republic of Carnipelago (the nation's oxymoronic official name) was still a poor country in the 50's and 60's, with many of its residents still eking out a subsistence through farming, fishing, hunting and gathering what they could from the fertile Sea of Secrets and Mauvais Jungle. Many others earned daily wages as carpenters, masons, ship builders, and miners out in Fornax and Mineral Islands. But an increasing portion of the employment market revolved around the tourist trade and little by little Luxx, Circo, and their Silver Seal were becoming a larger part of that. If the Acrobats and their circus represented the crown jewel of the Empire, the Silver Seal became a symbol of its shady underbelly.

But perhaps the saving grace of the dark little den of iniquity on the park's shadowy edges was Luxx himself. Insisting that the lucrative skin-trade was never part of his vision for Carnipelago, Luxx offered more and more within his club for general audiences, if not children, to enjoy. He would feature various mainstream acts at the club, such as clowns that had standup comedy routines, ventriloquists, an occasional stylized Geek Show or two, and many of the small county's most popular musical artists. Luxx himself starred in the club's "Floor Show". Completely revolutionizing what it meant to be a clown, in Carnipelago at least, Luxx's shows were a dazzling affair, a combination of song, dance, comedy and magic performed almost entirely by the King of Clowns himself. He had taken the stage name "Lucky T. Clown". (Luxx finally admitted in 1969 that the "T" just stood for "The", after decades of leaving his fans speculating.) But most just referred to Luxx the entertainer as "King Lucky". Already unusually pale for a man of Carnipelagian heritage, his face was painted white and his hair was a constant shock of blue, which was the case even in his childhood. Lucky eschewed the normal garb of the clowns he'd send around the park and instead wore a silvery cape, and more often than not, a skin-tight bodysuit, looking suspiciously like one of the acrobats he abhored. He developed a house band, called the Silver Seal Combo, that had a repertoire of both modern jazz standards and Carnipelagian Folk and Pop tunes, that played a wide variety of music during the show. And Luxx was almost always accompanied onto the Silver Seal stage by a pair of his voluptuous "showgirls" who took part in various segments of the show often with clothing that matched his - or much, much less. Soon, those who would not dream of entering a "go-go" club, as it was commonly called, had to come to the Seal to see the dazzling King Lucky, since he played nowhere else.

As the population and wealth of Circo grew in the late 50's and 60's, so did its reach throughout the archepelago. Luxx had done away with the tribe's communal method of sharing money and property in the late 40's, allowing his tribesmen and women to do whatever they wanted with their earnings or inheritances, in return for a small "Local Tribute", based on five percent of each member's reported income. Instead of its historic practice of hoarding the tribe's income to be used at the whim and mandate of the tribal elders, Circo Tulala now had its own flat rate income tax, just like the national "Imperial Tribute" that every citizen and native payed to the Empress. The elders that had warned Luxx against it were quickly surprised that the tribe's bank accounts were actually growing. Part of the funds that came from this internal tribal tax went toward subsidizing Luxx's many initiatives and a significant part was redistributed back to the tribe in the form of low-interest loans to members who needed them.

The Tribal Account was most famous for offering very high-interest loans to anyone outside the tribe who dared to risk its rather usurious rates and the steep penalties for failing to pay them off in time. It also was used to seed additions to the Club, including slot machines and other accoutrements of a casino, adding gambling to the long list of 'adult attractions' the club offered. The Tribe seemed to corner the market in loan-sharking, prostitution, gambling, and pudding, making them look much like an organized crime family, with one major difference. None of these activities were actually crimes, at least not in the Imperial Republic of Carnipelago of the 50's and 60's. There was also no crime against nudity or obscenity, drugs as potent as pudding could be bought and sold as long as they were not done in a public place like a market or store, prostitution was tolerated in certain "liberty zones", and there was no legal drinking or driving age. But despite these liberties, or perhaps because of them, the six islands were relatively peaceful. The Imperial Sheriff's department, not having to spend its resources on vice, spent its time curtailing crimes of theft and violence for which the penalties were quite steep. There was little to stop the Clowns, now a well-organized, affluent, and tight-knit tribe, from venturing into areas most of the reasonably religious population would go. If anything, their growing monopoly on these vices kept the other natives and citizens from becoming overly involved in them, letting them turn a somewhat blind eye to the one of the main reasons that many wealthy world travelers, and big spenders, were beginning to flock to the Islands.

It seemed as if as long as Circo Tulala could manage their own ventures discretely and out of the mainstream of Carnipelagian life, on their own accord, since there was nothing stopping them from doing otherwise, they'd be left alone and the rest of population could indirectly benefit from them without having to acknowledge or confront them. That tenuous tightrope was about to be snapped and the free-fall that followed was brutal.

According to several sources, Pucky Luxx's side of the bargain he made with Pepe Panasca was becoming a problem for the Silver Seal. Panasca's demands for sex with Luxx's dancers was creating tension among the Silver Seal employees, and many of his most popular dancers were threatening to leave the club. After the death of his mother who he had lived with for 58 years, Panasca became increasingly bold in his demands for their attention, and his grating personality and growing lack of personal hygene caused many of the Silver Seal dancers to hide when he arrived, missing their appointed spots in the Seal floor shows. Despite his dapper stage persona, in a tuxedo that was maintained by Ring employees in their vast laundry room, Panasca outside the ring often smelled of cat urine and his own clothing were often stained and wrinkled. The confirmed bachelor seemed not to care about this, or perhaps he was unaware of it. Without a mother or wife to care for him, Panasca, still an effective adminstrator, fell into personal disrepair, and it was the Silver Seal employees, night after night, that bore the brunt of his dilapidation.

Unfortunately for Luxx and Circo Tulala, Panasca had absolute power within the stone walls of Carniville Park and could shut the Seal down whenever he wanted. And Circo Tulala had alienated Her Eternal Radience Inocente III to the point where they had simply no chance to turn to her for an appeal. Despite its oddly republican form of parlimentary government, in which the four tribes acted as a check and balance against the throne, any freedoms or justice Carnipelagians had came at the whim of very few people. Luckily for most, Inocente III was a relatively secluded and detached despot, and let her people do what they liked for the most part, as long as she did not have to know about it. The Imperial Sheriff's Department was known for its efficient brutality, but only toward duely convicted felons. Justice was swift if you had been robbed or assaulted, but if you had a civil bone to pick, often you were on your own to deal with it.

Luxx, the secret son of Rubberhead Mo, dealt with Panasca the way his father probably would have. Or so many in the empire believed, but none could prove, or even wanted to. There is no evidence that Luxx had anything to do with Panasca's death in 1969, but the shockingly evil twist of how it transpired had his signature, so to speak, all over it. The Ringmaster, still a suspected homosexual despite his reputation within Circo circles as a secretly insatiable and malodorous heterosexual, was found one early morning naked and sprawled across a bench in the boys' locker room beneath the Ring. It was the locker room used by Her Radience's young male acrobats, many of whom were in their early teens. There were visible semen-like stains across his belly and chest and the official cause of death was ruled as a drug overdose. The Imperial Coroner reported that he found enough pudding "to kill a zebra" in his digestive tract.

At the time, no one outside of Circo believed that the death was anything more than a confirmation of long-held suspicious about Panasca, but the lurid details of the crime scene still shocked the tiny nation. As was his fortune throughout his reign as the "King of Clowns", Luxx was unusually blessed by unpopular enemies, and Panasca was only the first of many. It was only until years later that rumors of Luxx's involvement with the Ringmaster's death began to surface, but by then, piecing together the forensics and evidence of the case would be the work of historians and not the Sheriff, who immediately ruled the case closed and the scandal soon faded from the pages of the Barker and Daily News.

Inocente III replaced Panasca with a Moon Islander, zebra trainer, and talk show host, Aon Xask (pronounced Chesk). Xask had built the Empire's first television station, Channel 13, with used equipment and an outdated transmitter that he had shipped to Carnipelago on the Mae Farpala. He was a popular local celebrity and the aging Empress was one of his many fans. Despite taking the stage name of "Lucky", even Pucky Luxx could not have imagined how fortunate this appointment was for him and the Seal. Perhaps the Empress did not know of Luxx's close friendship with Xask, or she might have appointed someone else. Luxx was a frequent visitor to Xask's sprawling ranch on the virtually lawless Moon Island.

It was the last Imperial decision Her Eternal Radience would make before her death in the mid-seventies. She died of natural causes, the last of the Carnipelagian Empresses to do so.

After Inocente's passing, weeks went by before any word was heard from the Caseme Entourage, creating a leadership vacuum of sorts, and leaving Island Hall and Tribal Council unable to legislate and make appointments. Caseme members of the cabinet, such as the Imperial Sheriff and the Imperial Lifeguard, continued to perform their duties as if they were still working for Inocente III. While acrobatic troupes continued to entertain at the Ring, they were unaccompanied by the Entourage, and most claimed ignorance of what was preventing the new Empress from taking on her official duties at Empire Avenue (the location of most government offices in Carniville Village) and Island Hall (where Tribal Council met weekly).

After a delegation of the remaining Tribal Council chieftains, including Luxx, Aon Xask, and Piggy Ambleton of the Ancient Keepers, were turned away from the Treehouse Palace, suspicions of an inner coup within Caseme were rampant. Finally, after two months of limbo, the new Empress, Eris, a 30-year-old trapeze artist, appeared at the studios of Channel 13, surrounded by a new Entourage, prepared to make a statement to her citizens and natives. Claiming that she was "too busy" to meet with Tribal Council, Eris shocked a national television audience by declaring that Tribal Council would now meet monthly instead of weekly, except for the months of Avril (April) and Novembre (November) when she would be on vacation with her "boyfriend", Daniel. She also declared that at times, "Prince Daniel" may also sit in for her at Tribal Council meetings. She cited several grossly misinterpreted chapters of Carnipelagian law to assert that Tribal Council met at her convenience, and that she could and was actually concidering "doing away with the whole thing."

At first, life went on as usual, for the most part, in Carnipelago. The Islanders usual self-sufficiency and the liberties they commonly enjoyed kept the wheels of industry and business going, and the self-governing nature of the tribal system kept the nation from falling into chaos. If Eris was despicable, she was also torpid enough to have very little impact on the everyday lives of most of her citizens and natives. Circo Tulala's virtual monopoly on vice became more entrenched, and to insure their reign over everything from prostitution and gambling to drug trafficking and usury, they began secretly and systematically stockpiling an arsenal of imported and home-made weaponry, including a large cache of automatic rifles.

Circo had a unique position in Carnipelagian life. They were becoming more and more beloved for their popular shows, both in the Park, nightclubs, and Channel 13, and they were also feared, but even that fear was tempered by their reputation as protectors of the local working-class from the growing number of immigrants and tourists who were flocking to the relatively lawless Islands. Even more than the Imperial Sheriff or Ringmaster, it was the King of Clowns that established "order" in the park, and the less affluent neighborhoods of Springfield and Carnopolis. A foreigner that might run afoul of a local business would often be better off arrested by the Sheriff than be faced with a group of Circo "enforcers" or even Luxx himself.

Meanwhile the live volcano that towered over the villages of Carniville Island began to send ominous plumes into the normally crystal-clear Carnipelagian skies. Minor eruptions were a fairly common occurance on Carniville and Moon Islands, occuring at least once or twice a decade, but nonetheless, they were a cause for anxiety and angst. Some of the more religious on the Island had long been predicting that Carnipelago's rampant sinners would some day be punished by "The Big One" - a massive destructive eruption similar to the one that formed the relatively young archepelago. During the times of "Penas Altas", or "tall feathers", it was the Empress's duty, traditionally, to muster her government offices, rescue squads, and law enforcement to prepare for any major disruption that would cause harm to life or property.

Predictably by now, Eris was "unconcerned" with Penas Altas and that "Prince Daniel" predicted that no harm would come to anyone in her empire. Nobody had yet even met Prince Daniel outside of the Treehouses, and most wondered what qualifications he had to make such a prediction. When an unknown member of the Entourage was quoted anonymously in the Springfield Daily News as saying that Daniel "had the highest score in a IQ test we were all made to take" and that the test came from a popular women's fashion magazine. Another was quoted, also anonymously in the Daily News, that Daniel seemed really smart because he had "a foreign accent".

If she was already universally despised, the idea that she had chosen a foriegn lover, even if only a rumor, was enough to call for her immediate ouster. Everyone, it seemed, had some kind of plot idea for how to rescue the nation from "Eris The Whore", as she was now called. It was as commonplace as the usual debates and conversations discussing the merits of various local water polo and beach volleyball teams, or jai alai players over drinks at "The Flukes" in Carnopolis Corners or "Cocktails n' Cotton Candy" at the Park.

Of course, King Lucky had a plot, and had the clout to pull it off, but may not have had the results he ultimately wished for. The details of the ill-fated coup is beyond the scope of this profile, and will be covered in another chapter. The Treehouses were stormed in the middle of a dark jungle night and Her Eternal Radiance was absconded, drugged with pudim, wrapped in a white spandex cocoon, according to legend, and carried to the top of Mt. Blowhole by way of the "Carniville Crack" - a steep, laddered path that runs inside a deep vertical crevace in the northern face of the volcano. The identity of the kidnappers were not known, as all wore rubber masks that depicted none other than the King of Clowns himself. According to many accounts, after the Empress was tossed into the fuming and grumbling Mt. Blowhole crater, the Penas Altas began to dissipate and its glowing basin began to cool. This led many of the conspirators to contend, allegedly, that "Eris The Whore", as hated as she was, had saved them from utter disaster by being some kind of sacrifice to an angry, threatening god. Others contend that many of the conspirators, the same men who had just taken Eris up the Crack, just felt guilty for their part in the assassination and, as is the case with most deaths, suddenly refused to say anything bad about her. In fact, many actually praised her and wept as her body was consumed by the magma.

Luxx was not one of the weeping. According to his own writings, as fantastical as they are, he fully intended to usurp the Throne from Caseme Arvore and place himself as Emporer of Carnipelago. Whether this part of the coup was known by the repentant accomplices who where not members of Circo Tulala is not clear, but in a strange turn of events, Luxx was forced to change the statement he prepared to make to a national television audience in the wee hours of the dawn, and instead announced that the Throne and weekly Tribal Council Meetings were "restored". In his statement, he told a worried (and bleary-eyed) nation that the next Empress was none other than Eris's daughter, a rather incompetent trapeze artist who took the name Eris II.

Eris II turned out to be as aggressive an Empress as her mother was impotent. But there was no backlash, at least not officially, from Caseme or the Throne against the perpetrators of her mother's assassination. Some even contend that the young Princess was an eager participant in the plot. While Eris II and Pucky Luxx would go on to battle in the political arena for the next decade as each other's main adversary at Island Hall, for the most part, according to those who knew him, The King of Clowns accepted Eris II as his Empress and even seemed somewhat fond of her in private, despite his often acrimonious criticism of her in public. He often appeared to relish the constant competition for the opinions and loyalties of Carnipelagians, and perhaps most of all, the war of words that usually accompanied it.

The partisanship that often divided, but also somewhat inspired the nation was clearly reflected in its two daily newspapers. To the editors of the Carniville Barker, Pucky Luxx was no better than a gangster and two-bit warlord, concerned with nothing more than making money off of the working people he claimed to represent. Conversely, the Springfield Daily News frequently depicted Her Eternal Radiance as a selfish, compulsive, and ignorant tyrant. While both papers claimed to be impartial, the slant of the news articles within its pages began to echo the diatribes in their editorials with increasing regularity. To most Islanders, the truth was usually somewhere in the middle and ongoing political struggles between the two figures most likely contributed to the success and circulation of both the broadsheet Barker and the tabloid Daily News.

It was during this period, the "Aposo-Inocente" era, meaning "after Inocente" in Carnipelagian, that Luxx began to suffer from periods of disabling fatigue, leading him to sleep, almost comatose, for several days on end. While not in one of his long mysterious slumbers, he was as vigorous a chieftain as ever, and his accomplishments were many and divers. Each time he recovered from what he called "his dream life", he would have a new idea or plan in which to involve himself and tribe. It was discovered many years later that he also kept a journal of his dream life, but never revealed it to anyone during his lifetime.

One of the most controversial of these "post-dream" ideas was Circo Tulala's virtual take-over of the southern shores of Fornax Island. Fornax was an untamed and sparsely populated stretch of sand and rock that was most notable for its coal fields and iron deposits. What land wasn't being mined by the Fornax Fuel Company, a joint venture between Ancient Keeper scientists and Carnival Guild businessmen, was considered a wilderness area for many natives and citizens to enjoy, despite no official status as a national set-aside for that purpose. In fact, the land was chartered, or deeded, to Fornax Fuel, but rarely used by the company, so it was through their own benevolence that they allowed naturalists and campers to freely explore, as long as they provided their own boat travel.

As Eris II began to restrict many of the freedoms that her subjects enjoyed "for the good of the children", as she so often said, Circo was looking to expand their operations to a location just out of the reach of the increasingly busy Imperial Sheriff. When Luxx dipped into the now-massive Circo Tulala Tribal Account to purchase a vast plot of wilderness from Fornax Fuel, many eyebrows were raised, along with a small outcry from those concerned with preserving this wide open but fairly barren land. Many in the empire did not even know that the land was private until the sale, assuming that it was some type of national park.

Despite the controversy, there was little that the Empress could do about it, and Tribal Council was disenclined to suddenly defend a barren stretch of sand and rock just because of a few birdwatchers and weekend campers. Development of the arid plains was minimal and rudimentary. Rustic cabins of wood and bamboo began to dot the broad, sandy plot, along with large water purification systems and telephone lines. Clowns were not masons like the "Geeks" of the Ancient Keepers, but Luxx insisted that the tribe do all of the construction themselves, an insistance that led to a growing collection of strange-looking and rude huts and cabins.

As Eris II opened her massive Treehouse fortress to the rest of young Carnipelagians, forming the Treehouse School, Luxx seemed to want to do the same, but with a decidedly Circo style. "Camp Fornax", once somewhat completed, was introduced to Carnipelagians as a "summer camp" for young performers wanting to get into the Empire's small but growing entertainment industry, an industry that was seeded and nurtured largely with Circo investments.

At least that was the public face that Luxx pasted onto his odd new property. The King of Clowns, too, was making an investment in the young people of Carnipelago, just like the Empress, or so Luxx regularly asserted. And indeed, the actors and actresses, dancers, models, and comedians that graduated one of the Islands' high schools only to run off to a desert Island with a tribe of infamous clowns for two weeks or more seemed to do quite well for themselves, appearing in locally-produced films, television shows on Channel 13, nightclubs (including the Silver Seal), and other venues.

According to "graduates", the training was vigorous and comprehensive while the sun was up while utter debauchery reigned after sunset. The details of the partying and other late night activities, however, were rarely revealed to outsiders, even by the few disgruntled campers that did not succeed there. One thing was clear, though, the Campers (as they became known) would usually get well-paying jobs after their time there and usually became powerful and influencial allies of Pucky Luxx as their careers blossomed, regardless of whether they entered as Circo Clowns, Ancient Keepers or Carnival Guilders. (There were no Campers from the Treehouses - at least not initially.) Camp Fornax applications began to flood the office that Luxx set up in Springfield, and many were turned away. By having personally trained so many of Carnipelago's entertainers, Luxx was indirectly building a firm grasp over the hearts and minds of many Carnipelagians through the celebrities they often idolized.

Not surprisingly, many former Campers readily became spokespersons for a growing number of commercial ventures that Luxx was building with Circo Tulala funds. Clown Tribal Industries, based in Springfield, was the food-processing wing of the Circo Tulala business holdings, and managed, for better or worse, by long-time Luxx friend and assistant Potso, also known as The Amazing Potso, a portly ventriloquist and comedian. Not known to have a last name, as was not uncommon among Clown performers, Potso was also rumored to be one of Luxx's most fearsome henchmen. Potso was famous for his bizarre act which featured "Didi", a clown face painted onto his massive belly. Potso would throw his voice and make his belly quiver and quake with uncanny precision, creating the effect that the mouth painted over one of the creases in his obese torso was actually speaking. Though considered brilliant and popular performer, Potso was stricken with a form of Tourette's Syndrome, a disruptive mental condition that he only seemed to overcome when he was, in fact, speaking to "Didi". Even when Potso was not on stage, his conversations with Didi were continuous, often using the imagined person on his belly to communicate to others. Considering that Potso had a propensity for violent confrontation with those that ran afoul of Circo Tulala, one can only imagine whether he talked to his victims through Didi or through a calm lisp punctuated by spasmotic and compulsive vulgarities.

With Luxx's encouragement, Clown Tribal began producing a series of wildly profitable snacks and beverages under the tradename of "Potzo's" - the misspelling intentional but unexplained. While sometimes the ingredients were listed on the packaging, just as often they were not, leading many to suspect that some of the products were made from little more than flavored sand and dirt. The most successful of the products was "Potzo's Cornfish Flakes", a snack food that had very little taste at all, but was famous for its glamourous and buxom spokesperson, Samantha Tizzi-Nash, who went by the stage name of "Sami Sunshine". Sami, a former Camper, was an Ancient Keeper "marilyn" - a name taken from a popular imported sit-com whose subtitled reruns played on Channel 13 and given to Geek women that seemed to have none of the odd deformities that many of their fellow tribemembers had. Sami insisted, in her provocative television ads, that Potzo's Cornfish Flakes "were magic". While never actually saying it in the ads, Sami's demeanor seemed to hint that her over-developed breasts were the result of eating the flakes. They practically flew off the shelves, to the point where Clown Tribal had difficulty keeping the island markets stocked with them. The Empress, suspicious of the entire endeavor, went as far as to assert that Clown Tribal was spicing the product with unapproved black bee pollen, which she insisted, rightly or wrongly, led to "grotesque" deformities. However, if she considered the ample busom of the product's spokesperson to be a "deformity", it was a deformity that most females of Carnipelago embraced.

From a small group of drug-addicted misfits and layabouts, Circo Tulala had risen unexpectedly to a wealthy and influencial force in both politics, business, and entertainment during Carnipelago's last century. Much of this success is due to its rank and file who clung to their ancestral inheritances during their darkest days, just in time for a young prodigy and pirate to take them to heights previously unheard of in Carnipelagian life. Despite his meteoric rise to power as a precocious teenager, Pucky Luxx insisted to the end that it was his Tribal Elders that made it all possible by accepting him, listening to him, and giving him the chance to lead. Perhaps it was also their deep-rooted resentment toward the other tribes that allowed them to turn the other way when the The King of Clowns was engaged in some of the more violent undertakings that also accompanied, or perhaps, aided, his rise to power and fame. Despite a somewhat sadistic nature, who almost seemed to revel in handing those who crossed him an often cruel and twisted fate, Luxx was most noted for his flamboyance, sense of humor and unique showmanship, very much a clown to the very end.