| “ | Greetings, fellow outcasts. I am Freakshow, your master of ceremonies. | „ |
| ~ Freakshow's famous catchphrase. |
Freakshow is an antagonist from TV show, Danny Phantom. His name is derived from his real name, Frederich Isak Showenhower. He comes from a long line of ghost-obsessive people. His family has the largest known knowledge of ghostly artifacts.
He was voiced by Jon Cryer, who is best known as Alan Harper on Two and a Half Men.
Appearances
Control Freaks
Freakshow first appeared in the episode "Control Freaks", where he opens a circus called the Circus Gothica in Amity Park. The performers in the circus were actually ghosts that are on a crime spree, held under Freakshow's command by a special scepter. This staff is Freakshow's main weapon in this episode and is so powerful that even a picture of the staff makes a ghost weak and willing to do the bearer's bidding.
Danny accidentally catches sight of the staff when he sees an ad for the Circus Gothica and ends up in Freakshow's command, stealing money for him and becoming a performer in his circus. He is saved by Sam, who manages to return him to the hero he truly is. Danny subsequently rescues Sam, destroying the staff in the process. Following the staff's destruction, Danny and most of the formerly controlled ghosts (except Lydia, the tattoo ghost lady) confront Freakshow, trapping him in his own stolen goods until the police can arrest him.
Reality Trip
Freakshow in his ringmaster outfit.
Freakshow reappears as the main antagonist in the movie Reality Trip. In this episode, the Guys In White have captured Lydia, using her to get Freakshow to talk about the Reality Gauntlet, which he does. Freakshow tricks the Guys in White into giving him the Reality Gauntlet and he uses it to escape with Lydia He then attacks Danny at Casper High's "School's Out!" Dumpty Humpty concert. Danny, Sam, and Tucker use the Gauntlet's defense mechanism to transport three of four critical precious stones known as the Reality Gems from the gauntlet, making it useless. Freakshow escapes with help from Lydia, but not before revealing Danny's secret identity to the entire school and Amity Park media.
Nursing his wounds, Freakshow comes up with a plan to get all three gems back by kidnapping the parents of Danny, Sam, and Tucker. Freakshow forces Danny, Sam, and Tucker to retrieve the three gems in exchange for their families' lives, giving them three days to do so. After Danny and friends succeed, Freakshow double-crosses Danny and retakes the Reality Gauntlet, giving himself control over all reality. In a fatal attempt at showmanship, Freakshow gives Danny the chance to save the lives of his friends and family from a roller coaster filled with deathtraps. Freakshow suffers from "ghost envy", Danny, in an attempt to defeat Freakshow, taunts Freakshow and makes him jealous of Danny's ghost powers. Outraged, Freakshow transforms himself into a full ghost and Danny captures him in the Fenton Thermos. Danny then uses the Reality Gauntlet to undo Freakshow's madness and to rewrite reality so that his secret identity was never revealed. Danny uses the gauntlet to turn Freakshow human again and gives him back to the Guys in White. Despite Danny's reality rewrite, Freakshow's lack of a blank expression suggests he may actually still know Danny's secret identity.
Personality
| “ | I will not be upstaged by ghosts! | „ |
| ~ Freakshow |
A charismatic and persuasive performer, Freakshow is a smooth-talking and obsequious man of drama and showmanship, seeing the world as a circus with him as its ringmaster. A glutton for power, he is a controlling, vindictive, and heartless man who does whatever he can to get what he wants. Ironically, he uses ghosts as his main tools (calling them derogatory names like "minions") for battle despite his "ghost envy" an obvious jealousy toward ghosts and their powers. This envy fuels his desire to acquire even more power, but is also a great weakness (giving Danny the chance to tease him into a losing position in "Reality Trip").
Before obtaining the Reality Gauntlet, he was one of if not the weakest physical foes with a small cowardly side when he lost control of his "minions" and tried to talk his way out of the what he thought would be a painful (possibly deadly) beating.
Powers and Abilities
Being a human, Freakshow does not have any powers on his own. However, his knowledge of ghosts and ghostly artifacts more than make up for his lack of physical abilities.
In "Control Freaks", Freakshow uses his circus as a distraction, so that his minions can rob banks and jewelry stores. In this episode, Freakshow used a family heirloom called the Crystal Ball Staff to control ghosts, until Danny destroyed it.
Later, in Reality Trip, Freakshow uses the Reality Gauntlet to turn Danny's world into a circus nightmare. The Reality Gauntlet controls reality with the help of the Reality Gems, which are the Gem of Life (ruby), the Gem of Form (topaz), the Gem of Fantasy (sapphire), and a final gem (a red ruby gem known only as the Power Source) that serves as the main source of the Gauntlet's power, which Freakshow disguises as one of his earrings. Using the legendary Reality Gauntlet, Freakshow temporarily became the self-dubbed Ringmaster of All Reality until Danny defeated him and destroyed the Gauntlet. With the Reality Gauntlet if it were not for ghost envy, he might have very well been truly invincible and immortal 'Ringmaster of All Reality' he always dreamed of.
Gallery
Trivia
- His appearance is possibly based on The Joker in that both have white skin and a clownish appearance.
- His defeat at the end of Reality Trip is similar to how Aladdin defeated Jafar in Aladdin, tricking the villain into gaining a more powerful form that had a weakness the hero could exploit.
- He ends up being one of the ghosts that helps make Earth intangible in the series finale Phantom Planet. This could either mean he died sometime after Reality Trip or it was an error on the staff's part.
- Freakshow is the only fully human villain in the show that was truly evil, whereas Valerie Gray and the Guys in White were more anti-heroes and Dash Baxter was just a bully.
- When Freakshow had complete control of the Reality Gauntlet, he became the most powerful enemy Danny ever faced, even more than Pariah Dark and Dark Danny.
- Freakshow's control over the Reality Gauntlet is likely a parody of Thanos and his occasional control over the Infinity Gauntlet.
 Villains
| ||
|
Ghost Zone Circus Gothica Humans Other | ||