So it's high noon, and I'm stuck in Southern California—literally, stuck—in a dune of sand. I'm traveling solo; my only companions are a dead cell phone and a canteen of drinking water on the verge of ...

Once the stuff of national tours, vaudeville acts and tricks are now often relegated to circuses and county-fair sideshows. Sword-swallowing, fire-juggling, and glass-eating will make their way out of ...