(hooting)
(upbeat positive music)
- Hi there, I'm Aria, and we're here to spend a night
with the Juggalos.
Come on in.
^We'll go right down in here.
No.
^For those unaware, Juggalos are fans of the hip hop duo
^Insane Clown Posse, and they're a passionate community
^known for having their own unique culture.
^From wearing face paint to spraying the soft drink Faygo
^at concerts, Juggalos have often been met with ridicule,
with the FBI even going as far as
to controversially classify them as a gang.
So to try and separate fact from fiction,
I decided to spend the night at an ICP concert
to experience firsthand what it means to be a juggalo.
What does this tattoo symbolize?
- [Dennis] That's a hatchet man, that just means
that we're down with the clown.
- What does it mean to be down with the clown?
- To be down with the clown,
well for one we're not a gang.
Don't matter if you're black, white, yellow, purple,
it don't matter, you find love.
- From what I understand, there is juggalo slang.
- If you're a juggalo and they see you walking
and you got some of the material on,
you'll get a "woop woop," and that's a sign of respect.
- Let's say I'm wearing some ICP merch,
let's simulate a situation, so I'm walking.
- Woop woop, family!
Right, and that's all we do.
- [Aria] After I eventually find my press pass,
I'm able to meet up with the Paulis brothers,
who are VIP ticket holders for tonight's show.
- Is it too late to paint your face?
You gotta go find somebody,
there's always somebody with face paint.
It's just not the same without the face paint.
- [Aria] Despite being decades-long fans of ICP,
tonight will mark the very first time they're actually able
to meet the duo and spray Faygo with them on stage.
- It's one of my life's ambitions and my life dreams,
like after the first show I was like,
"I'm never gonna be a dope rapper,
"but one day I will be up there, I will be throwing soda.
"I will be, you know, doing that, I wanna do that."
And that stayed with me for the past 15, 20 years.
- You guys are generally very, very friendly people.
I mean which is interesting.
- We try to be.
It's fascinating because you know,
if I was walking down the street,
and you guys were walking with this face paint...
- Well yeah, I mean, because we're wearing corse paint,
^we look like f***ing weirdos, but I mean...
Yeah, I would avoid you, too, but anybody who's going
to a show obviously looks like a weirdo,
we're just a little bit more pronounced in that fact.
- The people that are there for the music
and there for the right reason,
those are the people that I call family.
Those are my Juggalos, those are my people.
So, it's, you know, a couple bad apples spoil
the whole bunch unfortunately.
- I think you could say that's the case
for any community or culture.
- That could be for anybody, from, you know,
the furries to the...
- To Michael Buble fans.
- Yeah, to Michael Buble fans.
They're the worst, man, they got shifts,
because they don't check the old ladies' purses.
- Some of the songs have a little bit of weird, racy content
but at the end of the day, it does have a positive message,
you just have to kind of get through the whole thing,
but going through the entire journey
is half of what made being a Juggalo fun.
- [Aria] I then chat with Tim, who is also
moments away from meeting ICP for the first time.
^So how excited are you?
^- Um, less excited, more nervous.
ICP kinda preaches, like if you're bullied,
if your life sucks, you know, all that stuff,
ICP comes out with their music and they're like,
"hey, our life sucks too, so let's suck lives together."
And they have a song, Simple and Blunt,
there's a line specifically that says,
"let us do the killing for you, you'll be all right."
And it's not like actual killing,
it's more like a metaphor, like,
"hey, let us be angry, let us do all that bad stuff.
"You'll be fine."
- [Aria] Before the VIP meet-and-greet begins,
I'm actually able to sit down with
Insane Clown Posse themselves to learn more about
this massive community they've built over the years.
- We say if somebody comes up to you and says,
"hey man, I was gonna kill myself,
"but your music saved my life."
And they take their f***ing shirt off, and their
whole back is a tattoo of your face,
you know what I'm saying?
How do you say thank you to that?
"Hey, thanks, guy." That don't cover it.
- Believe it or not, they look us in the face and say,
"you saved my life, your music saved my life."
That type of appreciation from them, for us,
for us doing something we love doing,
and we would f***ing do anything to be able to do this,
and then to be appreciated like that for it,
it's almost unfathomable.
- You couldn't ask for a better fan base or
better people in the world, you know what I'm saying?
People from outside look in, make fun of them,
call them white trash, call them piece of s**t,
uneducated, all that, couldn't be further from the truth.
It's the most warmest, openest.
From doctors to homeless people, you know what I'm saying?
The whole spectrum, just like life.
Juggalos cover the whole A to Z.
- What should I be ready for tonight?
- We always tell somebody that ain't never seen us before,
we're like, "hey man, sorry to tell you this,
"I gotta apologize right now because
"you ever see somebody else, we're f***ing it up for you."
You know what I'm saying, because you're never gonna
f***ing see no show like us ever again.
- [Aria] Michael Buble is ruined for me now?
- Everybody, Michael f***ing Budwol,
whatever the f*** his name is.
- Thank you guys so much, I'm looking forward to it.
- Thank you my man.
- Thank you, can we have a group hug?
- Yeah, hell yeah!
- I wish he wasn't here so I could get your full arms.
(light music)
- How you doing, brother?
- Doing well, how are you guys?
- Good man.
^- I'm doing a lot better now.
- Uh, no words, it's 22 years in the making.
- What do you do for a living,
you look like a doctor or something, right?
- No, close, I work with the
handicapped community, actually.
- See?
- I'm just rambling, no words, it's awesome, I'm just happy.
- I'm happy you're happy.
- Yeah, no words.
- I'm so geeked right now, thank you guys.
It was probably 40 percent more embarrassing
than I thought it was gonna be.
Obviously Jay and Shaggy are cool as f***
and they made it special just for me.
As an awkward, total neck beard weirdo
walking up to them like, "what's up bro?"
And they made it cool, they made it,
Ugh, I got no words, I literally cannot describe
how geeked out I am about meeting the clowns
and shaking their hands.
Oh my God.
And now you get to watch them perform.
- [Aria] But before the concert starts,
there's one final thing that I need to take care of.
- ICP!
- [Aria] Coming into tonight, I had no idea what to expect.
But that's the thing about misconceptions, isn't it?
Because in general we often have a tendency
to allow the negative to overshadow all the good.
We see these face painted people listening to this
intense, dark music, and we allow ourselves to forget
that these are just regular people that have
found something that makes them happy.
At the end of the day, we all just wanna
feel like we belong somewhere,
and that's what Juggalos have found in each other.
They come from all walks of life,
yet have been brought together through the music.
There's something wonderful about that.
You'll often hear Juggalos refer to themselves as a family,
and tonight, I genuinely felt like I was one of them.
So woop, woop, because I'm down with the clown.
- [Dennis] I just turned 40 two days ago on March 20th.
- [Aria] Happy belated birthday!
- [Dennis] Thank you very much.
♪ Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Dennis! ♪