Q:You've been a Juggalo and collector of ICP gear for such a long time. What treasures do you have in your vault of freshness?
A:That's a damn good question. They are many items near and dear to this Juggalo's heart. One of them started out as a rumor I had heard in the mid-'90s that there was a subdivision just north of where Comerica Park now stands, that there was an original "Carnival of Carnage: Available Now" poster that had been put up on one of these abandoned buildings in the very early '90s. I went searching for this multiple times and came up empty. Well, it was at the Hallowicked of 2003, we happened to be out in front of the Fillmore because, you know, ICP was just having their Hallowicked, you know? A very, very old-school Juggalo approached me and had said, "Vinnie, just so you know, that poster is real, I have found it. I'm willing to give you the information of where it's at." I immediately made a decision that this mission needed to pop off right now. So I went and assembled a little crew of four ninjas, including myself, so a tactical force of five, you know? This was still hours before doors opened. We went across and we located it immediately. It sure as shit was there just like he explained. The only problem was now, is that because it had just been zoned for demolition it was all fenced off and literally barbed wire at the top of the fence and really, really, really firm fencing just to make sure no one came in or came out.
I put this ninja on lookout just to make sure the coast was clear and we just went at it military-style. We ended up having two larger ninjas literally rip the metal ties from the bottom of the fence line up and curled it nicely so that me and another real ballsy Juggalo military rolled underneath the wired fence. We put our boots against the building and we tugged until this solid slab of wood came off with the original 1992 Carnival of Carnage poster. We took that bad boy off the wall, we slid back under the damn metal fence, we rolled it back down if you will, and that baby went right into my trunk.
And it's real, real fresh. You figure, at that point, it had approximately 11 winters and 11 summers to really age it. However, it is still completely intact, it is still completely obvious that this is a true "Carnival of Carnage: Available Now" poster. I'm very proud to say that it is most definitely one of my most coveted treasures. Yeah, that baby means the world to me, just due to its rarity and how it was just rumored to exist. That was my going behind enemy lines and really saving a rare artifact. That is a very, very, very rare artifact, you know?
There's something else that is really, really near and dear to my heart and not too many people know as well that I have. It's a real oddball piece of freshness that I acquired approximately 15 years ago through the almighty powers of eBay: An official Shaggy 2 Dope aka Joey Utsler high school yearbook. Not only does it have Joey Utsler's picture, it also has his brother, John Kickjazz, and it has an inscription from Joey, which is definitely legit. That is an extremely rare artifact.
Vinnie Monastiere, 34, is a longtime Juggalo living in Roseville. He's better known as Vinnie the ICP Kid, who was interviewed in his bedroom "museum" in the 1997 ICP film Shockumentary.
