Best Freak Show

There are a lot of kids on the 16th Street Mall who want your spare change, but few who will hammer 5 1/2-inch nails into their noses to get it. Skip and Amy, two kids from Minneapolis, are the exception. Since they arrived in Denver last July, they've been shocking squeamish yuppies on their lunch breaks with their pointed performance art. Skip learned the trick five years ago from circus performers who'd camped in his back yard. Typically, the nails come out clean -- free of blood, brains and boogers -- but that's not always the case. "I've had more bloody noses than I can count," Skip says. If you catch their act, be sure to leave a buck or two to help pay for the nasal surgery these two may need in the future.