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Spiegelworld, producer of Vegas hit ‘Absinthe,’ has bought a California town

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A Spiegelworld performer poses atop a Clayton Blake sculpture in Nipton, CA.
COURTESY

Spiegelworld, the producer of hit Strip variety shows Absinthe, OPM (formerly Opium) and Atomic Saloon Show, has purchased the California town of Nipton, located some 60 miles southwest of Las Vegas, for $2.5 million dollars.

In an email statement, the circus company says it bought the former mining town— founded in 1905, with a current population of 20—with the intention of making it its base of operations, a sheltered place "where Spiegelworld artists and performers will retreat to dream, create and undertake unfettered artistic experimentation."

Surprisingly for a town so small, Spiegelworld is getting a lot of raw material to work into its dream. Its existing structures include a five-room adobe hotel, a café, a general store, a schoolhouse, a town hall and a few tipis. And the town's previous owners, who'd hoped to make Nipton into a cannabis-friendly resort, imported a few Burning Man art pieces, the most striking of which is Clayton Blake's "Perpetual Consumption Apparatus," a trio of circular towers of shopping carts.

Spiegelworld's public-facing plans for Nipton include building on both foundations, with an "art-directed, luxury accommodation and restaurant experience for a limited number of visitors," and an artist-in-residence program that will enhance the town's burgeoning sculpture park. But if Spiegelworld's three Vegas shows have demonstrated any one thing again and again, it's that this company loves surprises. Nipton will be a proving ground for those surprises, says Spiegelworld's "Impresario Extraordinaire" Ross Mollison.

"Having a rambunctious circus company purchase a small town may sound like the Schitt’s Creek spinoff series. But that couldn’t be further from the truth," Mollison said in an email statement. "When we visited as guests a few years back, we fell in love with the peacefulness, the vast desert vistas, and the fireside chats with freight train drivers, miners and workers. … Spiegelworld performers and artists are already embracing the potential of Nipton and are excited to get involved in the creative direction of the town, the restaurant, accommodation, artist retreats and small festivals we plan to present. Nipton will showcase the beauty of our circus family and I simply can’t wait to share that community under the magical desert stars."

Discoshow, which the company is creating in collaboration with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Nile Rodgers; The Hook, an Atlantic City circus and variety show set inside a 94-year-old theater; and an as-yet-unnamed production inspired by the 2023 Formula One Grand Prix, among many other projects.

For updates on Spiegelworld's Nipton adventures, follow @CircusTownUSA on Instagram.

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