- April 30, 2024
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Ever since Charlie Carlson was a boy, he’s had an interest in all things weird and wacky.
Charlie Carlson has been two things in his life: a soldier and a showman.
After retiring from the army, Carlson joined the circus and fell in love with entertaining people.
“Since I’ve left the army, I’ve done nothing but show business,” Carlson said. “I haven’t had a dull moment at all.”
He was making a living writing history books when he stumbled upon his interest for the strange.
“In the process of doing research, I kept running across reports on the front pages of newspapers where people were reporting haunted places and monsters in the oceans,” Carlson said. “I wondered how much truth there was to it. Combine that with my grandmother who professed to be a medium that could talk to the dearly departed and I became interested in writing a book on Florida’s strange stuff.”
Carlson published his first book on Florida’s weird history called “Strange Florida” in 1997. It’s success opened his eyes to the forever popular paranormal industry.
“Though I had written four or five history books, this one book sold 7,000 copies right off the bat,” Carlson said. “It kinda shows us that we’re intrigued by mysteries and things that we can’t explain. We don’t even want to solve them. We’d rather have them to remain unexplained because if you solve the mystery you take the fun out of it.”
“Strange Florida” caught the eye of the publishers of “Weird USA,” a travel guide based on local legends and folk tales. After contributing to their main series, they asked him to write “Weird Florida.”
“I didn’t want to compete against myself because I had my other book,” Carlson said. “But when someone tells you they’re going to pay you to travel across the state and find weird things, you can’t beat a job like that.”
Carlson’s career grew to include acting in movies such as “Curse of the Blair Witch” and hosting his own PBS show “Weird Florida: Roads Less Traveled”
“You’re driving and you see this thing on the side of the road,” Carlson said. “It looks weird but you don’t stop to find out what it is. But you pass by it everyday. So it was time to stop and see what some of this weird stuff was.”
His almost lifelong involvement with paranormal sightings and weird legends makes him the perfect person to produce the Museum of Art and Sciences’ 13th annual Night of of the Paranormal. Held at MOAS from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Oct. 24, the event will include presentations from a UFO investigator, a mentalist, psychics, cryptozoologists and a ghost hunter.
“We’ve got some very interesting subjects on stage,” Carlson said. “It promises to be a really great night I think.”
Cost is $8 for MOAS members and $11 for nonmembers. Call 255-0285.
