barker
/ˈbɑːkə
/noun informal
A tout at an auction, sideshow, etc., who calls out to passers-by to attract custom.Better still: as a DVD bonus, the folks at Something Weird also include a short unedited collection of newsreel footage showing real life sideshow performers and barkers from the thirties....
- Economists, bankers, and executives equated ad men with sideshow barkers, while scientists considered psychologists no better than fortune-tellers.
- The clearest example of Herzog's and presumably Büchner's point is the scene with the sideshow barker and his subjugated monkey in the silk and tassels of a high-ranking soldier.
Origin
Late Middle English: from bark1 + -er1. The original sense was 'a person or animal that barks; a noisy protestor', hence the current sense (late 17th century).