Rochester Fair game booth looks to lure 'em in

Chris Cello holds up a bagged goldfish that could be won by some lucky game player at the Rochester Fair on Friday. (Lebanon Voice/Harrison Thorp photos)

ROCHESTER - Chris Cello's career has always revolved around fish.

He used to be a first mate on a charter fishing boat out of West Palm Beach, Fla., that hunted big game fish like tuna and sailfish.

He still lives in West Palm Beach, but now he works for Fiesta Shows, manning the goldfish game at carnivals and fairs like the Rochester Fair all over the northeast eight months a year.

"I like working the carnival a lot," he said on Friday while putting the finishing touches on his booth, a task that takes a full two days to put together.

"Once you get the booth put together there's 400 pieces to set up," he said while storing two buckets full of live goldfish that will likely be won before the night is over.

Some may be eaten alive upon being won, he frowns.

"Oh yeah, I've seen it," he said. "People will just eat them."

A live goldfish is won by a game player if they can toss a ping pong ball into one of scores of small containers filled with tissue paper. But the goal is not to win a live goldfish; it's to win one of many stuffed goldfish that hang from the booth's top shelf.

You only win a stuffed goldfish if you get the ping pong ball to drop into a red container, of which there are few.

Chris Cello holds up a goldfish toy dedicated to the late Bob Griffith who invented the goldfish game Cello mans.

It can be done, though, Cello said. It happens all the time.

Cello, 57, said he likes two things the best about working in the carnival. One is he loves the different cultures he sees as he travels about the country. The other is the excitement in players of all ages he sees as they play his goldfish game, a game he said was invented by a carnival man named Bob Griffith more than 40 years ago.

Hanging from the rafters is a stuffed goldfish that can't be won that is dedicated to the memory of Griffith, who passed several years ago. It is signed by dozens of friends and co-workers who knew and worked with him, says Cello proudly holding the memento.