We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Cozzaglio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My husband Tony and I created the Oddities & Curiosities Expo in early 2017. We wanted to provide a place for odd artists and small businesses to thrive. A place where its 100% normal to sell bone art, odd jewelry, creepy clothing, spooky art, unusual rare antiquities, taxidermy and much more. A place where anyone can come and be themselves unapologetically and be surrounded by a community of like-minded people.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Oddities & Curiosities Expo features vendors, dealers, and artists from all over the county with all things weird. Outside of the immersive shopping experience, we host sideshow performers on stage that perform classic circus/sideshow stunts like swallowing swords, walking on glass, human pincushion, and much more. We also host a taxidermy class each year that allows a small amount of students to learn the basics of the amazing craft that is taxidermy – the type of class changes annually! This class is taught by professional taxidermist Heather Clark of The Sleeping Sirens. Lastly, as of 2021, we have an incredible traveling museum with us at all shows. The museum is curated by The Oddities Museum and also changes annually with new rare/one-of-a-kind pieces on display.

When we started in 2017, we had our first show in our hometown of Tulsa, OK. In 2017 we decided to try out a show in Denver, CO, and it went great. While I had worked jobs I hated for the majority of my teenage and early adult years, it inspired me to take this on the road. In 2018 we dove in head first with 8 cities across the U.S. 2019 we expanded to 16, 2020 we had booked 26 but…. only had 4 before COVID happened. We came back strong in 2021 with 25 shows (only had 20 due to COVID), and in 2022 we are finishing off 25 shows. We’re looking forward to 2023 as it will be our biggest year yet with 30 shows booked.

It hasn’t always been easy, of course we’ve had major ups and downs like any business. 2020 and 2021 were really tough due to COVID… we depend on IN PERSON events with lots of people! We had to think of ways to still have engaging content to post and still promote our vendors how we could. It was rough, but we came out of it bigger and better than ever.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband Tony has been the most supportive and encouraging person throughout the process of creating the Oddities & Curiosities Expo. Back when this was just a small idea… he pushed me to try it. Then he pushed me to dive in head first on it. Together…. we created the Oddities & Curiosities Expo. Without his love and support for my wild ideas, it would not exist.

Another huge shoutout has to go to every single one of our vendors. Without them, the show is literally nothing. We truly feel we have some of the best dark artist and unusual business in the country involved in our show. We’re so lucky to have them and so lucky they put their trust in us!

Website: odditiesandcuriositiesexpo.com

Instagram: instagram.com/odditiesandcuriositiesexpo

Facebook: facebook.com/odditiesandcuriositiesexpo

Youtube: youtube.com/odditiescuriositiesexpo

Other: Tiktok: tiktok.com/@odditiescuriositiesexpo

Image Credits
Photos of Tony and I: Heart & Wild Photography All others: Bambi Nicole

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