Carnivàle/Felix Dreifuss

Felix "Stumpy" Dreifuss
Carnivàle
Actor	Toby Huss
First Appearance	1x01 - Milfay
Last Appearance	2x12 - New Canaan, CA
Series Billing	Main Cast
Episode Count	24

Character History

Season 1

The frontman of the Gay Paree cooch show, Felix is in a position not many men would enjoy: one that involves promoting his wife and two daughters as stripper-prostitutes to whatever man can afford them. The cooch show itself is rather harmless, and Stumpy seems to be genuinely happy. He has a loving, healthy and stable relationship with his wife, and he seems close with his two daughters.

Fortune throws him a curveball in Babylon when, after Samson's insistence to cut the "blow-off" segment of the show (which involves a panty-less Dora Mae), Rita Sue ignores the little man's adivce and sends her youngest daughter alone on stage in front of a packed tent full of zombie miners. The situation takes a turn for the worse, and the tent collapses. In the aftermath, a shaken Dora Mae is taken by the miners, mutilated, and hanged from a tree.

The death of Dora Mae predictably puts a strain on Stumpy and Rita Sue's relationship, and it turns out to be Stumpy who has the most trouble coping with it. After a particularly demanding Rita Sue tries to force them to rekindle their marriage, Stumpy convinces Jonesy to sleep with Rita Sue once so she'll leave her husband alone. The plan unsurprisingly goes awry, and Jonesy and Rita Sue begin to have an affair. Ironically, Stumpy soon becomes fed up with the fact that his wife is now unwilling to have sex, and picks up a promiscuous Mexican waitress, Caterina de la Rosa, whom he also brings into the cooch show.

At Catalina's behest, Stumpy has his cards read by Sofie and Apollonia, who reveal that Rita Sue is having an affair. Sofie fails to mention the man's name, but Stumpy is capable of putting two and two together. In a series of tense confrontations, Stumpy manages to repair his relationship with Rita Sue and smooth things over with Jonesy.