Songfacts®:

• Waits uses the "Eyeball Kid," a carnival attraction "born without a body, not even a brow," as a metaphor for showbiz and the disfunction that goes along with it. He explained in a 1999 Exclaim interview: "Most of us, in some form or another, are fascinated with anything that makes us different. Most of us from time to time have felt that way and can relate on a certain level, whether it's internal or external.... Obviously I'm making light of something [on "Eyeball Kid"] - and I hope it's not at anybody's expense, because there are people with physical deformities and I'm not poking fun at that at all. I'm just taking the idea of show business to a ridiculous place. It's really more autobiographical than anything else."
• Waits found inspiration in the pages of a comic book - The Eyeball Kid is a Dark Horse comics character drawn by Australian artist Eddie Campbell. "Actually, it was [actor] Nic Cage that reintroduced me to comic books," Waits told Magnet in 1999. "I hadn't thought about comic books since I was a little kid, but he seemed to carry that mythology with him. It was inspiring to see him keep alive some of those principles that we associate with childhood, to the point where he named himself after Cage, the comic-book hero."
• In the lyrics, the Eyeball Kid is given the same birthday as Tom Waits' actual birthday, December 7, 1949. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Jeff - Lacey, WA, for above 3
• The Eyeball Kid is mentioned in the song "Such A Scream," which was on Bone Machine seven years prior to the release of Mule Variations. The lyric goes, "Well Pale Face said to the Eyeball Kid."