Winnetou's Snake Oil Show from Wigwam City is loosely based on the fictional Apache character Winnetou and his close friend Old Shatterhand, made famous by nineteenth century German author, Karl May. Spiderwoman Theater satirizes the stereotypes perpetuated by authors like May and New Ageism in general, by performing a bona fide Snake Oil Show, spoofing the New Age plastic shaman, phony mysticism, and the "wannabe" Indians who have come to expect miraculous results from American Indian spirituality.