the Way of the Showman

Jay Gilligan and myself go very deeply into a few ideas that I raise in episode 107. Support the show ... After a long abscence our Merch Shop is back ! Check out t-shirts, hoddies, and hats! Show yourself as a Follower of the Way of the Showman. You can also "listen" to the Way of the Showman at youtube . If you want to help support this podcast it would be tremendous if you wrote a glo...

another great episode with the wonderful Nick Difatte! We continue our talk on secrets. we touch on these topics and more - You're not suposed to share secrets yet there are 1000's of magic books...   How tricks you buy looks. Max Mavens distinct style of the magic he sold. Envelopes holding the secrets to the universe. Tim Conover Magic downloads Collectors and the drive to colelct hard...

In November it's Nick Difatte month along the Way of the Showman. We have a wideranging and circuitous conversation. We touch on the following topics and many more. What is a masterclass Secrets  Nick’s book Offbeat by Squash Publishing is sold out, but will be back in print… It’s got essays one which was a big topic in the previous episode with Nick (E113) Mentor Tyler Ericson. Learning chea...

After last weeks little sidetrack exploring m own evolving relationship of love to my daughter we are ready to conclude how love is the foundation and origin for the human play impulse and drive. This of course will be pointing at how love is also the foundation of Showmanship. Love is necesary to full acknowledge the existence of Others, and to enter into a relationship with them is to reach out...

Over the last six months or so there has been a development in my relationship to my daughter. It is something any father will go through, but I look at it through the lens of a travelling performer. My daughter is growing up and is beginning to find her own way in the world. She is separating and becoming herself and in the process I am being left behind. But a significant development that has co...

In this episode I explore the impact and influence our playful behaviour has had on our development as human beings. I belive it quite profoundly have changed not just our psychology and behaviour but also our bodies. I share a deeply personal story of the first couple of hours in my daughter's life and how it birthed a new and deeper kind of love. The father's role in raising babies and...

Jay Gilligan is back! we go through his questions about episodes 103 & 104 to concretise some of the points I am making about Play and performance. some of the topics we touch=: -How to foster a playful connection at the beginning of your show. -Is there such a thing as a bad audience? -fulfilling audience expectations whilst still surprising them. -In facing the Audience we are showing, and t...

Why are we born so helpless. The answer will takes us through the history of human evolution and into the dualling biological need of a growing human head and the anatomical changes coming from our upright walking. Support the show ... After a long abscence our Merch Shop is back ! Check out t-shirts, hoddies, and hats! Show yourself as a Follower of the Way of the Showman. You can also "list...

In this episode I talk about Peter Gray and his book Free to Learn - Why unleasing the instinc to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life. We talk about how play is learning. how we today think about play as something which is dont to children. Not something they actively participate and even lead. for 10.000 years + kids have been learning all by thems...

This is a conversation with one of the funniest guys I know. He's had me laughing so hard I had to get partially undressed. We talk about magic and comedy and their intersection before landing on a long explorations of how to select and manage audience volunteers. Nick is an expert at handling volunteers and gets SO much out of the people he gets up, I try to learn from him. You can find out...

In this episode I continue describing the ways we find the play impulse, or the activity of play, manifesting in the world. I start by talking about learning. -The next way play emerges is through Imagination. -Then we look at how, quite obviously, play manifest thorugh actual playfulness. -We procede to Sociality. -Then I find in Rutger Bregman's summary of these manifestations into "Le...

Adults and children spend their days differently - we work, babies play. Play is the signature of childhood. It’s a living, visible manifestation of imagination and learning I action. Allison Gopnik If play is a constant and a genuine human drive, how do we recognise it when we see it in the world? Or more specifically; in which kind of behaviours does play manifest itself? We have looked at the f...

"Instincts are the whispers of our ancestors." - Quote by yours truly. In this episode we explore whether our inclination to play might actually be an innate human drive. Do we human beings possess an instinct to play? If so, how and why would something like that evolve? By understanding how something came into being we often learn valuable lessons today. Also, if it turns out that human...

In this episode I finish up the unpacking of the five criteria of play. As we go on these five points will be the backbone of our inquiry. Much like how using Showman - Audience & Show as a symbol or mnemonic picture which affords us a lot of understanding, these five criteria will expand our understanding of play, and by transferral how it connects and relates to all aspects of life. The five...

In this episode I talk to Jellyboy the Clown about his book Memoirs of a Coney Island Clown. I learn a lot about him and how closely our experiences mirror eachother. There are some tragic details about suicide in this episode - be warned, if you need such a warning. "Embark on an unforgettable journey alongside Jelly Boy in "Memoirs of a Coney Island Clown: Jellyboy's Sideshow Saga...

In this episode I continue to unpack the five criterias of play. The five are as follows: 1 - Play is fun. It’s intensely pleasurable and enjoyable. So when we play we don’t want it to stop. 2 - Play is self motivated, which means it has to be entered into voluntarily. 3 - Play is apparently purposeless. We play for the sake of playing not to achieve some further goal. 4 - Play has rules. 5 - Play...

In this episode Jay Gilligan brings up a few questions relating to episodes 3 & 4 in my exploration of Showmanship and Play (number 96 & 98).  -We talk about what its like to talk to people about something which does not have an easy answer. A fortune cookie once told me "to every complex problem there is always a simple answer - and its usually wrong." -Jay asks if my process ex...

In this episode I catch up with an old friend, a unique and philosophically inclined comedian and clown Mr Trent Birdmann. We talk about our shows together, our thoughts on our past, present and the uncertainties about the future. We share stories and insights about our lives as Showmen trying to make it in the modern world. You can find Trent Baumann on Instagramm and Facebook by searching for hi...

In this episode I unpack the five criterias of play. The five are as follows: 1 - Play is fun. It’s intensely pleasurable and enjoyable. So when we play we don’t want it to stop. 2 - Play is self motivated, which means it has to be entered into voluntarily. 3 - Play is apparently purposeless. We play for the sake of playing not to achieve some further goal. 4 - Play has rules. 5 - Play is imaginat...

In this episode I take you on a walk with my little dog Teddy and along the Way we encounter play in a very direct way. Then I let you take a sneak peak at my daughter and her kind of play. Then we look at trying to define play is like pinning a butterfly. From all these examples I distill the nature of play down to five criteria which will be the backbone of all our future explorations. SO, being...

In this episode Jay Gilligan asks me to explain and elaborate some details about a previous episode. The main part of this season (4) is the 30 episodes that explores and makes my argument for how the very deepest origins of Showmanship can be found in human play as well as building a powerful argument for this dual trait of Showmanship & Play lies at the heart of what it means to be a human b...

In this episode I seek general features of what happens in the Area of Interest, or in Shows. I talk about Nalle Laanela's book the Clown Manifesto and how it helped me understand that two key features of performance and Shows are Connection and Playfulness. links: Nalle's wonderful book the Clown Manifesto Support the show ... After a long abscence our Merch Shop is back ! Check out t-s...

This is a celebratory episode along the lines of my previous audio poetic endeavours in episode 21 and 42. This is an epic poem which initially was called The Rime of the Ancient Merrier. Merrier |ˈmerēər| noun ( mer•ri•er ) 1 one who brings happiness to others. 2 a simple or special person, trad. considered blessed or touched by God. 3 a fool or a clown ORIGIN Old English myrige [pleasing, deligh...

In this episode we try something new. Jay Gilligan has listened to my new season about Play & Showmanship and he found that there were several points in the episode  he wanted to know more about. He recorded some snippets with some AI app that he has and he reads me the unedited transcriptions of these and we have a great and DEEP conversation about  the morals of Attention.  How paying close...

In this episode I make one more example of a metaphor of my own making. I believe this to be a particularly fertile example, by which I mean a deep and powerful metaphor.  Using the uncanny similarity of the geometry of triangles with the process of Showmanship. Looking at the two side by side I belive we can get insights into the nature of our Craft of performance that can be hard to picture and...