the Way of the Showman

In this conversation Jay Gilligan and I dig deeper into how the best presentations of any kind of Material seems to emerge, in a holistic way, from an authentic character. We arrive back at magician Dani DaOrtiz's techniques and how his whole persona, the way he uses language, is completely fused that to use some of his techniques every magician would have to go through a proper translation p...

In this episode Jay Gilligan and I start the conversation talking about magic and Dani Daortiz. If you haven't seen Dani's act from Penn & Teller's Fool Us then do that first. This is a link to Dani DaOrtiz's act. If you want to see Dani's unbelievably awesome, indepth explanation of all the theory which lies behind his seemingly chaotic but masterfully crafted Showman...

The pandemic and I share a birthday. Sometime in the depths of the pandemic I made a broadcast trying to share some more personal goings on in regards to how I was holding up one year after the events taking place in the very first episode of this podcast The Day Showbiz Died. Then I made another birthday update, more personal and more rambling than the first. So here we go third year in a row. Al...

In this third and final part we look at more of the different types of jokes there is. This is really useful thing. Anyone who is stuck with "writers block" when they are trying to write new funny Material for a show or and act will be able to use these Ingredients as a check list for ways to make their jokes varied and hitting on all kinds of levels.   You can contact Gareth or find out...

In this episode we jump into the first of the ingredients, or joke structures and themes from Gareth Bjaaland bold and exciting attempt to reign in comedy's seemingly endless and chaotic scope. I am so into projects like this. It's valuable and useful practically as a tool to improve our craft, like getting more and varied laughs in our shows, but further its a beautiful example of deepe...

Finally we are getting a brand new voice on this podcast and what a voice it is. Gareth Bjaaland is a wonderful Showman. An acrobat, icarian games, juggling, all round really funny and generous performer. The reason we got into a conversation was Gareth's project of creating a list of the 12 Ingredients of Comedy. This was such an interesting exploration that the conversation went long, so I...

In this episode I attempt to get a better understanding of what a skill based act is. To do so I engage my good friend and conversational partner Jay Gilligan who is an absolute expert on this topic. How do skill based acts differ from talking acts, musical acts, or is perhaps the distinctions arbitrary? Wheter they are different in a fundamental or ontological way is perhaps not the most importan...

In this episode I get into a conversation with Jay Gilligan about the process of taking a show from idea to reality. It is very different to sit around and talk on facetime or messenger and shape and create a show, its very different when you pack all of your stuff into forteen suitcases and then have to get yourself to the airport and fly from Sweden to America. This and so much more we get into...

In this episode I have a conversation with myself about shows as authentic dialogic creations. By looking at what a dialogue is and about what happens when we engage in a real conversation I believe we can glean some valuable insights that can be powerful when used in our Shows. "Only by connecting with another person, face to face, and by wholeheartedly engaging with ideas, by asking the que...

This is a rebuttal to all those who think art is something which is not necesarry. That it is something which we can do without. In one sense they migth be right. You can live without art, survivive, but can you thrive? I don't think so. And I don't think we would have gotten to where we are now, meaning I don't think we would have become humans without Shows, without showing, witho...

In todays episode we get reaquainted with the two homes which any true performer and Showman inhabits. For the Showman lives his life in the Outer Geography but much of what he does there is planning and scheming and preparing the Acts and Material which will allow him to get to his ellusive and hard to get to second home... links: here is a very cool show featuring Mortenn - its in Danish, but fl...

Are Shows exlusively human phenomena? Are the artful creations of other animals the same as what we human's think of as art? and is the artful behaviour of animals related to, as in the actual evolutionary antecedent of human art? ... If you want to help support this podcast it would be tremendous if you wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anything, i...

We are moving into the realm of Shows, the fourth and final element of Showmanship. Shows are what Showfolk does. It is the doing which makes someone a Showman, it is the axel upon which all turns. To show how deep it is and important it is in the "mythology" of Showmanship I take a stanca from the Illuminated Showman's Manifesto about "the Showman on the market square creating...

This episode starts by giving a practical example of how to use the three stages of Attention/Inerest we explored last episode. Its a blow by blow description of my Tennis Racket act to illustrate how the stages of Attention can be found and also how they organically weave in an out. Then I talk about the emergence of Showtime. We are remined of this use of the word and concept of Showtime from th...

In this episode we talk about how to make your Audience get more out of your performance. We talk about how important it is to not just to pop balloons and put stuff on fire for your whole show, but to transform the shock of Attention into something the Audience is more involved in. This is the transformation of Attention into interest. I go on to show how this can be used as a real practical tool...

This episode ventures into a terrain we've not explored before. I will recount two stories, one is more of a prose poem, and one a more traditional story. Both have been lingering in the Carnival Chronicles of my Craft diaries for the longest time. The Murder of Mystery was written in 2010 and the first piece in the intro, called the Soul of the Carnival was written late 2008. ... If you want...

This episode celebrates how great it is to work in a circus with other showfolk. Then I go on to explore what can be said to be the shared activity of all performers, what is it that a poet, a juggler, a dancer, and a teacher all have do? What part of what they do is the bit that unites them all into the sphere of the Showman archetype? Links: Maria Popova's brilliantly curated blog Brainpick...

In this episode I talk to Morgan James about our collaborative process in creating his, now, multi-award winning show A One Man Circus. I have had the pleasure of hanging virtually with this driven and entrepeneurial showman for the last year and I had a lot of fun exploring and revisiting some of the insights and the ways we arrived at the decisions taken in creating a one hour family show. It&ap...

This episode explores the moral implications of Attention on us showfolk, it also delves into how Showmanship is present in monkeys and the great apes, it explains how Attention allows oddballs and how individuals that might appear to be evolutionary dead ends can climb the ladder of social hierarchies. Most importantly this episode expands the concept of Attention to give a better understanding o...

This episode explores the supremely important phenomena of Attention. This faculty lies at the core of what a performer does. For at its most fundamental what a performer does is to manipulate time and Attention. We are given some Attention by an Audience and what we do with their attention through the time that it is given to us is all we can do. First I try to paint a picture of what Attention i...

Today we use a section of Goethe's faust as a lens through which to view our noble craft. I believe there is a suprisingly deep mataphorical connection between this monumental book from literature and what we do as performers. Although we start in the highbrow world of literature we end with one of the most practical application of esoteric exploration we have had along the way. ...  If you w...

I work my way to an expanded idea of what Entertainment is. By further examinations on the idea that entertainment has "enjoyment for the Audience" as a necesity in its definition.  I find this to be a valuable concept to understand what I do personally but also as a fundamental  aspect of what we as artists delivering art on varying parts of the entertainment spectrum. "Entertainme...

There is a hidden move made in the popular imagination in regards to the relationship between work and what we do in our leisure time. This links up to the value judgment which lies implicit in how the world sees Art and Entertainment. From there I sketch out a key difference between art and entertainment. To properly understand this helps the Way we look at what we circus performers, sideshow fre...

What kind of emotions and attitudes do you nurture for your Audience? How powerful would you say your feelings are? How does this affect your performance? In this episodee I share some stories of how I arrived at my own personal attitudes. And explore in some detail how and why the personal feelings we have can benefit directly on the decisions we take in creation and the style we have as performe...

What's your relationship to the Audinence? Have you considered that as a thing in itself? Something that can be worked on and cultivated? Also, have you considered how this relationship goes both ways? That you can create a mirroring in your relationship between the feelings you have for the Audience being mirrored back at you? These are the topic I raise in this episode through some stories...