the Way of the Showman

Today we move the focus of our explorations to the next pillar of Showmanship, namely the Audience. The last many episodes has been exploring the idea of the Showman, ot the One who Faces the Other Way, but now the lense is pointed squarely at the ones who we stand before. We talk about the generous position it is to be an audience. We might think that all they do is passively reveice, but that is...

Do we have a greater responsibility as performers? Once we get the Attention from our Audiences have we got  a role to play in making the world a better place? Because we can. We can make our shows count by following one simple rule. This is the topic of today. ...  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  c...

Today we take a look at eyes. Why does our eyes look the way they look? What can this tell us about our ancestors evolutionary past, and thus about human nature? 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, including wanting me to collaborate on one of your projects you can reach me on...

This episode gets to the core of who the Showman is. One who Face Others. From this simple starting point in a picture of Many looking at one, and the One looking back we touch on topics such as stage fright, practicing with mirrors and with video, on how something has to be seen or experienced by a human being to be art at all, how a meeting can transcend a Face to Face and become a Heart to Hear...

This episode starts quite personal and then moving through an examinations of what it means for some Material, or anything else for that matter, to be a Novelty Act, or new or for something to be a genuine creative innovation. To understand this I look at the difference between something being a novel creation by an individual in isolation and what that means in a wider cultural or community conte...

To celebrate that we have reched the magical and intensly meaningful number 42 broadcasts here on the carnival underground I have put together a special sonic treat for you all. I have written a poetic exploration encompassing the dawn of time and all the way up until to day seen through the lense of Showmahship. This is a humble, no doubt flawed and incomplete attempt at developing the mythopetic...

On this leg of the journey I am joined by Juggler Extraordinaire Jay Gilligan, a man who needs no further introduction amongst the practicioneers of the art of juggling. Or, perhaps to those of you who listened to episode 37 where I spoke with Jay about our collaboration. In this episode Jay and I go deeper into our process of creation and with all the themes and ideas which surrounds the creation...

In this episode I propose a new way of looking at the distinction between Audience and Showman. I also use this new inclusive view inform me in my pursuit of meaning in life. You can contact me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com or find out more on the Way of the Showman website . suport the podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo Support the show ... After a long abscence our Merch Shop i...

In this episode I take a deep look at what the mechanisms are of finding ones way in life. I do it through a metaphorical exploration. How do we find what we love in life? This is not something that should be taken lightly. I do not give a step by step set of instructions that will allow anyone to find THEIR way, but I do believe that understanding some of the structures involved in this undertaki...

In this episode I tell the story of how I really discovered that a triangle would be a good symbol for Showmanship. I also reveal how Attention is perfectly represented in the symbol. The Eye. What could be more perfect. My enthusiasm of the esoteric and occult, the philosophical finds a lot to work with in this episode. links: Michael Tomassello - Becoming Human: A Theory of Ontogeny Support: htt...

This episode will be different. This is the first time you will hear other voices than that of your trusted guide along the Way, Captain Frodo on this podcast. This is because for a year and a half there has been a collaboration cooking. Through the dark of the Scandinavian winter I had the distinct pleasure of going through an incredibly deep and all encompassing creative process with Jay Gilliga...

Metaphoric thinking is fundamental to our understanding of the world. It is by likening one thing we understand to something else which we might not quite understand that we learn about the world. This makes us active participants in the creation of the world. Along the Way we have called this Map Making. They are never perfect but they do illuminate the world. The best metaphores, or in fact all...

In this episode I explore what the essense of Showmanship is. What is the difference between a Show and Showmanship? How are they related? What are the fundamental aspects of performance? These are the questions we explore today, and for me these are what I found on the next level up, after last weeks exploration yielded that Showmanship is a process. This episode I build on that flowing foundatio...

Now we start looking at the heart of the Way, what is Showmanship. This episode and the next we look into this. The faithful listener might recognise some of this episode from the first season where we discovered that Showmanship is a process and not a thing. This is the flowing bedrock of, not just Showmanship but also, as I see it, the world. From this firm but flowing foundation we shall next w...

In this episode I share what I see as the essentials of what makes a show. I divide it up into three constituents which helps me to analyse and to understand my own shows and shows that I see. From these constituents I can easily get quite deep quite quickly after even just a first viewing. I immidiately get questions in my mind about where the work is at, what is its focus and where I see room fo...

This episode explores what makes us human in a way that will become a practical tool for asking questions about our work and art. The understandings we will journey through is an important key to my personal way of approaching creation. As I have worked more and more as a director and co-creator with others I have come to understand that the things we talk about in todays episode is part of make m...

Today I talk about inner exploration. We look at a few ways of mapping our internal geography and then how to mine it for use in creation. I also talk about developing a sense of ones inclinations and desires to use them like the true north of a compass. True north is not necessarily the same as the course you set for yourself and where you want to go, but by knowing your own natural inclinations...

When we take the two geographies of Inner and outer space seriously we immidiately see that their landscapes are quite different and that to journey within them would need different approaches. Much like we need different ways to travel on sea and in mountains, what is appropriate for one is unsuitable for the other. Today we look a little at the different ways we can most fruitfully navigate thes...

In this episode we look at how  being an artist and performer affects both our lives and our livings. These to domains  merge for many of us. There is often very little separation between what we do for fun and because we can't stop ourselves from doing it, and what we do for work. I don't think what we do can be adequately described as being a job. What we do is more than a job, it&apos...

I believe we find authenticity at the frontier between our inner and outer geographies. Todays leg along the Way explores what that means, and to understand that we have to look at what authenticity means, at least what it means when I talk about it. We also look back at an essay I published in 2012 where I talked about Originality, and I look at that with the hindsight of this leg along said fron...

This is an episode that's a little more personal, just a little catch up really. A few people have said they miss the little bits of personal updates about my current situation. I have decided to not include this in the long form project of our bi weekly exploration of what an outline of a map of the Way of the Showman would look like. SO, here it is. A random encouter in a hobo jungle by the...

Today we set off and our trailhead will be the word ShowMan. As we ask ourselves not just what that word means from an etymological point of view but more importantly as a way pointer towards the two geographies we will be travelling simultaneously as we walk the Way. The word Show-Man becoms like one of those signs with many arrows each pointing towards different aspects of meaning. Support the s...

In this second trip down the Way of the Showman we will look at what the Way actually is. Right off the bat we discover that it has a kind of dual nature, which is revealed first around the fact that it is both a way to make a Living and simultaneously a Way to make a life. We also establish that this Way is an exclusively human way. From that seemingly inane conclusion we get to the heart of what...

In this episode we begin our grand, exploratory journey of the Way of the Showman. In the last season I offered glimpses of what the world looked like through the lens of Showmanship. As this season unfolds I will try to give you a much more comprehensive view of the Way, what it is and the ideas, insights, wordgames, poems, techniques and methods that I have used to shape my own lens. The  distan...

Welcome back to season two! This first episode is a response to the short bonus episode on I published on my birthday, which I share with the pandemic. In that episode I asked you listeners if you were interested in having me talk about my artistic process. I did get some resposes to that in the affirmative, so here it is! This is an unscripted conversational episode that describes some of my thou...