the Way of the Showman

Happy birthday pandemic and happy birthday to me. My birthday and the day Showbiz Died is the same day. I told all about that in episode one. In this episode I reflect on my life in this crazy time. One year has passed. So much has changed, but the one thing that hasn't is my full on and full time dedication to the Craft of Showmanship. I am in the final stages of writing my philosophy on Sho...

In this final episode of season one, I attempt to give a few indications of just how grand and sacred our Craft can be seen. I do a deep dive into symbolic and mythological territory unlike anything I have done before in any other episode. I try to spin a new kind of poetic, sometimes rhyming narrative to explore our Craft, our Secret and Sacred Vessel, the ShowmanShip. This episode also has a sou...

I have been feeling lost, like so many of you. My Show was My home, now its destroyd by plague and I can't get home. The Showman has his home in the space that arises in the meeting between performer and audience. We are all lost. The virus-plague has attacked our ability to gather in groups which means its infected and isolated me from accessing a place that's been my home away from hom...

What will our firewall be between ourselves and the Svengali scamsters of the world? To day we look into science. We check out if there are any lessons to be learnt from looking at the Black Death in the middle ages, we discover a whole new tiny world through a home made microscope in 1683 in the Netherlands. This is the third and final episode in our explorations of how to get Carny Wise. Show no...

This week we talk about deception. By learning about the many ways our senses, our thinking, and our limited understanding of logic can be used to deceive us, I am hoping to get us all a little more Carny Wise. We look at how our senses can deceive us. We look at cognitive biases, and logical fallacies. I really think we need to get our ducks in order and use the Way to get Wise to see through ill...

After our mythic and imaginative explorations I think it would be good to remind ourselves that there is a real world out there. We must not get lost in day dreams and "As If" thinking. Social media is a carnival and we aren't really aware of that when we enter through their digital entrances on our phones. This is a rally call for getting wise to the tactics of carnies along any mi...

We go on quite a wander this episode. Starting with the satanic principle of the Intellectual Decompression chamber, we then do a little loop around the importance of employing and becoming aware of what you truly want, your true will. After which we look how this links into the familiar concept of suspension of disbelief only to dive head first into a truly remarkable phenomenon. Something which...

After I began releasing the episodes about the Mythopoetic Carnival I discovered a concept within the field of sociology which maps uncannily well onto our own project. I explore these similarities. The concept is the Collective Imaginary or social imaginary as its also called. One of the interesting things we learn from this is that it can change which excites me as I see us Showfolk as potential...

This time we take a short break from the Mythopoetic Explorations and instead take a look into the strange and beautiful Kingdom of Childhood. We try to understand the denizens with their peculiar vocation of play. Kids, as the inhabitants of the Kingdom are called, play for a living. Their weird, but also wonderful. I used to be one you know. I don't know when I left, but I know that I can&a...

The concept of the carnival of dreams seems so abstract. This is the opposite of a real world carnival. Today we explore the tarot as a possible tool for creating a mental midway, a carnival that comes to your town as you lay them out on the table, and thus by looking at them we can take a more concrete walk down a manifestation of the Mythopoetic Midway. I want there to be some more practical asp...

The path we walk in todays episode goes from the gutters and all the way into sacred, religious territory. We start with the lowbrow, in the trash stratum, we explore the gutter, dreaming of the stars. We then explore dreams and the night, and its transformative powers, before morphing from the dream landscapes into transcendent experiences and how they have the power to change your life and your...

Strange days are upon us. Some are calling for the abolishment of 2020, others are asking for their money back and are refusing to add this year to their sequence of birthdays. But I am asking for a radical rethinking of the time given to us by the Pandemic. Get cracking with the creating! Revolution, evolution, sexual and other selection as how the female of the species shapes the males to their...

We try to understand what this special carnival is, what's its nature? It is not your regular down and out collection of rides and crooked, rigged carnival games. One way of looking at it is by comparing it to Plato's Theory of Ideas. We also take a look at the real world inspiration that lead me towards the idea that the carnival would be a fertile place for our mythopoetic seeds to gro...

Mythopoetic means myth making. A grand voyage is undertaken, a quest is begun, we set sails on the Showmanship and seek a mythic continent, a land of tales, and characters, manifestations of the Showman's Craft. We seek a firm foundation in the lowest of the low. Arguments are made that this low ground is the Carnival. In all unearthing of meaning there is some digging needed, things will get...

A beautiful poem sent in as a response to an earlier episode and then dig into a bit of showbiz history to get a better grasp on how to view the pandemic and apparent death of showbiz. I also go on a bit of a philosophical exploration in a quest to find the elusive thing which is my art. As you shall hear the reason for its elusiveness might be that it isn't a thing at all but a process. Some...

The circus, the cycles of life and of the year all come together in todays episode. The very first of my Carnival Cinema blog posts influenced the very first Way of the Showman podcast, which again is one big swirling mirror of the tumultuous relocations in my own life. The times they are a' changing and we showfolk are still struggling to find our feet in this new liquid reality. This is a s...

Today the lens of Showmanship becomes a microscope that looks deep into the nebulous connections between Showmanship and the mystical art of Alchemy. By looking at the two things side by side we can develop a more majestic and esoteric perspective on the frivolous art of Showmanship. In many ways the whole project of the Way of the Showman is to go beyond the first and simplest level of jokes and...

I have a few more things to say about constraints and limitations as catalysts for new work. I also spend some time contemplating other sources for meaning, now that the Pandemic has made Crowds and Shows into entities on the brink of extinction. We Showfolk must explore other avenues for meaning in our lives. Then I delve into a deep look at children and how their attitude can be most informative...

It has been said that the Clown is the Soul of the circus, and this pivotal figure, the fool, the jester, and his strange visions and very intricate dance with truth, is the topic of today. The Clown is at once the most ridiculous of all characters, yet there is another, much deeper and powerful side of the Crazy Wise Holy Fool. How did the fool become the first card in the Tarot, the alpha and Om...

I make a case for the constraints of these strange times becoming a catalyst for the future of Showmanship, and I share a personal tale of the two kinds of secrets which permeated my childhood. As Wordsworth reminded us, "the Child is Father of the Man," thus both streams of secrets lingers in me to this day. You will discover secret knowledge and get a behind the scenes look at some of...

There is a new reality dawning for show business. It's still illegal to do shows in Las Vegas. How can a Showman find his Way in this new world? I have been delving into the Lost Knowledge of the Imagination and experienced some consciousness expanding poetry. It's helped me see the stars a little clearer and allowed me to plot the course onwards for my Showmanship. This episode is about...

A blow by blow telling of the tale of how Showbiz shut down in Sin City, Las Vegas and beyond with a few thoughts on the future for a Showman in a world with no Crowds. 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...

A short introduction to give a feeling of the tone and themes and what this podcast is about. 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 wr...