In this podcast episode, Captain Frodo and special guest Jay Gilligan delve into the fascinating intersection of creativity and sustainability, particularly within the dynamic world of Cirque du Soleil's Mad Apple.

The carnival is what it is and contains what it contains because it’s systematically been subjected to selection pressures, of different kinds, sexual, artificial and natural. Like how the peacock hen found the male peacock’s tail attractive for long enough to shape it the impressive display it is today, the Carnival Crowds’ fascination, and resonance with certain attractions, has shaped them into the staples of the Midways in a reciprocal process of interaction.

 The attractions at the Mythopoetic Carnival are displayed along the midway because they mirror the inner landscape of humanity. In this way the mythopoetic carnival is a reflection of our soul. It is the inner geography of humanity reflected back at us. The Mythopoetic Carnival is human nature revealed in participatory games an attracions. The carnival is a picture of the human soul.

The Mythopoetic Carnival is not anchored in the solid dirt of the outer world. The pegs of its canvas tents and attractions are pegged into the fertile poetic soil of our inner world. Of my inner world, where the freaks and the rides, the pumping music and the smiling faces of the carnival patrons takes on an otherworldly existence and are representations of deeper human behaviours and tendencies. It has torn itself loose from the real world limitations. I think of it as an other worldly entity, a non-physical reality existing somewhere in the world between. In the realm of poetic imagination, between reality and fiction, between the world and the human being, between the world and the Showman, and between the Showman and the Crowd. It exists at the frontier of the endless conversation between our inner and outer geographies.

Seeking a mythology is valuable for my own personal development but also as a creative venture valuable to the community of showfolk at large. For my personal angle, having a firm foundation makes me a more stable person. I know I am not unique among performers in, at least occasionally, experiencing the imposter syndrome, the persistent inability to believe that my success is deserved or that its been legitimately achieved as a result of my own efforts or skills. This kind of doubt creeps up on me from inside myself, but I also get it from outside. From our audiences and the world comes the frequently asked question: Is this your real job? The question crystallises that whatever we do when we perform does not appear to be something one could do for a job, which after all is a serious affair. The impression our art gives off is frivolous, it does not, at first glance, appear to have any serious purpose or value. 

A show is not a thing. It’s a process. It’s an unfolding in time. Much like you. You aren’t a thing either. Relationships aren’t things. Your career or your health are not things. An organism is a living process. Life is not a thing, it’s a process. All these things are processes made up of events and experiences in time. 

You’re an experiencer, and these experiences makes you feel and think and do certain things at certain times. The experiences, like watching me perform, changes you. Maybe hearing something I said, maybe the images presented trigger something, either way you will change, sometimes subtly, other times more profoundly. You learn new things, you form new opinions, which again leads you to taking action you wouldn’t have taken yesterday. You are a work in progress, a process.

Time to bring Illuminated Showmanship to the world’s children. The family Zirkus would happen in 2018, he said. Two years is a long time. It used to be an eternity.

Time is a way to denote changes in space. A seed falls, sprouts, becomes a flower, and wilts. These changes exist in three dimensions and happen in sequence. They exist in space and happen in time.

With the blue light from the little kettle illuminating the dark I contemplated Goethe’s Faust who made a deal with the Devil, whilst scrolling through the “Terms and Agreements” of my own deal with the Showbiz Devil.

Studying the legalese of the contractual obligations I found a loophole; the devils playground. The place the Showbiz Devil forgot in his Terms and Agreements. A place where the fun never ends. Where slot machines are plentiful and shows have more glitz and glamour than any international arts festival. Sin city. Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. 

The Act and the Showman’s soul are intrinsically linked like two sides of a coin, each reflecting the other. Each performance of the Act becomes, whether intended or not, a reflection of the Showman, his maturity as an artist, technician of the Craft, and human being.

“Why are there bunnies and eggs for Easter?” she asks. 

“It’s the mystery of life,” I say. “Winter has passed. New life is in the air. Easter is a festival of hope,” I’m quietly chuffed about my answer.

Hope is the fuel of my daughter’s treasure hunt excitement. The hope of chocolate and maybe a squishy toy rat makes her ecstatic with joy and anticipation. She doesn’t know what’s going to happen, but she is pretty sure its going to be good. She is facing the future playfully.

Poetic truth is an experienced truth, greater and more powerful than any fact. It is a process of communication where a recipient experiences someones expression as a deeper and more visceral truth. Poetic truth is not separate from human participation. It is not something which is, it is something which happens between humans.

The conjuring secrets are, in a way, doomed to disappoint. For with conjuring it is the effect which is the beautiful thing, not the secret. A rose levitating only to disappear in a flash of smoke, as a sad love song plays, is beautiful and symbolic. A black elastic snatching the flower up a sleeve as an enema bulb filled with stale cigarette smoke hidden in a sweaty armpit and squeezed at the right time is neither beautiful nor symbolic.

Losing one’s Way is a dark night of the soul. In that dark place I forgot one thing about stars, and that is they only come out at night. They’re always there, but you can only see them when it gets dark, and the darker it gets, the more stars you can see.

No gatherings of people, no Crowds. What’s left for a Showman to do in this new world? How can artists and performers help turn social distancing into merely physical distancing? And what is a Crowd in this strange new situation?

Greetings fellow travelers, I am so happy you have found your Way here through the World Wide electronic Wilderness. This website will be the trailhead for all the guided tours along the Way of the Showman, with your trusted explorer and trailblazer, the Illuminated Showman himself, Captain Frodo.