Beyond the Mat

This is an awesome documentary about wrestling; the sport, the craft, the risks, the wrestlers, the passion, and the spectacle. Wether you love wrestling or don't get it this story will interest you.

Lessons from the Way of the Showman - 43

The most important thing is that you know that you want to be there and

that you trust the Crowd wants to be there.

They are the audience you are the performer. Step up, be the Showman. Let them be the crowd. Guide them, they want to follow, but are afraid to come with you unless they feel safe with you as a guide.

Shaman Showman - Part 2

Mythopoeic nature of Wrestling

Wrestling and Shamans

(Read part 1 here.)

Perhaps shamanism is like Pro-wrestling? As a kid you think it’s real then at some point you learn the whole thing is a masquerade. It is theatre in a square ring.
All the spectators suspends their disbelief, pretending to watch sport, whilst it’s actually theatre, sports-themed theatre of the simplest sort. Very powerful stuff though.
When an older boy decides to expose the lie, or initiate you into the true knowledge concerning the reality of wrestling, I hope they do it gently. As the house of childlike beliefs shakes and falls, you want the insight broken to you in a way that allows you to transcend the broken reality by picking up the pieces and stack them back up into a new foundation. A foundation of understanding and rationality.
Wrestling isn’t real but it's still awsome and this teaches us that wheter its real or not is not the point, the point is the story, the action, the hotdogs and soft drinks, the girls in the skimpy outfits, and the massive warrior wrestlers.
Real or not it still speaks to thousands.