Soul Dust - The Magic Show of the Mind

This is a beautiful theory by Nicholas Humphrey

"Consciousness is a magical-mystery show we stage inside our own heads -- a show that paves the way for spirituality, and allows us to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in the "soul niche."

"Why a magic show? Why would an organism receive enjoyment from the feeling of existence? Well, the beings that enjoys existence would develop a will to live."

"Rather than being an aid to survival, consciousness provides an essential incentive to survive. Enchantment is itself "the biological advantage of being awestruck." Or, as the poet and Pooh creator A.A. Milne put it, "It's awful fun to be born at all."

Pic By Humphrey

{matt ridley}

Humphrey lays out his ideas of consciousness as a magic show that we put on for the enjoyment of our selves in the book Soul Dust: the magic of consciousness.

What exactly is the redness of a tomato, the salty taste of anchovies, or searing pain of a burn? Humphrey tells us it is a kind of magical recreation, a show that you lay on for yourself inside your head. In response to the stimulation of your sense organs you create an extraordinary art work for your mind to look at. A simulacrum of sorts.
But the show you put on does more than just recreate the outside world, it steeps it in subjectivity. It makes it not the world but your world and further, storing it in your head adds to the personal dimension as we colour it with emotion. The experience enters your head and is shaped by the previous experiences you have stored in your mind's magic show. Each experience is shaped and re-framed by the show they are slotted into. Like how water stays water but takes on the shape of the jug you pour it into.

What is the purpose of this show in the mind?

2D Penrose triangle

The reason your mind creates a show for you is to sell you the world and to interpret it for you in a stimulating and meaningful. A theater is not a replica of the world it is a place where scenes from the world are acted out to comment and enrich the Crowds by watching it. We go to be entertained and educated. The crowd wants to experience the added magic of watching a symbolic representation. Such it is with our minds Magic Show. It attempts to persuade us emotionally to enjoy the Show of the world. It is one part of our brain staging a show for another part of the brain. A little like the illustration below.

Origins of the show

Sensations have always been a kind of show. It has been a bodily representation of the world around us.
From the very first floating single cell organisms in the pre-cambrian waters beginning to register light and respond to changes in the water pressure as bigger predatory species swam by there has bee some sort of interpretation of the stimulus. What the organism feels is not what happens on the outside. In this way the mental world is fundamentally a representation of the world.
In the very beginning the change of light or pressure might have simply triggered a physiological response such as a flutter of the body to illicit movement and escape or perhaps to get closer to the stimulus. The next step would then be for the organism to be able to delay or choose which response to take to the stimulus. For this to happen the process becomes internalized, or privatized. It was no longer just an instinctual one step response. It would benefit the organism greatly to be able to choose its mode of outward behavior depending on the individual situations. To do this the internal theater had to begin. A very rudimentary representation of the outside world would be needed for the organism to choose. The stimulus would not just be objective anymore but highly subjective, since the immediate needs to stay alive are absolutely based on the subject experiencing the stimulus. 

"Sensation has always been theater of sorts. Its been been theater from the start but it was not magical theater. "

Once the theater of outside stimulation has begun, the leap towards being able to let the scenes run without the actual physical stimulus triggering it is not too great. Becoming what if? Rather than it is.
If the organism now instead of acting instinctively and immediately on the sensory input, one can easily imagine that the original evolutionary use for a reaction to stimuli would become outdated and needing a different response. For this to be possible the responses should become internalized and later evaluated for best possible response.

Why this theater?

Just how does this Theater pay off in terms of biological survival? "How can watching the show be genuinely life enhancing?"
In the process of becoming and remaining conscious, in the simple pleasure of being there, we discover a new purpose.

“The great object of life is Sensation - to feel that we exist - even though in pain - it is this "craving void" which drives us to gaming - to battle - to travel - to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”

Byron

Why, you might ask, would an organism develop enjoyment from the feeling of existence? Well, the beings that enjoys existence would develop a will to live.
Natural selection makes things that are important for the continuation of life pleasurable. Take sex for instance, or eating and drinking. So here we have a case for our consciousness making our experience of the world around us awesome.

From Nicholas Humphrey's book soul dust

The sensations we get from seeing the red of a tomato are actually formed in us. They are not inherent in the tomato itself. What we experience as red is simply a refraction of light at a particular wave length. But since every time we see a tomato we feel the effects of the red, deliciousness we begin to connect the two. In this way we now experience that the tomato is sending out something, and that something is more than just sitting there, it is indeed like a kind of communication, this at least is our experience of it. Like the tomato is sitting there showing us how red and delicious it looks.
So strictly speaking the world just sits there, but through our experience of it we feel like it is speaking to us, it is enticing us and stimulating us and this is a pleasurable process. We basically enchant ourselves into loving life. 

Drugs

We watch the Magic Show in our minds and through it fall deeper in love with the world. This is why we love the world around us more whilst on mind altering drugs. They enhance our mental representations and all of a sudden the colour of a tomato or the complex details in the bark of a tree becomes staggeringly beautiful and interesting. We get the feeling that the world is sweetly shouting its beauty and its multi level existence to us. The world is always talking to us, giving us the feeling it is revealing but a tiny substrate of its nature but on drugs its shouting.
The experience of perception blows children away and can make them stop in their tracks to study a browning leaf or a bit of silver foil from a cigarette packet as if it were the greatest treasure.
As we get used to the experience of perceiving the world we begin taking it for granted and stop noticing the magic, the novelty wears off.
This is the catch 22 of being a Showman with a novelty act; once people have seen you, the novelty wears off and you become 'just' an act. But put us in a different show, change costume and alter your patter and all of a sudden the experience for the Crowd becomes Novel again, this is what drugs do to us; they enhance our experience of the world. 
With or without drugs we enhance the world and our experience of it. Our Magic Theater gives significance and glow to everything in the world and this is why we feel so connected to it. It transforms the world into an awesome place. "All the more astounding because of the intimate connection we feel we have to it."
Watching a fire or a swirling pool of water we sometimes get knocked back by the immense beauty of it and our sense of union with it. This happens because in the simple act of perception there is an awesome Magical Theater production enhancing the world. 

We are constantly blown away by the feeling that the universe speaks directly to us, like in a way we are the only or at least most significant spectator to it and so say all of us. We are all the focal point of the universe and we are all creating its awesomeness in our minds, in fact that is the fundamental principle of consciousness; a Magical Theater of the mind to please and enchant our souls.

In this view we find individualism, but that is not the end. For as we experience the awesomeness of a sunrise we are immediately closer to the thought of what does this feel like to others. So in this way the creation of awe in us connect us to others and engage us in sharing the awesomeness of the world. From here comes The One Who Face the Other Way.

Interview with me...

I was asked a little while ago to do an interview with Map Magazine for our La Soiree season in Brisbane. It turned out that it was an email interview, which means they send me some questions and I write down the answers. Then they cut and past those into something. To the right is what they printed and this is what I wrote...

Q&A for map magazine

Please answer the questions with approximately 20 word answers where applicable. Thank you!

NAME: Captain Frodo

OCCUPATION: Incredible Rubberman

WEBSITE: theilluminatedshowman.blogspot.com.au

age?

36

where were you born?

In the beautiful fjord lands of Norway.

what was the performance that first made your world come alive?

My father is a Magician. With a dad that actually could do anything made me want to be like him.

describe yourself in ten words?

A philosophically minded Showman making people laugh and think.

what gets you out of bed in the morning?

At the moment my 4 week old daughter Saskia.

what is something you discovered this month?

Having a baby changes everything you ever thought about the world, yet the world goes on as if nothing happened.

the last thing that made you smile & why?

All these questions asked at this particular time in my life begs just one answer – my little girl.

what is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?

As above, Chaplin’s The Kid, Chaplin’s grandson James Thiérrée’s Au Revoir Paraluie, The Black Rider with music by Tom Waits.

 

what’s your idea of complete happiness?

Going to bed with a book, falling asleep before finishing page one. Dreaming the book and later realizing my dream was better than the book.

 

when was the last time you did something for the first time?

I have been paving our bush property with rock from our own quarry. Mixing cement, using a scotching hammer and feeding my baby.

tell me about passion … ?

It’s the fire in your heart that illuminates your journey. It’s contagious. The job of a Showmanis to pass on enthusiasm.

what makes you different?

I make a living squeezing myself through two tennis rackets and sitting on a tin can.

what scares you?

At the moment, America.

Imagine going to work in a flight simulator controlling a drone bomber on the other side of the world. You kill a bunch of people, destroy a neighbourhood then rush off to pick up your daughter from drama class…

I find it truly frightening.

what’s worth fighting for?

A meaningful life, and (as the beastie boys reminded us) - the right to party.

tell me about creativity …?

To be creative seek out inspiring art, ideas and experiences and then express what that makes you feel and think in whichever way you can.

your biggest inspiration?

Those that do stuff others call impossible and the guy that carved an Eiffel towers that fit inside the eye of a needle.

what is the world you imagine?

A world where Illuminated Showmen plant Seeds of change crowds and show by show they make the world a better place.

what are your words of wisdom?

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world.

the Plank

Of late I have been helping direct slapstick and this sweet film with Tommy Cooper and Eric Sykes' The Plank keeps popping up in the creative process. Its a slapstick Odd-yssey and a classic.

The Plank is a 1967 British slapstick comedy short film made by Associated London Films. It follows the misadventures of two builders who require a floorboard. It was written and directed by Eric Sykes, and produced by Jon Penington. The story was based on an episode of Eric Sykes BBC comedy series Sykes and A... from 1964, called 'Sykes and A Plank'.
Although not strictly a silent film it is unusual in having little spoken dialogue, instead the film is punctuated by grunts, other vocal noises and sound effects. {wiki}

The film is a series of "plank jokes" elaborating on the "man with a plank" slapstick routine seen in vaudeville and silent films, and adding new ones. For instance, at one point the plank is tied to the top of the car and projects backward into the open back of a large van. A man enters the back of the van and sits down. The van drives away, leaving him suspended in mid-air sitting on the end of the plank.

Clown Vs Mime

COntinuing on the clown film theme...

Q: What happens when you stab a clown in the eye?
A: He DIES. Just like everything else.

Here at the Illuminated Showman we do enjoy a bit of splatter clowning and that is exactly what we get with Clown Vs Mime. Funny short and to the blood dripping point.
Created by Brock England and Darren Scharf.

Clown vs Mime. The newest most amazing conflict in the history of amazing conflicts: Tom and Jerry, vampires and werewolves, clorox and bacteria, democrats and republicans. Like these epic foes of man's history, they spend all their time creating new and gruesome ways to realize each other's death. Will the Clown use a balloon animal noose to strangle the Mime? Or will the Mime use his powers to conjure invisible C4 and blow the Clown to Marakesh? Watch and see!

episode one:

episode two:

episode 3:

the Citizen Kane of Alcoholic Clown Movies!

Shakes the Clown. A clown movie about the seedy side of children's party clowning portrayed in all its dark glory. 

Not heard of it? fair enough it was a bit of a flop at the box office when it came out in 1991. But here at the Illuminated Showman we do love a drunken clown with a good heart.
The movie was written, directed and starring as lead clown Bobcat Goldthwait. Bobcat (born May 26, 1962,) is an American comedian most widely known for his high pitch voice during his comedy acts. Some of you might remember him as a new recruit in Police Academy 2 - Their First Assignement, this was his first big movie role. For those a little younger you might recognize his voice as the voice of Spongebob Squarepants.

This black comedy chronicles the fall of one of the world's most unlovable clowns as he plies his trade and tries to survive in Palukaville a town where everyone is more or less a Bozo. Shakes loves women and more than that, he loves his booze. Like many of his painted peers, ol' Shakes likes to hang out at The Twisted Balloon, the favorite local pub where he hoists a few, beats up on mimes (the lowest caste in Palukaville) and causes trouble with his girl friend Judy, a woman who cannot say the letter "L." Because the slovenly Shakes can't seem to make it to birthday parties sober and on time, he is fired from his booking agency, causing him to go on a big drinking binge. Later, Shakes awakens and learns that Binky, a lousy TV-clown, is framing him for beating up Shake's former boss with a juggling pin. Now poor Shakes must clear his name. He must also rescue "Juwee" who has been kidnapped by the nefarious Binky, and he must come to grips with his alcohol problem (perhaps the film could be therefore titled "Clown and Sober?"). Keep an eye peeled for cameos by Robin Williams, as a mime instructor, and Florence Henderson as one of Shake's illicit sexual conquests. 

~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Here is the trailer to tease you

and here is a few scenes as Shakes' clown friends performs what AA calls an intervention on his drinking.

- and finally from Hidden Gems a ten minute video-cast about shakes the clown. 

One Illuminated Year

Today is the One Year Anniversary of the Illuminated Showman!
 
I have received greatly appreciated emails of gratitude, I have been thanked on the dance floor of a late night venue, I have received thoughtful questions about issues from my writing and I have managed to get down a whole lot of ideas about my own art that I never before have voiced and for this I am thankful.

I only joined the social online networks last year about this time. Firstly to try and connect with potential audience members for the first showing of my new and still under development, show; The Way of the Showman. After using fb as a blog I realized how inadequate that was for my needs. I was interested in actual content than pictures of cats. Thoughts and ideas and crazy stuff from the furthest and most remote corners of the cyber circus underground was my passion and I soon understood that a blog was the Way for me - and here we are a year later.

The Illuminated Showman's Manifesto; Who are we and What the hell are we doing?

I have published 199 posts. That is about one post every two days for one year. It didn't seem that much as I was doing it, but now that I look back that is a very substantial amount of writing and curation. Many of the posts, particulartly the articles took a long time to write. In these I developed my thoughts and philosophy of Showmanship. Delving into the Art, Craft, Origins and Powerful Potential of what we Circus and Carnival Artists do. In the description of this blog I say it is a "personal journey of investigation and exploration of a worldview tentatively described as the Way of the Showman." In these articles that the embryonic foundations of the Way is to be found.

Some of the key ones are as follows:

The One Who Faces the Other Way
Over several posts I looked at the Shaman as a Proto Showman and their interconnectedness.
I believe there is great power in the tricks of the Showman's Craft
If the Craft of the Showman has such power does that come with a certain obligation?
Can we create meaningful entertainment?
I thought a lot about reality and deception and dreams coming true in relation to what Showmen does.
The Exoteric and Esoteric Showman the inner and outer aspects of our Craft.

The Illuminated Showman has had over 21.000 individual page views which I find quite astounding taken into consideration that my subject matter is, I believe, highly idiosyncratic and narrow in scope.

The posts span such subjects as
my own fiction writing,
Originality... Stealing... Transformation,
What is Charisma, can we learn it?
Other writer's stories,
My epic poem - The Clown and the New World,
General Carnival poetry
the Showman's roots as a shaman 1, + many more
66 Lessons from the Way of the Showman,
The carnytube - circus and carnival videos,
Circus Films,
Circus and Carnival Inspired visual Art
articles by me

Thanks to all who read my posts.
Thanks to those of you who commented, it is very good to hear from you.
Thanks especially to those who have helped spread the Illuminated words on facebook or any portal of your choice.
AND
For those of you that think you might know a fellow performer from the circus, carnival or theatre world who, like yourself don't mind spending some time in wild philosophical pursuit of our Craft, please point them in direction of this blog.
I am surprised at how many people have found it and appreciated it, but I don't know much about how to reach more who are. SO, please direct your friends and fellow Carnival enthusiasts to the Illuminated Showman.
Thank You.


PS
I think there might be some changes coming in the future posts, so keep your eyes out,
and
Be Illuminated.

The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates.

Nietzsche's Tightrope Walker.

In Friedrich Nietzcshe's monumental tome Thus Spoke Zarathustra - a book for All and None, there is a story about a tightrope walker - this is it... Think of it what you will.

3

When Zarathustra came into the next town, which lies on the edge of the forest, he found many people gathered together in the market place; for it had been promised that there would be a tightrope walker. And Zarathustra spoke thus to the people:
"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?
"All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shal1 be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape.

…

When Zarathustra had spoken thus, one of the people cried: "Now we have heard enough about the tightrope walker; now let us see him too!" And all the people laughed at Zarathustra. But the tightrope walker, believing that the word concerned him, began his performance.

4

Zarathustra, however, beheld the people and was amazed. Then he spoke thus:
"Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping.
"What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under.
"I love those who do not know how to live, except by going under, for they are those who cross over.

6

Then something happened that made every mouth dumb and every eye rigid. For meanwhile the tightrope walker had begun his performance: he had stepped out of a small door and was walking over the rope, stretched between two towers and suspended over the market place and the people. When he had reached the exact middle of his course the small door opened once more and a fellow in motley clothes, looking like a jester, jumped out and followed the first one with quick steps.
"Forward, lamefoot!" he shouted in an awe-inspiring voice. "Forward, lazybones, smuggler, pale-face, or I shall tickle you with my heel! What are you doing here between towers? The tower is where you belong. You ought to be locked up; you block the way for one better than yourself." And with every word he came closer and closer; but when he was but one step behind, the dreadful thing happened which made every mouth dumb and every eye rigid: he uttered a devilish cry and jumped over the man who stood in his way.

Kubrik made this famous with 2001

This man, however, seeing his rival win, lost his head and the rope, tossed away his pole, and plunged into the depth even faster, a whirlpool of arms and legs. The market place became as the sea when a tempest pierces it: the people rushed apart and over one another, especially at the place where the body must hit the ground.
Zarathustra, however, did not move; and it was right next to him that the body fell, badly maimed and disfigured, but not yet dead. After a while the shattered man recovered consciousness and saw Zarathustra kneeling beside him. "What are you doing here?" he asked at last. 'I have long known that the devil would trip me. Now he will drag me to hell. Would you prevent him?"
"By my honor, friend," answered Zarathustra, "all that of which you speak does not exist: there is no devil and no hell. Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further."
The man looked up suspiciously. "If you speak the truth," he said, "I lose nothing when I lose my life. I am not much more than a beast that has been taught to dance by blows and a few meager morsels."
"By no means," said Zarathustra. "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands."
When Zarathustra had said this, the dying man answered no more; but he moved his hand as if he sought Zarathustra's hand in thanks.

7

Meanwhile the evening came, and the market place hid in darkness. Then the people scattered, for even curiosity and terror grow weary. But Zarathustra sat on the ground near the dead man, and he was lost in thought, forgetting the time. At last night came, and a cold wind blew over the lonely one.
Then Zarathustra rose and said to his heart: "Verily, it is a beautiful catch of fish that Zarathustra has brought in today! Not a man has he caught but a corpse. Human existence is uncanny and still without meaning: a jester can become man's fatality. I will teach men the meaning of their existencc—the overman, the lightning out of the dark cloud of man. But I am still far from them, and my sense does not speak to their senses. To men I am still the mean between a fool and a corpse.
"Dark is the night, dark are Zarathustra's ways. Come, cold, stiff companion! I shall carry you where I may bury you with my own hands." 

Wirewalking Between Moving Trucks

Some fine wire walking...

World record-holding highliner Faith Dickey battles in the wind to cross the line between two speeding trucks. Will she make it before the trucks reach the tunnel that lies behind the next bend?

Filmed on an unopened highway in Croatia in cooperation with Hollywood stunt director Peter Pedrero (James Bond, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean.) Directed by Academy Award nominee Henry Alex Rubin.

Lessons from the Way of the Showman - 66

On Feedback from Others.

Don't listen to everyone's opinions of your work or ideas. Save that for a special few you trust.
If you listen and take into account everything people don't like, cutting and changing your Act to fit, very soon there will be NOTHING left of Your idea.
It is your idea, it is your Act, trust that you know what you want.

{This advice goes well with the first un-numbered Lesson from the Way.}

Archaos - BX 91

Here is a video of the ground breaking punk circus Archaos' second production.

Archaos was a French contemporary circus created by Pierrot Bidon in 1986. It is an alternative, theatrical circus without animals, featuring dangerous stunts like chainsaw juggling, fire breathing, wall of death, etc.
The 1991 tour of Metal Clown encountered financial difficulties after the tent was destroyed by gales in Tallaght, Dublin. This, and a number of artistic differences, led to the demise of Archaos.
Archaos also helped inspire the British New Circus movement, led by companies like Mamaloucos (formed in 1996), who went on to collaborate with the Royal National Theatre.
In September 2010, an exhibition in London displayed the Archaos archive of films, photos, audio, etc. Ex-members travelled from all over the world to be at the five-day event. The exhibition was held in memory of Archaos founder Pierrot Bidon, who died earlier in the year. A website hosting the Archaos archive will come online in early 2011.

{wiki}

Long lost film of Legengary French Circus Archaos filmed in Bristol 1991. Directed by circus legend Pierrot Bidon. This show was called BX-91 and featured many performers and teccies who after Archaos went bankrupt later that year went on to feature and drive the new circus movement all around Europe and the world. You can see films/images and read stories about this amazing circus and its creator Pierrot on the Archaos Circus archive at archaos.info

Magic and Truth in The Glass Menagerie

The opening lines of Tennessee William's play goes as follows:

TOM: Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.

What a great description of the difference between an ordinary magician and an Illuminated Magician.

From the fourth scene of The Glass Menagerie we get more about this important symbol in Tennessee's play.

LAURA: Where have you been all this time?
TOM: I have been to the movies.
LAURA: All this time at the movies?
TO M: There was a very long programme. There was a Garbo picture and a Mickey Mouse and a travelogue and a newsreel and a preview of coming attractions. And there was an organ solo and a collection for the milk-fund - simultaneously - which ended up in a terrible fight between a fat lady and an usher !
LAURA [innocently]: Did you have to stay through everything?
TOM: Of course ! And, oh, I forgot ! There was a big stage show ! The headliner on this stage show was Malvolio the
Magician. He performed wonderful tricks, many of them, such as pouriing water back and forth between pitchers.
First it turned to wine and then it turned to beer and then it turned to whisky. I knew it was whisky it finally turned
into because he needed somebody to come up out of the audience to help him, and I came up - both shows ! It was
Kentucky Straight Bourbon. A very generous fellow, he gave souvenirs. (He pulls from his back pocket a shimmering
rainbow-coloured scarf.) He gave me this. This is his magic scarf. You can have it, Laura. You wave it over a canary
cage and you get a bowl of gold- fish. You wave it over the gold-fish bowl and they fly away canaries. . . . But the
wonderfullest trick of all was the coffin trick. We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin without rernoving one nail, [He has come inside.] There is a trick that would come in handy for me - get me out of this 2 by 4 situation ! [Flops on to a bed and starts removing shoes.]
LAURA: Tom ? Shhh'!
TO M: What're you shushing me for?
LAURA: You'll wake up mother.
TOM: Goody, goody ! Pay 'er back for all those 'Rise an' Shines'. [Lies down, groaning.] You know it don't take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail?
[As if in answer, the father's grinning photograph lights up.]
[SCENE DIMS OUT.]

Clowns without borders

By spanish cartoonist Manel Fontdevila (2006)

Why we do what we do, why it matters, and why there will be use for good showmen even after the apocalypse.

Shamanism

Shamanism have kept my attention for the last year. Here is a great BBC documentary about the evolution of us humans. The first episode focuses on the shared experiences across the globe by shamans. It makes the case that the minds of our ancestors, even other ancestral species share aspects of our current consciousness.
Very interesting stuff.  

the Future Imperfect of Physical Theatre

In this article John Towsen ponders the difference between recorded media and the live experience, with a heavy preference for the latter. Or as he says

 "...loudly extolling the many virtues of live (physical) performance over "artificial" technology-aided media.' 

These are some excerpts from 'With your Brains & My Body: the Future Imperfect of Physical Theatre.' John Towsen is the author of Clowns. I found this on his great blog All Fall Down.

Some twenty years ago (when transistor radios were still the rage),Norman Mailer wrote that it was better to step out to a local club to catch a little known jazz quartet than to stay home listening to the world's finest jazz recording on the most expensive hi-fi. To sit in that jazz audience is to be party to the performing contract. Live jazz, with its insistence on improvisation and embellishment, its call-and-response structure, its vocal audience, is as good a model as any for modern comedic and movement theatre. Rather than passively tuning in from the safety of one's living room sofa, ready to switch channels at the flick of a remote control, the jazz audience is engaged in a dialogue by the performers, and plays a far more active role than it imagines in the experience.

Audience members are often the last to realize the crucial effect they have on a live performance. But performers are keenly aware of it. It's their business. The performer understands far more than laughs, applause, and hacking coughs. The performer has a sixth sense that monitors audience chemistry, offering instant feedback on energy levels, depth of focus, eye contact thresholds, attention span — the whole gamut of good and not-so-good vibrations that constantly bombard the stage like so many invisible gamma rays.

The faith of the live performer is that though he/she may be only reaching 75 people at a time, the experience is more "real" because it is live, communal, visceral, three-dimensional, riskier, and ultimately more memorable than the television sitcom that reaches75 million. Through their willingness to risk all with body and soul,they keep alive a vital performance tradition that engages the audience, that is neither chewing gum for the mind nor opiate for the masses.

A graver threat to physical theatre, but one we can exercise some control over, comes from within. The danger is that our art will too infrequently transcend its technique, contenting itself with dazzling displays of physical and/or comedic virtuosity, growing more and more isolated from the world we live in. Too often the tricks performed seem far riskier than the artistic statement. Too often the amount of homework that goes into mastering the craft dwarfs the amount of time spent exploring and evolving an artistic vision. 

 You can read the whole article here.

Charisma

What is it? Who has it? Can we learn to develop it or do we have to be born with it? Why does this intangible attribute have such immense effect on us? Either way it is an essential tool in the Showman's arsenal, the Illuminated Showman explores.

The term charisma (pronounced /kəˈrɪzmə/; pl. charismata, adj. charismatic) has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent.  {Wiki}

Here at this blog we have previously mined the interconnectedness and shared origins of the Shaman and the Showman, so for us these two different definitions are not as separate as one might first think.

The man who defined the secular use of the word was Max Weber he applies the term to

[A] certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader [...] How the quality in question would be ultimately judged from an ethical, aesthetic, or other such point of view is naturally indifferent for the purpose of definition."

As a general attitude I would say charismatic Showmen are passionate explorers who view their work as play and has a playful and easy attitude to life tinged with some deep seriousness like a brush with death or hard won knowledge.

What is it?

Strange attractors.

In many ways charisma is like life. We know what it is but when someone asks for you to describe it in more detail the understanding seems to evaporate like petrol on hot tarmac. Since there is no one characteristic which defines life we describe it rather than define it. We say something is alive if it has all or most of certain criteria such it seems to be with charisma as well. One man which have been researching the slippery notion of charisma for the last thirty years is the psychologist Ronald Reggio. "Charismatic people are essentially brilliant communicators," he says. Through his research Reggio has has distilled six traits which he thinks are essential characteristics of charisma.

Emotional expressiveness. Charismatic individuals express their feelings spontaneously and genuinely. This allows them to affect the moods and emotions of others. We all know charismatic people who seem to "light up the room" when they enter. They typically express positive affect, but they can also stir us up when they are angry or irritated.
Emotional sensitivity. This is the ability to read others' emotions, and allows the charismatic person to make an emotional connection by responding to their feelings. Just yesterday someone commented (for about the hundredth time) that Bill Clinton has a special ability to emotionally connect with people - to "make the person feel like he or she is the only person in the room."
Emotional control. Truly charismatic individuals have the ability to control and regulate their emotional displays. They don't "fly off the handle" (unless they purposely want to in order to make a point). They are good emotional actors, who can turn on the charm when they need to.
Social expressiveness. This is verbal communication skill and the ability to engage others in social interaction. Charismatic people are skilled and entertaining conversationalists. They certainly affect us with their emotional expressiveness, but there is also power in their words. Nearly all charismatic leaders are effective public speakers.
Social sensitivity. This is skill in reading and interpreting social situations, being able to listen to others, and be "in tune" with them. It helps charismatic persons to be tactful and sensitive to their surroundings.
Social control. Is a sophisticated social role-playing skill that is particularly important for charismatic leaders. It can be seen in the way that charismatic leaders (or everyday "charismatics") carry themselves with poise and grace. It allows them to fit in with all sorts of people and make those emotional and social connections that distinguish charismatic individuals from those of us who possess less personal charisma.

While these are the 6 "building blocks" of personal charisma, and possessing more of each is generally better, it is also critical that people have balance among the various skills. {psychologytoday}

Synchrony

Carlin Flora says in her x-factors of success article:

"A charismatic leader acts as a bonding agent, allowing you to give in to the giddy togetherness of a peace rally or a line dance. You forget yourself in his company and climb into the palm of his hand. This intricate pas de deux is known as synchrony and may be the key to charisma. Synchrony is a marker of rapport; if two people click, they unconsciously adjust their posture and speech rate to each other. Bernieri strongly suspects that charismatic people are natural "attractors" who get others to synchronize to them."

Professor Richard Wiseman found this synchrony to infact be one of the defining characteristics of charisma.

Mark Ryden's Pink Abe Lincoln

"When you see someone else who has charisma, without realising it, you're mimicking their posture and their facial expressions," says Professor Wiseman, a psychologist. "An obvious example is when someone smiles at you and you smile back. And how you hold yourself influences your emotions."
You're unaware you're mimicking this person, although you know they make you feel happy, he says.
"A charismatic person has three attributes, says the professor:
they feel emotions themselves quite strongly;
they induce them in others;
and they are impervious to the influences of other charismatic people."

This synchronization can go so far as to render the person under a charismatic leader spellbound to the point of giving themselves over to the will of the leader. Willingly giving up their free will and loosing their ability for rational thinking. Such is the case in members of cults and in populations under the influence of charismatic dictators such as Hitler and Stalin.

Studies have strongly indicated that the right temporal lobes of our brains, the part associated with religiousness, have evolved to make humans and chimpanzees hard wired to render a bit or our will and our selves to higher authority wether that is just the leader of the pack or the leader of the tribe. Even to the extent of sacrificing ourselves for the greater good, something bigger than us such as our family, our tribe or our people. It is this system which is hijacked by charismatic leaders and personalities, (and organized religion.) 

Can Charisma be learnt?

Carling Flora thinks perhaps not.

"Zeal paired with emotional responsiveness can be identified in babies as young as four months old, says University of Maryland psychologist Nathan Fox. While researching temperament in infants, he noticed that about 10 percent of his tiny subjects became unusually excited by novel toys or people. He dubbed this group "exuberant" and tracked them through their seventh birthdays. Exuberance proved remarkably stable, unlike traits such as shyness that can wane with age. Fox strongly suspects these children's underlying reward systems function differently: "Positive rewards like social interaction do more for them than they do for others." As a result, they are motivated not only to meet new people but to connect well with them.
Children with an ecstatic spirit can flounder in less supportive settings, though. "When you are exuberant, you have your emotions out there on the line. Parents can make these children feel ridiculous," laments psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison, the author of Exuberance. She believes that girls are particularly vulnerable to having their natural vitality suppressed. "It's OK to be an enthusiastic tomboy as a little girl, but then at age 11 or 12 girls are taught to reel it in."

Whilst Professor Wiseman estimates that charisma is 50% innate and 50% trained and he has created a list of tips to help you on your charisma building way.

General: Open body posture, hands away from face when talking, stand up straight, relax, hands apart with palms forwards or upwards
To an individual: Let people know they matter and you enjoy being around them, develop a genuine smile, nod when they talk, briefly touch them on the upper arm, and maintain eye contact
To a group: Be comfortable as leader, move around to appear enthusiastic, lean slightly forward and look at all parts of the group
Message: Move beyond status quo and make a difference, be controversial, new, simple to understand, counter-intuitive
Speech: Be clear, fluent, forceful and articulate, evoke imagery, use an upbeat tempo, occasionally slow for tension or emphasis

Contradiction

In Emma Young's New Scientist article we find an interview with Joseph Roach a theater historian and author of It, a book on charisma in actors and performers. Roach says:

"The Key is an enigmatic attractiveness that persuades others to subject themselves to the enigmatic person." And he believes contradictions are vital.

Behavior that crosses social convention, not merely to get away with something, but which purposefully challenge what's considered normal  has a very special magic to it which is particularly valuable to the Showman's Craft.
The emphasis on contradictions is something which I have frequently used to great effect in my work. By combining something which people find challenging to watch such as a dislocation or a sword swallow I find you get their attention in a very visceral and direct way. It knowcks the wind out of them and in this moment of ambivalence there is great potential. But if you only leave it there you trigger only the superficial emotion of revulsion or the kind of fascination exhibited when someone watches a car crash. Whilst if I proceed from the initial moment of deep connection and then add something beautiful or something funny and manage to fuse the two the Crowd has a quite different and altogether more powerful experience.

Grace

Charis means "grace" or "gift" in Greek and in here we find a clue to an attitude that should be in the back of the mind of the Showman. Display and attractive and polite manner and consider your Act a gift to the Crowd. Do not let it be a cheap something picked up from a petrol station on the way, but rather a well thought out present specially tailored and suited to the Crowd who have at this very moment graciously given you their attention.

Grace is the quietest of the X-factors, perhaps the only one in which star power never threatens to overshadow substance. Graceful types are just as passionate and driven as their X-factored peers but rarely stir up the annoyance or suspicion we may feel toward bold or highly excitable people.
While grace is too elusive to pin down in a lab, we catch glimpses of it in studies of characteristics like wisdom and benevolence. Wisdom is associated with "meaning making," a trait ascribed to people who are introspective and cut to the heart of problems. Wisdom is also associated with benevolence, and it is in warm, compassionate individuals that we often see "grace." It is the X-factor presumed to spring from hard-won life experience. {Flora}

A showman cries for attention and has something to show when he gets it. {Manifesto}

It is not enough to be able to get the attention of a Crowd. If you get attention but have nothing to show the Crowd will quickly turn on you and punish you by ignoring your future attempts at getting their attention. You will be branded as a show off. There are different types of material that can be presented which all will please a crowd. All are fundamentally using the same principles of getting attention, presenting something, and by this presentation the attention is rewarded with pleasure, happiness or intellectual stimulation. To reach the upper echelons of impact a performance a Showman needs to have an element of the visionary about him. He needs to present himself as someone who understands the workings of the world and preferably has a solution for how to change things - perhaps even the world.

"Leaders who can move an audience with their oratory, who are comfortable with theatrical events and who are willing to express a vision of the future can trigger our subconscious, in the way that shamans do in some traditional societies {Young}

Singing Showmen

I have through the times had some discussions with people about the music I like. It has been argued that the likes of Tom Waits have a facade, or theatricality which might seem unreal. That since they use theatrics they are somehow more contrived than the rockstar which enters the stage in jeans and some random t-shirt lauding some other band popular at the times. Well, people are entitled to their opinions, but if this is your attitude I think you are on the wrong track.
The nonchalant rockstar which has seemingly put no effort into his looks or stagecraft has no monopoly on emotional truth, rather to the contrary. The only thing I will concede to is that in such a fashion they can express a certain kind of truth real well, but the world is filled with truths of all shapes and sizes and the truths I believe in are best expressed wearing a long coat, a sombrero, staged in africa and punctuated with tosses of confetti.
There, I have said it and I feel better for it.

Below are three of my all time favorite musicians. 

Mikelangelo

C W Stoneking

Tom Waits

Alan Watts - The Joker

The following is an audio clip by the luminary Alan Watts with words transcribed by yours truly.

Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. {Wiki}

"In some ways the joker and a monk has similar functions. The monk is a person who abandons society, he is an outlaw only he is on the upper side rather than on the lower side . As the ordinary criminal is below caste the outlaw in the sense of the monk is an abovecast. In the time of Buddha his followers wore orange robes because those were the garments of criminals. (think orange overhauls of guantanamo bay) they wore the garbs of the lower outcasts but were respected as upper outcasts. In modern society its very difficult to be in this position."

"The worst kind of criticism is the one who pokes fun... The joker doesn't out rightly deride things, he is not a slapstick comedian, he gives people the giggles about things they thought were terribly sacred and that is extremely demoralizing."

"The Fool's standpoint is that all social institutions are games. He sees the whole world as game playing. That's why, when people take their games seriously and take on stern and pious expressions the Fool gets the giggles because he knows that it is all a game. Not a 'mere' game' or mere entertainment but it is not frivolous.
The idea of game is this, the nature of things are musical. There is no purpose beyond doing it. Music has no destination. It isn't aimed at the future, It does travels in time, but it doesnt aim at a goal in time. The point of music is every phrase at it unfolds itself and how you perceive their relationship to earlier and later phrases.
Music itself is dance. You dance to dance. Everything is its own point. Things develop. A seed becomes a tree. But the purpose of a seed could be thought to be the tree. That doesnt hold up since each tree makes new seeds. The aim is to go on and on and on. Life."

"The network of life has no other objective than to do what its doing..."

I do love the blessed thoughts of the Reverent Alan Watts

the Exoteric and Esoteric Showman

The Showman is like the moon; one side light and always in full view for the world to see, the other dark and forever hidden to all but the initiated few. The front attracts attention and is appreciated, but like the moon the dark side also draws the tide. 

The Crowd sees the exoteric.

(First an elucidation of terms to eschew from obfuscation.)

Before we start, what do these words mean? Exo-teric and Eso-teric? Like so many things they are of Greek origin.
Exoteric: Comes from exōterikos meaning pertaining to the outside, the exterior, or external. Of a doctrine or mode of speech intended for or likely to be understood by the general public. For us Showmen it is the sideshow banner line out the front, the shiny surfaces, and the gaudy facades of fun intended for the Crowds of townies and general public. It is the frivolous and random-looking act of a clown from the Crowd's point of view.
Esoteric: Comes from Greek esōterikos, comparative of esō ‘within' or ‘into.’  Esoteric pertains to the inner things, the secret, clandestine and enigmatic. It is the backstage, the real world hidden behind the banner lines and facades of fun. It's the secret techniques and tools of the trade and the inner world of the Showman. It is the hundreds of hours of creative work that went into making the clown act look chaotic and frivolous and it is the Showman's Carnival soul.

The traditionally Esoteric.

So now that we have got that out of the way, I would like to develop a way of looking at our vocation and lives from these two points of view.

The term 'Showman' is made up of two words; Show and Man. The first one can be seen as pointing to the Exoteric and the later to the Esoteric.
(Just to remind you all that here on the Illuminated Showman, the term Showman has nothing to do with gender. It does not mean to imply that the man ending indicates male, but is rather to be read and understood as the man ending of Human - Showman.)

Outside and inside.

Schopenhauer said in his essay 'the Emptiness of Existence' that the fact we get bored unless we actively engage with the world is proof that mere existence is not enough for fulfillment. To exist is not enough.  This is what he calls the inherent emptiness of existence. But by examining the world and our place in it we blast away this emptiness and replace it with meaning and purpose of our own creation. The way we hold this emptiness at bay is by our work ie. our creations, and fulfillment of our inner lives. The life of the mind inside us and the life of the world around us.
Socrates claimed that 'the unexamined life was not worth living,' this, to me is the antidote to existential boredom. If we are to live rich and thoughtful lives by presenting novelties, jokes and party tricks we need a firm foundation, an Illuminated Center Ring from where we can view the world.
The concept of me/the world, inner and outer is so fundamental that mentioning it might seem inane. We learn these distinctions as babies, but in thinking circles the fundamentals of human experience are of great importance. Cogito ergo sum. I think therefor I am. The world beyond the boundaries of myself is separate from me. I sense the world and it creates emotions, desires and thoughts in me. I am and also; the World is. Microcosm and Macrocosm. As without, so within. Esoteric and Exoteric. The two aspects; inner and outer can be discovered everywhere and in everything, it is not a scientific fact but rather a way to look at the world which can help make sense of things.

On stage off stage

By being aware of them and knowing that both needs nourishment for a full human experience we can gain certain insights to benefit the development of our Craft.
The outside influences my inside. The thoughts, feelings and desires the outside stirs on our inside can be brought into the world as Art. This is the core of our vocation. We mirror the world and the Seeds of inspiration it plants we bring forth for others to see.

As you create, or after the creation of an act, you can examine your work from the two points of view. How well is the 'Show' aspect functioning? The practical; running time, props, costume and skill level. Then ask yourself: have I at all considered the 'Man' side of it. Have I begun to imagine what it would be like for the Crowd to watch this? What do they experience? Do they only see a man juggling or does the act point to something more? And further - what does it give you to perform it?

Questions and examinations lead to Illuminations

It is almost impossible to become an Esoteric Showman first, since a Showman must have something to show to be a showman at all. First we create our material, for only through creation can we begin to truly grasp the Craft. Believing you are a Showman after having read a manual of magic or manipulations is like considering oneself an actor after having read Hamlet. As our knowledge of the Craft grows we can start to introduce Esoteric aspects to our Acts and creations.
To be able to reach the Esoteric level of Showmanship, the Exoteric or 'Show' side of the performance must have become second nature. Once the Exoteric level has become a comfortable and natural he can begin to focus on the 'Man' or Esoteric nature of the Show. This is why we say: "The way to the Esoteric goes through the Exoteric."

Once an entertainer has reached maturity as a Showman, he can begin to ponder: 'Is there something more to what I do? Can I express something deeper than: I can squeeze through two tennis rackets?' Questions such as these are the sprouts of Esoteric desires. It is the Man, in the Showman, the deep human need for meaning and purpose that awakens. Once thought, the questions linger but the doubt is always there. To question is healthy and natural. We all wonder in our dark moments or when we have no work: Were people right when they thought I don't have a real job? But of course they were wrong. All it means is that you have reached the next level in the practice of your vocation. You are ready to take your Craft into a new realm, one that has always been there, but you are now ready to delve into.
It is natural and OK to think and to be considerate. All the big questions: Where do we come from? What are we doing? Where are we going? are to a certain degree Esoteric matters and any Illuminated Showman will at times dare to ponder these greatest of enigmas. Sometimes in those dark moments all you need is a little perspective on yourself, a little thought and a new point of view. It is easy to focus solely on the 'Show' - Exoteric side, since bills must be paid and life dealt with on a daily basis. But take time to think about the inside, where it really matters.

Strong Man, Clown, and Dancer,

by Everett Shinnca, ca. 1909

Where are you at?

How do we recognize what kind of Showman we are dealing with; which level he is operating on? If you ask a Showman and his answer is given as descriptions of details in the execution of his Craft, the showman is often interested in the Show (exoteric). This showman often worries about his costume and his technique.
If, on the other hand, the showman judges his importance to be how well he connected with his Crowd, or about whether he affected them enough to truly touch and perhaps change the Crowd's heart, he is an esoteric showman. This is, of course a gross simplification but I believe it gets the point across.
The Esoteric Showman finds meaning by understanding the full potential of his role and what he can do for others. His purpose in life materializes when he truly considers the material he is presenting and the impact it can have on his Crowd and himself. 

Go out in the world and learn about yourself.
Then go into yourself and learn about the world.

Reality bites its own tail.