Introduction

In this episode I lay how what Showmanship is, as I see it. If we are to work out what the origins of something is, particularly if the origins lay deep in prehistory, then chances are there has been a great deal of change to the thing. Sometimes so much that it is hard to recognice it. SO, to be able to know what the origins are we must know what the relevant and unchanging elements of the evolving thing we seek to understand.
Last episode I talked about the evolutionary history of the whale and how one of the key elements that's used to trace its transformation from land animal to sea animal is some bones in its inner ear. In this episode I describe a Show as related to Henri Corbin's Imaginal Realm. And I make the claim that what a Show is, which is a different level of reality, other than normal life, where ordinary objects and words and images become symbolic and poetic and filled with meaning. It is a purely human kind of relation and a uniquely human experience.
So, this realm of experience we call show, is the thing we will use as our lodestone to keep us on track as we venture back into prehistory.

links:
Henri Corbin and the Imaginal Realm
the Cabaret sensation and huge part of my life: La Soiree & La Clique