the Way of the Showman

Captain Frodo
  • 5.0 (35)
  • Performing Arts
  • Semimonthly

Philosophical and esoteric perspectives from a modern day Showman. Each season is different in its approach. S1 is essays. S2 is one book length attempt at Understanding Showmanship, S3 is conversations with remarkable Showfolk. The brand new Season 4 explores the relationship between Showmanship and Play.The host, Captain Frodo, internationally renowned circus performer, director, writer, husband and dad lays out, in great detail, his practical performance philosophy for performers who seek to deepen the conversation with their audiences and themselves. You can find him, and more of his writing at: www.thewayoftheshowman.com

  1. 4d ago

    180 - From the Mystere Theater in Las Vegas - w Jay Gilligan & Captain Frodo.m4a

    A 30 year old Cirque Du Soleil classic should feel timeless. So why did Mystere, for the first time, suddenly feel its age to us walking into the theater at Treasure Island? We record on site in Las Vegas, chasing a surprisingly specific culprit and using it to unpack a much bigger idea: the invisible decisions that make showmanship work, and the tiny changes that can quietly break the spell. We talk story and meaning too. Is Mystere a myth about the origins of the universe, or could it be read as the first day in a baby’s life, with each scene as a new encounter with the world? That tension between surface ideas and deeper interpretation becomes a window into how live performance creates emotional truth. The show doesn’t have to “explain itself” to be powerful, but it does have to build a world that feels limitless. Then we get practical about Las Vegas entertainment economics: cast reductions, rotating acts, injury reality, and the uncomfortable question of what audiences are paying for when ticket prices stay the same. We also dig into production design and theatrical lighting, including how brighter LED systems can reveal walls and rigging that used to disappear into darkness, shrinking the sense of infinity that great world building depends on. If you care about Cirque Du Soleil, Mystere, theater craft, stage lighting, or the ethics of live entertainment, this walk to our seats turns into a deep dive on what makes a show last. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Vegas shows, and leave a review, then tell us what detail most easily ruins the magic for you. 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    180 - From the Mystere Theater in Las Vegas - w Jay Gilligan & Captain Frodo.m4a

  2. Oct 13

    179 - What If The Real Art Is The Archive - Hamish McCormick Part 2 of 2

    Christian Slater paying £100 for a hat might sound like a throwaway festival story, but it’s also a perfect time capsule of a moment when a whole scene was coming into focus. We pick up our conversation with Hamish McCormick, founder of Carnival Cinema, to revisit the early La Clique years at the Famous Spiegeltent, the style and chaos of the Edinburgh Fringe, and the kind of backstage reality that never makes it into a glossy promo.  From there, we zoom out into the real-life decisions that shape a performer’s path: the grind of street shows and living out of cars, the tempting promise of a new cabaret project, and the shock of landing a steady touring wage with Circus Oz. We get into touring logistics, Japan customs treating swords as weapons, and the constant problem-solving that comes with working in circus, sideshow, and live entertainment.  The heart of the conversation is documentary filmmaking and archival work. Hamish talks candidly about stage anxiety, stepping away from performing, and becoming the person who documents the Australian circus community from the inside out. We unpack how media changed from VHS and DVD promos to YouTube links, why “longitudinal” storytelling becomes priceless over decades, and how perfectionism can trap art on hard drives. We also touch on the Carnival Cinema hoodie phenomenon as a weirdly powerful symbol of belonging, plus Fluke magazine, the essay “Where Is My Art?”, and what it means to capture an ephemeral art form so it can burn again later.  If you care about contemporary circus, cabaret history, independent filmmaking, or how creative communities actually survive, hit play and come along for the ride. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    179 - What If The Real Art Is The Archive - Hamish McCormick Part 2 of 2

  3. Sep 29

    178 - Carnival Cinema founder Hamish McCormick Part 1 of 2

    A broken arm, a cheap camera, and a circus scene that did not wait for permission. We sit down with my old friend Hamish McCormick, known worldwide as Carnival Cinema, to trace how a performer becomes the person quietly documenting everyone else, and why that insider perspective changes what a live performance documentary can be. We go back to the Australian circus festivals that shaped a generation, especially the Tasmania gatherings where you camp in the bush, swap skills all day, then try wild new ideas at night for an audience of peers who actually know what they are watching. That pressure to experiment, plus the weird joy of being totally offline, created companies, characters, and friendships that still run through the contemporary circus world. If you care about circus history, sideshow culture, or showmanship, this part is a masterclass in how a creative community forms. From there we follow Hamish’s path through juggling, slack rope, Rock and Roll Circus, and the early “folk circus” era before everything became optimized for social media. We talk about pre-YouTube life: VHS tape trading, MiniDV archives, and the deep nerd joy of DVD commentaries and special features. Then we land on the real origin of Carnival Cinema: an injury that forced Hamish offstage, put the camera in his hands, and eventually opened doors backstage because performers trusted him to get the shot and protect the people in it. If you enjoyed this, subscribe, share it with a friend who loves film or live performance, and leave a review so more curious listeners can find the show. 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    178 - Carnival Cinema founder Hamish McCormick Part 1 of 2

  4. Sep 15

    177 - Piff the Magic Dragon on How You Turn 20 Minutes Into 90

    A dragon suit doesn’t make you memorable. The work does. I’m sitting down with Piff the Magic Dragon in the Flamingo’s basement studio to get brutally honest about what it actually takes to build a successful comedy magic career and keep a Las Vegas residency alive in a town packed with legendary competition. We talk about the leap from a tight 10 to 20 minutes to a real 72 to 90-minute show, and why “we had to do it” often means the first version is rough. Piff breaks down how material is built the unromantic way: try it, fail, adjust, repeat, and cut. We get into crowd work as a designed system, not a vibe, including the infamous jello routine where the audience ends up cheering for decisions that make no sense until they suddenly do. Then we rewind to the turning points: the Vegas Nocturne collapse, scraping by, the complicated decision to do America’s Got Talent, and how a Golden Buzzer can change the timeline overnight. We also hit the deeper craft: why comedy magic is rare, why strong gimmicks make people suspicious, how to protect your “game” on TV, and what authenticity looks like when the audience only sees clips, from Fool Us to Queer Eye. If you care about showmanship, stagecraft, and building work that lasts, listen through and let me know what lesson lands hardest. Subscribe, share with a friend, and please leave a review so more performers can find the show. 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    177 - Piff the Magic Dragon on How You Turn 20 Minutes Into 90

  5. Sep 1

    176 - Artifact - Jay Gilligan talks creating a show with Erik Aaberg

    What happens when you have a clear artistic vision for a new circus school show, but the funding catalog expires, the gatekeepers want something “easy to book,” and the words you use accidentally make it sound like a museum? Captain Frodo sits down with Jay Gilligan to unpack the very real behind-the-scenes story of making Artifact, a contemporary circus and juggling performance built around historical objects, natural history vibes, and the strange power of letting kids experience “real art” in a school gym or library. We talk through why the Swedish school show market matters, how public cultural funding shapes what gets made, and why circus performers can feel both grateful and trapped by the system. Jay breaks down his company’s signature structure of short vignettes and strong visual images, the recurring audience comment “you didn’t do anything,” and the constant challenge of translating an abstract live experience into a concrete pitch that producers and teachers can instantly understand. Then the creation story turns messy in the best way: a bold interactive idea gets rejected on semantics, meetings slowly erode the plan, budget gets spent early, and the team has to commit anyway. The payoff is a premiere that validates the original instinct, plus a practical tool you can steal for your own creative work: gate one (presenters and administrators), gate two (the audience), and gate three (the performer’s need to enjoy the show). Subscribe, share this with a maker friend, and leave a review if you want more honest craft talk from the world of circus, magic, and showmanship. 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    176 - Artifact - Jay Gilligan talks creating a show with Erik Aaberg

  6. Aug 18

    175 - What if Money was no Object? With Jay GIlligan - Malmö Conversation 3 of 4

    Free tickets should fill a theater, right? Then why do so many “sold out” charity nights play to rows of empty seats, and why do artists keep returning to ticket price as a stand-in for value? Jay Gilligan and I pick up our Malmö hotel-room conversation and follow a single thought experiment, money is no object, until it forces us to talk about the real engine of live performance: commitment. We dig into audience psychology and show business mechanics, from the notorious “scam show” model that oversells seats because sponsors buy write-offs, to the awkward truth that a free ticket is easy to abandon when the weather turns. From there we explore practical alternatives that create real investment without turning art into a cold transaction: scarcity, waiting lists, social responsibility, and the subtle difference between an obligation and a genuine desire to be there. Then we widen the lens to creative process and showmanship. We talk necessity as an artistic discipline: reading a city, understanding what people carry into the room, and making small tweaks that help the same material land with more force. We also unpack repetition, “work in progress” labeling, premieres, and the internal versus external conversation, where every night is still evolving for the performer even when the audience deserves the full experience. If you care about live shows, circus, juggling, magic, theater, or arts marketing, this one is a deep dive into how value is made in the space between performer and crowd. Subscribe for more conversations, share this with a friend who makes or loves live performance, and leave a review with your take: what actually makes you commit to a night out? 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    175 - What if Money was no Object? With Jay GIlligan - Malmö Conversation 3 of 4

  7. Aug 4

    174 - How A Magician Builds A Full Theater World - Malin Nilsson 2 of 2

    You can feel the difference between a performer who “does tricks” and a performer who builds a world. We sit down with Malin Nilsson to get inside that world building process: how stagecraft, mentors, and sharp editing turn variety magic into something that feels inevitable, alive, and deeply personal. We talk about the practical psychology of live audiences and why context changes everything. When people buy tickets and come to your theater, you earn a rare kind of freedom: you can be poetic, quiet, political, strange, or tender, because the crowd chose you on purpose. But when you’re booked for corporate events, weddings, and festivals, the job is different, and the showmanship has to be different too. We break down how to match pacing, clarity, and emotional tone to what the room actually needs without watering down your craft. Then we get into the creative engine behind Marlon’s signature style: the wand in the boot, hat manipulation, classic magic archetypes, and the question every long-term artist eventually faces: how does your character age with you? We also dig into collaboration, including what changes when you find a creative partner who can take your material from good to great through ruthless, loving editing. Finally, we go behind the curtain on the touring reality most audiences never consider: suitcases, weight limits, lost bags, prop redesign, and why “packs small and plays big” is not a slogan but a survival skill for working magicians and variety performers. If you enjoy smart conversations about showmanship, stagecraft, performance design, and the creative life, subscribe, share this with a performer friend, and leave us a review. 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    174 - How A Magician Builds A Full Theater World - Malin Nilsson 2 of 2

  8. Jul 21

    173 - Malin Nilsson - Why Art Still Matters when the World is on Fire - 1 of 2

    When the world feels like it’s burning, making a show can start to feel absurd and even selfish. We sit with that discomfort and ask the question out loud: what is the purpose of magic, theater, and live performance when war headlines and daily suffering are only a scroll away? The honest answer is messy, but it leads to something solid: art, culture, sport, and shared stories are part of what makes life worth defending in the first place.  I’m joined by Swedish magician and folk-circus force Malin Nilsson, and our conversation moves from big moral pressure to practical creative craft. We talk about the weird psychological effect of instant news, the “impotence” of caring about tragedies you can’t influence, and the climate guilt that comes with a touring life built on flights and constant movement. We also explore whether environmental themes can live inside an act in a way that still feels like showmanship rather than a lecture.  Then we get delightfully nerdy about building stronger shows. Malin explains why she now thinks of a magic show more like a concert than a theater play: pacing, contrast, short bits and long bits, talk between “songs,” and the performer as the through line. And yes, there’s also a true story involving a real farm goat, fake horns, and a watch steal that teaches the painful beauty of simplifying an overbuilt idea.  If you enjoy thoughtful conversations about showmanship, performance structure, and making meaningful art in hard times, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with a few words about what hit you most. LINKS: Find out more about Malin Nilsson here. See Malin's act from Penn & Teller's Fool Us here. 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 wrote a glowing review on iTunes or Spotify. If you want to  contact me about anyhthing ou can reach me on thewayoftheshowman@gmail.com You can find out more on the Way of the Showman website. Follow the Way of the Showman on Instagram. If you're compelled to suport the showes and have the means to do so, you can suport the podcast financially at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/captainfrodo

    173 - Malin Nilsson - Why Art Still Matters when the World is on Fire - 1 of 2
See All (181)

Trailer

5
out of 5
35 Ratings

About

Philosophical and esoteric perspectives from a modern day Showman. Each season is different in its approach. S1 is essays. S2 is one book length attempt at Understanding Showmanship, S3 is conversations with remarkable Showfolk. The brand new Season 4 explores the relationship between Showmanship and Play.The host, Captain Frodo, internationally renowned circus performer, director, writer, husband and dad lays out, in great detail, his practical performance philosophy for performers who seek to deepen the conversation with their audiences and themselves. You can find him, and more of his writing at: www.thewayoftheshowman.com

Information

  • Creator
    Captain Frodo
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    181
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 the Way of the Showman
  • Show Website
    the Way of the Showman

You Might Also Like