Don’t worry everyone! We’ll be back to normal by July 17.
I know we’re all relieved that the end of this pandemic and its financial, social, and medical fallout will end completely on July 17, 2020. It’s perfect timing for us to start up all our shows again and start celebrating all those late July holidays!
What I want is not that
I can’t seriously guarantee anything will be anything ever, but the three things I don’t want are…
- things staying the way they are
- normal
- the way things were in January
The two most popular normalcy quotes I’m hearing are “When can we get back to normal?” and “This is the new normal.” My answer to both is “NO”
I’m not intimate with “normal”
We had a baby in April, so my 2020 was changing a lot anyhow. Regardless, I have lived joyously for a long time with chaos. It’s part of being a freelancer and a multidisciplinary creative. Not only was my life not steady, or normal, but I rejected being normal as a way to differentiate and offer something interesting to the world.
Plus, I see “normal” as a thing that doesn’t exist. It’s a concept to either shame people into falling in line, or a way to find something concrete in a world with no answers.
I’m not trying to return to anything
I’m not into the past or the MAGA philosophy. I don’t revere history, I revere the advances history has made toward a better society. My part in history is making something better for tomorrow.
If you want to honor history, don’t put it on a pedestal, bury it under a glorious future.
I am working forward + would love others to join me
I have been producing, teaching, consulting, and otherwise assisting show business people for a while because I didn’t like the way things were and I knew they could be better. I’m now working to raise the tide for all entertainment, but my main scope was variety and circus. Here are some of the things I believe need to improve.
We’ve gotta remove racism from entertainment. The privileged are the people who can pursue careers that seem frivolous like hula-hooping or acting. So, we can offer more privilege to more diverse people to counterbalance and hear the voices of the real world.
Let’s fix the frivolity thing too. I don’t think jugglers are essential workers, because they aren’t required immediately, but entertainment is crucial to humanity. When I was questioning whether to go all in on entertainment, a mentor told me, “I don’t know a single juggler who’s really going for it that is not able to make it.” A career in “the arts” is not as unstable as its reputation suggests.
The income mystery and disparity in entertainment would be great to resolve. We see people scraping by with the lowest priced kids shows, and professional athletes making multi-millions. There are people in between. We can educate entertainers that there is a spectrum, and educate them on running a small business.
Let’s dismantle the power of fame. I think it’s already happening. The world is dividing up into bubbles that are ever smaller and more specified. We have people that are famous in our bubbles, but not necessarily global celebs. Thought leaders are important to advancement, but our idea of fame as it is diminishes what’s great about being a human. As we celebrate humanity more, we give more efficacy to cathartic entertainment.
I want more transparency in entertainment. We are hopefully growing away from a world where PT Barnum was the greatest showman. He was a man who was cherished for his ability to lie to everyone — he did a bunch of other horrible things too! Lies are not the only way to escape the harsh realities of life for a moment. We also have great realities!
Can showbiz people have more fulfillment? When entertainers have more of the tools they need, when we are abundant and sharing, we can steer the ship toward doing what’s awesome. We don’t need to be so scrappy and desperate.
Not now, not then
My hope is this right now is not the new normal. I hope we’re building a new growing world where entertainment can really thrive and serve the world in a stronger way. I think we’re going to need it more than “jobs” or an “economy.” I believe in the possibility for us to redefine everything the way we actually want it, not just the way we think it can be.