David Bramwell:Ghosts of the Medicine Show – An Odyssey into the Shamanic Roots of Popular Entertainment

The Shoreham Centre

Why do we love theatre, gigs, comedy shows, circus, magic and cabaret? As the lights dim and performers take to the stage, is it mere escapism from our everyday lives or is there something more profound about our need to be entertained? Driven by his obsession with a forty-year old ‘lost’ book – Rogan Taylor’s The Death and Resurrection Show – David Bramwell presents the idea that shamanism never disappeared in western culture. Instead, it donned a cunning disguise and took the ‘show’ on the road. Here it remains hidden in plain sight as all live performances under the darkened yurts of our modern arenas, circus big tops, cinemas, theatres and music venues. On a journey through the wilder corners of modern entertainment history David unpacks exactly how and why our greatest artists, performers and celebrities owe their tricks, skills and worship to the shaman’s age-old medicine show and how we an audience are, more than ever, a congregation in need of healing. This entertaining lecture is peppered with examples from Nick Cave, Yoko Ono, Alice Coltrane, Ozzy, Dr. Who and David Hoyle to Kate Bush. And – of course – David Bowie. When we mourned the passing of Bowie in 2016 it was for more than just his music. Bowie the alien had the gift of uniting the alienated. In an age of soul sickness, we need our Bowies more than ever. The show must go on because – this talk will reveal – the show is the medicine. David Bramwell is a performer, author, musician and creator of The No9 Bus to Utopia,The Haunted Moustache, The Cult of Water and is one half of the popular show, Singalong-A-Wicker-Man . His latest book is Ghosts of the Medicine Show: An Odyssey into the Shamanic Roots of Popular Entertainment .