Isn’t joy just so darned infectious?
That’s why I first started visiting the Big Top as a boy, absolutely enthralled by each new act that came through the hallowed curtains, hooked on the feeling it gave me when they did something death-defying, or freaky, or just COOL. Every time someone juggled torches lit ablaze with an intense fire, that same fire glowed in my eyes.
It is what made me the person I am today. It’s why Way & Co. exists. It’s why the Unnaturals have come to OSW. The joy that the Big Top gave me has quite literally infected even the OSW. Neat!
Humans and lemmings have far too much in common. That’s why things go VIRAL. Human A sees a thing and loves it, shares it with their Human friends, and each of those friends shares it with their friends, and they feel like they have to like it because their friend thought it was great! And that virality is like an infection that blisters the soul of each Human it touches.
Isn’t it wonderful!?
It is one of life’s big patterns. But that isn’t the only wonderful thing I learned. Once I got into the circus life myself as an adult I discovered a secret. Do you want to know a secret?
Come in closer then…
…it’s not just joy.
All human emotion is infectious. Can you even believe that?! Sadness is infectious – just think how grief flows at a funeral! Anger is infectious – that’s how mobs form! And most importantly for me: fear is infectious.
That’s how I keep my troupe in line, but it’s also how we win at Chain Reaction. If just one member of each team gets SCARED. If just one of them shows a little FEAR, then it’s game over. Like a shark circling the waters we will find them and we will punish them. Once one team member is frightened, the other two will follow suit, just like how they laugh when their friends show them something funny. You could say it’s a… CHAIN REACTION!
We pray on that infectiousness. We FEED from that. Malakai and his Owls wouldn’t exist without the same spread of fear that I employ. Felix, well he is more on the side of joy than fear, but that’s exactly how working in TV is. Praying on that infectivity and hoping it ends in viewing figures. We all have the particular set of skills, and we all need to apply them in the same way at the same time. We have little else in common, so there is nothing else to it.
The good news is there is nothing that can stop it. Feeling that fear and embracing it is just human nature. The only way to buck that, is to be… UNNATURAL!
Maybe you others should consider joining my troupe! Maybe you’d learn how to buck those trends then…
Welcome to the freak show! Let us show you the Way!