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

Driven by a chance encounter with a forty-year old ‘lost’ book – The Death and Resurrection Show – and fuelled by the grief of his parents’ passing, David Bramwell dives into the tropes and treats of live performance artistry, of popular entertainment, as it reshaped itself through the twentieth and twenty-first century. He explores how its greatest artists, performers and celebrities morphed into shaman-like leaders and how we, an audience, are a congregation in search of healing.

In some of his most personal writing to date, Bramwell visits the darkened yurts of circuses, pantomimes, cinemas and music concerts in search of evidence that the tricks and skills of the shaman’s ‘show’ remain hidden in plain sight in everything from theatre and magic to rock’n’roll.

His research takes him across the UK and Europe as he delves into the influence of gladiatorial talent shows like The X-Factor, the persecution and romanticisation of travelling people, and the death and resurrection narratives that dominate our most cherished Christmas stories.

At the core of the book is Bramwell’s own relationship with the strange forces that compel many of us to seek a life on the stage, and a heartfelt exploration of the shaman-like qualities of such artists as Nick Cave, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Lingua Ignota, Fever Ray, Tom Waits, Alice Coltrane and David Hoyle.

A peerless first-hand journey through the wilder corners of modern entertainment, Ghosts of the Medicine Show demonstrates how, in our digital age, we need its magic more than ever before.

'A truly wonderful book.' John Higgs