Behind the scenes of creativity
Luke Jennings is the creator of the hit TV series Killing Eve, about the mutual obsession between an MI6 agent and a female assassin. He was also, until recently, the dance critic for The Observer newspaper, and worked as a professional dancer in his youth.
We discuss the process of writing Killing Eve, sexism and bias in the dance world, and how seeing women empowered through dance has inspired his writing.
Spotify coming soon!
Hazel Findlay is a top professional climber, constantly touring the world in search of new adventures, and breaking records. In recent years she has been working as a coach, helping climbers of all abilities to overcome their fears and progress to the next level.
Some of the subjects covered in this chat include idea of mastery vs competitiveness, the mental health benefits of climbing, coaching as a kind of giving back, how climbing is similar to public speaking, managing fear, and how training an awareness of the body helps to increases one’s awareness in general.
This episode was recorded at an arts organisation called Access Space in Sheffield. Access Space supports those developing skills and interests in creative technology and is well worth checking out.
If you enjoy these episodes, you can help more people find them by rating and/or reviewing Hack Circus on iTunes, or just tell a friend about it!
Spotify coming soon!
The Hack Circus podcast is back with a bang after an enormous break of two years!
The star guest this episode is Tom Tobia – a creative entrepreneur based in Sheffield. We cover the origins of an organisation he helped to found, Makerversity, his principled drive, and the way he approaches consulting with the range of businesses he works with. We also exchange some thoughts about creativity – how it arises from constraints, its relationship to failure, and why people should embrace a more open-ended approach to planning.
If you enjoy these episodes, you can help more people find them by rating and/or reviewing Hack Circus on iTunes, or just tell a friend about it!
Tom’s website: http://www.tomtobia.com
Tom’s new project: https://www.anewfield.org/
Spotify coming soon!
Emma Bearman founded Playful Leeds – now Playful Anywhere, and is the proud proprietor of the Playbox, a shipping container full of surprises, entertainment and imaginative potential that turns up in public spaces all over Yorkshire. Emma also founded The Culture Vulture, the very successful magazine site rounding up the best of the Leeds arts scene.
In this chat, we find out about the challenges of facilitating a vision of this scale on your own, how play relates to disobedience, and where the drive to create playful spaces comes from in the first place.
https://vimeo.com/68169045 (Urban Mischief video, with the diving board etc)
https://twitter.com/PlayfulAnywhere
http://www.playfulanywhere.co.uk
https://theculturevulture.co.uk/
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/emmabearman
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/why-robots-are-set-to-take-over-leeds-1-6037956
This week I meet showmen and fairground archivists at the National Fairground & Circus Archive in Sheffield, and learn about the fascinating and community-minded history of travelling show people of the UK.
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfca
Lionel Bathe’s photos of fairgrounds
https://patcollinsfunfairs.co.uk/
Anthony Harris (Youngest wall of death rider in the world, in the 1940s)
Neil Mullarkey is known as one of the Comedy Store Players – the famous long-running improv troupe with their own theatre in central London.
He also works with brands and businesses, helping the corporate environment to benefit from the agility of improvisational thought.
In this fun chat we discuss (among other things) Neil’s creative background, a comedy career that started in his youth as President of the Cambridge Footlights, his old double act with Mike Myers, the everyday benefits of improv, and the careful systems put in place to make this style of performing work in a theatre – and on TV.
Mindfulness and meditation are portrayed as serene but it can also be a serious confrontation with the self which brings a raw, often brutal, truth to the surface.
Mike, a mindfulness teacher based on the Isle of Man, discusses the reality of mindfulness – processing negative emotions that rise up, the positive breaking down of the self, how to properly watch your self, and how to find the courage to let go.
His excellent TEDx talk on Happiness can be found here.
Mike has had his own fundamental consciousness-expanding experience, which we also talk about in this episode.
Mike’s website is: MyFreeMind.org and you can find him on twitter at MyFreeMind_IOM
