Lisa Lewis
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Lisa B Lewis began her career with Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. She earned a Masters Degree in Clown/Circus History from NYU. During the same period, she co-founded the Super Scientific Circus, a STEAM based series of 6 shows which tour the country using Circus Skills to make science accessible for all learning styles. Simultaneously, she joined the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit and inspired by the efforts to serve new audiences, Lisa became project coordinator for Circus of the Senses, a performance adapted for blind, visually impaired, Deaf, hard of hearing and those with cognitive challenges. Lisa doubled the reach of the program and seeing a need in the community, she spear-headed the Embracing Autism performances.
The new Big Apple Circus engaged her as Director of Community Programs. Lisa expanded both offerings and audiences, created an inclusive training program for staff and supported organization wide inclusive hiring practices. Community programs became the pinnacle of the brand. With global pandemic comes essential change. It is time for a Bold New Circus.
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Hey everybody, this is Gustavo, your host for the Enabled Disabled podcast. I am super excited to have Lisa B. Lewis with us here today. She is the founder and executive director of our Omnium Circus. It is the world's, the country's first fully inclusive circus. It features performers from all nationalities, physical abilities. It is one of the most exciting projects I've heard about in the last year, and we are thrilled to be here with Lisa. Thank you so much for joining us.
Lisa, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Absolutely. Do you want to do the quick visual description?
Yeah.
I'm sitting in my conference room. I'm wearing a black Polo shirt. I am of Brazilian descent, and I have my short black hair parted in the middle.
Excellent. I am sitting in the corner of my office, which is I call my cockpit, because what you cannot see is that I'm surrounded by screen because my vision is not that great and I need things much larger. So I have all these big screens where I can amplify things so I can actually see that I am a Caucasian woman of Eastern European descent. I've got Brown hair pulled back on one side, red glasses and red lipstick. And I'm wearing a purple tshirt that has the logo of Omnium on the front of it in yellow, which is the frame of a tent and the words Omnium, a bold new circus underneath it.
So I've done some research on Omnium and yourself, and I'm curious as we get started, you have a background in performance and you've been involved with various, different circuses before. Can you tell us what got you interested in this space? I think you studied theater in College, right?
Anyone who has known me for a very long time reminds me that this is the path that I've always meant to be on. I'm not sure if there was like one pivotal transition. It's just what it is. But I started off in undergraduate going into theater, and I had the professor tell me, you seem to have an affinity for theater, but perhaps you should try auto mechanics. I wasn't a very good actress. I was not very good. I joined the circus my junior year. I went to clown College. I started working with Ringling. I did advance for them, and there I saw the first pivotal moment. I guess I was working with another clown in the stands, and I saw a group of very surly, angry teenagers. And he went up to them and immediately started signing. They were deaf, which, of course, who would know? He knew. And the entire arena changed. The entire energy of the whole space changed because all of a sudden, instead of this angry, it became joy. And I realized the power of what we were doing to bring out the joy in people. If you can reach people in the way that they need to be reached, that they need to be spoken to, that they need to be understood.
Whether it's sensory, whether it's visual, whether it's physical, whether it's artificial, it doesn't matter. Whatever the power of reaching people through their heart was just so strong. So anyway, I went on with that. I moved to New York, started working with the clown care unit, working in hospitals, entertaining kids bedside through a program to the Big Apple Circus. And then I started working with what they had was called Circus of the Senses, which was one day run where they would give tickets away. They were trying to expand their audience base, and they had an audio description system and a couple of sign language interpreters. And I started volunteering there because I learned to sign and I started volunteering there. And over time, I eventually kept doing more and more until I took over the program and became the coordinator and the director of community programs. And it turned from a once a year giveaway to a fully inclusive program that became a quarter of a million dollar business within the context of a larger show. And it was through that experience that I realized how amazing what we were offering was and how short we felt.
Can you say a little bit more about that?
So it's great to have a 10:00, a.m. Show that all of the students who are in programs for death or for low vision or for neurodiversity can come to. But one in four people this staff, one in four people in this country claims to have identifies as having a disability. So you figure the average family is four people. That means every single family has someone that needs an adaptation, that needs access. That means families can't see the circus together because you've only got one day. What if one kid is on the autism spectrum? Another kid has a baseball practice, another kid has a different accommodation. Need another kid. Your family can't come together because there is no moment in time where all can be welcomed and accommodated at the same time. And that to me was a shortfall. Why should you be restricted to only being able to see a show? Oh, we have audio description next Tuesday. You have to come next Tuesday. What if grandpa, grandma, kid, whoever needs audio description. But the rest of the family wants to go a different day. Now that person doesn't get to enjoy the show. And to me, that was a shortfall because I feel like circus is the one art form that truly has international appeal to it's not language based.
It's not culture based. To me, it brings families together. Of all families. We all love our kids. We all love skill, we all love entertainment. If you don't, that's another story. Whatever. I don't mean everybody. You can't ever say everything. So that to me was a shortfall, that we only did it once or twice. The other shortfall was when I looked into the ring, occasionally there would be a performer of color. Occasionally. The one year they had one of my favorite acts in the whole entire world, a hand balancing act. And I love them, and they're over in Europe performing now, but they would have a performer. That was the only time, actually they had a performer with a differentiated ability. He's a wheelchair user in the hand balancing act, and he's phenomenal. And one day I'm going to afford him. And he's done in my circus. He's in our video. He did record part of our virtual circus. He is in our company. But I felt like the performers needed to be reflective of the audience. Our audience is fully diversified. We're everybody. The performers need to be everybody's, too. And if you talk to AfricanAmerican circus performers or bypass circus performers, they've never had the same they have not previously had the same opportunities afforded them because circuses tend to be monochromatic, whatever that monochrome is, they tend to be more monochromatic pitching towards a very specific demographic.
And I felt especially with our world, especially with all the political divisiveness and with covet, with everything that was going on in our world, it just felt more important than ever to have something that everyone could enjoy.
Absolutely. I think back to when I went to the circus as a child, but even going to sporting events, which I love to do with my family, I had a hard time getting around. And I have mobility issues. I have a prosthetic. I wear prosthesis. I was born with multiple physical disabilities. I get around pretty good. But there were some stadiums that were challenging. Going to concerts was challenging. I did it. But I remember always looking around and saying, okay, there's one row here for wheelchair users. So there's essentially three people, five people who are wheelchair users in a 50,000 person Stadium that doesn't never felt so that having the inclusivity in the performance is phenomenal. But you took it an extra step, which I love because I never saw myself represented anywhere. Whether it was the movies, whether it was music, whether it was performance, I was never represented. And that is, can you talk a little bit more about how you made that connection?
Some things in my head are just to me, it's obvious. And I know it isn't to the rest of the world, but to me, it's like, of course, this has to be. Why isn't it this way? This has to be. I don't know. It just has to be. And our performers are that way. Our aerialist is a phenomenal. And I chose her because she's a phenomenal aerialist. The fact that she happened to be born without length and she's a phenomenal aerialist.
Which is really important. You're not choosing somebody because they happen to have a disability. You're choosing them because they are phenomenal performers. And they also have it just happens to be that way, which is the way it should be.
It is. And it's vital. We have two performers in our company who are deaf, and they were hired because they're phenomenal performers. They're acrobats and dancers and just wonderful individuals. I also, as the executive director, I do keep an eye on things and make sure that this is orchestrated, because it has to be orchestrated at this point. The default isn't yet. We're working towards a default where you can just not worry about it. But we're not there yet. As a society, as a culture, we're just not there yet. You have to make an effort to make sure that you're offering opportunities to people who have not previously had.
But is it more difficult to find that talent? Because I would imagine there's obviously a lot of Paralympic athletes, there's a lot of different people with disabilities who are physically terrific performers. But I would imagine that as a career path. A lot of them didn't even think, Can I be in a circus? Can I be in circus? Because the opportunity was never there. So how many your pool of people to choose from is much smaller than it could be.
Correct. And over time, I want to change that, too, because the reason they're not here is because there's never been an opportunity for them. So we want let's create that opportunity. We're a worldclass production. This isn't community circus. Nothing against community circus. I love community circus. Don't get me wrong. It's phenomenal. It's vital. It's absolutely vital justice. Community theater is absolutely vital to Broadway. And there's a place for everyone. And that's not what we do best. What we do best is to provide a full on professional opportunity for people to work at that level. There are people there are some wonderfully talented people out there. The pool is smaller. How big a cast can we afford it's? Okay.
In your mind, that connection was always something that it should be. Why not? But was there a moment, at least when it clicked for you or when you said, like when you were putting Omnium together and you just knew that was going to be a part of it? Because that is a differentiating factor, right?
Yeah. And it's always been a part of the dream. The dream was to have full access for all audiences every show, and have the representation be equal in the ring, out of the ring, in the boardroom, on the board table, in the tech Department, in every aspect of our company. We're 25% employee people with disabilities, all disabilities visible, invisible, every kind. Because of that one in four statistics, if that's the national statistic, and that's what we're matching. Actually, I think we're a little over 25%, but 25% sounds good for PR.
I think the episode will be released by then. But just in case people haven't heard it, we did a podcast with Jonathan Lee Iverson. And just to give an example of the type of world class performer that we're talking about here. He was a ring master at Ringling for 20 years, right? He is a world class, groundbreaking human being in his own right in many ways. And he is with Omnium. So you are bringing the best of the best at every level?
Oh, yes. He's with Omnium. He's the chairman of our board. We also have on our board and as our artistic director, Noah Espanya, who in his family. By the time you get to his kids, they're 8th Generation Circus. They won silver clowns at Monte Carlo. They are a phenomenal, brilliantly, talented circus family. They're absolutely world class. And we are bringing the best of the best because that's what you need. It only works if we succeed. It has to be good entertainment.
Can you talk a little bit about how you were able to make the performance? If you are going to go and travel and you're going to go to a performance art center or if you're going to set up a tent, how are you ensuring that those arenas are inclusive and capable of giving the type of experience that you want?
I am so glad you asked that question. So that is very much a part of what we do. Our show comes with a complete consulting arm. We will make sure you have an audio descriptive system. If your headsets are broken, we'll take care of that. We will provide you the technical expertise. Either give you access to it, give you a phone number to call, hook you with the appropriate people. But we will make sure that your theater is completely accommodating. We set up a calming center in the lobby. We'll help you with your social story. If you have three seats for mobility, way off in the corner, we're going to go in there with a screwdriver. We're going to remove some front row seats. And we're going to make sure that people who use wheelchairs or have service animals or have any other mobility challenge or whatever that they deal with, that they are accommodated, that they're not sitting away in the back corner. We will physically help you to do that. That's what we do. Our legacy is to leave behind a better space than we found it. If we go into a community, as we perform in a community, we'll reach out to the best buddies in your community, to all the organizations are there in every community.
People just don't know about them because they're shoved off in a corner. So we want to bring everybody together. We'll find them, we'll reach out, we'll build your community around us because that's who we are. We're all a big family and we need to be together and supporting each other.
It's beautiful when you're in doing this exercise. I think there's a lot of people who say more people with disabilities or who identify as having a disability aren't given opportunities because there is a discomfort around it, because people feel awkward, because people don't want to talk about it. There's all these reasons slash excuses that people give. And this is another phenomenal element. You're putting them on stage, you're making them feel welcome. So the audience is going to interact with a whole bunch of people that they've never seen before, never experienced before. And then they're going to see the performers on stage also representing these differences and saying, wow, these people are amazing. Look at what they're able to do. Look at how phenomenal they are. There's no reason for fear, for prejudice, for all those things that we feel. So you're giving people a multi layered experience. It's going to be really powerful.
Yeah, it's interesting. We did along those exact lines. We just finished a residency at Gallaudet University, which is the only University founded by an act of Congress, which to me, that's an interesting piece of trivia. But for anybody who's listening, who doesn't know who goladette is a University specifically to support the higher education of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. So we bring in our circus. We have two deaf performers. However, now we're completely immersed in a deaf community, and our performers were profoundly moved. They were already open to great. Everybody's wonderful, but they had never experienced it. And so much of fear and hatred comes out of ignorance. It comes from our own insecurities of, oh, my gosh, fear, ignorance, not understanding the life and what's in the heart and the soul of our friends and our neighbors around us. And our performers were really profoundly moved with how beautiful the community was, which welcomed us with such incredible open arms. And how just because someone doesn't verbally communicate, there's brilliance in there. There's brilliance in everyone, each in their own way. And our whole company was moved by it. People with and without who identified as having a disability, who don't, whatever.
Everybody was really very profoundly moved. And it helped me to realize I knew we were doing what needs to happen. But it really brought home how much of an impact and how positive of an impact we can have on people. Just like you said, to see that this person is brilliant. Oh, they have this difference or that difference from me, or they're just like me, or they're just like you to be able to see the good and all the amazement and not focus on what you don't understand, but focus on what's really true and what's really meaningful, which is our hearts. In our hearts, we're all people.
It's a little bit like traveling. And I know this is like a very loose analogy, but when you first go to a new country and everything's different, and then all of a sudden you start to acclimate and you start to adapt and you start to see the things that are similar, and you start to appreciate the way a new culture and a new group of people think and see the world and you open up, right? Your mind opens up, your heart opens up. I see going to the circus and seeing all this variation and feeling like you're part of this big family in a similar way. And you're learning about a new group of people and new cultures.
Exactly. And as we travel, as we move forward and we travel, who knows? Hopefully we'll be over the whole world.
I hope so. In terms of the University, I know Galadette. I've studied the way they've done some of their architectural design, the universal design principles that they've applied to the campus. I think it's a brilliant place. But in terms of Omnium, I was on the YouTube live stream the other day and you mentioned some interesting things there that I want to talk about. What are your plans? What are the stages that you're planning things out in terms of growth? I heard you're going to be doing some consulting, some educational programs. Can you talk a little bit about that and give us a sense of really the different aspects of what you're trying to build around this amazing circus experience?
Absolutely. So we're really going to be as comprehensively, inclusive as possible. So we currently have our virtual show that we created during the is up and running the show we did at Gala Debt, we filmed, and we're creating another virtual production of that. All of our virtual shows are on a platform which has four different access channels. So no matter where you watch it, you get sign language, you get audio description, you get captioning, you get Spanish, you get plain language. We have a full 40 page Steam and diversity equity inclusion study guide that are tied in and go with it. It's obviously done for the production that's up. It's in process for the production that will be up that we just filmed. Give us a hot minute. That will be out in January. So in terms of education, we offer that for schools, for community groups worldwide. We also have teaching artists of all abilities which can be either live or virtual. There is obviously the realities of travel and an ongoing pandemic. So given that we're doing most of our teaching artistry, but virtually at the moment. So there's the education wise, we have that.
We have a full diversity, equity and inclusion program for corporations so that they can, as we perform live. Those are best on live because adults learn. But I don't know, it feels better live to me. But those are live programs. And with each production and performance as we tour where we can offer those as well, we have it all done and ready to go have done a few of them. They've been really successful. People have a good time learning what they would learn from a boring PowerPoint in with real people in real time and doing real skills, circuit skills. It brings it to life. Same curriculum. It just brings it to life. More than that.
Are these the one day program? Are these significant one day programs? Okay.
They're one day programs. We could expand it depending on how long we are somewhere. We could always go deeper. One, that's two. In terms of bringing people in, you asked about employment opportunities. So we have an apprenticeship program because there aren't people as you mentioned, people who identify as having a disability have never had the opportunity to enter the professional performing arts before. The door hasn't been open on occasion. There has been, but it's the exception, not the rule. So we have an apprenticeship program where people can intern with us and learn whichever aspect of the business excites them so that they can learn. They can get the skills and get the chops and get the experience that they need. They may already have it in a textbook, but there's something about live experience and real world challenges and real world solutions to those challenges that you can't learn in a classroom. So we have an apprenticeship program. We just started a young man today, a new person today. So we have that going on. We are preparing all of our new marketing materials and everything. We're going to be going to the performing arts booking convention in January, April, and we're available.
And I know it's a non for profit.
Yeah.
What was the reasoning behind that?
I think I wanted to make sure that we had every advantage because starting a company, a starting a company is ridiculously difficult. Starting a company with added expense, with the access. It's not free. Audio describers aren't free. Systems aren't free. And I knew we were going to need additional support other than just the revenue to expense model. So I wanted to make sure we could open that door for ourselves because so many other people also want to be involved in this. And foundations have money specifically to fledgling organizations. So we're hoping one of them finds us and says, yes, that's a great idea. And several hats. It's not like they have it. Everybody's welcome. Where is always welcome.
No, it's an interesting model. And I know that we were talking a little bit offline about how in other countries the governments do give some money to help the arts. Are there any foundations specifically or any type of social impact grants or other ways that you could potentially think about getting money from the government at some point because it's arts, but you're also creating jobs. You're creating a lot of economic opportunities for people that otherwise may not have.
It very true. And we are 100% doing that. There's a bit of a catch 22 in our we're not eligible for NEA, which would sponsor us, but we're not eligible to get an NEA grant because we haven't been in business for three years. But in order to be in business for three years. We need the money to support us, but we can't get the money until we've been in business for three years. So a simple solution to that is to have a fiscal sponsor who can work on the grant with you and that we do have. So we are eligible and open. It's really a matter of there's 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, and we're a very small fledgling organization that, like I said, the door is open. We could expand our bandwidth. More hearts are always welcome. We are able to expand our bandwidth and to be able to pursue in fact, I just talked to somebody the other day, oh, here's a list of places you can contact them. I'm on it. And I had them all every day. The next day I contacted everyone. Any lead you give me, I will be on it.
I'm glad to help with that as much as possible. I think this is a phenomenal project. What else in terms of the as you're looking into the future, where would you like to see? Or the first question is, does Omnium have a Homebase? So are you planning on having, like, most of your performances when you are able to do physical live performances with audiences, are you planning on doing them somewhere or you want to travel and you want to go to wherever people want you? What's the plan?
Our current plan is to really go where we're needed because I feel like everybody needs really good entertainment at this point in time. So our current business model is to be ourselves, to have our full production, which we do have set up and ready to go. And wherever there's a place for us, we will be there. We do have a home base. I'm based out of New York. We also have a large part of our organization based in Virginia, based in the Washington, DC, area. We've got another whole group based in Florida. So we're really of the country. No city has claimed us yet, although happy to have that in the future. I really would like that. I'd love to have a base where we could stay somewhere for six weeks and really dig deep into the community, which was our original business model. And due to circumstances beyond our control, that wasn't the appropriate. That pathway didn't work out for fledgling organization, so it will. But the longer we can be a place, the more routes we can dig, and the more people we can evolve and the more vendors that we can include, and the more we can really lift each of us on all of us up, because every town has someone who's trying to employ people with disabilities or who has a child with a disability who wants to include them more.
And we're everywhere. We're one in four. We're everywhere. And the longer we're there and the longer we can bring joy and include more people, the more we can list up other businesses. You've got a restaurant. Great. Let's help you make money. You serve your food. Let's help. We've got people coming for entertainment. Let's work together. The more partnerships we can form nationally and internationally, the better off we all are. One of my favorite expressions is a rising tide lifts all ships.
It does. It does, especially when there's good leadership and vision on those ships, which you have. So I'm just really excited. I can't wait to see a performance, to experience it and to be able to write about it, to share it on the podcast, just to it's going to be remarkable. If you were to say not a five year plan, but this should be Omnium should or we are hoping that Omnium becomes an institution. Right? It's Cirque du Soleil has become an institution. It's not going anywhere. Omnium should be in the same kind of place in our hearts and minds as a place to go, to experience something that you can't find anywhere else. And that's just a part of the fabric of our culture.
Yes, 100%. And I'm realistic enough to know that's not going to happen tomorrow. It didn't happen for Cirque du Soleil overnight either. And they had the entire Canadian government behind them. It will happen. And the more people that know about us and the more people that join us on our social media, that join us, that look at our website, that stay on our mailing list, that watch the fundraiser that we had the other night, which was just little clips and fun things that we did it's now on YouTube. So the more people that are aware and they know we're coming, they say, wait a minute, we've got a spot in our town. We'd love to have you. Okay, we can book a tour. We have a phenomenal executive producer working with us now. We got this. We will become that institution. Things are moving really quickly. So five years is a good goal. If we could do it within five years, that'd be awesome.
As a kind of a practical question, just as somebody like with these performers, let's say you're in a town for six weeks, you're in a city for six weeks. How do you balance their abilities to perform night in and night out with fatigue and injury and all of those things that happen to any elite physical athlete? How is that managed?
Yeah, that's the situation for any elite athlete. Able, disabled, green, purple, blue, Orange. That's anyone. So we really are very careful about that. We do have six pack weekends very often, but then we'll have Monday and Tuesday off. We try very hard to balance Broadway does eight shows a week. We try very hard not to go over that. If we have to go over that because it's a particular holiday week and that's what's demand. We make sure we give them rest time afterwards. We're really very careful because people need their bodies. You treat people the way you would treat you have to treat people with the same respect that you would treat your pet. I don't mean to denigrate that, but if you have a performing animal, which I don't, I have a pet, I have a dog. But you treat them with respect because they're your partner performers. We're each other.
We're our partners.
We have to take care of our bodies. And so we're very respectful of our artists, of their time, of their talent. And our artists are all professionals. They know their limits. If they say to me, Lisa, I'm really feeling my body is a little under the weather. I'm going to cut this trick from my act so I can do it safely. Okay. I would rather have you cut a trick than put yourself and get hurt. Yes. So we're very careful about that. You have to be any performing arts organization. You have to be.
Yeah, that's the balance. I was just curious. Yeah, that's good to know. And I'm sure that traveling also from city to city, especially internationally, that taxes the body even more.
You build in rest time.
Yeah.
It's part of what we do. You have to build and rest time. That's part of the overall if you ever get into the intensities of the business of circus as part of your budget, you have to budget downtime.
Is there any act in the show or any withouts I don't want to spoil it for the audience, but is there anything that you saw when you were auditioning these performers that really just you weren't expecting that just blew me away, that you were like, I've never seen something like that before or just had a light bulb moment with you?
I actually would have to say that for every single one of our performers.
Wow.
Because honestly, every single one of them has absolutely just blown me away. I've been in circus my whole since I was 18 years old. And each in their own way, some of them, it was the emotional growth and what came on stage with their own personal journeys, and it just blossomed. Two performers I'm thinking of that went through challenging growth, and their performance just was magical. Other performers, the skill, even if you knew it was coming, I can watch it 100 times. It's just I think every one of them blows me away, because if they didn't, they wouldn't have hired them.
But that's amazing. That's what they're supposed to be doing. But it's always refreshing to see that when you have something that's been around for so long. And yet there are still people in creating new acts, pushing themselves. Like you said, that idea of personal growth and just developing as performers, that's really great to see.
We have one act that just came in to join us. I don't know. They're going to be on the road with us all the time because they're very popular act we bring in every show isn't going to be exactly the same because that's just not practical and also gives more people more opportunity. It gives other performers who weren't available then because they had a contract, but now they're available here. So it gives us the opportunity to really give more and more people the opportunity to really perform and to really show what they can do. And you're going to be absolutely blown away. It's just people flying through the air, shooting arrows off of people's heads. It's incredible.
That sounds incredible. Again, is there like, a general theme to the show, like a journey that you take people on that you can preview for us what that's going to give us a sense of what that's going to look and feel like?
Absolutely can. So our show is called I'm Possible, and the journey starts with the character of Johnny, which is this kind of every man character. If you ever studied Greek and Roman theater, it's the character that's all of us. It's that voice inside all of us who told you as a child you can't do this because you don't have a leg. You can't do this because you're sad all the time. You can't do this because all those camps that went in your head as a kid, that's the character who starts and that character goes through the course of the show, joins the circus and finds out that those were just words and that he is possible and he can do this. The show is I'm possible because those are words and you can. And so through the course of the show, the little Johnny character, which could be a male, could be female, happens to be male in our show right now, two years from now, who knows where he's going to be? The character will be there, but to learn the courage and the perseverance that you can do this and you can be your best self, whether it's an accountant, whatever it is you do, that you can be your best self and that you have the courage and the dedication and the perseverance to achieve whatever it is, your destiny, and it's your place on this Earth.
And that's the message of the show, that we can each be our best sells, whoever that is. So the show is called I'm Possible, and at the end, I won't get away. At the end, you never see the show.
I like it. No, that's great. That's a powerful message for people. It's really important to meet people where they're at. But I still believe it's a belief. I haven't proven it yet, but I really strongly believe that no matter where you're at in your life, whether you have whatever it is, whatever it is you're dealing with, whatever it is you're working through, there's something that you can do every day to make it a little bit better. Or to at least try to go somewhere that you want to go to do something positive and meaningful for yourself. That's my belief. And it sounds like that's something that you share as well.
It is absolutely my belief. There's a quote I've been reading a lot lately from Dr. Martin Luther King. If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but keep moving forward. And there's always something, even in the darkest moments, even if it's a tiny pin light, you grab onto that tiny pin light, there's an action step. There's something that you can do in each of us and that bursts into a beautiful sunrise.
Yeah. And I think the more we surround ourselves with people who share that belief and we experience it. We see it, we feel it, we touch it. Whether you're affecting one person or 100 people or 1 million people, you're affecting somebody in a positive way. You're showing somebody every night that you're performing or just by being here. Look at what we've been able to do. Look at what we can do. Look at what we're about. It's going to be magical.
Thank you. Our content director. We keep changing her title because she does so many wonderful things said to me, there's only one word that's really important. Yes. The power of the word yes. To open your heart, to allow newness in, to allow a new thought. And it's not like we don't all have dark days. Everybody does. We all share that. And we all share the need to have hope and the need to go beyond it. And that brings us together.
When it's done with solar and with the where it's not like a cheapened experience where you're not seeing. I don't want to. This is constructively. There are people who do it in a way that kind of cheapens the experience where you just right, where it just doesn't feel authentic or it just feels like it's being capitalized too much. I don't know. There's just something off about it. And there's the people who do it authentically, who live it themselves and who are surrounding themselves with those people where it's okay to be inspired. It's okay to be hopeful. It's okay to see this experience, this energy and this vibrancy and this warmth where it just feels right. It centers you, but it gives you hope.
It's very true. There's a lot of people. I was recently just a funny side. I was uninvited to a committee which kind of cracked me up. It was a committee on diversity, equity and inclusion in the arts. And I was uninvited because I'm a Caucasian female with no physical disability. And I was like, okay, you guys are sitting around a boardroom talking about how to become inclusive. I'm walking the walk. This is my story. This is who I am. I'm not going to apologize for who I am because this is who I am. I surround myself with other beautiful people, and we all work together to make this real. We are walking this walk. We are living this world. We are doing this together. So I just laughed. I'm like, okay, fine. You keep talking. It's okay.
That's awesome. I think those things have gone. Let's be specific. There's a way where I think people I'm fairly new to this whole disability space because I've never really had other friends who had disabilities. I grew up going to school surrounded with non disabled people. And this is I'm still learning all of the intricacies and all the different spaces. And there seems to be within some groups this sense of why would somebody who doesn't have a disability care about me? Why would somebody who is non disabled want to be part of this group and want to be doing this thing? And that to me.
Is.
A little bit unfortunate to experience because you're closing yourself off to the ability to make those new connections and to bridge those gaps and to travel to those different spaces. You're a perfect example of that, right. If I shut you off because I look at Lisa and Lisa doesn't have a disability and she's Caucasian, I've lost out on a whole world of opportunity and connection.
And it's the same fear. Exactly. It's the same fear and ignorance on both sides. It's a circle. People who are afraid of those who look differently from themselves, people who are within that community, who are afraid to look out. And that's not to say people shouldn't have supportive communities with people who are similar. I don't mean that at all. But in a broader sense, in the sense of a broader community, a circus, a big community, none. We need to be open to each other. And just because you don't see my struggles doesn't mean I don't have them. I can see some disabilities you can see and some you can't, and it doesn't matter because that's not who. I'm not going to talk to you because of this out of the other thing, I'm going to talk to you because you're a good person and because I want to know who you are and what you're about.
And that's the gift. And it's almost how did you become such a good person, Lisa? How did you not write that's? More the deeper question. Right. But who knows? That's a complex answer, a whole different hour long podcast. But the fact is, you are you're here doing these things. It's amazing. And let's celebrate that.
Absolutely. And I thank you. I'm so grateful for this opportunity, for the opportunity to share our dream. Because it's our dream. All of us.
Absolutely. Is there anything two final questions for you. Is there anything that you think I missed in this podcast that you feel will be important to talk about or mention? Maybe. What are the ticket prices? When are you launching it? Could be a bunch of things, right? How do we support you?
The best way to support us is to join us on social media. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. It's all at Omniumcircus. Sign up for our mailing list through our website, Omniumcircus.org. If you are financially able, support is always welcome because this is not a small project. So any means of support, if you have time and you have a particular skill set that might be useful, we welcome volunteers. If you know somebody who knows somebody who might fit well with send them on over. All of the announcements for our shows will be on our website. The next live performance we have right now is scheduled in Washington, and it's going to be in February. And the details for that will be coming out hopefully very soon. We've got to get some back end work done first, and we are wide open. We'll be at AP. I'm not sure when this is going to air. Aps in January. It's the American Presenters Association, so we follow us. Stay tuned. Like I said, if you're able to support us, that we'd be most grateful. We're all in this together.
Absolutely. And when you have on the YouTube event that you did the other day, are you going to have more of those type of. Okay, so what is the price like in these special pricing events that you have with somebody wants to say spend. If somebody wants to donate $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, whatever it is, they get to have a performance for up to 100%.
Yes. Oh, I don't have that piece of paper in front of me.
We'll put it on the show notes, but yeah, don't worry.
Yes. Basically what we do for our school programs, we charge it's $10 per student. So if you send us $100, you've just bought tickets for ten kids.
Awesome to see a show.
So if it's a school of 1000 kids, we can broadcast on every video in every single classroom. So we can totally serve an entire school. So for $5,000, we've got 500 kids that get a full study guide, a full program, complete access. Special needs kids don't have to sit up in a corner. They're completely included. Everybody together enjoying the show on the list. I know. We've got signed posters.
I think there were shirts available. Swag.
We got lots of swag. We got masks. I'm holding up a mask right now for anyone who is listening to me and not a visual. I have a white mask with the omni of logo on it with black straps. We have T shirts that have the Omni logo on them. This one happens to be Gray. We have them in all colors. We have lots of great swag. Awesome swag.
Fantastic.
Definitely. Well, thank you. With swag.
Thank you so much, Lisa. This has been fantastic. I can't wait for this episode to air. I can't wait to see the show. And I hope to have you back and if there's any of your performers who would like to join us as well, we are more than welcome to have them and help keep promoting that would be fantastic.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. I'm just so grateful.
Absolutely have a great day. Thanks.