Imagine the ultimate festival gameshow that tests your knowledge while taking a sarcastic jab at festival culture.
“So You Think You Can Shaman?” is an over-the-top, hysterical interactive comedic quiz show that lovingly skewers our favorite themes and memes from the festival world and inserts them into classic games and challenges in the vein of Family Feud, Jeopardy, The Dating Game, and more.
The wacky team behind this game show invites real Lucidity attendees from the crowd up on stage to compete with another in an irreverent and silly sendup of festival stereotypes and tropes as they work to make it all the way to the Shamanic Showdown and the ultimate title of Top Shaman.
I had the pleasure of attending this hilarious spectacle at Lucidity in 2022 and 2023, and let me tell you, it was well worth it. Put together by the same team that brought you Lucid-olympic games, this game show had me rolling on the floor as they tactfully poked fun at many aspects of festival culture that, to outsiders, range from comical to downright ridiculous.
What I appreciated most about the show was that the hosts were unafraid to comically critique all aspects of festival culture, no matter how revered or problematic. The show was jam-packed with jokes about new age spirituality, psychedelics, plant-medicine, cultural appropriation, festival fashion, and conspiracy theories.
I also really appreciated the level of audience participation in the games.
Although aspects of the show were scripted like the Jeopardy questions, the hosts and assistants in the show knew how to engage in banter with the audience, and even incorporated audience and contestant suggestions. There were also prizes for members of the audience, like a Lucidity-branded toothpaste that promised not to calcify my pineal gland (it was really just a travel-size crest bottle with a sticker slapped on it).
“So You Think You Can Shaman?” ran multiple times over the weekend, and each time the winners went home with some awesome prizes. Contestants got to don some amazing pseudo-shamanic gear during the show, and sell themselves as Lucidity’s most knowledgeable and spiritually adept faux shaman with a speed-dating-like finesse.
There was even the occasional impromptu artist appearance, like in 2022 when Equanimous and Ruby Chase participated in the show.
For those seeking a late-night shenanigan that is fresh, amusing, wacky and whimsical, look no further than the return of “So You Think You Can Shaman?” at Lucidity: Auroras’ Light.
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