{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Variety Show","title":"Charles Burns on royal silhouettes, Covent Garden origins, and the art of performing with scissors","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2874,"description":"Join us on this captivating journey into the fascinating world of live entertainment. Host Adam Sternberg brings you engaging conversations with remarkable entertainers, from magicians and jugglers to aerial artists and contortionists. Discover the unique stories behind their extraordinary careers, the challenges they've faced, and the motivations that drive them. If you're passionate about live entertainment or simply curious about the lives of these extraordinary performers, this podcast is a must-listen.\nEpisode Highlights\nIn this episode, Adam welcomes silhouette artist Charles Burns a performer–artist whose entire show fits into a pocket: paper and scissors. From a bruising boarding-school experience to art college and the Covent Garden piazza, Charles charts how drawing led him to live silhouette cutting, why imperfection makes entertainment memorable, and what it felt like to interrupt Queen Elizabeth II (successfully!) to cut Her Majesty’s profile. He explains his mirror-free, one-line cutting technique, the psychology of likeness, why some people “don’t look like themselves” in profile, and how lockdown sparked his global Zoom silhouette studio. We also hear about AI silhouettes, Disney’s influence on the American style, and an 18th-century automaton “artist” with a human under the table.\nKey Discussion Points\nOrigins & Early Training: Growing up in Somerset; boarding at Ampleforth; bullying; sanctuary in the art room with sculptor-teacher John Bunting; discovering that drawing was the foundation.\nArt Education: Foundation at Exeter; time at the École des Beaux-Arts (Lyon); degree at Wolverhampton; art as communication vs. art-therapy.\nArtist vs Performer: Why most artists perform (and most performers create art); Charles sits “on the cusp,” literally performing portraits in front of an audience.\nCovent Garden Beginnings: Late-1980s street portraitist; a visiting Spanish cutter inspires the switch to silhouettes.\nTechnique & Tools: Pocketed papers, white...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/JHRDqil-H1p__PcBxkFKeWgvmzANKXqZzhsKiqUP0gc/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mODc5/NmZkY2I4Nzk5OWNi/MjFiNDFhNzY5MTNi/NzI1Ni5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}