Ancient Aliens Live Tour 2022: A brief review of one stop

Ancient Aliens Live Tour 2022: A brief review of one stop.

 

Left to right. Nick Pope, Dr. Travis Taylor, William Henry, David Childress, and Giorgio Tsoukalos 

 

I had fun. The end.

November 20^th, 2022. After a crawling, white knuckled drive head-on into a snow band, fingers and ass firmly clenched for dear life, we arrived. Proctor’s Theater. Good Lord, this had better be worth it.

First Observation: A rowdy, engaged crowd.

We saw aluminum, er, tin foil hats. People posed for pictures in front of a small inflatable(?) green alien. The bar was VERY busy. Not sure what I was expecting, but a concert-like atmosphere wasn’t it. The format was as follows. Nick Pope -a show regular and former British Ministry of Defense employee- asking prepared questions to the other speakers. Yes, the questions and answers were largely canned (with perhaps some improv), but that made sense. Events MUST have a format to conform to schedule. Anyone who has worked a road crew or even a college event crew knows events are planned. They must be. Nick would ask a random question from an established, printed list. The participants quickly reviewed their prepared answers from which to leap from. This allowed the production company to have clips at the ready. A few in the audience mistook this question/answer format as an invitation for group participation. Answers, theories, and buzz words were flung at the stage, sometimes completing sentences and thoughts the speakers needed no help finishing. Machu Picchu was a, “…FOUNDRY!” Alien bases are, “…UNDERWATER!” “THEY lied!” And so on. There was one hush-toned, “Tell her I am sorry I spilled beer on her seat.” That one was obviously not aimed at the stage, but naïve Sam still didn’t expect to hear it. Folly on me. Overall, positive energy combined with an invested audience. Nice.

Second Observation: The investigators behaved the same in person as they appeared after filming.

“It's easier to face the camera than life. As in the former the script is known.”
― Haresh Sippy

Seeing live the same body language, mannerisms, and expressions of thought seen on the show was refreshing. It is one thing to film a show with final product birthed from the hindsight of multiple takes and producers, and quite another to sit bare before a live audience. The speakers were relaxed. They were amongst fans, true, but not sheep. Strong opinions roamed the hall, remember. The speakers were loose shouldered. They appeared to honestly and openly reiterate their answers. They appeared to genuinely believe what they were saying. The words were not for dramatic affect. I liked that.

Third Observation: YOU are responsible for your thoughts and beliefs. 

The show ended only after each participant gave a closing thought. Across the board the messages were: ‘Keep learning. Read more. Don’t believe everything you see or hear. Hold to your educated beliefs until the facts say otherwise. We (on stage) respect each other, but even we do not agree 100% with each other.’

Let that sink in. Let the speakers, subject matter, and general level of public ridicule of those speakers coalesce. I asked myself if I was being snookered by those who know promoting apparent skepticism is in their economic self-interest. Hadn’t Robert Anton Wilson taught us to ponder daily if we were Useful Idiots at any given movement? So, I asked. Nope. Seemed genuine. In summary to Observation Three: “Their culture passed forever into to the unlit, dusty halls of history from a desire for facts and the pursuit of truth.” said no historian ever. A sprinkle of hyperbole, I know. Let a guy dream about what we could be. I watched a lot of Trek growing up.

Now we shall speak of final thoughts in the rapid, modern fashion. Were the time and resources invested to attend “Ancient Aliens Live” worth it? For me, yes. Did I learn anything new? Two things. That Dr, Travis Taylor was a leading (if not albeit briefly “chief”) scientist on the U.S. government’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. Interesting. Also, the creator of "Ancient Aliens" Kevin Burns was a local from Niskayuna, NY. He went to high school about three miles from our venue. Neat. Do I agree with the general Paleo-SETI theory? Generally, no. Is it possible? Yes. Why yes? Because the Ancient Alien theory smacks a bit too close to the meddling us humans do. Do I think we have a grasp on remote human history? Good Lord, no. I hum a more Graham Hancock tune there. Should the unwashed persist with vexing questions to all the mainstreams? Yes. A thousand times, yes. I am reminded of Leonard Nimoy’s rendition of Ehrmann’s poem “Desiderata.” “You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.” You have a right and duty to question your world, just as you also have a duty and responsibility learn and grow from your decisions.

Be questioning, my friends. Of Yourself and the World around you.

 Oh yeah! One more thing...

I bought a pin! Huzzah! It is a Quimbaya or Golden Flyer. Some say it represents a plane as seen in ancient times (ergo the group pic above) by the Quimbaya peoples in South America. All the cool UFO, er, UAP kids wear one.

Be well.

Sam