Name: On Illusion & Delusion
Start: 2025-09-25T19:30:00+01:00
Location: The Old Library, 10 Lower Bore St, PL31 2JX

On Illusion & Delusion
The Old Library, Bodmin, PL31 2JX
Thursday 25th September 2025
In this one hour talk, Tony Lidington shares how pseudo-science and empircal knowledge blur and merge over time, to create a blended muddle of perception that we sometimes call truth, sometimes fakery, or sometimes just a show.
Tony has been a showman, researcher and teacher for more than 40 years: he has run theatre venues, companies, festivals and events for and with a wide range of diverse communities. He specialises in historical popular entertainment forms and their application to contemporary contexts and in 2017, he was awarded a doctorate by University of Exeter for his research into itinerant British performance forms and where he is now a part-time senior lecturer.
He regularly broadcasts for both radio and television – most recently for David Walliams’ & Lee Mack’s episodes of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ However, he is perhaps best known by families throughout the country, as ‘Uncle Tacko!’ - ringmaster of his extraordinary flea circus (regularly seen on Bodmin's 'The Folly') and founder of ‘The Pierrotters’, Britain’s last professional seaside pierrot troupe.