Javier “Javi” Grillo-Marxuach is best known as one of the Emmy Award-winning producers of Lost and Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. His writing and producing credits also include The Witcher, Medium and From.
“The show must go on” is the rallying cry of all of us circus folk. The problem is that it’s a lie. What it really means is “the show will go on with or without you.”
Many of us who ran away to join the circus look at our lives in Los Angeles with masochistic pride. We were conditioned to believe that living in Los Angeles is the only way to work and keep working in showbiz. We see our city the way the Fremen of Dune see their home planet: God created Los Angeles to train the faithful.
We believe that success is the badge of honor we earn for bearing the endless calamities Los Angeles visits on us: filthy air, high cost of living, earthquakes, fires, the 101 freeway.
The flip side is the fear — the overwhelming dread that leaving equals an abdication of your dreams. For the majority of my career, leaving Los Angeles has meant going off with the Lotus Eaters.
Go, and the show will go on without you.
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