The Power of Ignorance: the power to ignore

You can't ignore me.

What you don't know can save your life.  According to Vagan, a motivational speaker who expounds the power of ignorance, we need to cultivate confusion which is the boulevard to ignorance. By following the Ig Mantra (slowly repeating DUH several times), you can apparently create ignorance and overcome the fact that many others may call your new philosophy absurd.

At first it is quite intriguing to be reminded that humans only use 10% of their brains – what Freud called the Ego, Super Ego and the Id.  Vagan's entire philosophy is linked to the inevitable power of the remaining 90% -- what he calls the Ig. He sounds smart when he tells us that success and ignorance have always been inextricably linked. Just stop and think for a moment about the following:  “I don't know what fear is” and “I don't know the meaning of the word quit.”  

Vagan is smooth.  He's so smooth that when his careful, magician-like veneer begins to crumble I actually wanted to know what was behind the facade.  As the show continues, Vagan slowly implodes into his childhood traumas through various examples of how he uses his philosophy in his own life including an episode of self-hypnosis. His screechy boy child provides a strong contrast to the silky-voiced guru.

Yet as the show carried on, I found this send-up of motivational speakers was too real to life for me... Similar to Tony Robbins' endless exhortations to awaken the giant within, Vagan's Ig philosophizing  definitely gets repetitive. At one point, I checked my watch and realized that there was over 30 minutes to go.  I sighed.  Luckily at that point we had some audience interaction and the 10 year-old near me started to be funnier than the guy onstage.  Check it out – but feel free to leave when you start using the power of ignorance to ignore the fact that you're bored now.

For showtime information go here.

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By Allyson McGrane