A talk-show host is an odd sort-of person in society; they interview actors and polticians mainly. The public is often asked in to participate in these processes, to add their opinions as memebers of particular interest groups. A debate may ensue, certainly controversy is often mediated, and we are intellectually within the the arena of cultural studies, mass-media, sterio-types, the sharing of public-opinion. Is this host/ess a public-intellectual, an educator with political motives, someone who is supposed to champion the rights of particular groups within the masses, and even partake in these struggles? There is at least something cultural occuring here.
Perhaps they interview a public-intellectual, someone like Angelina Jolie, or Sting, Madonna, Jane Fonda, or Pamela Anderson. People who are not just famous actors or musicians but also use their time and often their charity to uphold a worthy cause; a humanitarian or environmental organziation or group. They are Entertainers, aided by the Beauty Industries; by those trained to style their wise, to do their make-up, or hair, to adjust their wardrobe.
People partake in these processes, sometimes at festivals, cultural events, seminars or forums. These events are often supported by the Hospitality & Tourism Industry, which moderates the arrival of guests, foreigners, people from abroad. It houses them, provides them with directions, some sustenance and shelter, lodging for the night, or a few more, for events such as conferences, or long-weekend holidays. These hospitality-workers may help set up special events, those trained in logistics and event planning guide them. There is a sense of festivity, or of activities occuring with cultural importance.
Sometimes we are confronted by an entertainer of a different sort such as a stripper, or burlesque dancer. Someone whose function is associated with the sex-trade industry, or with night-clubs, or Spa's. There are massage therapists, aromatherapists, sound & lighting technicians, security-guards and stage-managers, those at the fringes of the culture industries.
The event should go well; people should be entertained, they judge with their applause, with ticket sales, or numbers in attendance. It is a strange function to entertain another, to provide them with pleasure. Perhaps this function works its way into our post-modern lives somewhat differently than before. There are so many reality-shows these days, we want to see live-processes, we want to connect with fashion designers, with those making the clothes we wear. Is this the production of a Gay-science, as Nietzsche would say, or are we in the days when Being will meet Time, which is Heidegger's thesis. That we live our biographies together, that we share how we are important with another in a more overt way. But this also requires a re-investment in ourselves, and in our capacities to connect and entertain the fictions, the challenges and embodied appearances of each other.
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