The Perpetual Motion Roadshow was an independent-press touring circuit that ran monthly through the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 from April 2003 to March 2007. Founded by Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 science-fiction novelist Jim Munroe

Jim Munroe

Jim Munroe is a Canadian science fiction author, who publishes his works independently under the imprint No Media Kings.Munroe was managing editor at the magazine Adbusters in the 1990s, before publishing his debut novel Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask in 1999...

 and his company, No Media Kings, the Roadshow featured underground novelists, poets, comics artists, musicians and comedians. Its slogan was "NO BORING READINGS OR YOUR MONEY BACK!"

Munroe described the tour as "an unholy combination of a vaudevillian variety show and a punk-rock tour... running on pure volunteer power and dirty dirty gasoline." The tour typically looped the east coast of North America from May to October and the west coast from November to April.

More than one hundred writers and performers went on the tour during its run. Among the writers showcased on the tour were Bucky Sinister, Wred Fright, Jennifer Whiteford, and Joe Meno

Joe Meno

Joe Meno is a novelist, writer of short fiction, playwright, and music journalist based in Chicago.-Biography:After attending Columbia College Chicago, Meno spent time working as a flower delivery truck driver and art therapy teacher at a juvenile detention center...

.

History

The first Roadshow was in April 2003, featuring New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 spoken-word artist Corey Frost, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 fiction writer Charlie-girl Anders and Toronto comic artist Marc Ngui. This tour went to venues in New York, Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Boston, Toronto and Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 -- often in independent bookstore

Independent bookstore

An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned.-Literary and countercultural history:Author events at independent bookstores sometimes take the role of literary salons. The bookstores themselves, "have historically supported and cultivated the work of independent...

s or zine libraries.

The west-coast tours began the following autumn. Tourmates often performed in San Francisco, Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, San Jose

San Jose, California

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

, Seattle, Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 and Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

.

In the last two years of the Roadshow's run, Munroe handed over the coordination duties to Roadshow alumni. Sean Carswell

Sean Carswell

Sean Michael Carswell is an American writer and publisher. He is the author of the novels 'Trainwreck Girl', 'Drinks for the Little Guy and the collections Glue and Ink Rebellion and Barney's Crew. He is co-editor, along with his wife Felizon Vidad and Todd Taylor, of Gorsky Press, an independent...

, Liisa Ladouceur, Megan Butcher and Jeff Cottrill each had a turn as coordinator of the monthly tours.