More of the Faire

If you haven’t guessed and/or figured it out by now, the Renaissance Faire is really my main focus this summer. In a year of firsts, this is possibly my favorite, being free and able to head up north to the faire every weekend without worrying about taking off work or upsetting my boss.

This past weekend was no exception. Saturday morning both myself and Anna, decked out in our Renaissance best, trekked up north to partake in a day at the faire.

It was 94 degrees when we arrived at just a bit after 10 in the morning. Anna had long sleeves on, my costume is black and other dark colors, frankly I’m amazed we survived the day.

The first thing we did was seek out water. Anna bought a bottled water, but I was looking to spend my money on a more lingering addition to my costume than a plastic bottle. So I bought a wine bota. Mine is black suede and the very nice shopkeeper who sold it to me suggested that I freeze it the night before the faire so I’ll have cold water all day long. I was very happy. It’s 22 ounces. I drank 3 of them on Saturday. Literally to the last drop.

It was, needless to say, rather slow at the faire on Saturday. For some reason an overall high of 95 degrees seemed to be keeping people inside rather then heading out for a day of sweaty frolicking. Only one show seemed to suffer due to the heat. Poor Moonie. He’s a wonderful showman and an excellent comedian, somehow expressing everything he needs to without uttering a single word. Most days.

Saturday the guy he pulled from the audience was being a pain and wouldn’t go along with the gag. The gag goes like this: he pulls a guy out of the audience and has him stand, legs apart, and mimes as if he’s going to slam a drum between the guy’s legs. Guy is scared so Moonie has him cover his eyes, then prompts the audience to scream like we’re scared. Guy freaks, we laugh, gag over. But this guy wouldn’t cover his eyes. Wouldn’t stand where he was told, wouldn’t do anything right. Between heat and frustration, Moonie lost his temper and actually started yelling at the guy while on stage. “It’s called comedy because I don’t really hurt you. The longer you dick around the less funny it gets and the longer it takes for me to get on with the rest of the show. Now cover your eyes and stand still so we can get past this gag.” Guy finally obeys, we give rather half hearted screams because the moment is SO past, he speaks up again. “See, this is where we’d be laughing if it was still funny.” Guy sits down, he continues with show.

Probably the funniest moment was while he was juggling and this kid in front yells out “Shamalama ding dong!” and every lost it, including Moonie. We’re all cracking up and he points to the kid and says “Now THAT’S a heckle.” Which turned into the stupidest thing he could have said because then EVERYONE started blurting out random nonsense. I half expected him to start pegging us with juggling balls or throwing the flaming torches at us. People can be so stupid and frankly I think he was glad to see us go when the show ended.

I also joined Friends of the Faire, which is a club inside the faire for real enthusiasts. We have our own private garden and a little behind the scenes place to relax outside of character with our own private privies (toilets), an actual sink with hot and cold running water, free ice water and Gatorade, a place to change clothes if we get too hot and shelves to leave purchases on so we don’t have to carry them around all day. Everyone was SO nice, the woman who signed me up took me around and introduced me to everyone inside the garden at that time. Everyone made me feel very welcome.

This Saturday is the first feast. A member of court, who is a chef in day to day life, will be in the garden all day, cooking for us. Everyone is supposed to donate money or bring food. I’m thinking of bringing fruit salad and maybe a box of hamburgers or some chicken legs to grill.

I’m so excited.

Is it Saturday yet?