July 21, 2023 • 48 mins
Ariel and Jonathan begin a conversation about their experiences working as street entertainers at the Georgia Renaissance Festival (until a massive storm cell interrupts the recording). We'll be back with more conversation about our collective past as carnies.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Large Ner Drunk Collider the podcast.
It's all about the geeky things we love in this
world and how excited we are about them. I'm Ariel Castin,
and with me, as always, is the king of the
Shaggy Dog story. Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
All right, so there are these people known as the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You can't We're not there yet.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, I can't. I'm not going to tell that joke.
I mean, I'll probably get people asking me to tell
the joke now that I've started it, But trust me,
you do not need to hear the joke. It's much
better in person anyway. And Ariel, bless her heart, has
had to hear that story approximately two hundred times.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I mean, honestly, honestly, if people want to hear the joke,
which is alluding to the fact that Jutu Listener's suggestion,
we are going to talk about some of our RedFest experiences,
which is where Jonathan tells a lot of those stories.
But if they want to hear the joke, they can
do so by looking up one of her old LLNC
(01:12):
videos on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So that's true, that's true. We took some video someone
shot at the at the Renaissance Festival of me of
one of the many times I told that joke. By
the way, it's a joke that I would uh edit
quite a bit if I were telling it now, and
because there's some there's some stuff that has not aged
(01:34):
well and probably never should have been in the joke
in the first place, but probably, Yeah, it was a
different time, and we'll talk about that too, with the
Renaissance Festival stuff. But before we get into all of that.
Unbeknownst to me, but beknownst to Ariel, she actually came
up with a thirty seconds or less story. But I've
already told her that because there's only one of them,
I'm not going to bother with the music. We're just
(01:56):
going to talk about. So Ariel, what was the interesting
quirky story you found?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I mean technically two technically two stories we're gonna talk
about before we get into Renfest. But that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But the second one wasn't really a thirty seconds or
less That was more of a discussion.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
But I bet it would only take thirty seconds or
less to talk about anyhow, So yeah, I didn't just
on a whim. I went through and looked at you know,
our normal sources for geeky news in case there was
anything we could talk about, and there was a story.
CNN Travel reported that over one hundred people got trapped
(02:32):
inside of Agatha Christie's former home while on a tour.
A storm knocked a tree down and I think took
power out. It sounds like the beginning to one of
her stories.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Right, Yeah. Agatha Christie best known for her murder mystery stories,
many of which have been adapted into other forms of media.
And I was joking with Ariel while, you know, when
she told me this before we started recording. I said, yeah,
you know, if it were a real Agatha Christie story,
there'd be significantly fewer than one hundred people to rescue
(03:06):
by the time the whole thing was over.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah. Yeah, and I want to correct it just stranded
them there. I don't think it took out the power,
but still.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, I mean, being stranded in a murder mystery novelist's
home because of weather is in fact the setup for
a murder mystery. So it was. It was very fitting
and you could argue coincidental, but still an amusing story,
especially since at least some of our mutual friends seem
(03:40):
to think we're already in spooky season and that Halloween
is right around the corner.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You know, I appreciate their enthusiasm, but I, like, I
don't want to I don't want to wish any days away.
Like That's the thing is, time is short, and I
so often go, how are we already at this time
stamp in the year. And so you know, I enjoyed
bookie season. I enjoy apple cider and crunching leaves and
cooler weather. But I'm going to enjoy what I have
(04:05):
right now.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I mean, if it meant that we were getting temperatures
and like highs in the seventies starting tomorrow, I would
be putting the jack o' lanterns out right now. I'm
going to tell you because it is hot.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, you know, when it's cold, I wish for hot
weather so I could go swimming, which I'm planning to
do this weekend. Yay.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, my office is an air conditioned and so I
just think you should stop being so cruel toward me.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Okay, I will do that, and we will also move
on to the next thing we wanted to talk about
before Renfest, and we might make this a shorter episode.
Just so Jonathan doesn't melt. You know, we're both a
bit long winded, so we'll see if that happens. The
other notable thing in the news today or this week, no,
I guess today is appropriate. Yesterday we got news that
(04:59):
i ATSY Broadway might go on strike, and today we
got news that there is a tentative agreement, so hopefully
strike won't happen.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah. The IACI is the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees and they actually have different divisions and different contracts.
So this particular contract is called the Pink contract, covers
around one thousand, five hundred union members who are in
departments like stage hands or makeup or wardrobe, that kind
(05:35):
of stuff. So obviously shows need these people in order
to operate, and these are folks who are like top
of their game. They are absolute pros. And their agreement
with the theatrical producers in Disney had expired pre COVID,
but then, of course COVID really did a big number
(05:58):
on live theater. Their old contract terms were extended a
couple of times, and then they were heading up to
a point where they were having trouble reaching agreement with
the producers. That's a common thing to say these days,
and that they had a list of demands they wanted
(06:19):
met they couldn't come to an agreement. So there was
this chance that Broadway could have gone dark starting Friday
July twenty first, when this episode has gone out, but
we're recording it on the twentieth. And as Ariel mentioned,
they've reached a tentative agreement, but that actually has to
go to the union as a whole, and the union
(06:39):
members need to vote on it before it becomes active.
And so there's still a chance that the union will
reject this new agreement, and that there's still a chance
that we could see a strike in the future, although
it'll probably take a while because all the union members
first have to receive the agreement before they can vote
(07:00):
on it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, and this would also not it wouldn't just affect
Broadway there well, one, it wouldn't affect all of Broadway.
There are like two Broadway shows that aren't under that contract.
But also it would affect touring shows, a lot of
touring shows at least. So I stand behind I at
(07:25):
Sue and trying to get better working agreements. It's going
to be an interesting summer if every avenue of entertainment
shuts down.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I mean, you'll still have local theater because local is different, right,
because this doesn't have to do with local theater unions
or anything like that. So you'll have that, although like
in the state of Georgia, unions, being in a union
sometimes means that you don't get theater work anyway. Because
(07:55):
Georgia's a right to work state. There's only a couple
of union oriented theaters in the state.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I mean, honestly, that's why I switched to film and television,
because you know, I really wanted to pursue acting as
a career. You know, work pursuing being a working actor
is not easy, but it is much much harder if
you are just staying in the stage. Yeah, because there's
only a couple they tend to have. They do fair
auditions and that's all great, and they bring new people in,
(08:24):
but they tend to have, you know, people that they
know and that they love and that they use each season,
providing those people are available and fit the roles. So
it's also a lot fewer roles that you get to.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, I mean, there are more union members than there
are roles that are available, right, Like, Yeah, when you
look at the union houses in our city. I know,
I think Shakespeare Tavern has at least certain some union
and then I know Alliance Theater does, and there might
be others that also have union, but most are non
(08:57):
union houses. And in fact, you know they would rather
not cast union performers because that would mean they'd have
to meet certain minimum requirements in order to have a
union member as part of the cast. Yeah, and a
lot of houses just either don't want to or can't
afford to do that. And so it also means, to
(09:18):
Ariel's point, that if you want to be an actor
in Atlanta, either you are fighting tooth and nail for
maybe a couple of dozen roles that you could potentially
play in a year against every other union actor in
the state or your non union but that means you're
also probably not being paid, or if you are being paid,
(09:41):
your compensation is so small as to not even necessarily
cover your gas to get to and from the gig.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah. So I think there are a few more union
theaters in Atlanta than just those two. There were at
least before the pandemic. I would have to go and research,
and I did not do their research before today. Because
it's been about five years since I've been in stage theater.
I'm actually in a play opening next weekend. But yeah,
(10:10):
a lot of theaters want to pay. There are people
at some sort of reimbursement, but they just can't afford it.
Even like on Stage, which is one of the bigger
theaters that usually pays their actress as stipend. They're struggling
because funding after the pandemic has gone way down in Atlanta,
and also audience numbers haven't gone back up fully, so
(10:34):
it's just a really hard time. Definitely, go support your
local theaters during this time. Definitely do it. I'm going out.
Not only am I in a play, but I'm going
out to support local theater next weekend. So do it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Out of curiosity, where are you going to go see?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I'm going to Dad's garages Friday night birthday show.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Oh okay, yeah, cool. You know it's funny because I
haven't even I didn't even tickets for that, And considering
how frequently I've been to Dad's garage, that is crazy,
because I've been to most of their birthday parties since
two thousand and one.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, well, I've never been I've never been to
one of their birthday parties. But we're going to try
to go as most are all of our band because
you know, they've been nice enough to let us play
some of their gigs and we want to go back
and give support.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So that's awesome. Yeah, and their birthday shows typically are
a lot of fun. They usually are kind of almost
like like a variety show. Often they will I mean
sometimes they'll just do kind of a theater sports style
improv show. But sometimes what they'll do is sort of
a selection of the types of stuff that they're doing
throughout the season, which can sometimes even include previews to
(11:45):
upcoming shows. And they do have a musical coming up
pretty soon that I am excited to see, and it's
a remount of a show that they did years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
My bandmate was telling me about that. Well, if you go,
let me know and I'll tell you where I'm sitting.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
We'll do think.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I think Friday, they're doing karaoke afterwards, though I don't
know if the people, if everybody else I'm going with
will be pumpkinning at that point.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah. No, I tend to I usually have just enough
energy to go to the show and then I'm like
I can hang out and say hi to some of
the people I know, but I need to get home
before much longer than that, because I don't know I've
Before the pandemic, I was definitely a lot more extroverted,
and now I find myself completely drained after engaging in
(12:35):
relatively simple social you know.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Environments, most people have lost their social stamina. Like during
the pandemic, a lot of people can serve to their
energy and so now getting back out and expending that
energy on other people, while it's delightful and you know,
rewarding in its own right, it's it takes a bit
to build that stamina back up. But you know what,
I'm sure all of you listeners really loved us talking
(12:58):
about our next week and plans for a local theater.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, I mean, I think it's interesting because it shows that,
you know, we actually do believe in going to local
theater and supporting the local arts. It's not just that
we're talking about it, we're actually doing it.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah. Yeah, but let's now do a listener suggestion.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right, And who was it that asked us to talk
about our experiences with the Georgia Renaissance Festival.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Deborah did, thank you Debra, and I just want to
say thank you to everybody who's being super supportive in
this time where we're kind of having to change our
format up a little bit. The amount of like positive
feedback we got and support and suggestions, it's just been
like super amazing and heartwarming. So love it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, how would you like to start this conversation?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Oh gods that I have not figured out?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Well, I've got I've got a way of kind of
getting into it, which is that the two of us
had different approaches to getting involved with the Renaissance Festival,
because in my case, I was convinced by a person
who was in a show with me. In your case,
you inherited it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, no, I did not inherit it.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
No, I thought your mom worked there before you did.
Oh no, sir, Oh hey whoa watch it? Listen, hey careful.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I love you mom. No, I did. My first year
at the Georgia, I auditioned.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Uh huh, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Go back and tell my story. You've in fourth grade,
the renfested a promo at a local at a local
like apartment complex, and one of my friends and I
went with her family and we enjoyed. You know, there
are shows and their street characters and some of the food,
and it was wonderful and I was like, oh, I
love this. Maybe me want to be a missing wunch.
And then when I was eighteen, I was doing community
(15:04):
theater in Roswell, and one of the people in that
community theater I had wanted to audition for Renfests. I
was seeing it every year and I always talked myself
out of it. That's a big problem that you know,
insecure actors do. And I auditioned for the Renaissance Festival.
And it's a little bad because I auditioned for the
(15:29):
Renaissance Festival and I auditioned for the Little Prince, which
is a stage play at the community theater was at.
My mom and I both auditioned for Little Prince. We
both got in, but I also got cast in the
Renfest and they had conflicts and I had to pick
the Renfest. But one of my I'm going all over
the place, one of the guys that I acted with
at this community theater told me he did Renfest and
(15:49):
encouraged me to go out. I auditioned for a Kissing Wench.
I got the Old Maid. The next year, my mom
auditioned and also got cast and they were like, well,
if you want to play another character, we could make
you an apprentice to your mom, and I'm like, you
can't do that. I've had more experience than her, which
leads to a whole other issue with Renfest structure that
maybe we will not get into.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Or maybe we will, because in some ways it does
play a lot of parallels with the union y stories too, So.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yes, yes, but then you know, through that back and forth,
they're like, you're right, how about you played this lady
and waiting. So second year, I played a lady in
waiting and I got to do combat and we found
like a good my own negotiations for my position at
fair and it was really interesting that they offered me
an apprenticeship spot because that first year I had one
(16:39):
most improved actor and I don't even think there was
like it was really clicky in that time, Like there
were lots of clicks yeah, and I feel like yeah,
and I feel like that's and I'll stop after this
so you can give your origin story as well. But
I feel like that is why I got most improved,
because I was out there working the street everyday, asking
(17:01):
so many people to marry me convinted them to get
on their knees, and like, I worked hard and I
did well, and there were lots of things, so like,
you're not good. Maybe it's because they didn't think my
bits would work. But my bits worked. My bits worked
really well. So I don't know why I got most improved.
And then I also don't know why the next year
(17:21):
I was possibly looking at an emotion that I did
not get anyhow, That is my origin story. I loved
working Renfest with my mom. I'm glad she joined, but
I was first.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Gotcha and this was two thousand and one. Was your
first season, I think so? Yeah, I think so. I
think your first season was my last one of my
first stint. Yeah, okay, so so my origin story. In
nineteen ninety nine, shortly after the real Renaissance was I
(17:52):
was in a little goofy parody show called Romeo and
Ethel the Pirate's Daughter. But yeah, not that first one,
not the first one. So in that first one, we
performed it at dragon Con, the big science fiction fantasy
fan convention that happens in Atlanta every year, and one
of the other people on cast was someone who had
(18:13):
been working at the Renaissance Festival, and she mentioned that
there were auditions coming up for the fall season of
the festival. So this was like early in our rehearsals
for Romeo and Ethel, which was a fairly ambitious show
for this very amateur theater group. And I say amateur
in that we just didn't have the experience. Not that
they were bad, it's just that everything was harder because
(18:36):
we weren't seasoned at it. So we had a very
long rehearsal process. And during that rehearsal process, we heard
about the auditions for the Renaissance Festival, and so my
partner and I decided we would both audition, and we
went to the auditions, which were held in little Five
Points back in those days. And I had the best
(18:59):
audition of my entire life for the Georgia Renaissance Festival,
which irks me to this day that I wasted it
on that, But no, I had that.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I've had other good auditions, my friend, I've.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Had other good auditions. This one was almost flawless. Like
I walked in there. You had to give a comedic
monologue as part of your audition, and they liked mine,
and it was one that they hadn't heard a billion
times because I got an old like Peter Cook monologue
from Beyond the Fringe days, and not a lot of
(19:34):
people mind that for a comedy, and it went well.
And then they had me do improv as several different
characters and all of that went well, and the very
next day I got a call from the director saying
that I had been hired. I didn't have to go
in for a callback. I was good to go. The
only thing was that my partner did not immediately get cast,
(19:55):
and so for a while it was like, well, if
if she doesn't get cast, I'm not gonna go because
I don't want to spend all those weeks away from her,
plus ad it just it would be really complicated. But
she got cast as well. So I did a stint
from ninety nine to two thousand and one. So I
was there for Ariel's first season, and then I was
(20:16):
gone till probably about two thousand. I showed up briefly
on one day in two thousand and two as a
gag as the character I had played from ninety nine
to two thousand and one. Then I was gone. Came
back in two thousand and eight, could not play my
original character who was the mayor of the town, because
(20:36):
at that point they had a different actor playing the mayor.
So I just decided to promote myself and made myself
the Lord Admiral, same character, just different rank. And I
was there from two thousand and eight to probably two
thousand and eleven or twelve, maybe thirteen, left again, came
back again for a few more seasons, and then left
And I think now it's well and truly done multiple reasons.
(21:01):
So in all of my time at the Renaissance Festival,
I have played four street characters. How many I know
you've played a lot, so how many street characters have
you been including your musical character.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Now I'm trying to figure out whether my mom was
there my first season.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I don't remember her being there, but for some reason,
it had it in my head that she had performed
at a Renaissance Festival in the past, so.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
That was my she did, so she did. I feel
like the first year I was there by myself, and
then she played the herbalist and then she played Indigo
dry Brush. My mom played two characters, and by the
time she was playing Indigo dry Brush, I was Lady
killing him. But I've played. Let's see. There was Liza
(21:49):
alone a lot the old maid. That's one. There was
Vogue la mode a fashion consultant to the queen. That
was two. There was Lady killing him softly with his words. Uh,
that was three, Black Widow. There was h band Does
that count my band? Yeah, Beatrice Flats and Hudson, Vincent Johnson,
(22:13):
Holland Small and Spence in Swanson but friends called b Flat.
So that's one, two, three, four. And then I was
Lady emilion Naire. That's five. And then I was a
kissing wench. That's six. And then I went back and I, oh,
I did like one weekend as a fill in for
Lady de.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Winter during Well, if we're yeah, we're counting fill ins,
I guess I've been five. I didn't think about.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Films, Yes, but six, six to seven if fillins count seven,
If not, then six.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah. So in my case, I was the Mayor Edmund Vainglory,
the third from my original run. And the whole, the
whole stick with him is that he was a very
pompous uh character toward all the the peasants, but would
bow and scrape for all the nobility because he was
smack dab in the middle. We would have a village hierarchy,
(23:08):
which would tell you where you fell socially among the
status of all the other characters. And so I was
smack dab in the middle. And so I got to
play Tyrant to all the peasants and Toady to all
the nobles, which was a lot of fun. But then,
like I said, when I came back, the mayor role
had been taken, I still was Edmund Vang Glory the third.
(23:29):
I really didn't change the character that much. I just
made him lord Admiral, So now he was like right
below the King and Queen because lord Admiral is a
very very high position, so I went straight to like
Tyrant unless the King and Queen were there, so it
was slightly different then I was. Was I Sebastian at
(23:54):
Keyes I can't remember, so I didn't This wasn't a
character I created, but a mutual friend of ours was
playing this character, one of the two villains one season
of the festival, and he got very very seriously injured
and a work injury, and they needed someone to step
in for the first couple of weekends. So they called
(24:16):
me up and I stepped in and I played a
Spanish you know, swordsman for a couple of weekends. That
was the villain character. Then I was the Lord Admiral
a couple more times, and then I came in as
one a French swordsman, a one eyed French swordsman, Robert Camembert,
(24:37):
Marquis de Roque Force, lots of cheese puns. And then
my last season there I was William Shakespeare, as in
the actual playwright William Shakespeare. That was the character I played.
Very odd because the monarch at the time was neither
Elizabeth nor James, so technically I shouldn't have been Williams's.
(25:00):
But we've never been sticklers for actual, you know, historical alignment,
so it was it was decided that it was fine.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, what was your was Was the mayor your favorite?
Or was the Admiral your favorite?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I think the Admiral was my favorite for a few reasons.
I found my stride as the Mayor. The Mayor I
felt was in some ways, the Mayor was the most
fun to play because I did get a chance to
play very different characters depending upon what other characters might
be present. Whenever I was with patrons guests who were
(25:40):
there at the festival. I was very, very silly and
supercilious and self important, and I invented a holiday called
Hug your Mayor Day, which I would I would open
up my arms and say it's Hug your Maya Day,
and either people would giggle and walk past, which was
perfectly fine, or sometimes it would actually give me a hug,
(26:01):
which was also okay. The best one being when a
young woman and her extremely tall boyfriend came up and
I announced it was Hug your Mayor Day and she
looks up at her boyfriend says, well, it is hug
your Mayor days. It's all right, and he runs up
to me and grabs me and lifts me off my
feet in a big bear hug. And I was like,
this is the best is the best outcome that could
(26:22):
have happened with this, because it's such I can play
it up as a character and they're having a great time,
and she's laughing and he's laughing, and the people around
us are laughing, Like that's what you that's what you're
living for as a street character. So yeah, I think
mayor is my favorite. Who is your favorite to play?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
So like the thing is, you know the moments that
you remember, are moments like that, the moments where you
can one hundred percent solidly quantify the enjoyment you're giving
to other people, Right, That's what it's all about. And
I've had those moments with most of my characters. Gosh,
(27:07):
I don't I did. It's hard. I really don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It was clearly Vogue la mode because you've got to
hang out with me so much in those years.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I did. I did love Vogue once I reprised her
because she was my second character, and then she was
my h and my mom my mom confirmed, Uh, if
you heard pings in the background, that was my phone
in my computer. My mom confirmed. She came in on
my second season, Love you mom.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
But uh, I really liked Vogue when I was able
to come back and play her the way I wanted
to play her with a supportive court again. I had
a lot of fun with her the first time, but
the court was less supportive of the character and would
often do things that they thought were funny, but just
felt like they were denying, picking on me, denying my character,
(27:57):
wasting my props that I was paying for myself. I
used to typing ribbons around trees and I did that
both my circuit first and second reprisal, because as a
street character, you know, you would have your bits, and
then you would have what are called latzis, which are
things you could do visually that were low energy when
you're hot or you're tired, that would still entertain the audience.
So for me, it was fashionifying the trees, tying pink
(28:20):
ribbons on them because I was all about pink and
the court when I first played it, the king decided
he hated that, and I mean, that's that's a valid
that's a valid character choice because we're told, you know,
be be muppets either love or hate things, there's no
in between. But as a part of that, he would
have people cut ribbons off of trees and bury them
in the sand, in the dirt, and I'm like, if
(28:43):
you don't like the ribbons, I'm not tying them on
tight untie given back to me. I can reuse them.
But they didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, Instead, you're you're you're constantly having to resupply your
your ribbon and continue to spend. So yeah, that's a
that's a I will say that your outfit for Vogue
was spectacular.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Again on the reprisal.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yes, yeah, that's that's well, that's the Vogue I was
familiar with, right, because that was the I was gone
for the original Vogue la Mode, Like I wasn't there
when you were playing her originally. I was there for
the second appearance of Vogue and uh, because by then
I was the Lord Admiral. Lord Admiral and Vogue would
often be in the same court. In fact, we would
(29:29):
often be paired together because Ariel and I were already
good friends at this point, and we would usually be
dancing partners for courtly dancing, which was funny because I
joke about Aeriel towering over me. She is taller than
I am. She's not like like I'm not. I'm not tiny,
and she's not not like a giant, but there is
a height difference. But it made dancing more fun for me,
(29:52):
noticed well I did. But then also we would dance
on hills and occasionally that would mean that you would
tower over me, depending on on what side you.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Were on, especially if I was wearing my tall hat.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yes, yes, you had a tall an Elizabethan well really
Victorian era tall hat. But again, we never were super picky.
I mean I wore a cavalier hat, which wasn't period either,
so it's fine, yeah, but yeah, it's it's funny. You
know you mentioned bits and lotzis. Those were those were
our currency as characters, right, we were We would do
(30:24):
a lotzi in order to get attention, which may or
may not feed into a bigger interaction. A bit was
when you had a planned interaction with the audience, and
every character had to have lotzis and bits, and you
would workshop them throughout rehearsal where you would come up
with ways that you would get attention for yourself where
(30:47):
you know, both whether it was a stationary lotzy where
you're standing or sitting in place and you're getting attention,
or a moving a traveling lotzi where you're going from
point A to point B, but you need to do
something interesting while you're doing it and not just be
you know, head down walking getting to your destination. You're
still a character you need to entertain as you move.
(31:10):
So those were like the two big things. And then
on top of that you had character character interactions, which
ideally would be these.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Bigger bits with audiences.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, bigger bits where it might be a competition between
two characters, it might be someone trying to woo someone else.
It might be someone trying to insult someone else, but
these would be meant for larger crowds, like you would
try to do this to entertain a big group as
opposed to like a like a family or something. So
(31:42):
those were kind of the the parameters we worked in.
Things changed dramatically over the years from the point where
we started to what it most recently is. But when
we began, the rehearsal process was really really grueling. I mean,
especially if you were a first year you had so
(32:04):
many rehearsals to go to. There was a go ahead
or a new character that's true, or a new character,
because the whole purpose of the rehearsal process is to
discover who the character is right to, you know, the
role you're going to play. Like in my case, I
was the mayor. They actually gave me a choice my
first season. They gave me the option of either being
(32:26):
the mayor or the town doctor. And when they told
me the choice, I was like, well, mayor out ranks
and doctor. Clearly that's the character I want to play.
So I played the mayor and they had been bitten
by the fact that I think a mayor maybe even
the season before I started dropped out early in the
(32:49):
festival season and no one could get hold of them
for like the rest of the run, and so they
were a little cautious about putting too much pressure on me.
But it really wasn't pressure because I wasn't. I wasn't
in most of the other stuff. But yeah, you know,
it's it that that rehearsal process was lengthy and exhausting
(33:12):
and exhaustive as well. Like we would start with an
animal image where you would have to pick an animal
to represent what your character was so that it would
inform your personality and your movements and all that kind
of stuff. So out of curiosity, do you remember what
your animal image was for the Old Maid? Uh?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, it was. It was a chicken. Ch chicken. It
was a chicken, because I was.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Like, ah, nice. Mine was my dog Falstaff at the time.
He was a Jack Russell Terrier. And when I explained
Jack Rustle terrier, everyone thought I was playing the character wrong, like, oh,
you don't know my dog. My dog. My dog thinks
he's a big dog. But also if he runs into
something he's not familiar with, immediately turns cowardly which is true.
(34:05):
My dog once got scared because he saw a bucket
and he didn't know what it was. So yeah, you know,
that was the kind of character I was playing. But
they were thinking of like the stereotypical jack rustle terrier,
very very you know, alpha terrier kind of dog. And no,
that's not really what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah, I remember most of my animal images. I do
want to go back and say I also super loved
my kissing wunch. I would play her again, but we're
in a world now where kissing wunches don't work unless
you play them a very specific way. And I hate
to be like the person who says I played it right,
but I feel like I was the person who played
it in a way that would be accessible nowadays.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Well, and part of it was tough because like it
had nothing to do with the actor, but it had
to do with the patron behavior, right, Like if you
had a patrin patrons coming in and one of them
is like insistent that you kiss their ten year old
son who is doing his darndest to try and escape
(35:11):
because he's absolutely mortified. It's just it's not something that
ends up being a pleasant experience for anyone involved.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, you're half right. It also has to do with
the actor. But because a lot of times, at least
at the Georgia Renaissance Festival, they would cast pretty first
year people as kissing wenches. And that is a role
because you have to learn how to gauge people's comfortability.
If you haven't worked on the streets as a street
character before, if you don't have a good understanding of
(35:42):
drunk patrons, of shy patrons, of all of these things,
of people who are too hot, of people who just
don't want to be interacted with, if you can't gauge
the level of interaction a person wants going into it,
which everybody messes up. There are things that I could
do better if I were a kissing weunch again, then
you're going to fail. You're gonna make people on comfortable,
You're going to be uncomfortable. It can be sometimes be
(36:02):
dangerous because people have a fight or flight instinct and
sometimes they pick a fight.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And also at the Renaissance Festival is a place that
serves alcohol and people, especially like before the blue laws
were lifted, definitely on Saturdays, but then after the blue
laws were lifted Sundays too, people would hit that tavern
as early as it would open. And you know, in Georgia,
(36:29):
the festival when I started, there were two festivals. There
was one in the fall and one in the spring.
I did the very last fall season. We didn't know
it was the last one while we were doing it,
and my partner and I said, if we do it again,
let's just do the fall. Let's not do spring because
it's too hot. We'll do the fall. And then and
then there was the announcement that fall was done. They
(36:51):
were not doing fall again, and went no. Well, in
the spring, when it gets so hot, people drink even
more and they're not drinking necessarily water, they're drinking mead
or beer or whatever. And then you deal with progressively
intoxicated patrons and that that can be dangerous for them. Actually,
(37:12):
Like I can't tell you how many times I had
to run off to find someone with a walkie talkie
to get you know, medical attention because somebody was dehydrated
because all they had been drinking was alcohol. It was
too hot and they passed out.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, because as a street character you also had to
you helped in. There were people who were like EMTs,
and there were people who were security. But you also
helped those people because you're interacting with patrons two quick things.
We're bouncing around so much, and you're keeping the conversation going.
But I have all these thoughts that I'm not getting out,
and one of them is beyond bits and latzis there
(37:50):
are people who went I was very much a bit actor.
I loved my bits. I worked hard on them, and
they usually ended up in the person getting some sort
of like tangible ward and I love that, and I
didn't mind pouring my own money into that. You are
the kind of actor who loved doing bits with people,
but you were very improvisational in your bits, oftentimes especially
(38:12):
later on in the season. And that's something more seasoned
actors could do. Again, Like season kissing, wenches can gauge
audiences and adjust. You know, this person doesn't want to kiss,
but maybe we can teach them how to kiss their
mom or if you build a well rounded character, pivot
to something else that has nothing to do with kissing
but has to do with your character. Yeah, so it
(38:32):
is interesting. There are people who would try to do
the improv route, but they weren't strong. Street street worker
is not the right term. Street characters yeah, and so
it didn't quite have the same payoff for audiences. The
other thing is I will say like I fought. I
fought to be in Scenario every single year because I
loved doing combat and I loved having moments where I
(38:54):
could go to scripted and kind of just change up
my day. And the year that I finally got into Sono,
I got cast as a villain, and then in the
middle of the rehearsal process, the plot changed and we
were no longer the villains of the story. We were
still kind of villainous, but we weren't like the villains,
(39:15):
and that got really frustrating. I loved all the combat,
even when I got my knuckle busted by another fighter
and had to go get stitches and come back and
do the rest of my fights for the day, which
was like four or five per festival day. But that
as much fun as I had that season, that was
my least rewarding character because it I had to pivot
(39:36):
in the middle of rehearsals and was no longer playing
the character that I had built all this excitement for.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, and to help people who may not know what
we mean when we say scenario or as ariels proposely
says scenario, which that's how the quizt That's how the
quizzer says it on Ridiculous History. That's my character on
Ridiculous History. So I'm trying not to fall into that character. Alike,
he's a scenario, but no scenario at Renaissance festival, that's
(40:08):
like the overall story for the day, like why is
the festival happening? And some years we didn't have one,
Like we really didn't have a scenario. We just we
did an opening gate where it was just oh, the
King's here, yay, and then pronounced the days started, and
there's a festival for no particular reason. Other seasons we
would have an actual storyline, including villains who are trying
(40:30):
to ruin the festival for one reason or another. Usually
it involves stealing something that the king wants to give
to the queen. Like so that was the plot so
many times that I made it a joke in one
of the scenarios I wrote. But the overall story is
something that as a patron you can follow or you cannot.
It doesn't really impact your day, but if you want
(40:51):
to know the story, you can actually go and follow it.
And when I first joined, it was much much, much
easier to follow the scenario because not only was it
listed in the schedule for the day, but they they
arranged for the scenario to play out on actual stages,
so you would know to go to a specific stage
(41:11):
a specific time to see a chapter of the story unfold.
In later seasons, more and more of the stages were
given up to contracted stage acts that came in to perform,
and the scenario was moved off the stages into the streets,
which one, you can't really tell people, hey, show up
(41:33):
in show up in the lanes at this general location
at this general time, and you'll see something. It also
made it much harder to stage because you no longer
had like, you know, you no longer had a stage
to actually perform on. You were performing theater in the round,
and you.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Had to be honestly says, don't know what grassy noole means.
There's like five of them.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Yeah. Well, and you also had to be careful, right
because like if you're if you're doing stage combat in
the lanes, you had to have extra people there to
make sure the audience stayed at a safe distance so
that they didn't get whacked by a sword like our
swords weren't sharp. But as Aeriel can attest, you know,
you get hit by a stage sword or a stage
(42:16):
axe or something like that, it hurts.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I'm going to say that's the sword was not dulled.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Oh wow, Okay, well that was like.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Or at least not dulled enough, like they had bought
that sword, and if it was dulled, it wasn't dulled properly.
But it all still had nicks in it from fighting
with other swords.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
So yeah, you're you're supposed to you're supposed to file
those down. Yeah, but yeah, I I would not have. No,
I would never have fought in any fight where someone
was not using an actual stage combat sword. That's just
what I just wouldn't. Like, No, it's not safe.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
It busted up my middle finger. I didn't realize till
after the fight. The other fighters like are you okay?
Are you okay? And I love them and it was
an accident and I'm not mad.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
I'm sure that's that's that's all fine. I don't. I don't.
I'm not suggesting the actor was like purposefully or even
really negligent, other than the fact that they were not
using a stage combat sword, which is in my mind
you can't do that.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
But anyway, yeah, but uh but oh no, that year
was not the year that I was in That was
the second time I was in scenario as Vogel Moote.
I was in scenario once as Vogel Mode. I was
also in scenario once as a millionaire. When I was
Voglamode in scenario, it was fine because I like that character.
When I was a milia ownaire, I enjoyed being in scenario.
I enjoyed the things I did, but it wasn't my
(43:32):
favorite character. I did, however, get my lifelong brother from
another mother during that season, who I love in his
family to me, so that is super awesome. Yeah, but
the bend, like I didn't know, I had to go
get stitches. A lot of my injuries at Fair were
things that I didn't realize at first. It was all
(43:53):
my middle finger. So the last fight of the day
was a staff fight and I ended up flicking everybody
off because I couldn't bend my middle finger. The entire season.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Well, we were going to continue this conversation, but Aerial
lost power because there's a massive storm moving into Atlanta
and it hit her part of Atlanta already. It hasn't
hit me yet, So we're just going to call this
part one and it'll probably be a two part or
who knows, maybe a multi part episode about our experiences
at the Renaissance Festival. Now we're going to talk about
(44:26):
that next week. So if you have questions, specific questions
you would like to ask us that pertained to the
Renaissance Festival and our work there, whether it's you know,
how we put our characters together, what were the sort
of things we thought about, If there were any like
terrible moments that we had at the festival because I
(44:48):
had a couple, or if there were you know, questions
about things like stage combat and or writing for the festival,
all that kind of stuff, please feel free to ask.
We actually have a lot lot of thoughts also about
how the festival has changed over the years. And I'll
tell you now, I am very grouchy, so I get
(45:11):
roll grouchy talking about it. But you know, you have
to also understand that working at the festival was never
a prestige job, even in the good old days as
it were. But yeah, we can talk about all those
sorts of things if there any if there's anything specific
you want to know, you can reach out to us.
Let's see, Jonathan, how do they reach you? Well, Ariel,
(45:33):
I'm glad you asked. If you wish to ask me
a question, what you must do is travel out to
the countryside and find yourself a fairly you know, remote area,
large area that you can retrofit into a Renaissance festival,
right that you can turn into a village. One important
(45:57):
element of this village is while it needs to be remote,
also absolutely must be directly in line of air traffic
from the local airport. If you don't have airplanes flying
overhead numerous times a day, which absolutely drowns out anything
you're trying to say while you're being in character, then
it's not really a Renaissance festival. But yes, you must
(46:18):
go and build a Renaissance festival. At this Renaissance festival,
you have to have vendors, and you have to have
stages and areas where characters can interact with patrons and
musicians can perform and create a lot of ambience so
that you feel like you're in a magical, distant land
(46:39):
walking through time. You want to do all of that,
You want to get all of that together and the
most important part is you need to make sure everyone
who works for you, no matter what department they are in,
deals valued and recognized for their contributions. And once you
do that, you can ask me your question and I'll
tell you an answer. But if you want the is
(47:00):
your way, well, I'll let past Ariel'll tell you from
some random episode I've just chosen to include here and
cut out and paste into this one.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
And if you want to go through a little less trauma,
you can contact us on social media on Twitter or
llenc Underscore podcast on threads, Instagram, and Facebook. We are
a large ner Drunk Collider. That's also our website www
dot largnur drunk collider dot com. I will host some
of the strike news and maybe the community fund link
(47:35):
there sometime this weekend er week And yeah, you can
check us out on discord too. Until next time. I
have been aerial.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Castin and I am Jonathan Hazzan Strickland. The Large nerdron
Collider was created by Ariel Caston and produced, edited, published, deleted, undeleted,
published again, cursed at by Jonathan Strickland. Music by Kevin
(48:13):
McLeod of incomptech dot com
Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Large Ner Drunk Collider the podcast.
It's all about the geeky things we love in this
world and how excited we are about them. I'm Ariel Castin,
and with me, as always, is the king of the
Shaggy Dog story. Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
All right, so there are these people known as the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You can't We're not there yet.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, I can't. I'm not going to tell that joke.
I mean, I'll probably get people asking me to tell
the joke now that I've started it, But trust me,
you do not need to hear the joke. It's much
better in person anyway. And Ariel, bless her heart, has
had to hear that story approximately two hundred times.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I mean, honestly, honestly, if people want to hear the joke,
which is alluding to the fact that Jutu Listener's suggestion,
we are going to talk about some of our RedFest experiences,
which is where Jonathan tells a lot of those stories.
But if they want to hear the joke, they can
do so by looking up one of her old LLNC
(01:12):
videos on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So that's true, that's true. We took some video someone
shot at the at the Renaissance Festival of me of
one of the many times I told that joke. By
the way, it's a joke that I would uh edit
quite a bit if I were telling it now, and
because there's some there's some stuff that has not aged
(01:34):
well and probably never should have been in the joke
in the first place, but probably, Yeah, it was a
different time, and we'll talk about that too, with the
Renaissance Festival stuff. But before we get into all of that.
Unbeknownst to me, but beknownst to Ariel, she actually came
up with a thirty seconds or less story. But I've
already told her that because there's only one of them,
I'm not going to bother with the music. We're just
(01:56):
going to talk about. So Ariel, what was the interesting
quirky story you found?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I mean technically two technically two stories we're gonna talk
about before we get into Renfest. But that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But the second one wasn't really a thirty seconds or
less That was more of a discussion.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
But I bet it would only take thirty seconds or
less to talk about anyhow, So yeah, I didn't just
on a whim. I went through and looked at you know,
our normal sources for geeky news in case there was
anything we could talk about, and there was a story.
CNN Travel reported that over one hundred people got trapped
(02:32):
inside of Agatha Christie's former home while on a tour.
A storm knocked a tree down and I think took
power out. It sounds like the beginning to one of
her stories.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Right, Yeah. Agatha Christie best known for her murder mystery stories,
many of which have been adapted into other forms of media.
And I was joking with Ariel while, you know, when
she told me this before we started recording. I said, yeah,
you know, if it were a real Agatha Christie story,
there'd be significantly fewer than one hundred people to rescue
(03:06):
by the time the whole thing was over.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah. Yeah, and I want to correct it just stranded
them there. I don't think it took out the power,
but still.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, I mean, being stranded in a murder mystery novelist's
home because of weather is in fact the setup for
a murder mystery. So it was. It was very fitting
and you could argue coincidental, but still an amusing story,
especially since at least some of our mutual friends seem
(03:40):
to think we're already in spooky season and that Halloween
is right around the corner.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You know, I appreciate their enthusiasm, but I, like, I
don't want to I don't want to wish any days away.
Like That's the thing is, time is short, and I
so often go, how are we already at this time
stamp in the year. And so you know, I enjoyed
bookie season. I enjoy apple cider and crunching leaves and
cooler weather. But I'm going to enjoy what I have
(04:05):
right now.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I mean, if it meant that we were getting temperatures
and like highs in the seventies starting tomorrow, I would
be putting the jack o' lanterns out right now. I'm
going to tell you because it is hot.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, you know, when it's cold, I wish for hot
weather so I could go swimming, which I'm planning to
do this weekend. Yay.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, my office is an air conditioned and so I
just think you should stop being so cruel toward me.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Okay, I will do that, and we will also move
on to the next thing we wanted to talk about
before Renfest, and we might make this a shorter episode.
Just so Jonathan doesn't melt. You know, we're both a
bit long winded, so we'll see if that happens. The
other notable thing in the news today or this week, no,
I guess today is appropriate. Yesterday we got news that
(04:59):
i ATSY Broadway might go on strike, and today we
got news that there is a tentative agreement, so hopefully
strike won't happen.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah. The IACI is the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees and they actually have different divisions and different contracts.
So this particular contract is called the Pink contract, covers
around one thousand, five hundred union members who are in
departments like stage hands or makeup or wardrobe, that kind
(05:35):
of stuff. So obviously shows need these people in order
to operate, and these are folks who are like top
of their game. They are absolute pros. And their agreement
with the theatrical producers in Disney had expired pre COVID,
but then, of course COVID really did a big number
(05:58):
on live theater. Their old contract terms were extended a
couple of times, and then they were heading up to
a point where they were having trouble reaching agreement with
the producers. That's a common thing to say these days,
and that they had a list of demands they wanted
(06:19):
met they couldn't come to an agreement. So there was
this chance that Broadway could have gone dark starting Friday
July twenty first, when this episode has gone out, but
we're recording it on the twentieth. And as Ariel mentioned,
they've reached a tentative agreement, but that actually has to
go to the union as a whole, and the union
(06:39):
members need to vote on it before it becomes active.
And so there's still a chance that the union will
reject this new agreement, and that there's still a chance
that we could see a strike in the future, although
it'll probably take a while because all the union members
first have to receive the agreement before they can vote
(07:00):
on it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, and this would also not it wouldn't just affect
Broadway there well, one, it wouldn't affect all of Broadway.
There are like two Broadway shows that aren't under that contract.
But also it would affect touring shows, a lot of
touring shows at least. So I stand behind I at
(07:25):
Sue and trying to get better working agreements. It's going
to be an interesting summer if every avenue of entertainment
shuts down.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I mean, you'll still have local theater because local is different, right,
because this doesn't have to do with local theater unions
or anything like that. So you'll have that, although like
in the state of Georgia, unions, being in a union
sometimes means that you don't get theater work anyway. Because
(07:55):
Georgia's a right to work state. There's only a couple
of union oriented theaters in the state.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I mean, honestly, that's why I switched to film and television,
because you know, I really wanted to pursue acting as
a career. You know, work pursuing being a working actor
is not easy, but it is much much harder if
you are just staying in the stage. Yeah, because there's
only a couple they tend to have. They do fair
auditions and that's all great, and they bring new people in,
(08:24):
but they tend to have, you know, people that they
know and that they love and that they use each season,
providing those people are available and fit the roles. So
it's also a lot fewer roles that you get to.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, I mean, there are more union members than there
are roles that are available, right, Like, Yeah, when you
look at the union houses in our city. I know,
I think Shakespeare Tavern has at least certain some union
and then I know Alliance Theater does, and there might
be others that also have union, but most are non
(08:57):
union houses. And in fact, you know they would rather
not cast union performers because that would mean they'd have
to meet certain minimum requirements in order to have a
union member as part of the cast. Yeah, and a
lot of houses just either don't want to or can't
afford to do that. And so it also means, to
(09:18):
Ariel's point, that if you want to be an actor
in Atlanta, either you are fighting tooth and nail for
maybe a couple of dozen roles that you could potentially
play in a year against every other union actor in
the state or your non union but that means you're
also probably not being paid, or if you are being paid,
(09:41):
your compensation is so small as to not even necessarily
cover your gas to get to and from the gig.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah. So I think there are a few more union
theaters in Atlanta than just those two. There were at
least before the pandemic. I would have to go and research,
and I did not do their research before today. Because
it's been about five years since I've been in stage theater.
I'm actually in a play opening next weekend. But yeah,
(10:10):
a lot of theaters want to pay. There are people
at some sort of reimbursement, but they just can't afford it.
Even like on Stage, which is one of the bigger
theaters that usually pays their actress as stipend. They're struggling
because funding after the pandemic has gone way down in Atlanta,
and also audience numbers haven't gone back up fully, so
(10:34):
it's just a really hard time. Definitely, go support your
local theaters during this time. Definitely do it. I'm going out.
Not only am I in a play, but I'm going
out to support local theater next weekend. So do it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Out of curiosity, where are you going to go see?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I'm going to Dad's garages Friday night birthday show.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Oh okay, yeah, cool. You know it's funny because I
haven't even I didn't even tickets for that, And considering
how frequently I've been to Dad's garage, that is crazy,
because I've been to most of their birthday parties since
two thousand and one.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, well, I've never been I've never been to
one of their birthday parties. But we're going to try
to go as most are all of our band because
you know, they've been nice enough to let us play
some of their gigs and we want to go back
and give support.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So that's awesome. Yeah, and their birthday shows typically are
a lot of fun. They usually are kind of almost
like like a variety show. Often they will I mean
sometimes they'll just do kind of a theater sports style
improv show. But sometimes what they'll do is sort of
a selection of the types of stuff that they're doing
throughout the season, which can sometimes even include previews to
(11:45):
upcoming shows. And they do have a musical coming up
pretty soon that I am excited to see, and it's
a remount of a show that they did years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
My bandmate was telling me about that. Well, if you go,
let me know and I'll tell you where I'm sitting.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
We'll do think.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I think Friday, they're doing karaoke afterwards, though I don't
know if the people, if everybody else I'm going with
will be pumpkinning at that point.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah. No, I tend to I usually have just enough
energy to go to the show and then I'm like
I can hang out and say hi to some of
the people I know, but I need to get home
before much longer than that, because I don't know I've
Before the pandemic, I was definitely a lot more extroverted,
and now I find myself completely drained after engaging in
(12:35):
relatively simple social you know.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Environments, most people have lost their social stamina. Like during
the pandemic, a lot of people can serve to their
energy and so now getting back out and expending that
energy on other people, while it's delightful and you know,
rewarding in its own right, it's it takes a bit
to build that stamina back up. But you know what,
I'm sure all of you listeners really loved us talking
(12:58):
about our next week and plans for a local theater.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, I mean, I think it's interesting because it shows that,
you know, we actually do believe in going to local
theater and supporting the local arts. It's not just that
we're talking about it, we're actually doing it.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah. Yeah, but let's now do a listener suggestion.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right, And who was it that asked us to talk
about our experiences with the Georgia Renaissance Festival.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Deborah did, thank you Debra, and I just want to
say thank you to everybody who's being super supportive in
this time where we're kind of having to change our
format up a little bit. The amount of like positive
feedback we got and support and suggestions, it's just been
like super amazing and heartwarming. So love it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, how would you like to start this conversation?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Oh gods that I have not figured out?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Well, I've got I've got a way of kind of
getting into it, which is that the two of us
had different approaches to getting involved with the Renaissance Festival,
because in my case, I was convinced by a person
who was in a show with me. In your case,
you inherited it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, no, I did not inherit it.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
No, I thought your mom worked there before you did.
Oh no, sir, Oh hey whoa watch it? Listen, hey careful.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I love you mom. No, I did. My first year
at the Georgia, I auditioned.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Uh huh, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Go back and tell my story. You've in fourth grade,
the renfested a promo at a local at a local
like apartment complex, and one of my friends and I
went with her family and we enjoyed. You know, there
are shows and their street characters and some of the food,
and it was wonderful and I was like, oh, I
love this. Maybe me want to be a missing wunch.
And then when I was eighteen, I was doing community
(15:04):
theater in Roswell, and one of the people in that
community theater I had wanted to audition for Renfests. I
was seeing it every year and I always talked myself
out of it. That's a big problem that you know,
insecure actors do. And I auditioned for the Renaissance Festival.
And it's a little bad because I auditioned for the
(15:29):
Renaissance Festival and I auditioned for the Little Prince, which
is a stage play at the community theater was at.
My mom and I both auditioned for Little Prince. We
both got in, but I also got cast in the
Renfest and they had conflicts and I had to pick
the Renfest. But one of my I'm going all over
the place, one of the guys that I acted with
at this community theater told me he did Renfest and
(15:49):
encouraged me to go out. I auditioned for a Kissing Wench.
I got the Old Maid. The next year, my mom
auditioned and also got cast and they were like, well,
if you want to play another character, we could make
you an apprentice to your mom, and I'm like, you
can't do that. I've had more experience than her, which
leads to a whole other issue with Renfest structure that
maybe we will not get into.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Or maybe we will, because in some ways it does
play a lot of parallels with the union y stories too, So.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yes, yes, but then you know, through that back and forth,
they're like, you're right, how about you played this lady
and waiting. So second year, I played a lady in
waiting and I got to do combat and we found
like a good my own negotiations for my position at
fair and it was really interesting that they offered me
an apprenticeship spot because that first year I had one
(16:39):
most improved actor and I don't even think there was
like it was really clicky in that time, Like there
were lots of clicks yeah, and I feel like yeah,
and I feel like that's and I'll stop after this
so you can give your origin story as well. But
I feel like that is why I got most improved,
because I was out there working the street everyday, asking
(17:01):
so many people to marry me convinted them to get
on their knees, and like, I worked hard and I
did well, and there were lots of things, so like,
you're not good. Maybe it's because they didn't think my
bits would work. But my bits worked. My bits worked
really well. So I don't know why I got most improved.
And then I also don't know why the next year
(17:21):
I was possibly looking at an emotion that I did
not get anyhow, That is my origin story. I loved
working Renfest with my mom. I'm glad she joined, but
I was first.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Gotcha and this was two thousand and one. Was your
first season, I think so? Yeah, I think so. I
think your first season was my last one of my
first stint. Yeah, okay, so so my origin story. In
nineteen ninety nine, shortly after the real Renaissance was I
(17:52):
was in a little goofy parody show called Romeo and
Ethel the Pirate's Daughter. But yeah, not that first one,
not the first one. So in that first one, we
performed it at dragon Con, the big science fiction fantasy
fan convention that happens in Atlanta every year, and one
of the other people on cast was someone who had
(18:13):
been working at the Renaissance Festival, and she mentioned that
there were auditions coming up for the fall season of
the festival. So this was like early in our rehearsals
for Romeo and Ethel, which was a fairly ambitious show
for this very amateur theater group. And I say amateur
in that we just didn't have the experience. Not that
they were bad, it's just that everything was harder because
(18:36):
we weren't seasoned at it. So we had a very
long rehearsal process. And during that rehearsal process, we heard
about the auditions for the Renaissance Festival, and so my
partner and I decided we would both audition, and we
went to the auditions, which were held in little Five
Points back in those days. And I had the best
(18:59):
audition of my entire life for the Georgia Renaissance Festival,
which irks me to this day that I wasted it
on that, But no, I had that.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I've had other good auditions, my friend, I've.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Had other good auditions. This one was almost flawless. Like
I walked in there. You had to give a comedic
monologue as part of your audition, and they liked mine,
and it was one that they hadn't heard a billion
times because I got an old like Peter Cook monologue
from Beyond the Fringe days, and not a lot of
(19:34):
people mind that for a comedy, and it went well.
And then they had me do improv as several different
characters and all of that went well, and the very
next day I got a call from the director saying
that I had been hired. I didn't have to go
in for a callback. I was good to go. The
only thing was that my partner did not immediately get cast,
(19:55):
and so for a while it was like, well, if
if she doesn't get cast, I'm not gonna go because
I don't want to spend all those weeks away from her,
plus ad it just it would be really complicated. But
she got cast as well. So I did a stint
from ninety nine to two thousand and one. So I
was there for Ariel's first season, and then I was
(20:16):
gone till probably about two thousand. I showed up briefly
on one day in two thousand and two as a
gag as the character I had played from ninety nine
to two thousand and one. Then I was gone. Came
back in two thousand and eight, could not play my
original character who was the mayor of the town, because
(20:36):
at that point they had a different actor playing the mayor.
So I just decided to promote myself and made myself
the Lord Admiral, same character, just different rank. And I
was there from two thousand and eight to probably two
thousand and eleven or twelve, maybe thirteen, left again, came
back again for a few more seasons, and then left
And I think now it's well and truly done multiple reasons.
(21:01):
So in all of my time at the Renaissance Festival,
I have played four street characters. How many I know
you've played a lot, so how many street characters have
you been including your musical character.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Now I'm trying to figure out whether my mom was
there my first season.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I don't remember her being there, but for some reason,
it had it in my head that she had performed
at a Renaissance Festival in the past, so.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
That was my she did, so she did. I feel
like the first year I was there by myself, and
then she played the herbalist and then she played Indigo
dry Brush. My mom played two characters, and by the
time she was playing Indigo dry Brush, I was Lady
killing him. But I've played. Let's see. There was Liza
(21:49):
alone a lot the old maid. That's one. There was
Vogue la mode a fashion consultant to the queen. That
was two. There was Lady killing him softly with his words. Uh,
that was three, Black Widow. There was h band Does
that count my band? Yeah, Beatrice Flats and Hudson, Vincent Johnson,
(22:13):
Holland Small and Spence in Swanson but friends called b Flat.
So that's one, two, three, four. And then I was
Lady emilion Naire. That's five. And then I was a
kissing wench. That's six. And then I went back and I, oh,
I did like one weekend as a fill in for
Lady de.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Winter during Well, if we're yeah, we're counting fill ins,
I guess I've been five. I didn't think about.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Films, Yes, but six, six to seven if fillins count seven,
If not, then six.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah. So in my case, I was the Mayor Edmund Vainglory,
the third from my original run. And the whole, the
whole stick with him is that he was a very
pompous uh character toward all the the peasants, but would
bow and scrape for all the nobility because he was
smack dab in the middle. We would have a village hierarchy,
(23:08):
which would tell you where you fell socially among the
status of all the other characters. And so I was
smack dab in the middle. And so I got to
play Tyrant to all the peasants and Toady to all
the nobles, which was a lot of fun. But then,
like I said, when I came back, the mayor role
had been taken, I still was Edmund Vang Glory the third.
(23:29):
I really didn't change the character that much. I just
made him lord Admiral, So now he was like right
below the King and Queen because lord Admiral is a
very very high position, so I went straight to like
Tyrant unless the King and Queen were there, so it
was slightly different then I was. Was I Sebastian at
(23:54):
Keyes I can't remember, so I didn't This wasn't a
character I created, but a mutual friend of ours was
playing this character, one of the two villains one season
of the festival, and he got very very seriously injured
and a work injury, and they needed someone to step
in for the first couple of weekends. So they called
(24:16):
me up and I stepped in and I played a
Spanish you know, swordsman for a couple of weekends. That
was the villain character. Then I was the Lord Admiral
a couple more times, and then I came in as
one a French swordsman, a one eyed French swordsman, Robert Camembert,
(24:37):
Marquis de Roque Force, lots of cheese puns. And then
my last season there I was William Shakespeare, as in
the actual playwright William Shakespeare. That was the character I played.
Very odd because the monarch at the time was neither
Elizabeth nor James, so technically I shouldn't have been Williams's.
(25:00):
But we've never been sticklers for actual, you know, historical alignment,
so it was it was decided that it was fine.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, what was your was Was the mayor your favorite?
Or was the Admiral your favorite?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I think the Admiral was my favorite for a few reasons.
I found my stride as the Mayor. The Mayor I
felt was in some ways, the Mayor was the most
fun to play because I did get a chance to
play very different characters depending upon what other characters might
be present. Whenever I was with patrons guests who were
(25:40):
there at the festival. I was very, very silly and
supercilious and self important, and I invented a holiday called
Hug your Mayor Day, which I would I would open
up my arms and say it's Hug your Maya Day,
and either people would giggle and walk past, which was
perfectly fine, or sometimes it would actually give me a hug,
(26:01):
which was also okay. The best one being when a
young woman and her extremely tall boyfriend came up and
I announced it was Hug your Mayor Day and she
looks up at her boyfriend says, well, it is hug
your Mayor days. It's all right, and he runs up
to me and grabs me and lifts me off my
feet in a big bear hug. And I was like,
this is the best is the best outcome that could
(26:22):
have happened with this, because it's such I can play
it up as a character and they're having a great time,
and she's laughing and he's laughing, and the people around
us are laughing, Like that's what you that's what you're
living for as a street character. So yeah, I think
mayor is my favorite. Who is your favorite to play?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
So like the thing is, you know the moments that
you remember, are moments like that, the moments where you
can one hundred percent solidly quantify the enjoyment you're giving
to other people, Right, That's what it's all about. And
I've had those moments with most of my characters. Gosh,
(27:07):
I don't I did. It's hard. I really don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It was clearly Vogue la mode because you've got to
hang out with me so much in those years.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I did. I did love Vogue once I reprised her
because she was my second character, and then she was
my h and my mom my mom confirmed, Uh, if
you heard pings in the background, that was my phone
in my computer. My mom confirmed. She came in on
my second season, Love you mom.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
But uh, I really liked Vogue when I was able
to come back and play her the way I wanted
to play her with a supportive court again. I had
a lot of fun with her the first time, but
the court was less supportive of the character and would
often do things that they thought were funny, but just
felt like they were denying, picking on me, denying my character,
(27:57):
wasting my props that I was paying for myself. I
used to typing ribbons around trees and I did that
both my circuit first and second reprisal, because as a
street character, you know, you would have your bits, and
then you would have what are called latzis, which are
things you could do visually that were low energy when
you're hot or you're tired, that would still entertain the audience.
So for me, it was fashionifying the trees, tying pink
(28:20):
ribbons on them because I was all about pink and
the court when I first played it, the king decided
he hated that, and I mean, that's that's a valid
that's a valid character choice because we're told, you know,
be be muppets either love or hate things, there's no
in between. But as a part of that, he would
have people cut ribbons off of trees and bury them
in the sand, in the dirt, and I'm like, if
(28:43):
you don't like the ribbons, I'm not tying them on
tight untie given back to me. I can reuse them.
But they didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, Instead, you're you're you're constantly having to resupply your
your ribbon and continue to spend. So yeah, that's a
that's a I will say that your outfit for Vogue
was spectacular.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Again on the reprisal.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yes, yeah, that's that's well, that's the Vogue I was
familiar with, right, because that was the I was gone
for the original Vogue la Mode, Like I wasn't there
when you were playing her originally. I was there for
the second appearance of Vogue and uh, because by then
I was the Lord Admiral. Lord Admiral and Vogue would
often be in the same court. In fact, we would
(29:29):
often be paired together because Ariel and I were already
good friends at this point, and we would usually be
dancing partners for courtly dancing, which was funny because I
joke about Aeriel towering over me. She is taller than
I am. She's not like like I'm not. I'm not tiny,
and she's not not like a giant, but there is
a height difference. But it made dancing more fun for me,
(29:52):
noticed well I did. But then also we would dance
on hills and occasionally that would mean that you would
tower over me, depending on on what side you.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Were on, especially if I was wearing my tall hat.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yes, yes, you had a tall an Elizabethan well really
Victorian era tall hat. But again, we never were super picky.
I mean I wore a cavalier hat, which wasn't period either,
so it's fine, yeah, but yeah, it's it's funny. You
know you mentioned bits and lotzis. Those were those were
our currency as characters, right, we were We would do
(30:24):
a lotzi in order to get attention, which may or
may not feed into a bigger interaction. A bit was
when you had a planned interaction with the audience, and
every character had to have lotzis and bits, and you
would workshop them throughout rehearsal where you would come up
with ways that you would get attention for yourself where
(30:47):
you know, both whether it was a stationary lotzy where
you're standing or sitting in place and you're getting attention,
or a moving a traveling lotzi where you're going from
point A to point B, but you need to do
something interesting while you're doing it and not just be
you know, head down walking getting to your destination. You're
still a character you need to entertain as you move.
(31:10):
So those were like the two big things. And then
on top of that you had character character interactions, which
ideally would be these.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Bigger bits with audiences.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, bigger bits where it might be a competition between
two characters, it might be someone trying to woo someone else.
It might be someone trying to insult someone else, but
these would be meant for larger crowds, like you would
try to do this to entertain a big group as
opposed to like a like a family or something. So
(31:42):
those were kind of the the parameters we worked in.
Things changed dramatically over the years from the point where
we started to what it most recently is. But when
we began, the rehearsal process was really really grueling. I mean,
especially if you were a first year you had so
(32:04):
many rehearsals to go to. There was a go ahead
or a new character that's true, or a new character,
because the whole purpose of the rehearsal process is to
discover who the character is right to, you know, the
role you're going to play. Like in my case, I
was the mayor. They actually gave me a choice my
first season. They gave me the option of either being
(32:26):
the mayor or the town doctor. And when they told
me the choice, I was like, well, mayor out ranks
and doctor. Clearly that's the character I want to play.
So I played the mayor and they had been bitten
by the fact that I think a mayor maybe even
the season before I started dropped out early in the
(32:49):
festival season and no one could get hold of them
for like the rest of the run, and so they
were a little cautious about putting too much pressure on me.
But it really wasn't pressure because I wasn't. I wasn't
in most of the other stuff. But yeah, you know,
it's it that that rehearsal process was lengthy and exhausting
(33:12):
and exhaustive as well. Like we would start with an
animal image where you would have to pick an animal
to represent what your character was so that it would
inform your personality and your movements and all that kind
of stuff. So out of curiosity, do you remember what
your animal image was for the Old Maid? Uh?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, it was. It was a chicken. Ch chicken. It
was a chicken, because I was.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Like, ah, nice. Mine was my dog Falstaff at the time.
He was a Jack Russell Terrier. And when I explained
Jack Rustle terrier, everyone thought I was playing the character wrong, like, oh,
you don't know my dog. My dog. My dog thinks
he's a big dog. But also if he runs into
something he's not familiar with, immediately turns cowardly which is true.
(34:05):
My dog once got scared because he saw a bucket
and he didn't know what it was. So yeah, you know,
that was the kind of character I was playing. But
they were thinking of like the stereotypical jack rustle terrier,
very very you know, alpha terrier kind of dog. And no,
that's not really what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah, I remember most of my animal images. I do
want to go back and say I also super loved
my kissing wunch. I would play her again, but we're
in a world now where kissing wunches don't work unless
you play them a very specific way. And I hate
to be like the person who says I played it right,
but I feel like I was the person who played
it in a way that would be accessible nowadays.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Well, and part of it was tough because like it
had nothing to do with the actor, but it had
to do with the patron behavior, right, Like if you
had a patrin patrons coming in and one of them
is like insistent that you kiss their ten year old
son who is doing his darndest to try and escape
(35:11):
because he's absolutely mortified. It's just it's not something that
ends up being a pleasant experience for anyone involved.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, you're half right. It also has to do with
the actor. But because a lot of times, at least
at the Georgia Renaissance Festival, they would cast pretty first
year people as kissing wenches. And that is a role
because you have to learn how to gauge people's comfortability.
If you haven't worked on the streets as a street
character before, if you don't have a good understanding of
(35:42):
drunk patrons, of shy patrons, of all of these things,
of people who are too hot, of people who just
don't want to be interacted with, if you can't gauge
the level of interaction a person wants going into it,
which everybody messes up. There are things that I could
do better if I were a kissing weunch again, then
you're going to fail. You're gonna make people on comfortable,
You're going to be uncomfortable. It can be sometimes be
(36:02):
dangerous because people have a fight or flight instinct and
sometimes they pick a fight.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And also at the Renaissance Festival is a place that
serves alcohol and people, especially like before the blue laws
were lifted, definitely on Saturdays, but then after the blue
laws were lifted Sundays too, people would hit that tavern
as early as it would open. And you know, in Georgia,
(36:29):
the festival when I started, there were two festivals. There
was one in the fall and one in the spring.
I did the very last fall season. We didn't know
it was the last one while we were doing it,
and my partner and I said, if we do it again,
let's just do the fall. Let's not do spring because
it's too hot. We'll do the fall. And then and
then there was the announcement that fall was done. They
(36:51):
were not doing fall again, and went no. Well, in
the spring, when it gets so hot, people drink even
more and they're not drinking necessarily water, they're drinking mead
or beer or whatever. And then you deal with progressively
intoxicated patrons and that that can be dangerous for them. Actually,
(37:12):
Like I can't tell you how many times I had
to run off to find someone with a walkie talkie
to get you know, medical attention because somebody was dehydrated
because all they had been drinking was alcohol. It was
too hot and they passed out.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, because as a street character you also had to
you helped in. There were people who were like EMTs,
and there were people who were security. But you also
helped those people because you're interacting with patrons two quick things.
We're bouncing around so much, and you're keeping the conversation going.
But I have all these thoughts that I'm not getting out,
and one of them is beyond bits and latzis there
(37:50):
are people who went I was very much a bit actor.
I loved my bits. I worked hard on them, and
they usually ended up in the person getting some sort
of like tangible ward and I love that, and I
didn't mind pouring my own money into that. You are
the kind of actor who loved doing bits with people,
but you were very improvisational in your bits, oftentimes especially
(38:12):
later on in the season. And that's something more seasoned
actors could do. Again, Like season kissing, wenches can gauge
audiences and adjust. You know, this person doesn't want to kiss,
but maybe we can teach them how to kiss their
mom or if you build a well rounded character, pivot
to something else that has nothing to do with kissing
but has to do with your character. Yeah, so it
(38:32):
is interesting. There are people who would try to do
the improv route, but they weren't strong. Street street worker
is not the right term. Street characters yeah, and so
it didn't quite have the same payoff for audiences. The
other thing is I will say like I fought. I
fought to be in Scenario every single year because I
loved doing combat and I loved having moments where I
(38:54):
could go to scripted and kind of just change up
my day. And the year that I finally got into Sono,
I got cast as a villain, and then in the
middle of the rehearsal process, the plot changed and we
were no longer the villains of the story. We were
still kind of villainous, but we weren't like the villains,
(39:15):
and that got really frustrating. I loved all the combat,
even when I got my knuckle busted by another fighter
and had to go get stitches and come back and
do the rest of my fights for the day, which
was like four or five per festival day. But that
as much fun as I had that season, that was
my least rewarding character because it I had to pivot
(39:36):
in the middle of rehearsals and was no longer playing
the character that I had built all this excitement for.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, and to help people who may not know what
we mean when we say scenario or as ariels proposely
says scenario, which that's how the quizt That's how the
quizzer says it on Ridiculous History. That's my character on
Ridiculous History. So I'm trying not to fall into that character. Alike,
he's a scenario, but no scenario at Renaissance festival, that's
(40:08):
like the overall story for the day, like why is
the festival happening? And some years we didn't have one,
Like we really didn't have a scenario. We just we
did an opening gate where it was just oh, the
King's here, yay, and then pronounced the days started, and
there's a festival for no particular reason. Other seasons we
would have an actual storyline, including villains who are trying
(40:30):
to ruin the festival for one reason or another. Usually
it involves stealing something that the king wants to give
to the queen. Like so that was the plot so
many times that I made it a joke in one
of the scenarios I wrote. But the overall story is
something that as a patron you can follow or you cannot.
It doesn't really impact your day, but if you want
(40:51):
to know the story, you can actually go and follow it.
And when I first joined, it was much much, much
easier to follow the scenario because not only was it
listed in the schedule for the day, but they they
arranged for the scenario to play out on actual stages,
so you would know to go to a specific stage
(41:11):
a specific time to see a chapter of the story unfold.
In later seasons, more and more of the stages were
given up to contracted stage acts that came in to perform,
and the scenario was moved off the stages into the streets,
which one, you can't really tell people, hey, show up
(41:33):
in show up in the lanes at this general location
at this general time, and you'll see something. It also
made it much harder to stage because you no longer
had like, you know, you no longer had a stage
to actually perform on. You were performing theater in the round,
and you.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Had to be honestly says, don't know what grassy noole means.
There's like five of them.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Yeah. Well, and you also had to be careful, right
because like if you're if you're doing stage combat in
the lanes, you had to have extra people there to
make sure the audience stayed at a safe distance so
that they didn't get whacked by a sword like our
swords weren't sharp. But as Aeriel can attest, you know,
you get hit by a stage sword or a stage
(42:16):
axe or something like that, it hurts.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I'm going to say that's the sword was not dulled.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Oh wow, Okay, well that was like.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Or at least not dulled enough, like they had bought
that sword, and if it was dulled, it wasn't dulled properly.
But it all still had nicks in it from fighting
with other swords.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
So yeah, you're you're supposed to you're supposed to file
those down. Yeah, but yeah, I I would not have. No,
I would never have fought in any fight where someone
was not using an actual stage combat sword. That's just
what I just wouldn't. Like, No, it's not safe.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
It busted up my middle finger. I didn't realize till
after the fight. The other fighters like are you okay?
Are you okay? And I love them and it was
an accident and I'm not mad.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
I'm sure that's that's that's all fine. I don't. I don't.
I'm not suggesting the actor was like purposefully or even
really negligent, other than the fact that they were not
using a stage combat sword, which is in my mind
you can't do that.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
But anyway, yeah, but uh but oh no, that year
was not the year that I was in That was
the second time I was in scenario as Vogel Moote.
I was in scenario once as Vogel Mode. I was
also in scenario once as a millionaire. When I was
Voglamode in scenario, it was fine because I like that character.
When I was a milia ownaire, I enjoyed being in scenario.
I enjoyed the things I did, but it wasn't my
(43:32):
favorite character. I did, however, get my lifelong brother from
another mother during that season, who I love in his
family to me, so that is super awesome. Yeah, but
the bend, like I didn't know, I had to go
get stitches. A lot of my injuries at Fair were
things that I didn't realize at first. It was all
(43:53):
my middle finger. So the last fight of the day
was a staff fight and I ended up flicking everybody
off because I couldn't bend my middle finger. The entire season.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Well, we were going to continue this conversation, but Aerial
lost power because there's a massive storm moving into Atlanta
and it hit her part of Atlanta already. It hasn't
hit me yet, So we're just going to call this
part one and it'll probably be a two part or
who knows, maybe a multi part episode about our experiences
at the Renaissance Festival. Now we're going to talk about
(44:26):
that next week. So if you have questions, specific questions
you would like to ask us that pertained to the
Renaissance Festival and our work there, whether it's you know,
how we put our characters together, what were the sort
of things we thought about, If there were any like
terrible moments that we had at the festival because I
(44:48):
had a couple, or if there were you know, questions
about things like stage combat and or writing for the festival,
all that kind of stuff, please feel free to ask.
We actually have a lot lot of thoughts also about
how the festival has changed over the years. And I'll
tell you now, I am very grouchy, so I get
(45:11):
roll grouchy talking about it. But you know, you have
to also understand that working at the festival was never
a prestige job, even in the good old days as
it were. But yeah, we can talk about all those
sorts of things if there any if there's anything specific
you want to know, you can reach out to us.
Let's see, Jonathan, how do they reach you? Well, Ariel,
(45:33):
I'm glad you asked. If you wish to ask me
a question, what you must do is travel out to
the countryside and find yourself a fairly you know, remote area,
large area that you can retrofit into a Renaissance festival,
right that you can turn into a village. One important
(45:57):
element of this village is while it needs to be remote,
also absolutely must be directly in line of air traffic
from the local airport. If you don't have airplanes flying
overhead numerous times a day, which absolutely drowns out anything
you're trying to say while you're being in character, then
it's not really a Renaissance festival. But yes, you must
(46:18):
go and build a Renaissance festival. At this Renaissance festival,
you have to have vendors, and you have to have
stages and areas where characters can interact with patrons and
musicians can perform and create a lot of ambience so
that you feel like you're in a magical, distant land
(46:39):
walking through time. You want to do all of that,
You want to get all of that together and the
most important part is you need to make sure everyone
who works for you, no matter what department they are in,
deals valued and recognized for their contributions. And once you
do that, you can ask me your question and I'll
tell you an answer. But if you want the is
(47:00):
your way, well, I'll let past Ariel'll tell you from
some random episode I've just chosen to include here and
cut out and paste into this one.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
And if you want to go through a little less trauma,
you can contact us on social media on Twitter or
llenc Underscore podcast on threads, Instagram, and Facebook. We are
a large ner Drunk Collider. That's also our website www
dot largnur drunk collider dot com. I will host some
of the strike news and maybe the community fund link
(47:35):
there sometime this weekend er week And yeah, you can
check us out on discord too. Until next time. I
have been aerial.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Castin and I am Jonathan Hazzan Strickland. The Large nerdron
Collider was created by Ariel Caston and produced, edited, published, deleted, undeleted,
published again, cursed at by Jonathan Strickland. Music by Kevin
(48:13):
McLeod of incomptech dot com
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