Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Faire, week 2
The photos for this weekend can be found at: https://phoenixswords.dreamwidth.org/5605.html
It started half way between the first and second weekends. Their vendor manager texted me that our tent had problems during some very strong rain.
The center pole had snapped, but the rest of the tent stayed up.
This is the same thing that happened in New Hampshire two months before. The poles are made of wood, are a dozen years old, and showing their age.
I got replacement poles from Home Deport to bring with us.
Ravena_kade came out to our place Friday to join us for the show, and we got their fairly early Saturday morning to put up the new poles.
One thing I had not known about our tent, even after 12 years, the top peak is double layered. Probably to support the force of the center pole. But, if you leaving it soaking in the rain for three days, it turns into a giant water balloon. So, lifting it with the new poles was a challenge due to that. But, I managed.
Saturday was very hot and humid. It took a toll on us, no doubt. One nice thing was that another group there had shown us you could get personal coolers that are basically a fan over a cup of ice that blow cold air on you. My wife got us 5 for the weekend, and they were used a lot.
My wife is still injured from her work place 3 weeks ago, so can not do as much as normal. She is not happy about that at all. I reminder her that when I hurt my arms a few years ago, it was 4 months before I could even do the most basic sword fight again, and I remember how frustrating that was. But, it’s still bad for her.
The shows went well enough given the heat and humidity. It didn’t rain, which was nice.
The cast party was that night and we were welcome, but we didn’t stay.
As we left, about 7 at night, I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since before noon. So, we stopped for fast food. It had been a long time since I’d had any, and it’s been noticeable since then. Hopefully by today things will be back to normal.
Sunday was supposed to rain all day, but it held off. It was a bit cooler and cloudy, but that was OK. Weather radar said there were storms around us, but they didn’t go over the faire, so that was good.
The other good thing was that Casey joined us for Sunday. Holly and I have been performing with him since before we started Phoenix Swords 21 years ago and it’s always good to have him at shows. (21 years ago yesterday is when I reserved the name Phoenix Swords…)
Everything went well with the shows. The rain held off until the last 15 minutes of the faire, and we were already starting to pack up by then. So, we were able to get the tent into its bags quickly before it got really wet.
By the time the faire officially ended we had everything in its bags under the tent for the stage across the aisle from where we had been and watched it start to rain as the final sing went on.
There was another problem with the 9 year old.
Casey was working with the two kids using the pole axes. Two handed pole weapons with spears on both ends and a hammer near the top. They’re designed to fight people in armor and can be very dangerous. We use rubber ones because they just aren’t safe with steel.
He was showing them some of the moves, but very slow and very exaggerated. That’s fine for teaching, but there were a few times he let them win when what they did shouldn’t have worked.
“You’re being too easy on them,” I said.
“What do you mean?” 11 year old TJ said.
“He let you disarm him, but that shouldn’t have worked. You didn’t pull it the right way to really get it away from him.”
“Show me,” TJ said.
“OK, but it won’t be nice.”
“I want to see.”
So, I took the pole axe and held it as Casey did. TJ put his whole body weight into trying to move mine and it didn’t move.
“And, because you’re pulling so hard, that can be used against you,” I said.
“How?” he asked.
So, I let it move and he fell backwards and I brought my point to where it was clear I could stab him.
He asked to try it again and I did it a different way.
And, again.
And, again.
“I think I know how to stop you, but I’m worried about trying it,” he said.
“Don’t worry about hurting Uncle Frank,” his dad said. “You won’t.”
He tried something. It didn’t work. He did hit my finger, which did hurt a bit, but not too much. And, I demonstrated three different attacks I could do to him to respond for what he had done.
“I could hit you,” his 9 year old sister, the thief, said.
TJ handed the pole axe to her without a word and sat down.
As her brother had, she tried to hook the head of mine with hers and pull it away. Casey had let her do that. I did not.
The pulled and pulled. I did not move.
“That move only works if you surprise the other person,” her father said to her. “Did you surprise Uncle Frank?”
She pulled harder.
“It is dangerous to pull so hard,” I told her.
“Why?”
So, just like with her brother, I twisted my pole axe to disengage and the force of her pulling shot her backwards were she landed on her backside.
She got up and tried it again.
“I do not need to be so nice,” I said to her.
She pulled harder.
“You should try something else,” I said.
She kept pulling.
I knocked her pole axe aside and put the point in front of her face, clearly where I could have stabbed her with it if I wanted to.
She tried the same thing again. I did a different move with the same result.
She threw her pole axe down and went and knelt by her father and began to cry. Very dramatically.
He ignored her.
“These are not toys, they are weapons,” I said to her. “Don’t forget that. If you do, expect me to remind you of the difference.”
She gave a big sob.
Everyone went back to talking about other things.
She stayed there kneeling with her head of her father’s knee for quite some time. No one said anything else to her. There were a couple of times I saw her try and sneak looks out at other folks, but nothing came of that.
Eventually the time for the next show came and her father got up and started getting ready for it. She looked around and went to stand by her brother. She acted normally the rest of the day.
She’s the daughter of a good friend and our best performer in the troupe.
But, I hate this behavior. And, do not think highly of her.
I’ve known a lot of folks in my life who thought they could get away with things for various reasons. Some of them were right.
I have very little tolerance for that kind of thing.
It’s one thing when kids are too young to know they’re getting off on being cute, but this is calculated. And, those numbers don’t work for me.
We’ve had this problem over and over again in the troupe. It has always been with gown ups before, not kids. But, we didn’t have kids around before.
The list of people who thought they were special and didn’t have to play by the rules, or were just so good they could do what they wanted is quite long.
Of the 114 folks who have performed with us over the years, I’d mark down 29 of them as falling into that category. That’s more than 25%.
I guess you just get a lot of folks like that who want to be the center of attention on stage.
None of them are still performing with us.
Not that many have been outright fired for it, but some have.
Most leave when they don’t get what they want.
We’ll see how this turns out as most don’t have their father trying to get them to do it.