Friend a Day – Erin Kasper
Erin and I have been around the Renaissance Festival for a long time and as a performer, I can’t tell you how valuable I think she is to the cast.
Over the years, she has been one of those people who sees a need and steps in to fill it. She doesn’t do it because she wants attention. She does it because she thinks that it is important.
When we needed an Entertainment director, she did it because someone needed to. When the Children’s realm was without leadership, she stepped in to take it over. When nobody was making sure the years of service awards were happening, she stepped up and did that.
Most of what she does is not audience facing work. That makes it all the more valuable because she makes it easier for the entertainers to entertain.
She’s also one of the best one on one street performers I know.
About ten years ago, there was a cold, rainy day at the festival. There were hardly any audience members and I remember looking at Erin and saying that there was probably one audience member for every entertainer. The two of us decided to adopt a couple for the day and proceeded to walk them around the festival for about three hours.
It was one of those entertainment moments nobody sees or talks about but for those two people, it was extraordinary. Erin gives people those extraordinary experiences all the time.
Erin is one of those people who works really hard and then plays just as hard. I’ve had great times with her juggling torches around a bonfire at Omegacon, playing black light mini-golf at CONvergence, and laughing at dinner after long, hot weekends.
Being around Erin reminds me that some things are important and they won’t get done if you complain that nobody is doing them. Sometimes you just have to do it yourself.
Erin is a great person. I’m so glad that she’s a friend.
Friend a Day – Ishmael Williams
Photo by Peter Verrant
The first time I met Ishmael, I misjudged him. He was walking hand in hand with his partner Jules and I was disappointed to see that she’d broken up with her old boyfriend. I didn’t know they were in a poly relationship. Fortunately, I didn’t say anything. That would have been awkward!
I really got to know Ishmael when we were forming CONvergence. He brought his years of expertise working with convention hotel arrangements to us when we desperately needed a hotel to take us seriously.
He is one of the most thoughtful people I know. As conversations arguments progressed on various CONvergence topics, he would often hold his tongue the longest. When he finally spoke, he frequently managed to end the conversation because what he had to say managed to bring together all that had gone before in a way that made sense and cut through the emotion.
I make fun of Ishmael for loving just about every movie he watches. I think he has a natural ability to find what is enjoyable in almost everything. He doesn’t tell you what he didn’t like about something. He tells you what he liked about it.
After our first convention, it was Ishmael who gathered the rest of the board members together so we could take a moment to simply appreciate what we’d managed to accomplish (with a lot of help). He’s very good at taking the time to appreciate things and he’s even better at encouraging others to do the same.
Ishmael is one of the most personable people I know. He has a lot of friends because why wouldn’t you want to be his friend?
He inspires tremendous loyalty in others because he earns it. He treats everyone around him with respect and admiration for their talents and skills.
As my involvement with CONvergence has changed, I’ve found I have less time to spend with Ishmael. After board meetings, he would frequently stand in our doorway for particularly long Minnesota goodbyes.
I miss those long goodbyes. I certainly wish we had more time together than we used to because Ishmael is one of those people whose time it is easy to enjoy.
Friend a Day – Angie Anderson
Angie is someone I’ve known since High School. I think that we met on a trip to French camp. That’s what I remember anyway. I know there was a trip to French camp. Angie probably remembers it correctly because she’s got a far better memory than I do.
She’s one of those relentlessly cheerful people who simply never lets life get her down. The smile that is almost always on her face is not fake. She really is that cheerful.
She is also chatty and makes friends as easily as anyone I know. It only takes about five minutes for someone to be her new best friend.
When my kids were little, Angie was their day care mom. Most of the time my wife and I were their second or third favorite adult but it was a pretty significant drop from the top spot to the actual parents.
She has a great way with kids and with playful adults. I think that’s why she has worked so long in Connie’s Quantum Sandbox at CONvergence. When ideas like Marco Polo or dodgeball come up, she always seems game to lead them. She just seems to enjoy finding ways to get people to play.
I was talking to her this last weekend and she told me that she explained to her daughters that they would know when they were becoming teenagers because everything their parents said would sound stupid. While that statement is, sadly, accurate of all teenagers, I hope it doesn’t come to pass because her daughters should know that their mom is definitely not stupid.
A little bit eccentric, sure. But definitely not stupid.
Her eccentricity, though, is part of her charm.
She’s a great cook and has been for as long as I’ve known her. I can remember going over to her house for dinner back when we were teenagers and she was cooking meals even then.
I think the friends you keep around you for the longest time are there for a reason. Angie has a personality that makes me happy and when it comes to good reasons, that is the best of all.
Friend a Day – Kelvin Hatle
Photo by Bob Alberti
I met Kelvin during the early years of CONvergence when he was performing as a member of Soylent Theater.
Kelvin is a very quiet person when he is hanging out in a group of people. He’s a lot more likely to listen to a conversation at a party than to join in with one. You really need to spend some one on one time with him to have any real chance to know him.
He is a gifted improviser, which comes as a surprise if you know him only as the guy who is quiet at parties. When he gets on stage for an improv, he becomes a different person. Which is sort of the point, I guess.
Over the last few years, he has taken to producing one man shows at the Minnesota Fringe. So far, each one has been a little bit better than the last. He’s really grown as a writer and a performer through those solo shows.
I’d put him in everything I wrote if I could. He always finds a way to make what I do funnier than it was on the page.
He’s also very good at trivia. He worked with us on the GPS team trivia contest and he had the ability to write questions that were both challenging and interesting. When he moved on from the contest, we lost one of our best writers.
When he joined the cast of Vilification Tennis, he brought an entirely different personality to the stage. His dry delivery and his clever writing take a little while to catch on with the audience at times but with a little time to warm up, he gets them on his side.
There are several performers in the Twin Cities of whom I never tire. Kelvin is one of them. I will cheerfully go to anything in which he takes part because I know he will always be a lot of fun to watch.
I look forward to many more opportunities to work with Kelvin because he makes everyone around him look better.
Friend a Day – Rachael Salisbury
Photo by Peter Verrant
Rachael and I go back a long way. She and my brother we good friends during High School. We got along and hung out at that time but she didn’t really become a major part of my life until she joined The Dregs a few years ago.
She was such an important addition to the band for so many reasons.
This may come as a shock to most people who know the members of my band, but we can frequently get a little distracted at rehearsal. Rachael is the person who will most likely get us back on track. I’m not going to say she cracks the whip because that isn’t the right way to put it.
Rather, she pushes us back on the road.
Another thing that might surprise you about a group of Type A personalities is every now and again things can get pretty tense. When that happens, Rachael is frequently the person I’ll call just to calm myself down. She listens and calmly explains to me why I shouldn’t be freaking out.
So I stop freaking out and deal with the problem rationally.
Rachael is a committed singer who performs with other vocal groups in addition to The Dregs. She really enjoys singing and I’m glad I get to share her enjoyment.
When I think about my friends, I often think about the kind of conversations I have with them. With Rachael, our conversations are thoughtful and frequently focused on stuff that we want to do and how to get it done. I’m not going to say that everything gets done but I like that Rachael is focused on achieving goals.
If there is a member of The Dregs who is not trying to grab attention, it is Rachael. That’s great because it means there are only five of us trying to steal focus instead of all six. When she does decide to grab focus, I think she can be more effective simply because of the fact that she hangs back to wait for her moment.
It’s a lesson the rest of us should learn. At the very least, I should.
I love performing with Rachael and I’m really glad that she has rotated back into my life. She’s a whole lot of fun.
Friend a Day – Jeremy Stomberg
Before Jeremy and I signed on to help create a new convention over fifteen years ago, we’d never met.
At one of the first meetings for the new convention, we needed to decide what the name was going to be. We’d been calling it Macrocon but many of us didn’t like that name. In a brainstorming/debate session that took most of an evening, we eventually settled on the name CONvergence.
In the brainstorming and debate that went on, Jeremy first felt that we should keep the name Macrocon and then voted against CONvergence again and again.
Thing is, the moment the name was decided, he was completely on board. He recognized that he’d been given the opportunity to make his argument and the rest of us weren’t convinced.
Jeremy disagreed with the rest of us a lot. But he never took it personally when a decision didn’t go his way.
I give him credit for that because I know when the situation was reversed, I did have a tendency to take it personally.
There’s something about the way Jeremy communicates that is nothing short of masterful. I’ve seen someone try to provoke him in a room full of people and he has always deflected the provocation with grace and style. He knows when it is time to argue and when it is time to defuse the situation.
He’s been an announcer with the Minnesota Rollergirls for some time now and you can tell he is really enjoying that gig. He’s naturally comfortable as an emcee and has a great sense of humor.
If Jeremy approaches me with a wry smile and starts to talk very quietly and earnestly, I know that what he is about to say is probably going to make me laugh. He knows how to tell a joke.
He also knows how to take a joke. When he is the target, he is always graceful and never takes it personally.
He has a cheerful nature and can laugh at just about anything. That’s probably why arguments don’t get to him. He just laughs it off.
The other thing Jeremy has in abundance is confidence. When he chooses to do something, he takes responsibility to do it right and he has the belief that he will do it right.
I never would have known Jeremy had CONvergence not brought us together. He’s not the only person who came into my life through the convention but he’s one of best.
Friend a Day – Jane Anfinson
Jane is my sister-in-law and I can’t imagine my brother finding a more compatible companion.
She had been seeing my brother for a little while before we met and I remember liking her the first time there was a family gathering in which she took part. She’s just really easy to like. From that first day, she’s always felt like a member of the family. By that I mean that she feels comfortably compatible with the rest of us. It feels like she’s always been around.
What has always struck me about Jane is the way she deals with stress with such serenity. I’m sure that she experiences as much stress as the rest of us but she always manages to stay calm and rational in the face of challenging circumstances. I think that she becomes a great source of support in those situations because she retains her composure.
She has a delightful sense of humor that can be very dry. Her laugh is playful and always suggests a bit of impish delight.
Jane is a talented musician and an avid bird watcher. She likes birds (and other animals) so much, that she went back to school to become a wildlife biologist. What great is just seeing her re-focus her life on something that is a passion.
Jane and my brother spend many weekends together camping in state parks. They bird watch and get away from the busy lives they lead during the week. I honestly couldn’t tell you which of them loves the outdoors more. Given Jane’s day job takes her outside more frequently, I’ll give her the tiebreaker.
She’s also a great “sit down and talk to over coffee” kind of person (even though I don’t drink coffee). Conversations are relaxed and fun and don’t feel forced or uncomfortable.
I always look forward to time I get to spend with Jane because the time passes so enjoyably and so quickly. I like my brother a lot and it makes me very happy that he gets to spend so much time with such a great person.
Jane is a member of the Community Women’s Orchestra in Oakland, CA. She also has a website!
Friend a Day – Gary Parker
I met Gary Parker almost 30 years ago when I was trying to get into the Renaissance Festival academy.
The short version of the story is my family had gone on a one-month trip to Europe and I missed the first two weeks of academy in what would be my rookie year. I’d mentioned it would happen at my audition but by the time I got home, I’d been cut.
A normal person would have just tried out the next year. Not me. All my friends had gotten into the festival that year. I didn’t want to wait. So I followed Gary Parker, who was director of the academy at the time, around for most of the evening trying to convince him to give me a chance.
It worked. I think because he just got tired of telling me no.
If I’d not gotten into the festival that year, I wonder if I would have simply chosen to forego trying out the next year. I think it’s very likely I would never have gone back.
So Gary changed the entire course of my life that night.
That would be enough to call Gary a friend.
Since that time, though, he has been one of the most constant sources of encouragement and inspiration for me. I’ve asked him to give advice on a few things I’ve written over the years. At least once, he told me to trash the entire thing. Only the best of people tell you something you’ve written is awful.
He was right, by the way.
I would imagine most people who go to the festival have seen Gary but don’t even realize it. He works primarily with a mask, sitting on a chair and turning a crank any time someone drops money in his bowl. Mostly nickels and quarters.
Nickels and quarters.
The Dregs sing songs for five bucks.
Gary makes kids laugh for nickels and quarters.
For years, he was the leader of the festival academy where he taught a generation of performers how entertain an audience. On the first day, he would get up and lead a bunch of brand new people thought a series of wordless improvisational structures. They were the same every year. He would end with a story about doing one of them at the 1980 Winter Olympics. It was the same story every year.
And it never got old.
We usually only see each other at the festival these days but the first time I see him, he always tells me how his kids and grandkids are doing. Because he cares and because he knows I’m interested.
Every morning, he stands right by the entrance gates to greet the audience. He’s always been one of the first people to greet the audience.
If you’d never stayed late after an academy session, you probably didn’t know how good a piano player he is or that he writes some very catchy music.
When the festival initiated the Lee Walker award, I told anyone in a position to make a decision that Gary needed to get it first. To me, there was no name that could ever be first on the list but his. I’m really glad other people agreed.
It truly amazes me that I can count Gary as a friend. I wouldn’t be who I am today without him.
Gary isn’t online too much so I don’t know when he’ll see this. But you know, it isn’t so important that Gary knows how awesome he is. It’s important that everyone else does.
Friend a Day – Lolly Foy
I’ve don’t remember when I met Lolly. We’ve both floated around the Renaissance festival circuit for a long time so it’s hard to pin down when we became acquainted.
I don’t want to say she was my favorite queen at the Minnesota Festival because I’ve liked them all for differing reasons. I will say that I has as much fun with her as queen as I’ve had with any other actress in the role.
Most performers at the festival fall into a particular class of character. I’ve always played a lower class character because that is what I enjoy. Lolly has played royalty and peasantry with equal skill and that makes her an impressive rarity.
Her range is really remarkable. She’s played the queen, she’s been part of successful music groups, she’s worked on the street, she’s written music, and I understand she’s even acted on the “legitimate” stage! I don’t think she’s been a juggler but maybe that is a skill she keeps hidden.
Lolly has done some acting in a couple of my shows and I really appreciate her natural instincts for a role. As a director, I really appreciate performers who get the material right away. It means they are going to do a great job when they are on stage.
She is loud and cheerful and a great person to sit with at dinner.
She’s also very encouraging of the work of others. When she believes you are doing something of merit, she’ll tell you in ways that help you understand what it is you are doing well. So you can do it better.
I see a lot of Lolly in her two girls. They are both outgoing and energetic and show a kind of passion for life that their mother has in abundance.
In fact, she’s passionate about everything. She throws herself into everything she does and that makes everything she does that much more impressive.
The Renaissance Festival has brought a lot of people into my life whom I would have otherwise never met. I’m so glad that Lolly is one of those people.
She doesn’t have a blog and she isn’t in a show right now so I can’t link to anything. Go see the next show she’s in!
Friend a Day – Chad Dutton
Chad and I crossed paths at just about the perfect time. He has such a remarkable array of talents, it is hard to believe that he was available to join The Dregs when he did.
I first knew him as a producer and while my experience is limited, I can tell you he is something special at that job. He just knows how to take good music and make it sound amazing. In fact, that is a gift he has with just about anything.
When The Dregs are working on a song, he will typically be the one who notices that the song needs something extra and he’s an expert at figuring out what that extra thing should be. It could be a missing note or it could be a missing shaker but he always makes good choices.
He just has good instincts when it comes to making things better.
As a band mate, Chad is one of the best talents you can hope for, both musically and comedically. He’s also someone I trust to write music with because when I show up with some lyrics for a song, he can almost instantly grasp what I’m looking for, we can get the music written in an afternoon. It’s kind of uncanny.
He’s very talented, yes, but he’s also just a lot of fun. He and I have frequently ended up driving together to out of town performances and I love having him in my car. We talk and laugh and argue and send obnoxious texts to the rest of our band and stop for coffee a lot. The time passes more quickly when he is around.
Chad can be brutally honest and sometimes that can be hard to take. But I appreciate that honesty because it cuts through the bullshit and addresses the problem.
Because he has shared his talent with me for so many years, I always consider myself lucky that we accidentally came together when we did. My life and my art has been better because he is a part of both. For these and so many other reasons, Chad rocks more.
Chad is the Music Director at Stevie Ray’s Comedy Cabaret in Chanhassen. You can catch him there most every Friday and Saturday night.
Grail Diary 