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 – Mark Lazarchic
Mark loves to argue. He will argue with just about anyone about just about anything. He’ll argue for things he’s against and he’ll argue against things he’s for. Quite frequently, he and I don’t agree.
What makes him the best of people is the fact he can argue with your opinion and disagree with your opinion in the strongest possible terms without ever arguing against you. I’ve had lots of arguments with Mark and we are still friends because we understand that the disagreements are never personal. We are both passionate.
Mark can seem very hard. You have to know him for a long time to really recognize that the hard exterior hides a caring person. Then you begin to understand how much he loves his wife. How much he loves his kids. How much he loves Beethoven.
He is one of the hardest workers you will ever meet. He starts businesses about as frequently as the rest of us celebrate birthdays. He is relentless. He never stops. He never slows down. I would imagine that he won’t even sleep when he’s dead.
It is so easy to argue with Mark and to disagree with him that I fail to make sure he knows how much I admire him. I admire his passion and his focus. I admire the way he is unwilling to be involved in anything that is even one tiny bit worse than perfect. I admire the way he spent hours, days, weeks and months with a daughter who had cancer.
You could say any father would have done the same but the truth is no, not any father would do that. Just the exceptional ones.
His sense of humor is bawdy and loud and his laugh is infectious. When you sit down with him around the fire, you can’t be in a bad mood for long.
As remarkable as the things he has accomplished in his life are the ideas he’s had that never were. He is filled with ideas and never stops coming up with more. He can’t do it all and I think he takes that as a sort of personal insult.
Mark is a hard man sometimes. But that is only the surface. I’m glad that I’ve known him long enough to know the man underneath. It was absolutely worth the challenge.
Mark is a busy guy but he blogs occasionally at Pick Mark’s Brain, where you can find links to his many businesses. I encourage you to use them all. He deserves your patronage.
Friend a Day – Deb Shoenack
I’m proud to be Deb’s friend because her friendship is something that is earned. She doesn’t just hand it out to everyone.
If Deb calls you her friend, you need to have done something pretty special.
I met Deb when we were both part of the band for a dancing troupe at the Renaissance Festival. She played drums with us a few times every day and ran a shop filled with a whole lot of beautiful feather art that never sold and a little bit of horrible stuff that sold all the time. It takes a special kind of artist to be aware that your best work is the work that nobody is ever going to buy.
She would tell long stories about her customers and her life. They were great stories. They were funny stories. They were the kind of stories nobody but Deb could have ever told.
If you get a chance to talk to Deb, ask her about the Ethiopian yak’s tooth necklace.
Deb treated entertainers like equals. She welcomed us into her shop and encouraged us to entrain the audience in front of her door. She made us feel like we were all part of the same show. She was the kind of crafter entertainers gravitated towards.
As many people do, she grew tired of the festival and migrated away. When I walk by the corner of the grounds that used to house her shop, I will always feel a sense of loss.
Deb has a gruff and cynical exterior and I won’t say she isn’t gruff and cynical because I think she’d be insulted if I did. She is gruff and cynical. But she is also kind and funny and fiercely loyal to anyone who has earned it.
She loves her family and is constantly showing pride in them. She embraces the title “Jew Bitch” like it was her given name.
I’m not a big fan of drum circles any more. If Deb was in the circle, though, I’d join in because I wouldn’t want to let her down.
Deb doesn’t have a web page but she is passionately opposed to wolf hunting in Minnesota so I’m linking to Howling for Wolves.
Friend a Day – Laurie Richardson
Photo by John Solberg
Laurie is one of those people who comes up with exciting crazy ideas and then actually makes those crazy ideas happen. Several years ago, she decided that we should have trading cards for Vilification Tennis. I said that was a great idea and if she could make it happen, I was completely behind it.
Well, she made it happen and it has been a crazy popular idea ever since.
She has a great impish smile that betrays a new idea. She can’t wait to tell you about it and I can’t wait to hear it. I’ve learned to never say anything so foolish as “you’ll never figure out a way to do that” because the fact is she already has.
She’s been a performer with Vilification Tennis for several years and is always writing new material that is clever and unique. I can hear a joke and know it is a Laurie joke.
One of the things Laurie is really passionate about is animals. She’s worked for veterinary clinics and the Humane Society most of the time I’ve known her. When someone lost a pet, she cried with them. When someone abandoned some kittens behind a gas station on a cold winter night, she took the survivor into her home, nursed it until it was healthy enough to find a home, and then found it a good home (ours).
That’s just one animal she rescued. There have been many others.
She understands the bond people form with their pets and shows amazing compassion for pet owners and their animals.
She’s also spent many hours renovating her home. Her house has been transformed by hours of hard work. It takes a lot of drive and determination to buy a house knowing that it will take years to turn it into the house you really want and to continually work towards that goal.
I like Laurie because she does things. She is an idea person who makes the ideas happen. It makes her a really fun person to be around.
Laurie doesn’t have a web site but right now, she is raising money for the annual Humane Society Walk for Animals. It’s something she’s very passionate about. So if you think she’s as cool as I do, you should go to her page and donate a few bucks.
Friend a Day – Eric Knight
Photo by Ryan Haro
Eric and I started at the Renaissance Festival in 1985 and we have been friends ever since. This year both of us will celebrate our 30th season. The years of service awards at the Festival are that much better because I get to share the walk with a good friend.
Eric is well known for being pedantic but that somewhat derogatory term points to how good he is at the little details of so many things. He doesn’t miss much.
He’s been my assistant director for Vilification Tennis for the last several years and the reason is because he will tell me when he thinks I’m doing something wrong. I don’t tend to take such conversations well but I usually come around to his way of thinking because he is usually right.
When I’m working on a new project or a new idea, Eric is one of the best resources for me because I understand the language he speaks. His criticisms and comments are clear and honest and they help me become a better writer.
At the festival, he is a gifted up close performer. His Concierge character is not a boisterous character that draws a crowd but instead, he is a character built around the idea of improving the festival day for everyone who walks through the gate. Every interaction he has with a patron is a positive interaction.
Conversations with Eric typically aren’t short. We used to hold monthly Festival get together parties and Eric was frequently the last person to leave. Often it would be as the sun was rising and he hadn’t yet overstayed his welcome.
Eric is also a gifted costumer, a movie fan, and one of the founders of the CONvergence movie room, Cinema Rex.
I’m lucky to have known Eric for almost thirty years. I’m hoping we’ll be friends for at least thirty more!
Eric doesn’t have a web site but he sometimes tweets as @PedanticEric.
Shit that Pissed me off this week- 8/23
It’s actually been a pretty boring week. Not too much that really annoyed me. Perhaps I’ve been looking in the wrong places.
They Cut Down a Grand Old Tree at the Renaissance Festival
This is not a “fuck the management of the Renaissance Festival” screed. While I sometimes feel that way, the issue here is not one of any idiot running the festival but rather the cost of our human needs.
Near a group of rocks at the MRF grounds, there was an oak tree that provided shade for years. That tree stood over the old peasant banquet and sing-along and it even provided some shade to the old juggling booth. All of those things were long gone but the tree remained. Until now.
The tree wasn’t sick (so far as I know). They cut it down because they had to run new power lines on to the site and it was in the way.
I don’t know if they could have run the lines somewhere else. Even if they could have done so, it probably would have resulted in some other tree being destroyed.
But that tree had history for me. That tree meant something to me.
That tree there. They one right between these two lovely ladies (photo by Eric Knight).
And it is the inevitable cost of human progress that we destroy things that get in our way. Over and over and over again. It isn’t a problem with the Renaissance festival. it is a problem with the way the world works.
I guess it doesn’t piss me off. It makes me sad.
New Vilification Tennis Podcast
We got a little bit behind on podcasting for Vilification Tennis during the festival season but this weekend I managed to get some folks together to record a new episode.
I managed to get Mark Lazarchic and Bob Alberti to start arguing politics. Unfortunately, I had to cut them off after about ten minutes but I think the podcast is worth listening to just for that. There’s also a lot of talk about a lesbian in Hong Kong because that’s the kind of podcast we do.
We also get really in-depth talking about the Renaissance Festival, including a lot of behind the scenes stuff. I think it turned out to be a good episode in spite of the worst home game rounds ever.
We each owe a death
We each owe a death — there are no exceptions. But , oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long. – The Green Mile
There is a poigniancy to that quote that resonates with me. Mortality is something that we cannot ever hope to escape. Even if medical science completely erases cancer from our bodies. Even if our lives are extended by another fifty years. We all owe a death.
It is the price we pay for living.
Michael Matheny died this weekend after a two year battle with cancer. I knew Michael but I wouldn’t say we were good friends. He was a tremendously talented musician and he, along with Ken Larson and Lojo Russo formed the band Gallowglass. Read More…
Grail Diary 