2005-04-03 - 9:30 p.m.
Man: Ooooooooooooommmmmmmm.
Dog: Kiiiiiiiiiiibbbbbbbbbllllllllssssss.
I�m stalling, and I�m tired, don�t want to work tonight.
I did the ren fair again today.
I�ve go to say that the NC Ren Fair is about as magical as going through the drive through at McDonalds. Perhaps I was spoiled by the KC Ren Fair, where the Fair is actually in a wooded glen and there are little wooden shacks for the merchants and a real list field and a bit of charm and fantasy to the whole thing. Another cool thing was that the SCA had our own little area of the Fair, where we had little shacks of our own and a permanent list field with bleachers ect. It really was a lot of fun to be a part of.
Here it is very hard to tell the difference between being on the mid way at the State Fair, and being at the Ren Fair. No, wait,
we are on the mid way.
Even the Ren Fair folks (some of whom are quite nice by the way) don�t like the NC fair.
Oh Well. I don�t think this is going to change anytime soon.
I do like to get out and fight, I think the fighting speaks pretty well for it self, and I know many folks who joined because they saw the fighting and thought �Now that looks cool� May of the �freaks and geeks� that come to the Ren Fair would probably fit in pretty well in the SCA (with a little polishing �no elf ears please�). I say �Freaks and Geeks� unashamedly because I was in fact one of those freaks and geeks that came to the fair in some clothes I �borrowed� from the HS drama department.
I do think we should have a short class on how to speak to the public when at a demo or fair in this case. I have some pointers. (no scadians were harmed in the making of this handout)
1st Try not to freak out the people you want to join your group.
2nd No society �in� jokes, they won�t get it, and that is bad.
3rd No matter how ill informed they may be, no one wants a lecture on the middle ages From a person at a booth at the ren fair, just let them be.
4th I mean it, steer the conversation somewhere else. If you find yourself saying �Well actually�� Stop. No one likes to look stupid in front of their friends, kids, wife ect�
5th Not everyone who comes near the table needs to hear the whole prepared speech. There are certain people who have no interest in joining the society, but are polite enough to stand there while you rattle off your five minute speech thinking �God get me out of here� Learn to recognize these people. If they really are interested, they�ll ask.
6th We�re geeks. Let�s face it everybody, we dress up in funny clothes and pretend that that dude over there is a King. We may not be the biggest geeks (the Ren fair is proof of that,) but we are geeks all the same. Lets at least be geeks with class, let�s not take ourselves too seriously, and if nothing else let�s have fun with our hobby. The best way to get new folks to join is for them to see us having a great time together.
Dismissed.
Justus
