whatitshouldlooklike-page3

What it should look like - Page 3

The Play's the Thing!

A friend of mine has a favorite saying: "If you can't be right, be funny." That is a pretty good mantra for the renaissance actor.

Gig Seeds…

Just add actors and watch them grow!

(Kinda' like Chia Pets...)

This is a list of ideas, what writers call “story seeds”. Each is essentially an idea written out in the most general terms and as few words as possible to get across the gist of things. Most of them are rather on the comic or preposterous side. You can do serious gigs too, but what's the fun in that? It is my belief that no two people will look at the same seed and get the same result from employing it. Take one out and give it a test drive, use it as a starting point and spin it in new directions until the origin is all but invisible, even to me.

You are searching for something or someone. Ask the nearest patron if they have seen it or them. Go into lengthy detail, ask questions, tell them you think they might be concealing the item or helping the person to hide from you. A wife seeking a husband, a shepardess seeking a lost sheep, a farmer looking for the street urchin who swiped a turnip… the possibilities are endless.

Get into a pointless debate. Make up a premise. Defend it vigorously. Display your deftness with the Shakespearean insult. Make it loud (as long as a performance isn't taking place within earshot) and boisterous. Draw patrons into it. "You sir! You look to be an educated man! Tell this blithering simpleton that the moon is indeed made of beeswax and not tallow!"

You are trying to evade someone. This is especially effective if you have coordinated this with someone else doing the previous gig. Think of a good reason to not want to run into them. Ask the patrons to help you hide or to send the seeker off in a false direction.

Sell magick beans. Only charge a penny, offer to trade for them ala Jack and his cow. All this takes is a bag of dried beans from the grocery store transferred into a period-looking sack. Go into lengthy detail as to what they do if you plant them. Poo poo the Jack & the Beanstalk story if the person brings it up and come up with a better, funnier version of the tale as a counter (Jack still owes you the cow and you’re looking for him to collect payment due).

Sell magick peas. This is especially funny if you're standing near a magick beanseller. Talk up the features & benefits of magick peas and tell patrons why they're better than beans.

Proselytize. There’s nothing funnier than a puritan on his stump, as long as you keep it light-hearted and stay out of sticky territory. This is even funnier if there’s a catholic across the way on their stump. Make sure you know your stuff if you try to pull this off and try to avoid offending people too much.

Sell love or good luck charms. Make ‘em really hideous, smelly is good too. Charge more than anyone would be willing to pay and insist they pay you in gold. Offer to take a trade, warn people about their potency, and have plenty on-hand, because even the foulest-looking charm might entice someone to actually want to buy it off you.

Do your thing. You have a craft, are a productive member of society, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Do it. Don’t butcher anything, of course, but go out a try to drum up business, or buy someone’s cow (which they must have at home, right?) I once created a stir on accident simply by sitting down in a public place to write a letter using a quill. People who are doing something neat will almost always draw a crowd. Be prepared to talk about it without dropping character.

Gossip and spread rumors. Think up strange tidbits about people’s characters (and tell them you’re going to do it so they don’t get surprised more gigs there, of course) say preposterous things about members of the court, talk about the affair the butcher’s having with a milkmaid, and his poor wife! Lots of fun to be had if done well.

Hawk for a merchant (with permission, of course)

Give wooing lessons to the patron lads and lasses. Get down on one knee, have something really poetic to say and practice a smooth delivery or you’ll look like a fool. Chose your prey wisely, there are some really jealous types out there who might not like it.

Challenge someone to a game of dice, or morris, or any other game you know that’s period. Dicing and gaming are extremely period pursuits.

Henpeck. Girls, if you see your men dicing, go haul them out by their ear, berating them for spending the money for your fourteen children’s shoes. For some reason, it’s even funnier if a guy hauls his lady out of the dice circle.

Undertake everyday village activities. Wash and hang clothes, carry water to and fro, fetch feed for your alleged animals, dig a hole, fill it in, build a wall, set up or take down a tent, embroider, gossip, mend a net, repair a wagon, build a boat, work a lathe, dye some cloth… you get the idea.

Sell something the patron couldn’t possibly take home with them. Like a bridge. Or a tree. Talk up the merits of owning your own tree, promise a nice second income charging rent to the troll under the bridge. Make preposterous claims about the features of the item in question (“This is the very tree where Merlin sleeps!”)

Play a game. Gather a group of people and start up a game of bones or Nine Men’s Morris or something to that effect. If it’s a gambling game, its fun to offer to teach someone the game and make broad comments alluding to how nice it is to gamble with someone who doesn’t know how the game is played.

Tell a story. It doesn't even have to be a good story. Better yet, tell the beginning of a story, then try to get a patron to fill in the next bit. If someone stops to listen, stop the first person and get the next to continue the tale, and the next and so on ad nauseum until it reaches either the heights of preposterousness or an obvious conclusion. Sometimes the results are beyond anything you could have imagined!

Remember:

Practice your gigs! Rehearse them with other actors! Allow the flow to be organic rather than scripted. Extemporaneous asides are the most fun part of the process, don’t stifle them. The best comedians know how to handle hecklers, they prepare for surprises. You should too. It is doubtful you will be heckled, but patrons have a way of blundering into gigs or interrupting or just plain delivering a line no one could possibly have anticipated. A wise actor will account for this. A wiser actor will realize there's really no way to anticipate every outcome in an unscripted encounter and be willing to just go with it.

When you practice, it's not a bad idea to have a third person come in and interrupt, playing the clueless patron, so you can practice how to handle it. Practice including the patron to make it truly “Interactive” street theater rather than pointless self-gratification.

In the meantime, here is some practical advice from our founder, Mistress Sophie (who has, sadly, been kidnapped by Gypsies) “Read aloud your Shakespeare, Marlowe, etc. Lock ourself in the bathroom if you must for privacy, but do this often. Daily, if possible. Shakespeare's sonnets are the easiest and most understandable of all his works, and are great for practicing the accents, cadence and language. Not to mention, little snippets of these works are marvelous starters for conversations and gigs! ‘Fear no more the heat of the sun, my lady, for over yon hill lies our pub!’ That sort of thing.”

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Page contents Copyright 2006, Scott W Perkins except where noted

Photos are from the Guildmaster's Collection unless otherwise indicated