I took a few years off at the Faire when my son was little... my wife had left and I just couldn't go to the Faire AND perform AND watch him... so I just stayed home.
Well, now the lad is 7 and I've been back for a couple of years and the kid is just a natural performer!
He helps me with improv lane skits, he courts the ladies... flatters them and passes out gemstones to the little girls...
he's participated in Roguings and, well... he's just got Rennie in him.
When we go to new Faires, he's often recognized before I am!
So I got to thinking... how about you guys? Is your kid a natural performer? Do you have this situation in your own lives?
My grandaughter has been helping me at my shop for several years. When she was 2 and a half, my son and dil brought her out, for her first faire experience. After walking around with her, we got back to my shop and she said to some people walking in, "welcome to grandma's shop" One woman said, "you have trained her very well". My son said, "we didn't tell her to say that!"
Now she helps sell, dances and she loves it. ;D
Last year, she was wearing her pirate garb and we went shopping. People commented on how polite and well behaved she was. ( I hope I didn't just jinx that) She said she helped at my shop, but she "only works on Saturdays". They said, "how long have you been doing that?" She said, "since I was 2."
awesome! isn't it soooo cool seeing how they take to the Faire?
I find it amazing sometimes to watch him... I notice things he does that I know he got from watching me... but then there are other things that are quite obviously his and his alone.
One thing that it really helps with is he exhibits his Faire manners outside Faire and it gets me a lot of compliments on how well mannered he is... how polite and, well, even dashing.
;D
My daughter is joining me this year. She will be 11 by the time our local faire starts. I've taught her a few chords on the mandolin, and she has some singing and dance experience. In a few years, the boy can join us, when I see a hint of responsibility. Yeah, that's gonna happen...
This summer my 14 year old son will be performing with my older daughter (who is twenty-one and hardly a kid anymore) and me in the Bristol Buskin Frolic. And my younger daughter, aged nine, will be helping out with my wife at the Guild of St. Lawrence aka The Dirty Duck Inn. It's going to be quite a summer at Bristol!
Isn't it awesome watching the persona develop in the kid?
Seeing that aspect of their personality come into bloom?
I have pictures of me at 8 months pregnant running around Sterling Faire with my husband. My daughter has always come to faire with us.
When she was 16, she auditioned for the Maine Faire and was cast as a squire (she has been riding horses since she was 8 yrs old). At the same time, they asked me to be Cast Mom so that I could keep an eye on her and be of assistance to everyone else in the green room (lovingly called the Plague Tent!). My faire persona that year was MOM, so everyone called me that. As a result, it was not until we were packing up after the last day of faire that people realized that I was actually HER mom! I had the pleasure of watching my daughter grow as a person and a performer (she was quite a singer before faire, but her acting, self confidence and personallity grew by leaps and bounds that Summer!).
Now, while in college for equine business management, she helps me with my children's clothing shop at the faires here in New England during the summer. The shop is 3 generations with my Mother also my partner in this.
My two sons perform with me, as The Brigands, a pirate based musical group. We been at it 6 years now, and they loved it from day one. But bear in mind, they had been playing music with me for years before that , as amatuers, in my basement. Lets see, they were 15 and 12 when we played our first faire.
http://thebrigands.com
Natural performer? Oh goodness yes. lol
He's 7, he wants to do acting, but I'm having him wait until he's a little older.
This last season at ORF he dressed as Link. He was stopped about every 10 feet for a picture, he loved it! He would pose for every shot
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee199/Katiebugsey/Ohio%20Renaissance%20Festival%2008/20081004_7.jpg)`
that is SOOOO cute!!!
Huzzah to him!
My husband and I are not performers however our oldest daughter has started working at Brambleberry's Flying Rainbow Bubble Cart. She's a bubble Faerie and LOVES it. Now the youngest daughter wants to do it when she hits sixteen. We shall see.
well, I'm not on any 'cast', so to speak...
but I love to perform
here in Florida, at BARF, our wonderful cast all know me and, well, it's the best of both worlds for me
folks like Madge Estes, Ambios... they treat us like we ARE on cast and draw us into the action
my son positively loves wooing the lasses and makes a grand flourish of it every season
Ours don't anymore since they have families of their own and don't live near us.
However, a lot of our area construction is now done by faire brats who are now in their late teens and early twenties. So, it's not only performing, but helping in construction where they are assets to the show.
that is AWESOME, Carl. you know, I'd hazard a guess that some of them may gain some valuable carpentry and other skills from such endeavours... so they benefit as well!
My three youngest kids (two of them could hardly be called "children" any more) are on the cast at Bristol. Heather, my youngest, joined the Guild of St. Lawrence last year when she was nine. In the process, she dragged my somewhat reluctant Lady along with her. But they are both having fun, as are the rest of us.
Wow, Fred... your kids are really performing!
That's amazing... must make you really, really proud.