I was asked by a couple of people from my renaissance festival to become a sheriff or executioner. Our festival is set in the 1400 to 1600 period this year. I'm wondering which I should do, I'm currently a monk and they want me to be a monk one day and the other another day. One of the gals thinks we need an Executioner since we don;t have one in the group and another think we need more sheriffs since we only really have one. So I'm looking for suggestions on which I should do. I'm leaning toward the Executioner and wondering the best place to find more information about being one.
Our home faire CTRF has two executioners, Smee and Blog, as an act, and they circulate when off stage. They are awesome and never run out of executioner material and jokes. I'd go with that.
Seems the badder your character, the more fun it is to play them!
Heck, thats why we became pirates!
The Sheriff or Sheriffs are quasi-noble cast members. ie. Scarby's Sheriff (http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x71/Dona_Catalina/Other%20Faire%20Photos/Sheriff4-23-2005.jpg)
An executioner is definitely not.
Which one would you be more comfortable playing?
I'm currently playing a monk so I'm thinking more along the line of an Executioner since that is one thing our faire doesn't have and several people think we really need one.
There's a British show called The Worst Jobs in History that I see every now and then on the History International channel (starring the actor who played Baldrick in Blackadder, incidentally, Hilarious). Each episode is the worst jobs in a given time - Tudor, Victorian, Middle Ages, etc. If you ever get the chance to catch it, or if you can find it online, watch the Tudor episode. One of the jobs he profiled was the Executioner. He did a really good job of it and might be able to give you some insight on the mindframe of executioners of the age.
Here you go...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69B7DWEKANY&feature=related
Thanks Dinobabe I watched it and it gives Executioners a totally different look, but I still think I can do the part and it might be a major education piece for our local faire?
Any idea how you want to play the character (serious, scary, friendly, goofy...)? Just thinking along the executioner lines, there are a lot of options. If you are going more H/A, think about the mindset of an executioner in that Worst Jobs clip. Miserable, grim life with a high suicide rate...got a brooding character whos afraid to make friends there. One of the big stereotypes for an executioner is that black hood. Want a goofy character? How about an executioner who thinks that hood makes him completely unrecognizable (think Clark Kent and those glasses). Pull it on and off ever 5 minutes and come up with a different name each time. That's funny.
You could do the same thing with a sheriff. Ever see the Disney version of Robin Hood? In that movie alone, you have the goofy, likeable sheriff (wasn't he a bear or something?) and you also have the evil sheriff of nottingham. Different takes on the same guy.
Is your monk character still going to be there when you're the executioner or sheriff? That could be really interesting. A monk who is forced by life or circumstances to also take the souls he is trying to protect could be deep....
Don't think the monk character will be there when I play the Executioner part. Great ideas I never thought of a funny type executioner only thought about the more serious and somber part.