I’ve been a performer for the last 26 years. During that time, I’ve been to some pretty amazing places, done amazing things and learned the secrets of the masters who came before me on how to wow a crowd, whether it’s a bar full of loud drunks or bunch of giddy children. It comes easy to me these days, knowing just when to be the fool, when to deliver a pun, when to sing the right song to bring the very essence of being a pirate to life before one’s eyes, or lift up the spirits of someone who is having a really bad day.
There are several sides to piracy, for those who are uninitiated. There are the entertainer types like me, the Hollywood Jack Sparrow types and the re-enactor types. The last are the hard core folk who live “la vida loca” as a pirate in their times. They eat from pewter plates, cook over an open fire, sleep in tents and have not a single modern convenience with them (at least visible to the public). If it wasn’t made in 1700, you won’t see it in camp.
I really thought this would be fun. I’m a real history nut so I know enough to pull off a solid representation, if I have a mind to. And I marvel at those who do it far better than I (and there are many, believe me). It’s a real talent to be able to hunt down the documentation and either find the real thing or have it made. If you ever visit a re-enactment (pirate, civil war, what have you), take a moment to fully appreciate what these folks do for the love of living history.
It took a while to find out it wasn’t me though. While I love firing period guns and walking among the period encampments, it runs contrary to my pirate DNA. I was trained to entertain, not sit around in a camp. And while education can have its moments, I feel so constrained in the role. Plus, having fire ants and millipedes crawling on me as I sleep isn’t my idea of a good time.
There’s an old saying among the guys who trained me all those years ago, “Don’t waste your time entertaining the pirates.” It’s never left my head. I wasn’t taught to entertain fellow pirates or sit around playing period games and eating period meals.
My lot was cast long ago, and it was to perform for the public, to brighten their day with piratical antics. To lift up their spirits and make their day special, if even for a moment. During my table hopping, singing years, I’ve met tens of thousands of people, posed for thousands of photos now in scrapbooks, made people honorary pirates in whacky ceremonies where they are the center of attention, and married women for 24 hours, complete with a cheap ring and equally cheap bag of rice, just to mark the occasion.
It is my drug of choice – the adrenaline of performing in unfamiliar and often odd situations. It is such a rush – something I could never get any other way.
And there in a nutshell to me was the difference between what I like to do and what most re-enactors like to do. My pirate world revolves around “creating something from nothing” for just a moment in time that makes someone else feel special – it is improvisation at its purest, being in the now. Reenactment, on the other hand, is about being in the then. The focus is on “creating something that used to be” as close as possible. Fun for some, but not for me.
And yet, it amazes me how big the world can be where there is enough room for all of us to do what we really like to do as a hobby, whether it’s collecting beer cans, riding Harleys, making a quilt or playing pirate.
Well, enough about how my performing brain works. Go forth and enjoy your hobby and loves, regardless of what they are — it’s all good, it’s life!
– Til again,
– Robb