Creepy Paul

[fbhjr]

This was the fifth year we’ve done the Southern Connecticut Ren Faire.
Every year we see the same face in the crowd at almost every show. And, I
know that after every show I’ll have the same conversation with our fan.
Paul seems like an OK guy. He’s a bit off, in a Rain Man sort of way. He
used to have a real thing for Renee, one of our ex-members. She’s the one
who gave him the “creepy” title. Since I fired her, he is only at 80% of
our shows instead of 100%. But, he’s changed jobs too. He no longer works
at the plastics factory. Now he works at a super market. So, if we do a
show before 8:30 he can’t get to it.

After every show, he comes up to me and we have the same conversation.
“What do you use for fuel?”
“I can’t tell you that, Paul.”
“Why not?”
“You might try this at home and I don’t want that.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“I won’t take that chance.”
“You don’t trust anyone, do you?”
“Not with safety issues.”
“You really worry about me?”
“I worry about you trying this at home.”
“I’ve got stuff at home that burns.”
“You shouldn’t burn it.”
“I got it when I worked at the plastics company. It burns nice colors.”
“You shouldn’t burn that stuff, Paul. I might be bad for you.”
“Do you want me to bring some? It would add colors to your show.”
“I won’t burn it unless I know it is safe.”
“They use it in plastics.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s safe to burn. That stuff can be really bad for
you.”
“How do you know if it is safe?”
“You have to look at the Materials Safety Data Sheets for everything you
burn.”
“Do you do that?”
“We keep the MSDS sheets for all of this.”
“You won’t use it just because they use it in plastics?”
“Not unless I know it is safe. I know some of the things they put in
plastics. They aren’t safe.”
“Daym, you don’t trust anyone, do you?”
“Not with this stuff.”
“Can I help you carry your stuff to your car?”
“We’re all set, Paul.”
He often ends up carrying something anyhow. That gets him out the gate and
he can’t get back in.

This year he did add a new bit. This was added each show for three weeks.
“Have you tried glow in the dark makeup?”
“No Paul, we haven’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s flammable. It would make our faces catch fire.”
“But, you already light yourselves on fire.”
“Only where we know it’s safe in a controlled way.”
“They use this make up in movies.”
“Movies aren’t live performances. They can add the fire later by
computers, we can’t.”
“The florescent make up would look great.”
“I’m not going to use something that would hurt our people.”
“Daym, you don’t trust anyone, do you?”
“Not with this stuff.”


Don’t get me wrong. He has paid to see more of our shows then any other
person I know. He alone pays 10% of what our whole group gets paid at
these shows.
And, I don’t mind talking with anyone who is interested in what we do.
It’s just the same thing over and over and over. It gets a bit wearing.