6 Big days

[fbhjr]

Phoenix Swords history of doing the New Hampshire Ren Faire in not good.

We did it once in 2006 and it did not go well. First my wife was trying to start a sub-group of Phoenix called Flaming Capons that would do comedy acts. But, the person doing it with her got cancer and had to drop out.

So, the rest of Phoenix Swords agreed to do the show as we didn’t want her to have to call and say they couldn’t make it.
But, we didn’t have a comedy act ready to go.

And, it rained. Enough to flood out two of the stages.

We ended up performing on a grassy knoll near the front of the faire as none of the other acts were willing to give us a place on their stages.
We had been told "Don’t do your sword show because you’re booked here as a comedy act."
We did our kids shows as they are at least goofy if not funny.

There weren’t many folks there. They weren’t impressed. One of the other groups there had some Scotsmen who really got into our sheep story in a way that was much funnier than our script.

For the last show I turned to perrin_o_ravnos and said "Fuck it, I don’t care, go get the swords."
"We’re not supposed to do swords," he reminded me.
"I’ll give back the exposure they’re paying us to do this. Get the swords."
http://phoenixswords.atthefaire.com/galleries/2006/2006_NHRF.html

We did our sword show. The dozen or so folks there on the flooded grounds all told us it was a great show and they wished he had done more of it.
"Pack it up, we’re going," I told the folks.
"The show isn’t over yet," one of the organizers said to me.
"It is for us," I said and we packed up and drove off to a fairly decent Mexican restaurant.

Years passed and that faire went under and was taken over by a different group. That group, like Phoenix Swords, has its roots in the old Higgins Armory Sword Guild. So, very similar back grounds, and somewhat similar sword shows.
We applied. They didn’t hire us. I didn’t expect them to.

My wife did the show with her crafting partner. I didn’t go with them.
The fundraiser we do in New Hampshire really wanted us to do the ren faire as it would help us get the fire license so she doesn’t have to go through another group.

So, we applied. Again.
We heard nothing. Again.
My wife tried through other contacts. Again.
She heard nothing. Again.
She contacted the wife of the person who should answer us.
He contacted us and asked what we’d do and for how much.
I sent a proposal. We heard nothing. Again.

Then, we showed up on their web site as one of the acts that will be there.
After that, we got an email saying we were confirmed for the shows I proposed. Our first time there in 14 years and the first time with this management.
Yay!

6 days later, the faire is canceled do to Covid-19.

Ah well. For those "6 big days" as my wife puts it, we were back on the schedule for New Hampshire.

Last weekend should have been Conbust. It was cancelled. Been doing it for 10 years.
Two weeks from now should have been a gaming convention. It’s postponed with no new date.
A month from now is the cancelled New Hampshire.
In June we were supposed to do a show for a company that gets jobs for handicapped people, it’s cancelled.
Don’t know about the glass museum at the end of June yet. But, not holding out huge hopes…

I am not saying any of these places are wrong to cancel.
Just that I’m sad they’ve had to.
Not sure how many jobs we’ll have this year at all.
Glad we got in the ones we did at the start of the year.