Reflections on performances

[fbhjr]

This year Phoenix Swords will be 20. When depends on who you ask.
I say July 10th, which is the anniversary of my buying PhoenixSwords.com, which locked in our name.
But, our first show was August 10th.
And, we didn’t announce our existence publicly until September 1st, which is what my wife counts.

Right now we’ve done 389 different shows since then.
And, before any of those dates I’m hoping to have a few more.

But, looking back at the 389 we’ve done, there are some that really stand out. Some as good, but most of the stand outs are bad.

So, here are the ones that stand out to me.
#1 Well, it was the first. My wife and I weren’t there and let our assistant manager run it for us, but I’m told it was good.

#5,7,8,10 This was a bunch of shows we did at the haunted house run by the boyfriend of our first fight director. Just to let you know how awful it was, at one point I really began to question if I had actually fallen into hell…

#17 my wife’s sword broke while she and I were doing a performance and almost hit a blind person in the front row. (See #38)

#22 It’s been 19 years since we did this show, and it remains the worst one we’ve done. And, the organizer’s words were 100% true, we have never worked in Roswell Ohio again…

#25 It’s a strange show when the event security asks the sword performance group if they can do the show with their swords in their sheaths as he feels that would be safer…

#33 Midnight Halloween show at a goth club where we shared the dressing room with a naked woman who performed with a boa constrictor.

#38 That guy we almost hit with the broken sword at job #17 died. It took me a while to realize the organizer didn’t mean from that, but over the time between that time and this of natural causes.

#66 The show that made my wife cry.

#86 If I had realized what this show at a private school in Connecticut would be like, I’d have charged a lot more. NEVER have we done more sword lessons in a day. 125 at $5 each in a 4 hour show. We were tired…

#91 Second only to #22. I can’t say what my wife and I said to each other about this one, but it rhymes with “truckers”. This is the only show I’ve ever had to ask our lawyer to get involved to get our pay.

#104 $500 for one sword fight at a gentleman’s club. As an ex-bouncer I was VERY impressed with the security. Then, we realized our audience was “very well connected” and decided not to go back. Some folks were impressed we shared a dressing room with the strippers, but there was no snake, so I was not impressed.

#118 My wife finally got to run her own faire. No one could have predicted the natural disaster of weather we had. At least the tornadoes didn’t actually hit our fair grounds.

#131 Our first international show was in Canada. The folks who had the party for which we were there, I’m not fans…

#136 The third on our ultimate bad list. At least this burning man knock off didn’t kill anyone. But, a LOT of bad karma came out of it.

#163 It’s nice to perform for the History Chanel, even if it is at their employee picnic.

#198 It’s bad when the weather is so awful that the Coast Guard packs up and leaves, but you still do your show.

#220 Our only show in Kentucky was well attended by our friends.

#237 & 247 We did two skills exchange meetings with another historical group and they were great!

#248 It is a special show where you show up and get booed, but by the end they are cheering for you and chanting your names.

#250 Our second faire of our own went better than the first, but still had a lot of rain.

#298 A winter fire show where the temperature was 6F. (-14.5C)

#353 Doing a show at the Sword Museum in Solingen Germany is always going to be a high point of any list of shows we’ve done.

#379 & 384 During the Covid pandemic we did some shows for the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire on line. We hadn’t done on line shows before 2020 and 2021. It was very interesting…