Recognition of sword fighting professionalism

[fbhjr]

The question I received yesterday about people being able to recognize
sword fighters who do their research as different from those who do not
reminded me of a story from 7 years ago at a fairly small town faire in
Connecticut.  We had been performing under the Phoenix name for a little
over a year.  But, my wife and I were doing this historical demos at the
Higgins at this point, and had spent several years before this in the
previous group.  So, although our group was new, we still had experience at
what we were doing.


Because it was raining I went to the faire organizer and told her we had to
scale back some of our performances.  We’d do them, but we weren’t taking
the puppets out in the rain and we’d do the sword fighting under the
library walkway roof.  She agreed to the point of saying “you can sword
fight in the mayor’s office if you want, as long as you go on with the
show.”
That’s the kind of response I like to get.  So, we moved everything to the
covered walkway outside the library and went on with our shows.

However, when Tom and I were practicing a sword fight right outside that
library walkway a security guard came up to us.
“I wish you’d stop that,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“I wish you’d stop using those swords out of their sheaths,” he said.
“What?” I said again.  (Sorry, but it was hard to believe what he was
saying.)
“You’re not supposed to take the swords out of their sheaths,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” I said, showing him my faire staff button.  “We’re the sword
troupe that the faire has hired to do this.”
“Then you should save it for your show,” he said.
“We were given this area to do continuous sword performances throughout the
day,” I said.  “We are doing what your faire hired us to do.”
“Well, can’t you do it with the sheaths on?” he asked.
“What?” I asked again.
“Can’t you put the sheaths on before you do that?” he repeated.
“No,” I said.
“Why not?” he asked.  (It was obvious he hadn’t expected me to say no.)
“The sheaths wouldn’t stand up to it,” I explained.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Most of them are made of wood,” I said.  “If we bang them together with
steel swords in them, they’ll break.”
“Well, if you keep doing that we won’t take any responsibility if you hurt
yourself,” he said.
“I don’t expect you to,” I said.  “We are a professional sword troupe that
is fully insured.  We’re being paid to do sword fighting and we always take
full responsibility for our performances.”
He walked off at that point, but he didn’t look convinced.

I’d like to think our fights have gotten better in the 6 ½ years since that
happened.
But, if someone with a faire staff button and a sign saying “sword shows
here” and “sword lessons here” can’t be recognized as someone who knows
what they are doing by someone hired by the show, how can I expect audience
members to know what they’re seeing?