Location Taken: Maryland Renaissance Festival, Crownsville, Maryland
Time Taken: October 2010
Now that my feet and muscles and, well, everything else have stopped hurting quite as much, I do have to say it’s good to be back working at the Renaissance Festival.
It’s a very different experience working at the festival as compared to attending it. And you know, I think I prefer the working experience.
The joy of a place like this is being in someplace a little bit different than normal life. People act a bit different, dress different, and well, the whole place is separate from normal patterns of life. When you’re an attendee, you get to step in and be treated like the honored guest you are, exploring all sorts of items you don’t find in just any old shop, seeing live shows whenever you want, eating foods you never make at home. It’s a break from reality, and a welcome one.
If you work there, though, it becomes its own reality. You aren’t just visiting this place out of time, you’re part of it. It’s your job to help people past whatever snags in the path are in their way, or at least your job to sell them tasty treats. I give out a lot of directions and the like despite it not being in my job description in the least. Well, sort of. My official job is “Sell Italian Ices to people while dressed up in old fashioned clothes”. To me, though, my job also includes “Make this an enjoyable experience for anyone who visits and interacts with me”, which involves a lot more effort on my part.
But it’s worth it. I love seeing the smiles on kids’ faces as I hand them a tasty treat, and love the way that I can tell they’re actually paying some attention to my carefully crafted warning about not dropping the dang thing in the dirt when they actually look up and into my eyes. I enjoy giving out the occasional extra napkin to people who come back with sticky hands. There aren’t any sinks around that they can use to wash up, and a napkin or two is worth these people having a much better experience – and a touch of generosity from others to top it off and brighten their day. I love giving out directions, which I do quite often as my spot is an intersection of five or so paths, and many people get turned around there. I’ve even taken some of my break times to walk to parts of the festival I haven’t been to for a while, just to see what’s there so I can give directions to it in the future.
I especially love seeing the backside of the illusion. In between the rows of shops, hidden from sight, are large openings filled with all the sorts of things that are needed to run the businesses but don’t mesh with the aesthetic of the place. There’s a bunch of trucks back there, and all sorts of electronic devices. The kitchens are quite modern too, and need their own support items tucked away in small outbuildings. There’s also offices scattered around, full of phones and computers and all the sorts of thing needed for keeping things running smoothly. Oh, and some bathrooms and the like. There’s a lot that goes into this sort of thing, after all. And somehow, for me at least, knowing how the magic happens actually makes the magic all that more impressive.
Which is probably why my favorite part of the Johnny Fox show at the stage right next to my cart, the one I’ve seen far far too often, is the cups and balls trick. After seeing the same trick twenty times, I’ve spotted a few of the slight of hand motions used for the more impressive parts, and actually, the skill required to do those is even more mind-boggling than the fact that he managed to sneak two apples and an orange into these cups without you noticing.
It’s not that way for everyone, I know. For some people, the magic can be ruined if they know how it works. Which is really quite sad when you think about it. They have a mindset that finds reality boring, and amazing feats of human ability to be something to hand-wave away with “it’s just a trick”. Of course it’s a trick! That’s what’s so amazing about it! It takes a lot of study into both physical skills and human psychology to pull the trick off, which is actually much more impressive than if that apple outright teleported into the cup!
Knowing the how can actually really enhance your joy of something if you let it. Once you can stare at something and see three or four layers of reality stacked on top of each other, the normal everyday world is even more magical than the make believe worlds we create. That’s part of why I love geology so much, being able to see both the rock I’m looking at and the eons of time and events that went into forming it.
Though, honestly, if a lot more parts of the world looked and operated like the Renaissance Festival did, it would be a lot more interesting and exciting. But then, I’m biased.
