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Re-enactor or Entertainer


blackjohn

Do you consider yourself a  

47 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you consider yourself a

    • Re-enactor
      11
    • Entertainer
      19
    • Educator
      4
    • Living Historian
      2
    • Experimental Anthropologist
      4


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Thanks for taking my previous unscientific poll. Here's yet another. I won't even bother defining each. Though I have my own definitions, I'm curious as to how each of you see these terms, and if you even see distinctions between them.

My Home on the Web

The Pirate Brethren Gallery

Dreams are the glue that holds reality together.

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Tough one, but I think that living historian includes/requires elements of all of the other choices. Separating one from the other in a clear-cut fashion is, in my not-so-humble opinion, quite impossible.

3ff66f1f.jpg

My occupational hazard bein' my occupation's just not around...

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Hey, I'm pretty sure I clicked Living Historian, but it seems to have registered as re-enactor...Did you run Florida voting in 2000?

3ff66f1f.jpg

My occupational hazard bein' my occupation's just not around...

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I chose educator for due to my being an instructor at maritime swordplay; but in everything else it would be a crossover entertainer/ re enactor. :huh:

Monterey Jack

"yes I am a pirate 200 years too late,

the cannons don't thunder, there's nothin to plunder,

I'm an over-40 victim of fate,

arrivin too late.........."

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Depending upon the outcome of the next Presidential election; I fully intend, upon a negative outcome, to hoist the black flack, secede from the Union, and declare my property the Sovereign Territory of New Libertania.

Seriously, though.... I suppose you'd call me an educator/entertainer. I have engaged in swordplay to "educate" a braggart, and I admit to cheating in said engagement. I am a pyrate, after all! :huh:

Yo ho ho! Or does nobody actually say that?

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For almost twenty years I've been a Civil War reenactor. Many's the time I've sat and read for hours trying to get my impression as authentic and historically accurate as possible. I got tired of that. So, for me, my time in slops and flintlocks is mainly for fun with a smattering of historical authenticity because I just can't do it any other way. I slid into piracy as a gimmick for my sideline business (I work for Uncle Sam but I also sell handmade, beaded jewelry on the side). I started out going to shows dressed as a pirate and the gimmick was that I was a seadog who is selling off his plunder (a la Jean Lafitte outside of New Orleans, Blackbeard on the Carolina Coast or one of the Victual Brothers in Rostock.) As such, I play the part and "talk like a pirate" to attract business. What I'm discovering, however, is that I'm getting this piratical bent in me blood and I think, before it's all over, that I'll wind up becoming more of a reenactor/living historian. For now, it's for fun and profit . . . kind of like the real thing, no?? . . . and I see myself as an entertainer. But I can feel the wind in me hair and the pull of the tide, and before long, I'll consider me self that and more!

Blackbead

"In the end, it's not the gold that sets our sails,

'Tis freedom and the promise of a better life

That raises our black flags."

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Aye, mate. Here's a sure formula. Go to the east coast of Florida. Hit St. Augustine, New Smyrna, and Titusville. Check out the museums there. Stand on the ramparts of St. Augustine fort, the jetties of New Smyrna, and the shore of Titusville. Feel the wind in your hair, and breathe deep the salt air. Drink it deep, and feel it creep into your bones. Welcome it, embrace it, and accept it. Then, with that new fire in your blood, walk back through one of those exhibits of Spanish gold. Feel your blood race, your heart quicken, and your eyes burn.

Gold.

You want it.

You need it.

And then you'll realize...

You're a pyrate, and the world had best watch out for ye!

My realization came at age 10. And I've never looked back, because it's served me well. May it do so for you. :)

Yo ho ho! Or does nobody actually say that?

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My friend,

I have been to St. Augustine and have been lucky enough to stand in the fort on St. Kitts. I believe that ELP said it best: "Gold drives a man . . . to DREAM!"

But being a pirate these days . . . is it the gold? Is it the women? Is it the rum? Is it the freedom?

YES! All I know is that I love it and I want more of it. Is there more that can be said than that? Yes . . . but does the rest of it really mean anything?

Blackbead

"In the end, it's not the gold that sets our sails,

'Tis freedom and the promise of a better life

That raises our black flags."

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Entertainer here, pure and simple. We don't try to pretend that we're historicaly accurate (because we certainly aren't) and we don't attempt to educate. Our main goal is simply to make people laugh, dance and sing.

However... as other have said, there's an aspect of playing a pirate that becomes a drive to learn more about what it is your trying to portray, and bit by bit you start learning more, and as you learn you start to change your garb, your behavior, and in fact start diseminating what you've learned to others. I know far more about the "real" history of piracy now than I did a year ago, and it's found it's way into our performances, and I'm sure it will continue to do so.

Will we go all the way to re-enactors? Nah. That's just not what we're trying to accomplish. For us, being what the audience expects us to be (in appearance, mannerisim et al) is what makes the moolah. I have very high regard for re-enactors and living historians, as it takes a lot more work to attain that level of knowledge, garb etc. I'm always impressed by it. I do feel sometimes that us entertainers are a little looked down upon because of our less than accurate ways.

Wow... sorry. Didn't mean to write a book here. Um... entertainer. That's me. :D

NOAH: Wow... the whole world flooded in just less than a month, and us the only survivors! Hey... is that another... do you see another boat out there? Wait a minute... is that a... that's... are you seeing a skull and crossbones on that flag?

Ministry of Petty Offenses

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All of the above, (apart from, perhaps, the last one) none of these are mutually exclusive, and some of the best educators I have ever met have also been entertainers.

Why can't I highlight more than one dammit. :D

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I've never been much fer labels, mates, but if I had ta choose, I'd say I'm just dressin' up as a pirate for the sheer fun of it all (sure as hell beats petticoats 'n corsets <g>). Of course, I don't perform or anything like that, but if I did, it'd probably be more for entertainment than historical accuracy (not that there's anything wrong w/history...just too damn expensive.)

The Wit and Wisdom of Capt. Jack Sparrow:

The deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers.

Wherever we want to go, we go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and hull and a deck and sails. That's what a ship needs. But what a ship is... what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom.

Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.

The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do.

Will Turner: You cheated.

Jack Sparrow: [shrugs] Pirate.

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I'd have to say all except the last. Been doing historyteaching, re enacting and entertaining for 22 years from Roman era to World War 2. But i've found me niche in piracy. HUZZAH MATES!

Scupper

"That's the navy for you. Rum in the scuppers today. Blood in the scuppers tomorrow."

Thrist is a shameless disease. So here's to a shameful cure!

"Loyalty, honesty and directness are traits I admire. Insecurity, snipes and disrespect I will not tolerate in the least."

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