Re-enactor or Entertainer

[Deadeye]

I know I may be just a pup, but I sees it as this...

The Public at large seems to derive most of it's "Knowledge" of historical subjects from movies (I.E. Pirates wore bucket Boots, eye patches and said ARRRRH all the time, and a 6'6" Scottish Hero looked like a 5'7" Aussie..) and the people who tell these stories are entertainers...

It is my beleif that re-enacting SHOULD involve some manner of entertainment and a bit of charicter acting since that seems to be the best way to educate the people, get them interested in it all, and most importantly help them to remember it.

It just seems a lot more interesting to me to hear someone speak and act as if they were from that time period and was a real persona that was individual, than someone wearing the clothes who gave schpiel in modern speak....

[Diego Santana de la Vega]

Re-enactor yes

Entertainer absolutely

Educator quite often in fact

Living Historian in period everything

Experimental Anthropologist (no, sorry I don't do gorillas)

[Jonathan Hawks]

I be doin both. But re-enactin be first.

[Sir Eric]

It just seems a lot more interesting to me to hear someone speak and act as if they were from that time period and was a real persona that was individual, than someone wearing the clothes who gave schpiel in modern speak....

Absolutely agreed, 100%

Even as a strict entertainer who isn't trying to "eductate" or "re-enact" (both distinctions that carry a certain amount of responsibility) a particular era, if a performer is going to be successful he/she has to do some homework and honestly play the part.

We don't just dress like pirates and wander around acting like actors dressed like pirates. We do our best to invoke the attitude and demeanor of what people expect of pirates.

And that's the main difference... what pirates were REALLY LIKE and what people EXPECT pirates to be like are NOT always the same thing. Sometimes, to successfully entertain, you are forced to be slightly innacurate. If our group had to spend the first hour of our show explaining why we "don't look like the pirates you've seen in movies" it would ultimately cost us bookings. We do parties, riverboat cruises and bar shows... they don't want historical accuracy, they want stereotypes. They want to be seduced and charmed and given a reason to get drunk and flash their ta-tas. If we can inject a little bit of history bit by bit into what we do, everyone comes out on top.

If we simply dressed the part and ran around saying "yo dude, whassup? Yo-ho and all that schiz-nit" it would be severly detremental as well. Although we don't put ourselves out there as accurate and educational, we do have a standard to uphold entertainment wise. We have to give the public what it wants, or else the public decides it wants something other than us. It's very scary, but very true.

All the same, that shouldn't stop us from doing what we can to instill at least a modicum of "reality" into the show. After all, the best fiction is truth. :)

[Skull pyrate Carter]

Aye, Black John, you forgut about us. The swine who refueses to grew up. We likes the ideas ova world where we can drink, and do Mary. The kids who fantasize about a world we only read abouts in the picture books. And would like a lil' break from a life that doesn't afford the same adventure that people once lived.

[Nomadicalpirate]

Ach Damn I was nigh tempted to press on thar one with those big bloody words!

Experimental Anthropologist. I just knows it means something dirty!

I be a bloody entertainer I am!

Aye, even by bloody death (Hah! they'll nay ever catch me!) will be a bloody spectacle! everyone loves a hangin'!

[Firethorn]

I would have to go with entertainer, though I haven't done much of that either.

[Rummy3]

I selected Entertainer - but the best choice would have been something else! After all, the best part of pyrating is all the HUGS & KISSES

[The Doctor]

I need hugs and kisses.... :)

[Deadeye]

All the same, that shouldn't stop us from doing what we can to instill at least a modicum of "reality" into the show. After all, the best fiction is truth. 

Again, Agreed 100%. When i was giving demos on how armor or blades were produced in the 16th and 17th century, i gave my lecture as an armorer from the time period, not as Me. I find that the reality of pirates, or any historical figures is most often far more interesting than the myths surrounding them.

I beleive the public will too if it is presented in the right way. A story is much more interesting from a "real Pirate" than someone who sounds like Ben Stien.

[The Doctor]

Aye! When decked out in all me swag, I ask the kiddies "What do ye want to know about?" The point at the sword or hat or whatever, and I hook 'em with the roughnecked act, then explain the need and function. Works every time. It 's a rare thing for the parent to walk away without thanking me for teaching their little whelps a thing or two. :)

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Now wait just a minute...

You guys are trying to make it out like Experimental Anthropologist is some sort of bad word or something!

I am gussing a lot more of us fall into that category than we would like to admit.

Despite what we think we know about Pirates (GAoP at least), we really don't "know" a lot about them. We know what pirates in the movies are like (which is why so many of us adopt Treasure Island-esque "personas", but there is not too much information about pirates, and most of what is out there has not come from pirates themselves.

As Experimental Anthropologists, we try to fill in those gaps by creating clothing that is, to the best of our ability, exact copies of theirs, buying weapons that are replicas of theirs and learn how to use them (hopefully like they did), we go aboard replica ships and try to do the things that they did to gain a greater insight to the experiences realting to folks that lived 300 years ago.

While you might lump all that into "living history", I think that living history pertains more to periods in history where there is already a great volume of knowledge and we get the clothes and participate.

Experimental Anthropology, to me, is reserved for areas where there is not a lot of factual knowledge and we fill in those gaps, with our best guesses, via recreating the circumstances.

Example

The best known Exp Anthro is Thor Heyerdahl who had an idea that South Americans sailing westward might have been responsible for settling Polynesia, rather than Asians sailing eastward. To prove his thesis, Heyerdahl built a primitive balsa raft, fixed a sail to it, and launched the boat from Peruvian waters.

Now, there were not any extant South American rafts available, but he use knowledge about those rafts to construct one and made the trip to Polynesia in it on his famous trip, chronicaled in Kon-Tiki.

Now was he a "living historian"? ....Well yes, just like the grand canyon is also a "hole in the ground".

GOF

[blackjohn]

My thanks to everyone who took this quiz. Good points there Greg. I'll add another name, one of my favorites, Tim Severin. He sailed a leather boat across the Atlantic to see if St Brendan could have done it. Re-created Jason's voyage, etc. That is neat! http://www.timseverin.net/

[Patrick Hand]

I do both.... when I'm doing "The Buccaneer Project", I try to be as authentic as possible. When I do my Golden Age Pyrate, I view it as a form of clowning...

I use to do a tramp clown for childrens partys, and I see many simularitys between character clowning, and entertaining the publicas a Pyrate.

My Golden Age Pyrate is kinda scarry, but not too scarry to interreact with children. (kinda like a roller coaster.... scarry but fun...) but checking to see if I can shave a childs head looking for a treasure map, or explaining that the reason we are looking for a new powder monkey is because the last one got his head shot off... are fun "bits"

[Barbados Sam]

Since I be a Pirate in Training still, I'm definitely an entertainer, but do enjoy learning more and more about the history of pirates as I go. The group I joined up with, Stranglehold, is very much performance based, and that's what attracted me.

[Deadeye]

I Tell you this, Mates. Just recently i have delved into the realm of experimental anthropology and Real Living History. I always knew that sailors of the great age of sail had rough lives, possibly the hardest around. But since i have started really making my own things (as of now, i am learning how to hand sew) i never really grasped just HOW rough a life it was.

And I also find i answer my own questions a lot of the time (I.E. " would a sailor wrap the handle of his tool in a bit twine?" or " would this artical be waxed?") Really exciting stuff!

[Swifty Morgan]

I can be a little entertaining, The thing that I have found out is people of all ages love to get there pictures taken with me decked out in me garb. Useally I am always up for a photo shoot. Needless to say it is all fun.

Swifty

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

I selected educator, but I am really "All of the above." Well, except maybe the anthropology thing.

However, you skipped a category that really sums up what I do and who I am: Artist. Reenacting is an art; the research, the artistry of forging historically authentic-looking items out of modern materials, etc. The entertainment (acting) aspect is an art. But it's all educational -- everything I do -- either for the edification and/or experiential enhancement of others... or of myself.

But even that is an art.

[The Doctor]

May I change my vote to re-entertainer? That's to say, if I couldn't make them laugh, I get another chance? I've given up on getting them to think. I can't even do that in the friggin' workplace!

[Captain Emerald Shaunassey]

Though I chose entertainer, I also consider myself to be an educator and a re-enactor. I too, like many of my comrades, attempt to educate the general populace (mundanes) about the real history of the time through the use of historical tidbits, stories of documentable persons as well as my attire and accessories. Though I do currently have the kit to do complete historically accurate re-enacting, I do what I can with what I can find and use, always researching for the truest source of information to guide my decisions on fabric, color scheme, patterns, etc.

My motto has always been that of my mentor, "An actor's job is three fold: It is to Entertain the Patron, Educate the Patron without them being aware of it and To make the Patron feel good about themself." Words that still guide me to this day, nearly a decade after beginning in the ren faire world.

Just my two bits

Cap'n Emerald

[lady snow]

i had to take entertainer, being on the cast for two festivals, but i also learn the history and mores for the period that i'm portraying too. if you're going to do it, you may as well do it right. i also intend on adding the pa ren faire to my repertoire this season.

[Captain Sage]

I second the motion for second chioces!

How about an entertaining educator or an educating entertainer?

[Mad Woman Cheryl]

I'm with Captain Sage. I likes educating entertainer....

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Erm, entertainer that tries to sneak some re-enactment in when I can...?

Particularly with swordplay, an actual swordfight was quick and to the point - or the edge. Not long enough to really work in a theatrical setting, which is where I started all this zaniness. A swordfight is expected to look like what is expected from a swordfight, rather than the reality. When doing a demonstration, though, I try to point that out, and have a bit o' both, to show the difference...

[~Lady Pirate~]

I consider myself a re-enactor. Of the Napoleonic period.