Now that I’m outside the rush of an opening weekend, I want to put down a few thoughts that I can revisit later. This may ramble on but here goes:

Rod called me Friday and said he needed some help at the faire site. Little did I know I was in for a surprise. Ron Taylor aka Capt. Goldtooth had been asked by Rod this spring to make a banner for me. I found out about it on my trip to the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival and had assumed that I would get it on Saturday morning before the morning meeting. I had no clue what the banner would look like or say, but let me tell you, it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.  Ron had incorporated lots of ideas from Rod using things we’d come up with during our shows together. They (with the help of my lovely sneaky wife) had also come up with a new stage name for my show. I am now Marvelous Matt! “Part time Hair Model / Stunt Double for Fabio and Kid Rock…” Really you have to see the banner to believe the amount of work that went into it. I am truly blessed with some of the best friends one could ask for.

Concerning Steve, he is as laid back as I am. He’s offering advice on things he notices during my shows, and I’ve incorporated a few of them. He’s trying to be helpful with out sounding pushy, and because he’s been performing a lot longer than I have I value his input. He is the veteran on the Wizards Tower and his advice has been very helpful. He wants to make sure things are “fair” meaning swapping who goes first each day so that both of us are doing well as far as tips go. He says they have figured out over the years that traffic up there tends to come in waves and it wouldn’t be fair if someone got all the good traffic all the time. I’m fine with it, I’m the new guy.

Saturday morning when I arrived in the rain I discovered that one of the lag bolts that holds up the shade had pulled loose from the tower structure. It looked like the wood had simply rotted and the weight of the rain pulled it out. Since Steve wasn’t there yet I went and asked my mentor and friend Rod if he could give me a hand getting it fixed. By the time I walked back up to the tower Steve had arrived and I showed him what had happened and told him Rod was on his way up. He drilled a new pilot hole and we replaced the bolt, got the turnbuckle reattached and it was good the rest of the weekend. With no rain forecast for the week I’m hoping it will last the remainder of the run. I’m already calculating a permanent fix in an overly engineered way using u-bolts and plates to spread the strain over a larger area.

It’s nice having enough show material that I can swap in and out at will to find what works in this venue. Monday morning (Labor Day) I had a particularly rough show, with a screaming baby, and another grown-up woman in the front row that wouldn’t shut up. In talking to Steve about it afterwards, I came to the realization that even though I never wanted to do kids shows, that’s what a good portion of my show had developed into. This week I’m going to see If I can put together a few things aimed a bit higher on the age range and work them into the show next week. I’ve got the material, I’ve just become complacent in where I’m at and this weekend showed me I can do better.

Because there are only two of us on this stage I miss talking with someone between shows. When I worked with Rod we would talk between shows about everything, the show, our wives, the magic club, etc. Now? Not so much. Steve and I talk while we’re setting up between shows, but it’s not the same. I guess, I don’t feel like I’m getting to decompress between shows. There isn’t the same camaraderie like I was used to. I’m not saying that it won’t develop over the next several weeks but right now I feel a little alone.

On the upside Monday afternoon as we were packing up Steve told me he feels such a sense of relief that I am on the tower with him. He was worried that we’d butt heads or I’d be completely out of touch about performing. He also indirectly paid me a compliment to a friend of his that went something along the lines of, “If I say something needs to be done, Matt does it before I can get to it. I’m not used to that.” It’s what I did for Rod, set-up tear down, whatever needed done I did, and it become habit.

Overall, I’m optimistic that the tower will be good to me and I’ll be good for the tower. With three days down and thirteen more to go with at least five shows a day, I’m sure to find my groove sooner rather than later.