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History
 This is J.P. here with a bit of history behind this group. The Pirate Comedy
Show was, indeed, inspired. It was August 2003 and just a few weeks before
the 12th
Annual
Iowa
Renaissance
Festival
(and
Harvest
Faire). I had been recruited to work at the Iowa State Fair in the Tourism
Building to help promote the upcoming festival (and harvest faire). I was in
my normal (and very non-piratey) renaissance costume when I took a break and
walked
through
the
fair and heard visitors making comments such as . . .
- "Hello Captain!"
- "Pirates say Arrrr!"
- "Pirates like beer!" (I, uh, heard this one while getting a beverage...)
Why did everyone think I was a pirate? In the past six years of wearing basically
the same style or garb, no one had ever mistaken me for a scroungy old pirate.
Something must be afoot. But what?
A few days later I was back at the State Fair doing festival promotions
again and I heard more pirate comments. Could that Disney
movie really have made such an impact on average everyday non-ren touristy
types? Apparently it had... And with this realization came the goal to capitalize
on it.
Here is a brief timeline of how the act came to be.
Brief Timeline Of How The Act Came To Be:
- August 7 - J.P. (and ATF Pub member Queen Cate) works at the state fair
Tourism Building in garb to promote the Iowa
Renaissance Festival. During
a walk to get food, J.P. gets called a pirate. Repeatedly. Queen Cate finds
a real pirate on the midway and takes a comparison picture. (See above, right.)
- August 9 - J.P. works at the state fair again in garb and gets called a
pirate again.
- August ? - To aide his bad memory, AtTheFaire
(ATF) Pub member, Raien,
e-mails J.P. a complete rundown of the sequence of events in the Pirates
movie.
- August ? - ATF Pub member, zski, contributes some details about Legolas
from Lord of the Rings. Since she also runs Wench
Wear Costumes, she gives advice on how to convert him to a pirate: "Lost
the hat - tie a scarf around your head. Get a big gold earring. Don't wear
the vest - just the shirt and pants." Easy enough...
- August ? - ATF Pub member, Queen Cate, contributes an idea on how
a tip pass might work (yay Cate!). Now the show has an ending, but little
else.
- August ? - Iowa Renaissance Festival is contacted to see if they want a
comedy pirate show. (Why wait until the last minute when there are still
so many valuable
seconds
left?) They say yes.
- August 23-24 - Cordelia and J.P. get together in Des Moines and write the
show.
- August 28 - piratecomedyshow.com registered.
Pirate flag/sign hastily made.
- August 29 - Business cards and buttons are made. Website goes "live" with
one of those tacky coming soon page.
- August 30 - Pirate Comedy Show debuts at the Iowa Renaissance
Festival, 2 shows per day over three days.
- August 31 - J.P. buys a new pirate hat thing from Fantasy Fynery while
at the festival. Everyone agrees it looks really spiffy.
- September 5 - J.P, Cordelia, and Bill (formerly Marco the Magnificent)
get together in Iowa City to revise the script and work on new props.
- ...another rehearsal in Iowa City...
- September 27-28 - Nebraska Ren Faire, four shows on Saturday and three
on Sunday.
- October 5 - J.P. attends the 2nd Annual Nishna
River Renaissance Faire in Avoca, Iowa and does a non-scheduled
impromptu street performance in front of the great folks at Amos Fabulous
Foods. Cordelia was unavailable, so
Captain
S.M. Tymburs (aka Captain
Condiments) stands in as the pirate wench.
- 2004 arrives, and the Pirate Comedy Show wonders what resolution it should
break first...
- January 2nd - the Pirate Comedy Show goes off its diet.
- January 26, 2005 - we do our first birthday party gig.
More detail will be filled in as soon as I get the dates. (I always have trouble
getting dates.)
Auguest 2003: Cordelia works on show ideas...
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