September 11, 1977

I was going through my old photos looking for a color shot from the early days, and came across this one marked with the date, 9-11-77.  Twenty-four years later the world changed forever, but captured here is an age of innocence.

I’m twenty-one years old and it’s my second season at the festival.   This photograph was taken at the Sheriff’s stocks manned by Gary Zahradka. Everyday I would spend an hour or so at the stocks while Gary would place this sign around my neck after locking me up.

Ironically, after September 11, 2001 the world has slipped back into a kind of neo-medievalism. Orthodox religions here in America, and around the globe seem to be locked in a deadly struggle to drag us all back to a time that we were making fun of in those days.

In 1978 I began my apprenticeship at The Valley Studio where I received my formal education as an artist, but my true training began here on the streets of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

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Photos by Rosie Cole:

When Rosie and I were apprentices at The Valley Studio we studied mime in a one-room schoolhouse. Inside it was toasty warm, while outside there was plastic on all the windows to guard against the frigid Wisconsin winter. I remember trudging to morning classes in Sorel snow boots and a vintage US Army trench coat like the one Radar O’Reilly wore on the TV show M.A.S.H..

The first year we learned Etienne Decroux’s Corporeal Mime technique, which sliced and diced the human body into every direction it could possibly move. We apprentices would face a wall of mirrors and deconstruct each human movement with machine precision.

In our second year the one-room schoolhouse was reserved for teaching  Jacques Lecoq’s method of physical acting.   We never again faced those unforgiving mirrors where everyday we had to polish our imperfections. Instead we faced each other and explored our imperfections in order to discover the clown’s art reflected in our flaws.

The Valley Studio was nestled in the same magic valley where Frank Lloyd Wright founded his architectural school, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Apprenticeship classes were also held in the hayloft of an old restored barn; outside in the fresh air; as well as in a light filled lounge with 12-foot tall windows; but the most difficult classes were reserved for the one-room schoolhouse.

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Photo by unknown:

I’m posting yet another shot of my early days leading up to my 40^th anniversary season at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. This photo was taken in 1977 before I could grow a beard and still had a full head of hair. I’m playing my one and only gig as a musician. At the end of the day I would play my doumbek drum for a belly dancer near the front gate. I learned how to drum when I was training to be a professional dancer. My teacher suggested I take lessons to help with my ability to count out steps with precision on the dance floor.

The truth is I have no rhythm and I only learned one beat, but it came in handy the day I met Rosie Cole. It was the first day of our apprenticeship training at The Valley Studio. I saw a young woman arrive dressed like a hippie with long brown hair, and a printed skirt with hiking boots. I fell in love at first sight.

Her dorm room was at the far end of a long hallway, so I sat on my bed and began playing the one beat I knew on my doumbek drum hoping to call her to me. Sure enough the first to appear at my door was the young woman with long brown hair who introduced herself as Rosie.  It has been many years since then, but she is as beautiful today as the first day I met her.

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I’m captured here as the Joker in a vintage set of souvenir playing cards from the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

It’s been a joy to be a player at the the festival for 40 seasons.  I remember in the beginning I was caught by the magic that was happening all around me.  As the festival grew I began to think that the magic was disappearing, until I realized that it was up to me to create it myself.  From that day on I strived to become the vehicle in which others could experience the magic that first caught me.

The Minnesota Renaissance Festival opens its 45th season this Saturday, August 22, 2015.  I hope to see there.

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Today I will perform at the Mall of America to promote the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.  I will be in the Main Rotunda for one show only at 3:30pm.

Come on out to shop, catch a movie, and see the Rooster from the Wacky Chicken Show.

 

Photo by Darlene Pfister / StarTribune staff photographer:

In the 1970s I played a mime at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.  This picture is what I looked like my last year wearing white-face.

In the 1980s I transformed into a red nose clown, but I started out learning my craft by never saying a word all day.

Now in the 21st century I cluck and crow like a rooster.

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I just signed the contract for my 40th season at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.  I guess if you stick around long enough it becomes a career.

I remember my first year I performed along side Penn and Teller, Avner the Eccentric, and the guy who took this picture yesterday, Carr Hagerman, AKA: The Rat Catcher.

I set-up my campsite behind the Hobbit Hole, and I immediately fell down a rabbit hole into a whole new world.  That first year I learned how to make magic long before I ever learned my first magic trick.  It was a trial by fire that transformed my life forever.

Mark Twain said, “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn no other way.” The same can be said about performing at a Renaissance Festival.

The lessons a Renaissance performer learns can be applied anywhere, but nothing prepares you for your first year at a Renaissance Festival.  However, there is a magic created that cannot be experienced anywhere else.

The Minnesota Renaissance Festival opens August 22nd and runs through October 4th.

Come on out!

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Photo by Terry Gydesen:

This is a picture of the closing moment of Rosie and my opening act in the Full Moon Circus. The black cloth coming out of the broken globe represents the toxic oil we humans are extracting from the Earth much like a red silk in a Shakespearean play represents the blood flowing from an actor’s fatal wound.

The show raised over $8,000 to support MN350.org’s efforts to combat Climate Change. It was a great honor to have been invited to participate in the creation of this extraordinary show.

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Photo by Terry Gydesen:

Josette Antomarchi has been our director for over ten years. The depth of her experience includes being a founding member of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, as well as a marque member of Theatre du Soleil, and The Peter Brook Theater Company in Paris, France.

Recently she has been directing me in my new Theatre of Fools’ Medicine Show that I recently performed excerpts from in Full Moon Circus on August 31, 2015.

Come see the show at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, the Minnesota State Fair as part of Arts A’Fair and the Caponi Art Park’s Summer Performance Series.

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Photo by Terry Gydesen:

Kevin Kling is a rare Minnesota treasure. 14-years ago today we nearly lost him in a tragic motorcycle accident. He is a member of a select group that I call, “The Great American Fool.” Just like the king’s relationship with his court fool, America has looked to the wise fools of their day for the truth.  Mark Twain claimed to not be an American, but “The American.” In that spirit Kevin’s stories serve to tell the story of, “The Minnesotan.”

What a gift that we didn’t lose his voice the day that he was riding his BMW motorcycle to perform his play, 21A, at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. That day I recall walking out my front door and smelling sweet citrus cleanser wafting in the air. Kevin, my next-door neighbor was hosing off his freshly cleaned motorcycle. We talked about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and how a BMW beats out a Honda any day of week. As I watched him ride away I remember looking forward to seeing his show with my family that night.

Hidden in an old cigar box I’ve kept those unused Fringe tickets clearly marked 8/11/2001. That date has always haunted me because it’s exactly one month before the World changed forever. Thank God we didn’t lose the guiding voice of Kevin Kling that day.

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