Mayfaire also provided the rare prospect of speaking at length with other Rennies travelling the circuit, among them most notably being Gilroy the Jester (Photo, Right). Gilroy, it seems, works the circuit from the Ohio Renaissance Festival in the north to the Acadiana Medieval Faire in Louisiana, with side trips to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival (KCRF) and, of course, Mayfaire. He's one right-busy fellow: not only does he maintain three seperate clown/jester personas -- one each for faire, business and church -- but he's also involved with setting up the new Tudor Rose Renaissance Faire near Little Rock as well as organizing his own faire -- the Arkansas Renaissance Festival -- coming to Pine Bluff hopefully in 2007. Aye, it seems renaissance festivals are popping up like mushrooms after a good rain in our neighborhood these days! Ryleh, of course, just had to ask Gilroy if he was related in any way to another well-known Midwest jester by the name of "Toy", since these two men bear a remarkable resemblance to each other. The resemblance, however, is purely coincidental: where Toy wordlessly mimes his way thru the faire day, performing as a mechanical clockwork toy (hence the name), Gilroy performs magic tricks, tells jokes and uses puppets in storytelling to engage his audience. As it turned out, tho, Ryleh's question wasn't that far out in left field. Apparently rumor of this extraordinary similarity between the two men eventually reached Toy's ears, Gilroy said, so when both jesters finally played together at faire for the first time one year -- at KCRF, to be exact -- Toy actually sent faire security off to hunt Gilroy down with an invitation to meet with him. He was so intrigued by the coincidence, Toy just had to meet his "faire twin," it seems! Needless to say, it was Ryleh's greatest pleasure to meet Gilroy personally at Mayfaire this year and spend an hour talking with him, catching up on all the local Faire Circuit gossip.

The ScallyWags' "Pirate Comedy Show" formally launched the Mayfaire program that Saturday, with a presentation of "Bar Wars," a hilarious spoof of George Lucas' well-known cinematic masterpiece (Photo, Above: Sir Aaron looks on as The ScallyWags begin their show with a little audience participation). According to their version (as ripped off from their website at http://www.geocities.com/littlebeardthepirate/ pg2.html), the hero Luke Guyjumper and his alcoholic mentor, Ibe Gone Kanobee, try to save their tavern, "The Rebels' Rat Hole", from the e-vile designs of the saloon across the port (known as "The Imperial Pub"), owned and operated by none other than the evil Dense Bladder. During their quest, Luke and Ibe Gone make friends with "Hand" Solo, so-called because of his lonely sex life; and Humunga, who slurs his words so badly that no one can understand exactly what he's trying to say simply because he's so intoxicated all the time! As might be well-expected, this was definitely not a show for the young and impressionable (Photo, Left: fortunately, all the teenagers in our party were veteran Rennies, making them considerably more mature and knowledgable than a comparable group of patron youngsters. Not only did they catch all the nuances and innuendos of The ScallyWags' jokes -- which certainly raised a pirate eyebrow or two during the show -- but they also roared with appreciative laughter both loud and long during the entire "Bar Wars" performance).

In the course of the "Bar Wars" tale, two prostitutes affectionately known as "DoubleD" and "C-Cup" provided some valuble information (Photo, Above: Ibe Gone and another member of The ScallyWags help two female patrons playing DoubleD and C-Cup with their lines during a bit of audience participation); Luke learned to master the power of "The Force"; performed a rousing and spritely musical number with Yoda; defeated the evil Dense Bladder in battle; and, of course, won the girl in the end. Needless to say, we all cheered and applauded The ScallyWags wildly, trying to make up in sheer volume for what this audience lacked in simple numbers (Photo, Left: Little Beard, playing Luke Guyjumper, confers with Ibe Gone Kanobee during a dramatic pause in the non-stop action)! We also made it a particular point to tip the players generously after the show since patron attendance was pretty sparse that day on account of the inclement Ozark weather.

To quote The ScallyWags' own website extensively: "'The ScallyWags' is a comedy troupe which performs pirate shows, ad-lib shows, street performing, improv, educational programs and combat shows at renaissance festivals, scouting events, schools, private parties and more. After spending countless years as playtrons, the group started performing professionally in 1998. Originally called "The ScallyWags and the Pirate Wench", all but one of their members still perform. Guess which one! The troupe is one of the longest running "Pirate Comedy Shows" in the U.S. which is something to say, what with the onslaught of pirate shows that came up after "The Pirates of the Caribbean " craze (Photo, Right: Little Beard listens intently as Humunga, played by "Biggen" -- AKA Sebastian Guyman -- tries to advise him during a performance of "Bar Wars" at Mayfaire. As it later turned out, Biggen took part in an unplanned bit of personal drama with our own Lady Rhiannon later that same day). The ScallyWags also runs a leather goods shop at the festival called "Little Beard Leather" -- formerly "The Traveling Vagabonds" -- which they started in 1995. The troupe also established the all-pirate re-enactors guild dubbed "The Freebooters of the Flatlands" in 1998. The Freebooters' members helped The ScallyWags perform at many faires, dinner parties and the like. In 2001 a lot of performance requests started coming in for the group, so The ScallyWags took on additional members to pick up more shows. The group now has multiple shows ranging from kids' entertainment to all-adult pub shows which they perform." Ryleh can honestly avow that everyone in our party truly enjoyed The ScallyWags and their performance of "Bar Wars" at Mayfaire that day!!!

Standard Disclaimer: This webpage is strictly an *Unofficial* look at MayFaire held at Herbhome Farm near Erbie in Newton County, Arkansas. The author of these pages is in no way, shape, manner or form connected with MayFaire (mailing address: Hc 73 Box 113 Marble Falls, AR 72648; Phone (870)446-6105; home page http://herbhome.tripod.com/mayfaire.html) and/or any of the sponsors associated with this event. All opinions expressed are strictly this author's own. Unless noted otherwise, all photographs are copyright ©2000-2006 by George Laking.