Faire Folk at Work
Tracey Maron
Welcome to another episode of fair folk at work, you know, one of the neat things that people often say about the Renaissance fair, that it was a place where you could look at yourself, and you could define yourself, and you could say to other people around you, this is how I want to be treated, and by and large, it kind of worked. I mean, if you wanted to be a peasant reveling in the mud, you could be a peasant and revel in the mud. If you wanted to be the queen, I don't know how you get elected to be queen, but you could call yourself a queen and do the wave. You know, and people just go, okay, that's Tracy. My guest today is Tracy Marin, who has lived that experience, and will of course share her thoughts with us about that. But first, we ask Tracy, the traditional question of who was the person who said to you, there's this thing called fair, and what did they say to get you out there. I was thinking about it, and I actually the first trip to fair that I made was with my parents and family friends, so it was our family and friends, but actually the first exposure I had to the Renaissance fair was two actors, and I cannot remember who they were. But it was actors from the fair that came out and did almost a reduced Shakespeare version of a Shakespeare scene, and they were amazing, and that was probably my sophomore or junior year in high school. So I was like, oh, why don't know what this is, but it's really cool and it's really funny. And then my parents had gone the year before, and so my junior year of high school, or senior year of high school. I went with them, and it was amazing, it was just as amazing as I thought it would be from that brief exposure in the gym at adult low camera high school, walking into interactive theater, where you just felt like you had stepped back in history. And you could listen to all the gossip and people were shopping in character, and then I went to the court glade and they were sharing little bits of gossip and history, and it was just fascinating. And then, to be perfectly honest, there's something about men in black velvet and leather, and I was like, there are a lot of very attractive men out here. It was the first time that I'd gone anywhere. I was very shy in high school, and it was the first time that anyone really flirted with me. So that was another sort of reason that I loved the fair. I love the question. Sure. Talk to me about Tracy walking into the fair. What kind of person were you, what were you into, you know, that kind of thing. I was in the mentally gifted program. When I was growing up, I was extremely intelligent, and I hung out with all the math people and science people. But then I also had friends in every sort of click in high school, I would say that I was a chameleon. So I hung out with track people, I hung out with the smart people, I hung out with theater people. But I never really fit in to any particular group. At least I didn't feel that I fit in very well. And then when I walked into the Renaissance fair, it felt like coming home. Before you entered the fair. If I had asked say your parents, what's going to happen to Tracy, what do you think they would have said, or what do you think you would have said. I was on track to be a veterinarian. Everyone expected that I would continue with college and just be this intellectual genius that for that I went into my father's footsteps. And he was an electrical engineer, and he worked for the government, and he tried to get me to go to work with him. What kind of projects was did he work on. He was a defense contractor. So he worked the guided missiles weapon system out of Port Miami in Southern California. Terrier, Talos, all of those things. As you started hanging out more at the fair, what were mom and dad's responses. They thought it was a nice little hobby, like a pastime. I mean, they weren't negative. As long as I continued to pursue academia. They didn't really care that much. What I did is a hobby. They also knew that I was involved in theater. So after high school, I studied theater at our community college. So they supported it. They loved the fair. My parents went to the fair every year, at least twice a year. And they understood why I loved it. Do you have siblings? Did they feel the same way about the fair? My brother is eight years younger than I am. So when I was going to the fair, he was 10, 11. I don't think he enjoyed it as much as my parents and I did. My mom loved the costumes and the food and the spectacles and the shows. She was more into the shows and the music than the street performances. So let's get back to you exploring fair with the good looking guys. Do you remember any specific booths or foods or even sights and sounds that impress themselves upon you and made you go. The first area where we spent time. My friends and I spent time was court laid. And we spent a lot of time at court laid. And it was just the costuming was amazing. And everybody knew their back story. And there was just so much gossip and intrigue. That's my first memory of fair is court laid. I think I was 18 or 19. I bought a fair ever pass. And I wore a very unattractive delta teen bodice and ran barefoot through a girl, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone either than or now, because I knew that tennis shoes weren't period, but in my mind, my costume was. And I met Eric Leith and he worked at trench winch. And so then I started hanging out at the kissing booth, because kissing, kissing strangers. And then he was the one who told me when workshops were starting. And that's how I got my started fair. So it sounds like it was a combination of things. It was everything. I mean, it was definitely handsome men. Or in my girlfriend said, oh, men and tights, tights, but handsome men was a part of it, but it was just the feeling that I got from going to the fair, especially when I went with my fair ever pass is that there was a complete lack of judgment. And everyone was included. And that felt amazing. So that's why I wanted to work the fair. How did you get a costume saying, leaving behind the black filled a teen. And then you had to get a costume approved to work at a booth. How did. Did you make your own costume or did somebody help you or give you some guidance on that. I made my own costume. And actually was by the first place I worked two places my first year. I worked as an Abigail at the very first horse tournament in the afternoon. And then I worked a trench winch in the morning. I met Virginia Veneroso or DeWel at the time. And she gave us information about costuming for the booth. What's really interesting is that my first costume was not close to being period, but because I worked at a booth. We didn't have to have costume approval. So when I made my peasant skirt, I made my panels in two different colors, either the next year or maybe two years after I started. A lot of the dancers were wearing more than colored paneled skirts. And I was like, I think I started something. I don't know what they did. But, but in my head as a young adult, I was like, well, look at their copying me. So yes, Virginia gave us basic patterns. I had you sewing skills, but I was able to make a base. It hasn't cost him. And I think I bought my chemise. What attracted you to being a peasant? I could play in the dirt. Now, mostly the costume was a little bit less ornate. That was part of it. But as I continued in fair, the peasants seem to have more fun. So people in the court glade, which was my initial interest, kind of locked in to certain behavior. I think that we just had more freedom as peasants to maybe play more and maybe not be quite as historically accurate. I just think we had a lot more freedom. Yeah. Did you feel more theatrical being in Abigail at the horse tourney or working at Trenshawhenge? Most of the work that I did at the horse tournament was pretty much backstage. I was responsible for feeding and watering the writers. So I was dealing with fellow actors and guest performers that came in as opposed to interacting with customers. At Trenshawhenge, I started to hawk, like with the men who are on the bales. So I had more interaction with guests and trying to get them to come play the game. So that to me was a little bit more theatrical. Do you remember any of your first forays into hockey? Yes. Can you share them now? Well, I remember saying like very suggestive comments to the different women who were coming up to play. You know, things like our tool is a little bit larger than most but a woman that such as you could handle it well. That was the big one. Pull it back and pull it hard for it to go up. That was another one. Things like it's a fine manly tool. It's always hard because it was just a giant sling shot. And I'm going to anticipate your answer is yes. But did you find you enjoy sort of joshing the audience out of their hard earned $1 bills? I did. I did. One of the things that I learned at Trenshawhenge and that I continued in my years at Fair was that for the most part, people wanted to play. They wanted to be a part of the show. And knowing that they wanted to play and be part of the show, I gave myself permission to pretty much have people do whatever I wanted them to. Well, exactly. I mean, if they're obviously there to have fun, you're just there to provide them entree into this world. Exactly. Again, it comes down to everyone accepted pretty much everything. There was just a complete lack of judgment. Everyone wanted to play and everyone was involved at the level that they wanted to be involved. Some people wanted to watch. Some people tease their friends into play. Some people walked by. I mean, it's just, I think I learned to read, guess, and know what it was that they were after. And the other neat thing is that there was always somebody else walking down the street. So even if you got the relative cold shoulder from somebody, it was like, Oh, well, on to the next person. Exactly. Who at the booth, did you look up to as role models of how to do it right? I was really lucky. When I started at Interwench, there were quite a few people who were role models. Don Taylor was amazing. I looked to her for Gina Venerosa. I mean, she ran the booth. So she was sort of, and it's funny because at the time that I worked the booth, I thought that she was much older than me. And she's only a few years older, but she had a level of maturity that made her sort of the house mom. So if you were in a sorority fraternity, she'd be the house mother. And so she directed everything and basically gave us guidelines as to how to behave not only at the booth, but at the fair and after hours at the fair and what to watch out for. And Kat Taylor had been at the Drench Wench for a while. She went on, of course, to do Sea Dogs and Rob and Triscoll. Same thing. The two of them split off in Sea Dogs. Laura, I think Laura's last name was Hudson. But the nice thing about the women who had been there for a while is they really took the new people under their belt. Yeah, they just sort of said, here you go. This is how it's done. Can you remember any specific rules they had for either decorum at the booth or just decorum at the fair in general? I think the main thing that they tried to stress is that even though everything felt like a safe space, we still live in a world that isn't necessarily safe. So just use caution. Just be aware that not everybody is a good guy or a good girl. The main thing for the booth was, you know, wear deodorant, brush your teeth. Don't have a banger bean with onions before you kiss a stranger. The other thing that was nice about the booth is that everyone was very protective of each other. So there was a whole group of people that would watch to make sure that nothing bad happened to any of your housemates. For example, there was an individual who met one of the girls, things like that. So everybody was very protective of each other. Everyone made sure that everyone was okay, both during the day and at night, Trinsawench was a very safe place to start, I think, at the fair, because you had so many brothers and sisters who were watching out for you. Does any incident with a patron at Trinsawench linger to this day? You had one incident. And it can be a good incident. It doesn't have to be a bad one. You know, I had so many good. I just had so much fun. And for the most part, everybody took it exactly the way it was meant to be. I remember we had one young boy who wanted to play the game, and I can't remember how old he was, maybe 14. So he was allowed to play the game, but he got a kiss on the cheek from the girls that he hit. And I mean, it was just one of those things where it was like attention from pretty women, but not anything pervy. If that makes sense. It was a very cute moment, not an ooh, icky moment. Exactly. And I think that's the other thing. What I found interesting is that as you try to get customers to come and play the game, or you talk to people in the street, there were certain people who were outwardly attractive, but kind of cocky. And then when you started to pay attention to the person who was a little more shy, you could just see them bloom. It was like they were starved for attention, and I slide over and over again where the men or the women on the bail would fight to catch the sponge of someone who maybe needed validation. And I think that that was really lovely. But I personally, as when it comes to negative experiences, I had one, and it wasn't that big of a deal that got surrounded by people in the street, and the men were on the bales. And I gave a signal that we had, and like the entire group of men just took a one step forward, like someone's messing with Tracy, and the horse tournament, the horse tournament was also amazing. I love horses, and the people Kevin Patterson ran the horse and very well. I met some amazing people there as well, really, really kind. I loved both of it. I loved, I loved the experience of working both places, my first year at fair. And in subsequent years did you continue to work both places. I only worked horse tournament the first year. I worked at Trenton Lynch for another couple of years, and then actually I had a relationship with Daniels McLean. He was one of my mentors at fair. He used to teach the BFA class. My third year at fair for fair started. He said, oh, I think that you should audition for this play. And at the time I was a lighting and sound designer. And I said, no, no, I don't act. I'm a techie. And he goes, no, no, you should come audition, you'll love these people. And it was a group of people. It was Daniels McLean and Rachel Nef and Mark Sklar. There were at least a dozen of us, and it was a cry of players. And we had one show on the far stage. So I auditioned for the show, and that's where I fell in love with acting. You say you don't remember what the show was, or? The name of the group was a cry of players. And I think that we, and it was CR YE. I think we did scenes from Shakespeare. I remember what scenes from Shakespeare you did. I have, I don't even, I think I was just in the opening, like, getting people to go into the show. Like, I wasn't even in the Shakespeare scene. I was just did like, hey, hey, there's going to be a show and ran across the stage. And that was a big acting debut. That was your introduction to show business. It was, it was, you know, mostly we watch around the fair as a big group of people talking about this amazing show we were going to have other than waving your arms and going right this way to the next big show or whatever. Do you remember any bit of stage business that was sort of yours that you did every day. I, I ran across the stage and out into the audience. And the one, the one thing I remember, the reason I remember running out into the audience is I tripped and jammed my hand into the hay bale and it went under my fingernail. That's it. So that's why I remember running out into the audience, because I remember distinctly busting a piece of hay underneath my thumbnail or fingernail. And yet I persisted in going out into the audience later in your career. I did. I did. I, however, I did pick up my feet. So I did not. Do you ever wear gloves? I didn't. I should have. Did your roles in the cryer expand over time? The year after we did a cry of players, I did Shakespeare scenes with my boyfriend. And we were in some little, teeny, tiny stage near the creek. It was super small, probably four people could stand on it. I don't even think it had a name. And we did scenes from Hamlet and we did Taming of the Shrew. So I did that, that year. And then I asked, did you take like a reduced Shakespeare take on these scenes or were you playing it basically straight? The scenes that I did with Ken were very straight. It was just scenes from Shakespeare. Very traditional. I think we probably did like four different scenes. I remember distinctly Taming the Shrew. And then I think I did a monologue as well. But at the same time that I was doing cry of players, the scenes from Shakespeare, I was still working at Trench-A-Wench. Paula Fell asked me to audition for her play. She'd written the play. The Goodly Servant was the first play that we did. And it was Paula Fell and Liz Pasha and myself. And that was when we moved away from Trench-A-Wench completely. And we were real actors with real stage time getting meal tickets. Was Trench-A-Wench totally an unpaid gig or was acting a step up in the food chain at Fair? I think acting was a step up at Fair at Fair. The person that I was seeing with my very first year at Fair when I was working was Tournament. Compared to Trench-A-Wench to being a porn star because I was kissing people for money. I can see where that relationship might not have been the most long lasting one. To me Trench-A-Wench was also theater and also performance. There was a lot of audience interaction. But I think that other people would probably see becoming a stage performer as a step up in the food chain. I got to camp at a different camping spot with the real actors. Oh my. Do you remember that? Wasn't there a campground? One was for actors and one was for everyone else. Was that right? Maybe I'm just remembering. I think, I don't know if it was a formal thing, but it was like St. Boniface was the stage actor group. You know, if I were to guess now, I would say it was more sort of informal. There wasn't like a guard restricting access to either get in or get out of the actors camp. There was an actors camp, but I think it was just nothing quite so formal would be my guess. Yeah, I think that you're right. But it felt like a step up. Trench-A-Wench was not paid, but we did get all the food we could eat. And there was beer and wine and there was camping behind the booth. Or you could also put your sleeping bag in the booth. So there's tons of floor space. But now you're breathing the rarefied atmosphere of actors camp. That's right. That's right. I was like, oh, I'm one of them now. My second year of fair, Daniels had taken me to Fools Guild. I went to Fools Guild party and I went to the great American goose chase. So what it was called? It was the scavenger hunt through LA. And so I had met all of the royalty of Renaissance Fair acting. So when I started doing stage shows, I was like, I'm almost one of them. I'm in with the cool kids now. At this point, did your parents beer for your veterinarian future? By that point, yes. So by that point, I had left UCLA. I decided that being a theater major, especially in lighting and sound, was kind of a waste of time. So I left UCLA. I was living in Los Angeles with one of my friends from Drench Wench, from Melanie Solar. But I was, you know, I had a job. But they were just like, oh, we don't. She's a college dropout and she's doing the Renaissance Fair. What is she going to do with her life now? They never really said anything. I'm very fortunate that I had parents that were pretty amazing and always supportive of anything I did. I found out later that my mom would talk to her best friend about how concerned she was with my life choices. But at least in my face, they were very supportive. Did mom have a day job outside of the home? No, she was an amazing housewife. She was able to stay at home and raise two kids. We were very fortunate, typical suburban family. Yeah, she was amazing. My dad, like I said, my dad was not at work civil service for the Navy. And he would be gone for weeks at a time. So she was basically a single mom until I was 16. He finally stopped traveling. So she raised two kids pretty much by herself. Back at a time when that was fairly unusual. So getting back to the first years as you were tipping your toe into the atmosphere of the actors camp. What were the shows or acts that you remember thinking, wow, that's really cool. If only I could be in that show or be able to do that. Who were those people and what were those shows? Camadia Bumba Bumba was one of my favorite shows. I just thought it was amazing. The chemistry between the different actors was amazing. And watching Billy Scudder that would jump off the second level, coming off the second level of the stage. And that was amazing. Of course, we do Shakespeare Company. Everybody loved we do Shakespeare Company. It was the performing Shakespeare, but with a wink kind of a thing. Well, and you guys did the same thing with your shows. Just sort of an edge and a wink and breaking the fourth wall. And I think that definitely influenced the good and ready sisters. Paula and Liz and Don and I on how our shows worked. Same type of style. I think it was Paula and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out one of your guys jokes. It might have been from the mouse show. But it's something like, I think Don said, "Say la vie." And then Paula would go, "Lay vie." And then she'd exit. And then it took me, like I said, an embarrassing long time to go, "Oh wait, that's not French." But I think you were always shooting for a slightly more literate audience. So a lot of our jokes didn't land, but we thought they were very funny. My favorite joke, and it never hit. One of the lines was, "Soon the other, but she will drop." And then we would throw a boot from backstage onto the stage. And then someone, I think it was Liz at the time, would say not a boot. A shoe, a shoe, and then we would all say, "Bless you." Yes. We found it very entertaining, but it didn't always. I don't think it got anyone else thought it was as funny as we did. I thought about this because a lot of my jokes were of the shoe. There are jokes that make you laugh, and there are jokes that make you smile. And they're the ones that you realize sort of are clever, a bit too late to really laugh at them. And a lot of a shoe, a shoe or say lovey, there's actually a lot to process there. And so, I don't know, if you were to say, "And soon another shoe will drop." And then if you'd thrown a fish out, that's in sort of inherently silly and absurdist. I might get a laugh, but by making a wordplay and then illustrating it with something that's kind of in the ballpark, and then doing another wordplay that's kind of close, and especially since an audience is sitting in them, it's 110, and they're eating their tricky leg, and there's a prey going by in people. It's not like you have 110% attention to the audience. But on the other hand, what was great about the fair is that you were sort of given this license of 30 minutes every two or three hours, and whatever you wanted to do, you kind of could do it. I agree. I agree. There just was a lot of freedom. There was freedom in different ways, and one was going back to what you said earlier. You could do the same thing every five or ten minutes. Every five or ten minutes, you had a new audience. So, if you had a bit that you did, you could do it all day long if you chose to, and your audience is always fresh. They're always walking by. We just had a lot of freedom within our show to do things that may not have been historically accurate. You kind of play with a lot. Well, Don told me that you would go into the audience, and she would pretend to be blindfolded, and you would get a wallet from somebody in the audience and say, "I have in my hand," and then you would give some fairly obvious clues that it was a watch or a shoe or something. Actually, what's your recollection of that bit? To be perfectly honest, I had completely forgotten about that until I read it, and I went, "Oh, my gosh, yes." There was the time between when the previous show ended. There was always a gap before our show actually started, and we were just trying to fill the veils. So, we would just, and like I said, people wanted to be part, so they would hand you things. And I think that Don was the one who came up with the idea, or it could have been Paula, or it could have been the three of us because we bounced things off each other and kind of shared a brain and a sense of humor. Johnny Carson used to do it, right? The amazing thing. It was a different thing, but it wasn't so much an audience participation. It was a scripted joke kind of thing. But it was that that's where it sparked the idea to do the "I have something in my hand." And it was, you know, I think Don said, "It was take your time." And it would be a watch, and they would get progressively more obvious that the person in the audience was basically saying things to tell the person that was blindfolded what it was. And now I think that I was the blindfolded person, and she was because she was quicker with coming up with the different clues. So, I could be misremembering, but I think Don was out in the audience. Well, that makes sense. And then so you could be sort of a dumb blonde on stage going. It's not quite clear. It's coming in. It's a little foggy, late, hold it closer. But yeah, it was just a way to fill time, and then people would stop and be like, "Oh, there's a show." And it's like, "Well, it's not really a show. It's a show before the show." And one of the shows for the Goodly Servant, I always went out into the audience to get a volunteer. I found intriguing is that my persona, of course, was the very sexual sister. And so I would go into the audience and I would get a man and take him backstage and prepare him for our entrance. And it surprised me, and I guess it shouldn't have, that nine times out of ten, they confused who I was with who my character was. So it was always sort of like, "Hey, baby." And I'm like, "Oh no, it's just a show." So that was kind of interesting. When you discerned, when you first went into the audience, who was willing to play, I understand this is a gag versus hubba hubba, take me backstage hubba hubba. I became better at it, but initially, no, I could not tell. And then I just got to the point where I would choose the husband or the dad, someone like that who would not misunderstand and think that I was taking him backstage because I wanted him to rip my clothes off. I was thinking about it the other day, and it was triggered by Don talking about the fact that she hated wearing a hat. What did we learn? We had to wear a hat. We had to keep our shoulders covered. But I never wore a hat. I was always up on the wall of shame because I refused to wear a hat because I thought my hair was my most attractive feature. I had really great hair back then. But in retrospect, I don't think anyone was looking at my hair. Probably not when I was in the bodice. I could have been bald. Was there a bit in almost every show where you knew it was going to work? Paula and her dog costume always got a response. Paula has always impressed me. When we were at Trenshaw Lynch together, she dressed like a mermaid, and she would sit in the swing. Then she had the dog costume. That was sort of a running gag. I think finally, when we did the wife of Bass Tale, we even included a joke about the fact that she couldn't wear the dog costume. Pretty much anything Don did got a laugh. She was so fast. I'm the type of person that's much better in retrospect. I actually do comedy now. And there are times where I'm like, "Oh, I should have said it would have been funnier if I was always impressed with Don's ability to just come up with a quip right on the spot." For example, when we went to Long Beach, she was slumped over supposedly asleep. And the Queen Mary let out its giant horn blast. And she looked up and she said, "Oh, excuse me." And then she went back to sleep. I got a huge response. And Liz Pasha was very much like that as well. She was our first Liz and Paula and I were the first three of the Good and Ready sisters. Liz and I, our characters were very similar. And then, of course, when Don came in, each of us had a very distinct personality. Yeah, I didn't want to. I know I've talked a lot about Don and Paula and I did not want to leave Liz out. Liz is one of the most outgoing people I've ever met, just completely fearless from the very beginning. And where we talked about how Don appeared confident, I think Liz really is confident in her sense of self and her abilities. I found that I was jealous of that ability because, like, many performers, I'm always second-guessing my choices. Even on the bales, we used to laugh that she was like the goddess that had all the arms because she would just snag sponges out of the air. Like, how did you even get that? I'm going to ask a different sort of question. And what in later years became your day job? I worked for a physical therapy office as a massage therapist for about seven years. I started in 1990 and I worked as a massage therapist until 2000. Was there a time in the doctor's office that you sort of use not necessarily a fair accent, but your interpersonal skills honed at fair in the medical office? I think so. I think I learned at fair was listening. If you listen to what the other person is saying, when I say listening, it's everything. It's their tone or what they're saying and even what they're not saying, but their body language is, you can sort of draw things out. So as a massage therapist, someone could come in and they'd be like, "Oh, you know, I hurt my shoulder." And I'm like, "Okay." And so then I'd start to talk to them and they're like, "Oh, well, this is going on in my life. There's all this stress or my neck hurts. There's all this stress." So I'd work with the massage therapist, but then at the same time, listen to what they were telling and just to get that off their chest, a lot of times they would leave feeling much better because there's a psychological aspect to most physical elements. Yes. And then I also used, because I started in comedy, I would use them as my audience to test out my jokes. They're my captive audience. That's right. I had them for 15 minutes. So did you later do stand up in clubs kind of stuff? I did stand up. I was just starting and stand up in '98, '99. And then I found out I was pregnant. And I took a step away from performing. And I recently returned. I was going to take a one year hiatus. My manager was like, "How much time do you need off?" I'm like, "Well, like a year." I enjoyed, and still enjoy my daughter. And I found it very difficult to want to leave my husband's work nights. So I was like, "Well, I could leave her with a friend or a babysitter and go perform." And I'm like, "Or I could just stay here and enjoy." Did you ever take her out to Fair? Yes. I took her out when she was three. I think I was the first time that I took her to Fair. So I took her out to Fair. She was super cute. She was super tiny. I showed her off to my friends. And then we went back to Fair when Dionne McCann did Anne Christina Munreso for their hand fasting. And I think that she was ten. And she looked around and she said, "Oh, I really like this." And then the two of us worked Fair for a number of years together with St. Ives. And she got to be a blacksmith. She was pretty cool. And then I worked the tavern and then she became a teenager. Her schedule got a little bit busier and I stopped Fair again. But we worked Fair together for a number of years. It was fun. I've asked this question a lot to parents of Fair kids. And one of my theories is that Fair is an excellent place to bring especially a pre-teen slash going into teen teenhood because it lets your children see you playing, doing something different other than being mom or dad. I agree. I think it's also, it also sparks imagination. It's a chance for everyone to play. And, you know, that there's more to life than just going to school and going to soccer practice and, you know, doing your homework and having a job. And it's like, you can go out and you can literally become whoever or whatever you can imagine. And you're going to be in this environment where almost everyone is willing to play. The one thing about being in Fair is that you see so many different types of creativity. You see your actors and your blacksmiths and your cooks and your stage performers and your people that are in the parades and all the people that are supporting the people in the parades and your visual artists, because there is such a lack of art, education in our schools. I think that this is an excellent opportunity for children to see what's out there. And you talked about this a little bit when you're talking about Miss Venerosa was that you can actually assume a fair degree of responsibility at an age when it's not often granted to you to be in charge, or you can define what you want to do. And then figure out what you're comfortable assuming responsibility for. Yeah. I think that that's one of the amazing things. I feel that we were just very lucky in a girl that we were able to do as much or as little as we chose to do. And like you said, it wasn't like oh she's 16 and she's running the gaming outlet. It's what do you want to do? What do you want to do at 16? Do you want to run a booth? Or do you want to play in the mud? Both of which are valid choices. Both of which are valid choices. And there was, and I've said it before, there was no judgment. Like nobody went, oh you're only this, or oh who do you think you are. It was, are you a good human? Okay, give it a shot. I have to admit, oh sorry, I was going to say I have to admit I am jealous that it was never, I was not a healthy deer though, because the stories I hear about the healthy deer is pretty amazing. It was an excellent place to be introduced to the fun of the fair. It's not 'til I got a lot older that I realized how rare that was to be given a playground of such magnitude and depth. It was a very happy accident. I think that the fact that I made friends with Eric Leath was a very happy accident. Because like I said, I met people at Drench Wench 43 years ago that I'm still friends with today. And I don't know that a lot of people maintain friendships for that long. I did want to tell you, I also remember Adam dragging around the stuffed dog in the dirt. Yes. And I remember peasants for peace. I actually, we were putting flowers in their guns, because we were trying to be peaceful. And at one point, I pretended to spit at one of the guards and then realized he can't do anything. And so I went, well that was a bad choice. And so then I just ran away. So I was like, this poor guy, he's like, I should beat the heck out of you. This is what would happen to you. And I'm like, oh, yeah, well that was a poor choice. I'll just keep giving flowers. Yeah. In the interview I did with her, she talked about peasants for peace. And I am convinced it is the single most brilliant thing I ever saw out of fear. I think so too. It's actually a really good example of how having the constraint of you have to make it somewhat period. Totally made it brilliant. And the fact that they were shooting the damn cannon off every 20 seconds, it was just the most annoying thing. But the way she turned it into a street theater moment to me is just one of those. Why the fair was great, why Don was great. And I mean, so she could have an idea like that, and she could get like 20 to 30 people to go, wow, that sounds like fun. Let's go demonstrate them from the Queens guard and lay down on the street in front of the parade. And then you'd have 20 people laying down on the street in front of the Queens parade. It's interesting, so Virginia has continued the street theater tradition. And one of the things, or a few of the things that I've done with her, we sold fireworks. So she actually created these fake fireworks, and then we would do makeup as if we had gotten blown up. And we would walk through the fair, trying to sell our defective fireworks. And that's, I mean, Virginia is brilliant at coming up with ideas. And then the other thing we did was she does a pie fight every year, where they start by trying to sell pies and then they end up having a pie fight. And then there's something, and I don't remember, she's going to kill me. It was some religious thing where we were talking about the truth is naked. And the only remember is walking around in our undergarments with like protest signs and talking about the truth being naked. Something about, we should all return to the Garden of Eden, where nobody, nobody was closed. So actually, the devil gave us clothing. Let me get back to a question I still, you talked about the connection between being a massage person and skills you acquired it fair. Are you still using fair skills in other aspects of your life? I think so. I think one of the biggest lessons I learned from fair, going back to this posture, being completely fearless and giving 110% is to try different things and see what sticks to be fearless. I started in theater, obviously doing scenes for Shakespeare, a little bit of comedy, but most of the theater and film I did was dramatic. I learned how to cry on cue, so I put that to a lot of use. And when my manager suggested stand up, I was like, why? And he's like, just create a character who performs stand up. And so then I started to do stand up. I'm currently, so then in life, for example, went camping with friends out at Havasu, and people were jumping off cliffs and riding jet skis and doing all the things. And I was like, well, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do all the things, because you only regret the risks you don't take. So fair taught me to take risks and to not be afraid. Up until probably my senior year of high school, my biggest fear was that people would think that I was strange or stupid, or they would judge me for whatever reason. And then one day after working fair, I went the worst, the worst thing anyone can think about me is that I'm drunk or high or stupid, and who cares. And that gave me the freedom to just try new things. And if it didn't work, it didn't work where I am in a play right now where the character accidentally drinks punch that's been spiked with psilocybin. And there is a D evolution from very conservative to not. And at one point, I have lipstick on my teeth and I'm talking to people and my makeup is wonky. And one of the producers said to me, she goes, I admire the fact that you're not afraid to just be weird. And I think that's what I wanted there. Don't be afraid to be weird. Everybody's weird. Well, I think that sounds like a natural ending point. But let me walk over that and say, have you made films? Do you have a real somewhere? I do. I just did some pieces before I had my daughter. I was a card carrying sag member did background work and little student films and things like that. Do you have your real on YouTube? I do not have my real on YouTube. So you have to ask to see it is that it's on videotape. So I have no idea how I would ever get it again. It's been a long time. I am starting to post videos on my stand up, though, because because I've been told I'm supposed to. I really don't like seeing myself on camera, which made me the world's worst film actor because I wouldn't watch myself. But I think the funniest thing about I did background on a TV show called Seven Days. I don't know if you ever watched that. But the whole premise was that this guy could go back seven days in time and I was a member of the cult. And so the show came on. Lauren was young. I think she was like five. She was on TV and she says, oh, that's mom. And it was literally the back of my head in my elbow. I wanted to say that I know that you've asked before about different people from fear that had a huge impact. And I think the other one that made a huge impact on me was Mark Lewis. And I learned to be present from Mark Lewis. I'm happy to say that my daughter met him in Erwin Dale one day. And he just was his laser focus on whoever he was talking to. And she looked at me. She was she was promising drunk. And I'm like, no, honey, that's that's how people behave when they give you their undivided attention. And that's one of the qualities that I've tried to continue as an adult with ADHD. It doesn't always work. When you were kind enough to say, yeah, I'm happy to do one of these things. Was there part of your brain that also said, I've got to be sure to mention blah, blah, blah. I have to be sure to mention how much I like you, and I've always liked you. Well, thank you. Paula has talked about you as well. I know that you introduced yourself as the, you know, Mark's friend Dan. But I think what I noticed most about you years ago was again, you were quiet, but you were very observant. Well, the fair provided a lot of things to notice. Both the foreground and background. I was lucky to have the level of talent that surrounded me in my years that I were to fair. There were so many people that just put on such amazing shows. I remember there was the wizard with his cockatoo, Eric, someone, just people doing just like random things. There was another guy who watched around with a lizard on his shoulder all day. And it's just the different types of creativity I saw in the streets. That amazes me. And they were all just people who sort of self selected themselves to show up at this place. I think so. I think that the Renaissance fair, for the most part, attracts people who are kind. And that would be the other thing that I wanted to point out is that at least my experience is that the people at the fair were very kind and welcoming. Also, men still look really good and leather and black velvet. I salute your adherence to the code. Thank you. I really want to thank you for putting this podcast out there, because it's wonderful to hear the stories, listening and reading the different interviews with the different people that were out of fair. It just brought a lot of really fun memories back. And I appreciate that. Well, thank you very much. And that was kind of one of the main reasons why I started doing this thing. But say that Phyllis and Ron got the basic things right. You know, it's fair day. The Queen is coming. People are there to buy and sell stuff and to have fun. Yeah. And even if you never heard of Ron or Phyllis or a girl, 70 years later, you're out of fair, where the Queen is coming. People are there to buy and sell stuff and have fun. Exactly. Well, and it's funny to me. And I know that we've gone long, so I want to keep you. But it's the number of people who are unhappy with people that are coming out, and they are not wearing the correct. Right. So I don't know if that's going to happen. I have to laugh. My one last memory that I'll bring up was poor Frida, that poor woman. But I can't tell you how many times I would go to costume check. And I remember the last time I went to costume check in front of Frida, I'd forgotten my bloomers. And again, I'm in the class, so I have to have bloomers now. And I'm like, okay, I go, I left my bloomers at home. And these are the wrong shoes, but this is, you know, this is basically my costume. And she just looked at me. She's like, and she passed me because she knew that I knew what I needed, but she was just like, really, did like your, your one job is to wear the costume that you're going to wear the complete costume with the correct shoes. So, yeah. Oh, I almost forgot. Do you remember Tim Finkus? I would say one of the most brilliant. That was when we were in Dvor, and it was Tim Finkus and Kevin Brown, they had created a theater group. And they had, remember how we were all sort of, I called it the fair zoo, because every guild was kind of in a little cage, or compound or yeah, compound or whatever. Yes, here's here are the Germans and here are these people and we're all sort of separate. They were a performing troupe that had come to perform before the Queen, and they never left their compound. That was just their gig, and they sat at their table and they had his magnificent tent, and they just sat there all day and ate and drank and talked to each other. And that was their gig. And I kept going, tell me when your show goes, I want to see your show and I'm like, oh, it's later. But I was like that, that to me was just brilliant. I was like, oh, you get to just hang out and talk to your friends all day. And if you want to talk to the customers, you can, but you know, you can always just sit there in the shade. Well, this has been a load of fun. I am now going to find the pause stop recording button. Well, I'm your host, Dan McLaughlin, and that is my August 2024 interview with Tracy Marin. If you have questions or comments, you would like me to pass on to Tracy, you can email me at DJNG@earthlink.net. Questions or comments about the podcast themselves can also be emailed to me at DJNG@earthlink.net. Finally, if you or someone you know would like to be a guest on Fair Folk at Work, you can email me at DJNG@earthlink.net. But that's it for this time. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]