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Medieval Times | |
April 21st, 2022 | |
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Yesterday was my 28th trip to Medieval Times, the dinner theater | |
show with jousting knights, falcons, horse dancing, and | |
community-theater quality sword fights. It is one of my favorite | |
things on earth and if you haven't had the opportunity to enjoy it | |
before, I hope you do in the future. | |
Tickets are almost always available with some sort of discount if | |
you pop around online for a few minutes. That typically gets the | |
cost down to around $30-35 per person. Thus, dinner & a show for | |
a reasonable rate. | |
And the dinner is quite something! You'll have fountain drinks or | |
tea, coffee, tomato bisque, basically a half a chicken (massive | |
leg and thigh), half a baked potato, corn on the cob, and | |
a dessert. There's plenty of alcohol available too, and I would | |
highly recommend it. You want as much social lubrication as you | |
can get, because... | |
The key to medieval times is that the amount of fun you have is | |
directly proportional to the amount of energy you put in. | |
Your wait-staff will do their best to work a bit in-character, | |
calling themselves wenches or serfs. The more veteran servers will | |
even take to the arena from time to time as squires for the | |
knights. The other actors (knights, queen, chamberlain, etc) will | |
be more focused on their character portrayals and mingle with the | |
crowd before the show and during it as well. Just like character | |
actors at Disney World, these folks tend to have a lot of | |
experience with ad-libbing with the fans and really help to sell | |
the experience. | |
But even with that, and the show you're going to see, if you come | |
in and passively watch without bringing your own energy to the mix | |
you're missing half the fun. | |
So how do you make it awesome? Well first, bring a crowd. The | |
energy in the show comes from the crowd cheering. Be boisterous. | |
Be crazy. Cheer in over-the-top chants. Start a wave. Get into it! | |
Sure it's scripted, but so is wrestling. See how fun that can be | |
when the crowd goes wild? | |
If you bring a big group you can dominate the cheering for your | |
knight's section and that in turn will help them get more into | |
their character. You'll attract the attention of the other actors | |
and they may even riff with you. When your knight wins or falls, | |
be dramatic with them. | |
What else? Get the people around you into it too. This is where | |
alcohol helps. Put on your extrovert face and make eye contact | |
with the kids sitting nearby. Encourage them to get up and cheer. | |
They'll see you having fun and mirror it, and it'll bring a whole | |
other level of awesome to the show. | |
When a knight wins one of the skill contest in the first half of | |
the show they'll earn flowers they can toss to the crowd. Help | |
guide their choices by having your big mass of people point toward | |
the little kids, or the old ladies. Cheer for them too. | |
Yes, you'll be eating with your bare hands. Enjoy that! Make | |
a mess. They'll give you wet-wipes later anyway. Stomp your feet, | |
start a chant. Order more booze. | |
This is my secret sauce for a great outing and if you follow it | |
I can guarantee a lot of fond memories. When I went to the show as | |
a kid my dad was my role model for getting into it. As my friends | |
got married over the years, we made a point of going to a Medieval | |
Times show the day after the reception as a second celebration. | |
That experience taught me the joys of cheering for the bad guy, | |
and of being very drunk with friends cheering on comically bad | |
fight choreography. As a dad myself, I have taken my son almost | |
every year of his life as part of our family tradition. He's | |
learning to carry the torch. | |
If there's a castle near you, go check it out! It's great for | |
family reunions, birthday parties of all ages, or just a silly | |
saturday night. I hope you have a great time and share your | |
experience with us here. |