It's been a week since the 2015 season ended and I've been trying to get my thoughts together. I guess the thing that strikes me as most noticeable is the ease in which I reverted back to regular non-faire life. This season I did not find myself having dreams of faire. I did not have trouble listening to the podcasts at work because my mind would wander back to faire as it did last year. It was not the first thing on my mind when I woke and the last thing I thought of as I went to sleep. But that's not to say my experience this year was anything short of amazing. It was just different. Like trying to compare Chocolate mousse and Tiramisu. (let's face it, apples and oranges are just too boring).
After having been a cast member last year, I think it made me a better patron. I now have a great appreciation for the street actors and know exactly what they are doing and why. That makes me an easy "playmate" for some but many others avoid the regulars for the same reason. They feel the people who are visiting for the first and only time deserve the attention and they focus on them. We "playtrons" are easy pickings, low hanging fruit. So it was very satisfying when a couple former cast-mates did involve me in their street bits.
The first couple weeks of the season I really missed being one of them and had to learn my place again as a patron. It can be a balancing act between the two worlds.
The final day of the season was nothing short of amazing. I wore a couple really lame Halloween costumes the 2 weeks prior but the final day I had a full on Mario Brothers costume, and my son was Luigi. The looks we got coming through the gate were priceless. I got as much interaction that one day as the whole rest of the season. Patrons wanted to take our pictures and I felt like I was a character again for one day. There were so many little girls dressed as princesses that day, it was a great walk-by joke to say "you're not in danger? you're welcome. Game Over." Usually to blank stares from the kid and smiles from the parents.
The biggest difference between on and off cast was that final day. Last year on the last day I was an emotional wreck all day. Ok, not like a teenage girl dumped at the prom, but for a 40 something year old guy, it was something. I was conscious the whole day of the end being neigh and every time I thought about it I would tear up. I didn't want it to end. This year, not so much. I made my rounds and said my goodbyes, but I was not weepy until finale in song, once when Chaste Treasure sang "The Parting Glass", and again when Maren sang her composition "Merry Meet." I know she was feeling it too but was still able to sing beautifully.
The next day it was back to work as usual.
