Little John - CEO of the Merry Men

04/25/2026

Hello my friends!
Do you have a good week? Did you take a moment to laugh, smile, giggle, or guffaw?? If you said, “Yes!” Then congratulations! If not, this is your reminder to stop, take a breath, watch a funny video, listen to a joke or dad joke (those ARE the best kind!!) and enjoy the moment. After all, as the wise Ferris once said… “Life moves pretty fast… if you don’t stop and look around (and laugh), you could miss it!” Ok I added the part about laughing but I’m sure he was thinking it

Have a fun day!!

04/24/2026

Come out to laugh and play!

Come celebrate your special occasion with us this Saturday, April 25, 2026. Book tickets at: www.murdermysterydinnertheater.com

04/01/2026

Moments (lost) in Time…

Mar 28-29 9 down, 0 to go.

Here we are. The end of my fifth season. When I started this five years ago, most venues were closed due to the pandemic. My dinner theater performing days had screeched to a halt. I saw an ad on social media indicating auditions were being held for the 2021 festival season. I was taken back that the Renaissance Festival would even hold auditions… I mean it makes sense when I think about it but at that moment it never occurred to me it was a thing. Now, here I am writing about the end of the 38th season. Let me tell you the feels are real.

I won’t go into the duality of those feelings; most every other performer out there has or will comment on the “bittersweet” of the conclusion of the season. Yes, I am happy to have it over. Yes, I am incredibly sad I will not be seeing many of my friends for a whole year. Even sadder knowing there are many I will not get to see again due to a change in their life direction or finding new adventures to go enjoy. However, that’s a part of being in this family; knowing some won’t come back. The bright side is all the new ones we get to meet next time. This year was no different. I have met some new, wonderful friends! Some friends came in the form of our limited engagement performers and many more that are either full-time national acts or local cast. Some are coming back from hiatus and others joined us for the first time.

As a manager over the local street cast, I have had my share of frustrations and joys. I am happy to report that the joy and pride I feel for my cast far outweighs the frustrations. The first-year local cast did some incredible work out here and I am damn proud of them… especially their resilience! Arizona threw some serious curve balls with the weather and they all stuck through it! Yay! I just hope they get to experience the opposite next season with at least one good rain day. Hehehe.

Before I get too caught up talking about all this, and all the dust from Fairhaven causes me to tear up again… I’m gonna go ahead and share those special moments from this weekend. Without further ado:

- Mistress Martha mentioned one evening that Little John walking around with his staff kind of looked like how the safety services team carries their flags; namely off the shoulder. She idly suggested I get a flag. This caused a massive brainstorm that ended in this: Little John (with approval) carried green breeches tied to his staff with some random nonsense squiggles on it. As a natural agent of chaos, I became “Chaos Services!” The foil to Safety Services. I would ask patrons “What NEEDS to be the trouble (or problem)?” Most of the time, I got responses like “More chaos” or “less chaos.” Occasionally, I got money requests or a change to X, Y, or Z. I had various responses but landed on the following: “We’re glad you are enjoying the chaos. Don’t forget our motto, We are never there when you need us. If you would like to provide feedback regarding the services you received today, please leave a message after the beep.” Then I would walk away. Quite chaotic. I would make faces at the safety services folks (who happily played along by telling everyone they were keeping an eye on me.) After further workshopping some ideas, I also came up with another great pun for the flag. I would often get the question, “Are those pants?” I would usually snap back and say “no, it’s a flag!” But one time someone called them breeches, and I immediately said “yes! Breeches of etiquette!” And it stuck.
- Another brag about my cast. We have had a significant amount of medical emergencies this season. The heat will do that. Even native ‘zonians often forget to hydrate this early in the year. What I am proud of the most is how my cast hustled and conducted themselves very professionally during a very big medical emergency on Sunday. When it was over, they dispersed quickly and quietly just as they were trained to do. So very proud of them! Medical emergencies are never fun to have to deal with, and when the cast can carry themselves like this, that reflects well on the festival. I can’t help but do this shout-out.
- The “Chaos Services” bit broke up my usual cadence out there, so I decided to make the most of it and visited a lot of the performers, workers, and vendors I knew I would not be seeing again till next year. This makes my moments in time because it allowed me to make that last connection with each of them. I got to laugh and cry with them and, in the cases of some of the vendors and merchants, make last-minute purchases. Strengthening these friendship bonds allows for a better closure and establishes a hope to see each other again, and that is something I will always cherish. I also took in some of the shows… Tiny Girl Big Show, and I caught Gerty’s last show with the Washing Well W***hes. Boy! That was some show. All the feels— and in all the places. Ha! IYKYK (cowboy!)
- Lastly, I had a marvelous conversation with an amazing dad of one of the performers. I won’t mention who because that’s not why I am bringing this up. This was a chance to hear from someone who is in show business about what they thought of our fine Faire. It was wonderful to hear his perspective on our shows. He mentioned watching the Naughty Nauticals show (the loose cannon one, ha!) and making correlations to some Vegas shows. This dad mentioned he had been to several other festivals but was really impressed with ours. He loved the openness of it all. He complimented several aspects of some of the stages and then said that even though he was not performing here, he felt very welcome. I love to hear that kind of feedback from first-time visitors. That makes me proud to be a part of this show, and encourages me to be even more welcoming and inclusive to everyone who comes out; patron or otherwise. Thanks, “dad,” for reminding me of this important characteristic of our festival!

And there you go. This concludes my little moments from this weekend. I would like to read over these again and highlight some of my most favorite moments. What do you think?

While Little John may be headed back to the green woods of Sherwood for another year, others may be coming out to play this year. I’m very excited about one in particular who will be making their debut next weekend. Stay tuned for that! Until then… fare thee well, my friends. May your travels and your adventures eventually bring you back here. Perhaps light a fire, set up some seating, and share your own moments with other travelers. If you do, save a spot for me. I would love to hear all about what you’ve been doing.

Cheers!

03/31/2026

Moments (lost) in Time…

This is a special moment in time…because the moment is actually from over 30 years ago.

One of my fellow performers at the festival asked their followers what was their favorite part of the renaissance festival. I thought about my answer for quite a while. My fellow cast and all the fun we have are certainly one of my favorite things. There’s the food, the atmosphere, the entertainment… the camaraderie and feeling of family within the Rennie community. All those are great answers that I would happily supply… but what I finally settled on was “seeing the joy and hearing the laughter of the patrons.” I think this is a fairly normal response, especially given the nature of our performative (and interactive) theatre out there. However, it’s a little more than that for me. It goes back to one of my core beliefs and core memories. Let me take you back…

It’s sometime in the post summer months of 1991. I was driving from a point A to a point B in the high country of Arizona. (I honestly cannot recall where exactly, I only know it was one of the higher elevation towns in AZ.) As I drove up the winding road, I see pulled off to the side a mule drawn vardo. A vardo is a Romani-style wagon. This felt like something from a D&D game; a mobile merchant on the side of the road, selling his wares out of his wagon. Naturally, I pulled over to investigate. I got to talking to this gentleman who decided to eschew technology, creature comforts of a stationary home, and employment to instead travel the country and share his messages of love and joy. There was no religion in his words, but he did express a deep gratitude to a higher power for letting him travel in this fashion. Since he didn’t have a job, he had no money. No way to buy the things he needed. Instead he relied on good samaritans to either donate goods or money, or to barter with him. I decided on the latter. I sprinted back to town and bought some staple foods for him and in return he shared with me his story, his message, and his campfire. I was nineteen. He was surely in his 50s or older, though it was hard to tell given his harsher life on the road. He told me the mules’ names. He explained he did not like to share much about his life before, but that he had been a successful corporate cog. Six figures, a nice home, fancy car. After a camping trip, he came to the realization that his “stuff”, his success, was not bringing him any joy. In fact, it was the opposite. He was constantly stressed about his work. He had to compete constantly to stay on top in his field. When he went camping, all that stress and fear was gone. In their place was joy and happiness. He found friends on that trip that did not see the wealth, but a person. It changed his whole perspective on life. He left all that behind and bought his wagon and mules and started traveling the country. But soon the money dried up and he had to learn to survive. This is where he learned love and compassion. Strangers popped up and helped him just when he was needing it the most. (Like me!) He learned to barter, to fix and maintain his wagon. He did odd jobs for folks. But mostly, he shared stories. He shared his joy and laughter and love.

Thanks for sticking it this far… This is where I get to the point of this post.

As I left his company, he handed me some cards. He explained that these were some of his mantras. One of them said, “Happiness is like jam. Spread it around enough and it’s bound to get on you.” This really hit me like a ton of bricks. If I help others be happy and to experience joy, I am bound to feel it too. Joy, peace, laughter… it’s all infectious. I realized then that my draw to the theatre was based on this. I just didn’t have the words to quantify it. I find great joy and happiness when I help others feel that way. When they laugh, I laugh. It really is the human condition; the golden rule. I’ll admit that I am a bit selfish when it comes to joy and laughter. I want to feel it a lot and so I try to spread it around as often as I can. Even with the dad jokes and the silly puns. Y’all might groan at those, but just behind that eye-roll there’s a bit of laughter. Beneath that groan, there’s fun and joy. I see it in your eyes. I hear it in your voice and smile. And that makes me happy and fills me with joy and peace. This has become my love language. To get others to laugh and smile. It’s part of my core now.

Now you know what I love most about the renaissance festival. The joy and laughter from the patrons, because I get to feel it too. The more I spread it around, the more it gets on me. This has been a primal purpose for me; to bring laughter, joy, love, and little islands of peace to others. In a nod to Walt Whitman and Horace Mann: this is the verse I wish to contribute. This is the victory I hope to win for humanity.

What will yours be?

03/26/2026

Moments (lost) in Time…

Mar 21-22 8 down, 1 to go.

Oh boy. I’m feeling it. The end. Working hard on getting the festival and cast ready for our 9-week run… and it’s all coming to a close. One final weekend to go. This is about the time when the feels start hitting. Relief that it is ending — sadness that it is ending. Think about that for a minute… nine weekends. With the exception of one day, I spent nine weekends with my cast trying to pull off another successful season. I think we did it. In spite of all of the speed bumps and obstacles along the way, we did it. I saw our little village come to life; inhabited by real people, and making a show the patrons loved. Yes, the patrons do come out to see the big stage acts. They come for the jousting, the turkey legs, the entertaining stage shows. But they also come out for a little escapism. That’s where my cast comes in. We are the seasoning that marries the whole flavor experience together. Do patrons come out to see us too? YES! That has never been more apparent than this season when it happened to several on my cast… when it happened to me. That is a great feeling. That tells me that our special blend of secret spices makes a difference. WE are making a difference. Maybe not a lot, but a difference nonetheless. That makes it all worthwhile to me. All the pain, sweat (boy there was a lot of that these past couple of weeks!), tears, and major differences in opinion. There was probably some blood in there too… and a lot of dust, but I digress. I offer my deepest, heartfelt gratitude to my cast for showing up and sticking it out; for learning and growing and taking feedback and building off of it. I am proud of my cast for doing what needed to be done to make our village run.

I also want to give a shout out to my co-managers - for whom I am indebted. They not only stepped up but ran with everything I threw at them. Thank you, both. I mean it.

This season was different for me. I was split in two for several weeks, trying to run two very different jobs out there. In the end, I had to let go of one because I was failing at both. Fortunately, all my bosses were gracious and understanding.

Now that I have done my gratitude comments, I present the moments from week 8:

A. As I was doing some manager things, I stopped in the middle of the lane, contemplating and watching my cast. All of a sudden, I was accosted by a wonderful family that was waiting on Green Man to make his appearance. If you have not seen or met Green Man, think “Tree Ent” from Tolkien’s Middle Earth. They were very excited, and the girls were being very impatient. “When is he going to come out?” This is where I get dragged in… “Are you the leader for the Green Man?” Me? Oh, I guess I am wearing green, but… “No. Though I am from Sherwood Forest, I am not…” The younger sister yells out, “OH! I know who you are! You’re the Queen’s son!!!”
Me: “No. I’m not a pr—“
Dad: “YES YOU ARE! Why don’t you tell us all about being the Queen’s son and what goes on here.” He looks at me expectantly.
Me: “…o_O. — 😳 - Yyyeeeessss! I AM the Queen’s son. How could I think I would ever fool you?! You saw right through my disguise!”
And that’s how I became the Queen’s son!
I can’t believe the dad just called me out on not following through on “yes, and…”

B. I ran into this family again… and decided to spar with the oldest daughter. It went exactly like the bit did last week, funny enough. She pushes me back, then the second round lifts a foot to push me again and I push her back. Then the lesson about planting her feet. Finally pushing me back on the third go. Then the discussion. Only this time, when I say “don’t let others push you around,” she responds with, “I’ll beat them up!” I said, “no, your highness. Royalty never start fights. But with your parents’ permission, you are allowed to end them. Dad nodded his head and said, “permission given!” The young girl then said, “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll end it!” Uhhh… good luck, Dad??

C. Came across a group of older teens/early twenty-somethings. Got into my routine of staff meetings, and of course no one knew who I was. Kids today, amiright? Anyway, I then said I was working on a new meeting format and needed their help to try it out. They all agreed to help. I had them all hold my staff in the middle and to run a ring around it (like a Maypole… sort of.) I then announced “Look! A Zoom meeting!” The sheepish look on their faces when they realized it was all for a dad joke was absolutely priceless. The laughs mixed with embarrassment… yeah, that’s the stuff.

Well, one more weekend. Two days left to find those precious moments in time. One last huzzah. Join me out there, won’t you?

03/21/2026

Moments (lost) in Time…

Mar 6-7 and 13-14, 2026 6 and 7 down, 2 to go.

Hello my friends. I missed you all! Time has gotten away from me this month and I’ve had to focus on some important things. Because of that, I missed sending out week 6 Moments. AHHH!!! I am so sorry!! I miss sitting around the virtual fire pit with you all and regaling you with my special moments from my weekends at the festival. Unfortunately, I can’t recall many of them from two weekends ago, but I will share one, then move on to last weekend.

I will say this though, the past two weekends have seen me be more manager than anything else. While I got to play and interact with many fine patrons, I spent a lot of time handling managerial things. Obviously, I won’t go into details - but I am proud of my cast. Everyone I have spoken to accepted feedback with grace and appreciation and expressed their desires to do better. I also am deeply grateful that my manager team is always willing to step up and fill the gaps that I leave in our coverage. I’m also extremely proud of their handling of various issues that pop up from time to time and how quickly they address them. I think after these next two weekends I’ll give them a well-deserved vacation! Ha!

On to the Moments you all have been waiting for!

From weekend 6:
1. A little princess with attitude! I greeted a tiny princess in passing, and got an immediate “No, thank you!” 0_o Huh? Very polite, but I was just saying hi! So I said, “As you wish, princess…. Rainbow!” (She was wearing a rainbow tutu, wings, and rainbow-colored shoes.) She snapped back around and beamed back at me, a huge smile on her face. I then said that the only thing she was missing was a horn, then she could be a unicorn! She quipped back, “I’m a FAIRY, thank you very much!” And stopped away. Even her mother was taken aback! We looked at each other and I said, “At least she knows who she is, and isn’t afraid to let the world know. Don’t stand in her way to greatness!” Mom said “I couldn’t even if I tried!”
2. I had started this weekend at the big stone bridge and tried my charging tolls bit with patrons. Apparently, the tax collector Iris (IRiS) and the bridge troll, Brigid, took issue with that and sent missives to me. Overnight I brewed up some responses and had them delivered that next day. I’m still waiting for responses to those…
3. A couple of older ladies were looking around a bit confused as if they were looking for something. It turned out they were looking for another of their party who was rolling up in their mobility scooter. A young lady. As we waited for her, I learned she was out at our festival to celebrate her birthday! So I gathered a few cast members up and we sang to her (thanks Shenanigans!!) then I had the Kings’s Drawers draw her portrait. After that, one of the ladies pulled me into a bear hug (hey! That’s my thing!) and said “you are an angel in disguise.” After a few tears I sent them in their way to go see Witch Trials, who was able to give a shout out to this wonderful girl during his show. Thank you sir!! I saw them later and got more hugs and more tears. Hopefully this birthday won’t be one she will ever forget.

Now onto last weekend, week 7.

Moment 1 - This weekend I was a little low on energy. Heat certainly did not help, among other things. However, my most prized moment this weekend (and probably the whole of the season) happened. I was at our cast check-in point waiting for the cast to come around and make sure they were hydrating and moving about. A father/daughter passed me heading up to the Falconer’s Heath stage. The father stopped, turned, and asked if I was Little John. I went into my introductions and popped off a few of my staff jokes, which the father was just laughing over. He then asked his daughter if she wanted to spar with me and said, “Pull out your staff, and you can fight Little John!” She replied, “I don’t have a staff.” OH. REALLY. “I just happen to have two sparring twigs on me…” So we sparred. I’ve learned not to do “hitting” as some kids really like to whale on me with them! Now I do push-of-war… the opposite of tug-of-war. We cross the sparring twigs and then push against the other, till one takes a step back. The first try, she pushed me back. Second time, I saw her raise a foot off the ground, and I immediately thought, “Teaching moment!!” and pushed her back with ease. I then said, “You are allowing me to cheat! You took your foot off the ground, which caused you to lose your balance. Now, plant your feet, and you are going to push with your legs, hips, and arms… your whole core to push me back.” Third time, I did not have to pretend to lose. She gave it her all! I surrendered and then said, “OK. This is not just a lesson in combat, but in life. For starters, don’t let anyone push you around. Standing up for ourselves is not only hard but it’s also one of the most courageous things we can do. Second, plant your feet. Ground yourself and find your inner strength— no matter what it is you are doing. When you are firmly planted, and you can use that inner strength, you can achieve anything. When you don’t, you lose your balance… your grounding, and ultimately your strength.” I just couldn’t help being a dad even then… to a random daughter. Dad was beaming, and I swear there was a tear there.

Moment 2 - For this moment, I am going to do some shout-outs to some of my favorite merchants out there. Without our marketplace, our festival would not be what it is today. Yes, we have wonderful stage acts, local cast, and limited engagement performers who are all AMAZING… but the merchants really tie the whole experience of the festival together. In no particular order (and I will tag if possible): Little Empire, Twisted Spiders, Windwalker, Global Scents, Ann Chamberlain’s bookstore, The Blonde Swan, Boss W***h, Clove and Honey, Brom’s Bugs - I know there are so many more out there. They are all wonderful and all deserve the spotlight. I will try to do another shout-out next week for some more!

Until next time, keep the fire going till I get back with more moments in time. Cheers!

03/07/2026

Moments (lost) in Time…

Feb 28-Mar 1, 2026 5 down, 4 to go.

This weekend was a scorcher. Arizona decided to heat up this weekend. Mid-80˚ temps in February, while the rest of the country deals with snowstorms and freezing temperatures. I would normally be fine with it, but walking in the lanes of the festival with minimal shade, not my favorite thing. We did get some nice breezes in the afternoon - that was extremely helpful. However, the bigger challenge outside of my personal comfort is the care and well-being of the cast. We reminded the cast to begin their hydration regimen early in the week leading up to the weekend. During the weekend, we make sure they stay hydrated and we let them take it easy. I’m proud to say that the cast weathered the heat with little to no casualties. Can’t say the same for our patrons! On top of the heat, it was BrewFest weekend. Let’s just say the heat was brutal this weekend.

Here’s this weekend’s moments:

1. I think the mixture of alcohol and heat really got to some of our patrons. I had one patron ask me if the cats in the Cirque de Sewer show (cats and rats doing acrobatic performances) were real. Like, really real! I said, of course not! They’re just tossing a stuffed Labubu back and forth across the stage… Actually, yes, they are real, and they are classically trained! She left with trepidation in her eyes. Apparently, the trainers get this a lot… they just respond that the animatronics are amazing! However, that was just one instance. Friar Tuck was asked if his beard was real. Huh? Oh, like is he wearing a theatrical beard? The rest of the weekend, I had various cast members ask if the Friar was real. “No, but my beard is…” Then F***y Little (my work wife) was asked how the jousters keep jousting, given their constant injuries; including the “bloody” fights at the end of the day. They asked what medical care they get that allows them to heal so quickly, and if there are backup jousters to cover the others when they need to take longer to recover. She was really asking this. Now, for the record, each of our jousters has Wolverine-level healing powers - which is why the “to the death” part doesn’t last long. They all stand up at the end of the show and shrug it all off. Seriously though, they do joust for real. The lances are real, the armor is real. They practice long and hard to ensure they only hit the shields. No one gets unseated, but they do get hit. During the final joust, they use stage blood to simulate killing blows during the hand-to-hand combat. It’s a stage, folks. While it is dangerous, they don’t take unnecessary risks, and they practice daily to be their best.
2. I saw this young man trying very hard to push their family member in a wheelchair through some deep sand. I stopped and offered to help. I explained to the young man that anytime they came across the deep sands (washes really) to reverse the wheel chair and let the bigger wheels go first. Then I demonstrated, turning the woman around and pulling the wheelchair through the sand and dirt. Then I turned her around again and said, just keep any eye out for these spots and you’ll do fine. I found them later struggling at another wash with deep sand. The minute he saw me, he grinned and turned her around and got her through. I stopped and chatted for a bit and found out his mother used to be on cast a decade or more ago. Small world. What started as a simple learning opportunity turned into a delightful chat and a trip down memory lane for the mother. Everyone got something out of it.
3. A wonderful thing happened to me on the way to the village… As I was walking, a ouple ran up to me, yelling — “Hey! Hey!! Little John!” They shoved their phone into my face and I see that I am staring at a photo of me. Then they said, “You took this picture of yourself when you took a photo of us… last year.” Oops. Yes, I try very hard to take a selfie or two when handed a phone to take a picture of someone else. I was caught. I looked at them and said, it’s a lovely likeness of me. How can I help?” They turned to each other grinning ear to ear and then said to me, in unison, “will you do it again?” Naturally, I did. What a special moment for me as I became a part of a new tradition for this young couple. I wonder if we can keep doing this every year?

That’s all for now, as they say. Stay tuned for new moments this weekend. What moments will the festival offer to Little John?

03/02/2026

Greetings and Salutations, my friends! Welcome to my "little" page! Join me as I travel about Fairhaven, holding staff meetings and help our patrons find a "little" fun!

(Little John in the lanes)
photo credit - Willie Stark