Is one born with the innate ability to "gig" or can it be learned?
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SF Bay Area
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Re: Gigging
06/21Anyone can gig. There are those born the instinct to gig, and there are those that must learn the ways. Faire in itself it a gig. Even those that work in a booth must gig when they yell out for customers to come and sample their food.
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Re: Gigging
06/21If you ever said, "Hey, let's pretend... " then you can gig. That's basically what a gig is.
Let's pretend I'm a guy who's lost his pig. I'm going to go around asking people if they've seen my pig and give a description of the pig.
Let's pretend I have this letter I can't read, and I'm going to ask people to read it. It'll be funny because the letter will be about...
Let's pretend that you're my sister and we both want to marry... that guy over there!
Gigging can be learned through improvisation classes that are taught during workshops at most faires. But really, if you ever got together with friends to talk about "Wouldn't it be funny if...", then you can gig. You will learn through trial and error (there's really no other way) what other people will think is funny. Some things that are hysterical when one person does it fall completely flat when another person does it.
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Re: Gigging
06/21It works both ways, Chris, just as everyone else is saying. Some just seem born with the ideas, and others need coaching. Sara just popped out several great ideas I'd never thought of. On the other hand, I did once try to betrothe my 15 year-old daughter to another family's teenaged son as they were standing in line to buy food, and I'm frequently approached by people who ask me what I'm doing, and then they're bound to get an earful about needlework, court politics, and the Ridolfi Plot.
It's something each person does differently, and each person learns to do differently, and even at different rates of speed. When I first got my husband into faire as a participant, rather than as a traveller, he was amazed by the differences. Since no two people gigging are the same, the travellers will never see exactly the same person doing exactly the same thing, twice. It makes the faire that much more exciting and interesting for everyone.
So if you are a crusty old pirate just home from the sea, with your pockets full of silver or gold, you'll likely be frequenting the taverns (ale stands) and The Bakery (you know, the one where all the Tarts live.) Your main interests are likely to be lusty young women of light virtue, good ale, and tall tales.
If you are the lovely young sisters that Sara mentioned, you may very well be looking for a likely young man to marry, particularly at a Spring Festival sprung up around Her Majesty's Progress. There may be more lads in town, this month, than you have ever seen in your entire life, and some of them Her Majesty's Own Servants and Guards! What if you should manage to capture the eye of one of those handsome young knights and catch HIM as a husband? -
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Re: Gigging
06/21None of the ones I posted are original, which actually brings up another point.
If you see something that's hugely funny, and you think you might want to do it yourself later, be sure to corner the person that was doing it and ask their permission. It's just good manners. One guy with a lost pig is funny (this is a great kamikaze gig, by the way, no audience participation is necessary. Run up, act all worried, talk about the pig, pretend to see it, run off. People are left with a stunned look on their face, and then they laugh). Sixteen people in a row with lost whatever is not funny. Also, if someone thinks up a great gig, and it goes well, they want to be able to do it again later. If you steal the idea and do it 10 times in the next hour, it's not going to be funny anymore, and you've just made someone pissed at you for stealing their idea. -
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Re: Gigging
06/21Very true. But I can't imagine very many men objecting to pairs of women arguing over them. Or women objecting to men arguing over them, either, for that matter. The nice thing about a Spring Faire is that everyone wants to find a sweetheart or a husband or a wife because it's spring. -
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Re: Gigging
06/21Almost everyone is born to gig. But then we have parents and teachers tell us to sit down and be quiet. This kills the giging gene in most people, but with some coaxing, it can be reactivated. Just gotta get over the guilt associated with acting out in public and embarasing your mom. -
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Re: Gigging
06/21Isn't that the truth? *LOL*
It is a lot like being a kid again. You just become a different sort of a kid because you're in a different sort of an environment. After awhile, it's second nature, and a lot of fun.
One of the new folks at Court this year was having a really hard time at rehearsals. She was so shy that when chosen for an exercise, she quite literally felt she couldn't do it, even though it was only our guild involved, and I later found her disolved in tears. I told her that everyone had to start somewhere, and that if she was nervous about being onstage alone, she should take someone wiith her, at first, perhaps someone more experienced. I also told her that staying onstage full-time was a goal to shoot for, but not necessary right at first; she could take it slowly. By the end of the season, she was having as much fun as the rest of us, and on-stage all the time.
This is also true about gigging. At first, you may not have a whole lot of ideas about what to do. Try to stick with someone who has more experience and ideas, and is willing to share. If that doesn't work out, find something interestingly period to do, and a good place to do it in. When you think of something good to do, go and do it. At first, this may only happen once or twice a day. I guarantee it'll get better as you go along.
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Re: Gigging
06/21So is "gigging" a west coast term? I've not heard it before, been doing MNRF since 1989. -
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Re: Gigging
06/21A gig is when you (and maybe a partner, or maybe your whole group) go out into the street to spontaneously entertain the patrons. This is usually something made up on the spot. It can also be a standard thing that you do as part of your job at faire (as in, "No, we can't be whores, that's St. Ives's gig). I understand there are a lot of faires that don't have a lot of participants (unpaid 'actors'), and that all of the street stuff is staged. I've even heard of faires where gigging isn't allowed unless it's approved by the Powers That Be first. Up to and including lines used in hawking for booths. Every faire is different :). -
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Re: Gigging
06/22Not allowed at some fairs?
I've always thought that was always a main portion of street entertainment at fairs!
But then again... we were guest merchants at the Greater St Louis Renfaire for a weekend last year and the local merchants did look at us a little odd when our sales help started hawking our games.
Up here in the frozen north it's usually just called improv, and a "gig" is something a musician has. -
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Re: Gigging
06/22Gigs are often more planned than improv, although they need improv to work. It probably originally came from the "appointment to put on a show" meaning that musicians usually use. It's easier to say, "Hey, I thought of this great gig," than, "Hey, I thought of this improv thing we could do..." Besides, gigging makes a great verb, and improvving is just ... wierd. -
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Re: Gigging
06/22We don't seem to have a similar verb that I can think of up here in Minnesota. It's more a "Hey! I've got a great idea for a 'bit'! " or sometimes a "skit" depending on who's talking, but "bit(s)" seems to be the common term here.
(- I alway found dialects interesting.) -
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Re: Gigging
06/22Dialects and slang do change from one area to another. Here, a bit is shorter, and has a set end. A gig is more improvisational, and the end is uncertain. A skit is something you do as a set-piece, on a stage. It's longer than a bit. At least, that seems to be the way the terminology is used.
So the Lord Sheriff carrying around a sign that says, "boo", is a bit. He will flash this at people whenever he feels this is appropriate. (And he did, and it was great.) The lost pig is a gig. What a group of actors do onstage for 2-5 minutes is a skit.
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Re: Gigging
06/26The Joy of Gigging:
http://69.57.157.207/issues/11.12.01/gigging.html
;-) -
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Re: Gigging
06/27I figured. It's the sort of pun that I wouldn't have been able to resist, had I known about it, either.
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Re: Gigging
07/01Someone from KCRF just told me their local term is "schticking" as in a "schtick" a comic theme or gimmick.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtick
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Re: Gigging
07/02
Someone from the TRF cast told me they break down street interactions as follows:
"We have path shows' (done as a group...ie Robin Hood, Queen's Ladies, etc),
'Conversations,'
' Active Choices' (Usually a 'bit' where we get patrons to do something with us)
and 'hit and runs' (one line zingers as you pass somone)." -
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Re: Gigging
07/02Whatever you wish to call your interactions with the travellers at the Faire, be they on stage, by the side of the road, speaking directly to the travellers, or just speaking near them, they can be learned if you haven't come by them naturally.
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Re: Gigging
08/19It's strange. I can hear the English voices in my head, in my imagination, but when I speak out loud the mind ceases to put sentences together. -
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Re: Gigging
08/30It sounds like you're trying too hard. Sometimes, you need to relax and let the faire soak far enough in before you can manage to carry off any real theatrics.
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