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---------------------------------------- Medieval Times April 21st, 2022 ---------------------------------------- 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.