Modern Day Jesters Part 4

Today I have a little more information about two more jesters I have available for work in the country. Both are multi skilled providing a range of entertainment for weddings, corporate events, banquets, castles etc.
Peet is based in the south west of England, but regularly travels all around the country.
He specialized in presenting entertainment with a genuinely authentic flavour for a wide variety of historical venues and events, bringing his unique style of historical comedy to events throughout Europe and all over the UK.

A madcap fool, in the truest sense of the words, whether toppling precariously on stilts, fire eating or balancing upside down on anyone he can trick into lying on the floor. A Must Have for banquets, outdoor events, themed parties weddings or historical re-enactments.

Peet has been Resident Fool at Hampton Court Palace since 1992. Other clients have included The Tower of London, English Heritage, Sir Cliff Richard and Virgin Trains.

For more information about Peet, see:
http://www.aurorascarnival.co.uk/peterkin.htm

Heading north of the border, Graham is another accomplished jester who largely works all around Scotland and the north of England. Being adept at fire and knife juggling he adds the element of danger to his performance. He is also an accomplished magician and uses a full range of skills to entertain.

He can offer walkabout/mix'n'mingle entertainment as well as a full family friendly half hour show. For more pictures and information see:
http://www.aurorascarnival.co.uk/fuzzy_jester.htm

Modern Day Jesters Part 3

There are numerous jesters entertaining in the United Kingdom at the moment. Most use a variety of circus based skills such as: stiltwalking, juggling, diabolo, circus skills workshops, balloon modelling etc as the basis for their entertainment.

There are also a number of jesters who add a small element of danger to their acts. The most common of these is Fire. A large number of today's jesters juggle with fire, a few of them offer body burning (running a burning brand over their arms and torso) and even fewer who offer fire breathing (which is of course much more dangerous and an incredibly stupid thing to do!!!)

Another dangerous act performed by a handful of jesters is sword swallowing. There are a few who turn this into a comedy event by using fake swords, but 1 or 2 of the jesters in this country do actually swallow a sword. Not only is this extremely dangerous, as if done incorrectly could cause real internal damage to the perfomer, but it also the one trick that takes longer (sometimes years) to master than any other. Only those performers with an open mind and the willingness to attempt this will ever do it.

Almost as dangerous, but attempted by a few more jesters are the routines that include lying on a bed of nails, or waking on broken glass. Neither of these are as difficult as sword swallowing, but both are just as effective in a show and if not performed properly, almost as dangerous.

One question almost always asked by members of the audience who witness a jester fire performing (juggling, eating, breathing) or a jester walking on broken glass is "Is that real fire?" or "Is that real glass?" Of course the answer is always....Yes, most definitely....

One very important thing to remember is...Never attempt to copy feats of this nature yourself - the jester performing these skills are all fully trained, but even they occasionally injure themselves.

Modern Day Jesters Part 2

Today, I'll look briefly at another couple of modern day jesters.
The first, Kris Katchit, has been a performer for around 20 years and a jester for about half that time. As a jester, Kris gets to travel the country working in places that he wouldn't otherwise get to see - stately homes, castles, top hotels and the like. Most of his work as a jester involves performing at Medieval weddings or Medieval banquets. Some of his work includes visiting secondary schools that are working on the Medieval period and talking about the role of the jester in medieval society, demonstrating some of his skills and possibly teaching some of these skills to the students.
For more detailed information on what Kris offers, visit:
http://www.aurorascarnival.co.uk/krisjester.htm

Another jester who is working around the country at the moment is Sylvesta. He again works at weddings and banquets, but has a completely different style from Kris. Sylvesta is a musician and uses music, song, riddles etc. to entertain his audience. He can provide quiet background music when appropriate, and also lead the guests in rousing singing if that is required. Working around the tables, be either plays and sings to a few people at a time, tells jokes, gets people thinking with his riddles or grants a wish to the ladies of the court.
For more details on Sylvesta, please visit:
http://www.aurorascarnival.co.uk/sylvesta.htm

Kris Katchit, Medieval jester - juggling while walking over a bed of broken glass

Sylvesta the musical Jester

Modern Day Jesters Part 1

After having blogged about a few original Medieval Jesters, it's time to come up to date and talk a bit about the modern day jesters. A good place to start links with my last post about Thomas Skelton.  He was the jester at Muncaster Castle in the 1600's.  In 2005, Muncaster Castle decided to re-instate their own jester once again.  Every year since then, there has been a competition among modern day jesters to win the coveted title of Jester of Muncaster Castle.  As far as I can tell, no other castle these days has a jester of it's own.
This role has been taken by jesters from around the world, with the current Jester being Mr Spin from Australia.  Jesters from Great Britain, Holland, France, Germany and  America have also competed for the honour.  In 2007, the winner was an American performer.
The event nowadays runs for around 5 days with lots of entertainment during the period, usually featuring previous winners or entrants to the competition.  Each year the competition takes place at the end of the festival and is compered by the previous year's winner. The competition is sponsored by Jennings Cumberland Ale.
For more information about it, try Googleing for "muncaster jester competition" or similar phrases.
For more information about two previous winners go to:
http://www.aurorascarnival.co.uk/AJ.htm who won in 2008,
http://www.aurorascarnival.co.uk/andywood.htm who won in 2009
http://www.aurorascarnival.co.uk/jonathan.htm who hasn't yet one, but has entered previously and is going back to enter again this year.

Pictures above of Al, Andy and Jonathan, winners and competitor of the Jester of Muncaster Castle.

Medieval Jesters Part 5 Thomas Skeltern

As mentioned earlier, Muckle John was the last of the jesters to be employed by the English Court.
There were other jesters around the country though, one of these being Tom Skelton.  He was jester at Muncaster Castle in Cumbria and worked for the Pennington Family. The castle has been owned by the Pennington family since 1208, and still is to this day.  Tom Skelton was, by all accounts, not completely sane and seems to have taken a perverse pleasure in making himself as objectionable as possible, although he seems to have been shrewd enough to keep on the right side of the Penningtons. One of his least offensive "tricks" appears to have been to coat the castle bannisters in grease.  When questioned as to whether he was responsible he reputedly replied "everyone had a hand in it".
It is believed also, that Tom Skelton was also called Tom Fool, and that the word "tomfoolery" derives from him.
His portrait (below) still hangs in Muncaster Castle, which is one of the most haunted places in England...Tom being credited with still haunting it.  It is reputed that in order to please his master on one occasion, he killed a local carpenter, and also when travellers he didn't like the look of asked him the way to London, he directed them into quicksand and so to their deaths!!! Tom himself died in 1668 having moved to Haigh Hall in Lancashire in 1659 with the young heir of the family - William Pennington.
Muncaster Castle still has it's own jester today, and each year since 2005 there is a competition among jesters from around the country to win that honour.

Medieval Jesters Part 4 - Richard Tarlton

Richard Tarlton was Jester and Fool to Queen Elizabeth 1st during the 1580's, being one of her favourite entertainers.  He was not only jester to the queen, but also an actor, comedian and member of a touring group of performers - The Queen's Players.  It is believed that he was born in Condover in Shropshire and is believed to have been either a swineherd, or inn keeper or both before becoming an actor and later court jester.
Other skills he had were as an author of ballads and plays and a fencing master. His development of the jig (a performance art involving story, dance and song) together with his other skills led him to have a profound effect on English popular theatre as a performer and comedian. A posthumously published book, "Tarlton's Jests" depicts a few of his examples of fooling at court. One of these was a "drunk act" where he called noisily for someone to bring him beer.  The queen suggested that he shouldn't have any more because he might "play the beast and therefore shame himself". He replied that she should "Fear not, for her beer was small enough".
On another occasion, he planned to play the part of the God Luz, with a piece of bacon tied to his back.  The queen's dog, however, started chasing him to get at the bacon, so Tarlton played about with that instead of following his original plan.
Tarlton made his will, died and was buried on September 3rd 1588 and is buried in the same churchyard as Will Somer at St Lonard's in Shoredith, London.

Richard Tarlton as most often depicted playing pipe and tabor