Renaissance Faire News - Sharing the Joy of Faire, one post at a time at FaireNews.com!!

Have you met Bob DaVinci?

For eighteen years, he’s brought his own flair for opera and improv to faires and festivals east of the Mississippi. His specialty is audience participation and I mean the whole audience. After drawing four to the stage, he’ll cajole the rest in to providing the orchestra and sound effects. The scene is set, the “actors” coached, and the curtains rise. What results is a hilarious rendering of an operatic comedy come to life. Actually, it’s one of three comedies: “Makin-A Meatballs, the Opera,” “Go Figaro,” and the newly introduced “Bubba of Seville.” Let me introduce you to Bob DaVinci, aka Ken Silkie.

photo credit: LukeGordon1
Bob narrates as his volunteer is “Makin-A Meatballs”

Several times over the last year we’ve talked about what I’d do once I retired, so when I decided that it would include interviewing those connected with Faire, Ken was the first person I thought of. Monday morning we chatted as he sat on his porch in southwest Florida. He was curious about what I hoped to do with the blog and I explained that I was looking for a way to share my excitement about those I meet at faire. He liked the idea, saying, “…from the performers side, it’s a good thing because our whole purpose of communicating with anyone, whether staff or you or anyone else, is having someone understand you. So this is good.”

Ken not only appears at Renaissance events, he also entertains at corporate events, has a regular gig at Busch Gardens in Virginia, and has set himself the goal of being booked on to cruise lines like Norwegian. He’s found that his stage formula easily adapts to multiple venues with a few tweaks, changing easily from Bob DaVinci to Trapper Bob, Cowboy Bob, Redneck Bob, even a formal Bob in tux and tails for a type of honors presentation. Sometimes the life-size puppet is an integral part of the show and, at other times, he’s a solo act. When asked what we might be surprised to see added to our faire experience in the next few seasons, Ken chuckled and shared how he’d begun learning to play satirical songs on the ukulele and quipped, “If I get the courage, I’ll introduce “Bubba of Seville” on a more regular basis.”

It’s our good fortune that Ken took a dare eighteen years ago. Mid-America, owner of the Bay Area Renaissance Festival (BARF), was one of his accounts in his former life in radio broadcasting. Knowing that he had experience on the stage, both in college and later, the Entertainment Director dared him to try out for the BARF show. He did and found that he enjoyed being on stage again after so many years. The rest is history. He now regularly performs at some of the largest east coast shows—Sterling (NY), Maryland, and BARF—and numerous smaller shows as well as guest appearances on free weekends.

One of the things that I always wonder about is what keeps the performers going in spite of everything. Ken didn’t hesitate when I asked that question. “I guess every performer has their reason that keeps them coming back. …[Y]ou know this is my second career so I had a lot to learn about where my creativity comes from. I learned that I don’t operate like a lot of others, mine doesn’t come from angst or childhood issues, mine is really about joy. The joy comes from putting people in a safe place to play and watching them be themselves. Most people are very funny and, when they have permission and the audience lets them know it’s OK, they are the reason that I keep coming back. They are wonderful, they are funny, and they make an experience that everybody walks away from going ‘You know, I’m not so different from those people up there and I can do that.’ That’s what keeps me coming back.”

He continued with a recent example of what inspires him. A young man (we’ll call him Brad) was there with his girlfriend and, as the show was starting, they were participating, very engaged, laughing and enjoying the setup. Brad had that little sparkle in his eye but he shut down as soon as he got on stage. During the setup before the actual skit started, Ken looked him in the eye and told him, “I’m going to take good care of you, don’t worry, please don’t be afraid, don’t worry about it, it’ll be alright.” There was no way to tell if Brad was convinced until the second act when it was his turn to speak. He let go and let out the yell he was supposed to do and the audience just cheered him. Brad just became a different person and, at the end of that show, something happened that is truly rare, the audience gave him a standing ovation. Ken thought Brad walked out of there with a whole different view of himself.

After hearing an inspirational story, I asked if he could share a story of a scene gone wrong. He had a hard time with the question, saying, “I don’t really have any bad experiences really, I mean yea there have been shows that have been tough, but people rarely let me down.” Talking a bit more, he remembered a time when a prop malfunction led to a great show and asked if he could share it. Never one to turn down a good story, I listened in rapt silence. “My first time in New York, I was on the Nun’s Grotto stage getting ready to do my “Makin-A Meatballs” show. At that time, my Mr. Potato Head prop was just a Styrofoam potato made to look like Mr. Potato Head on a stick and that’s what the character held. He had a line where he had to yell “Arghhhh” and throw his arms out. When he did, the Mr. Potato Head flew across the stage like a rocket. It hit Al the Blind Man, another performer, right in the groin and made him drop to his knees immediately to which there was enormous laughter and tears. It must have been several minutes before we could gain composure AND find out if he was OK. …… I love the job.”

Having been to some of the faires Ken performs at, I asked if he had a favorite. Rather than just naming a faire, he explained that, for performers, it has more to do with the infrastructure of the faire. Stage location, managers having things under control, accommodating attitudes towards performers and merchants, are the things that he looks for. He is really impressed with the infrastructure in Maryland at this time, saying that the entire management staff from owners down has great work ethic.

In closing, I asked Ken if he had any regrets about this path his life has taken. His joy shone through in the reply, “I would say that I am one of the few people that I know that is sad only when I’m not at work. I love my job, it is my mission, I’ve found my purpose.”

Websites of Bob DaVinci and Ken Selkie:

Bob DaVinci
The DaVinci Brothers on MySpace

January 2nd, 2008 Posted by Escarlata | Have You Met? | 8 comments