----------------------------------------
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.