It's very rare that I experience uncontrollable laughter.

Was at the Escondido Ren Faire this weekend, as part of the Tsurara gypsy encampment. Didn't do as much flirting as I'd intended, but I spent a lot of time hamming things up for small children.

This fair sells "treasure maps" that have a bunch of pictures on them, the kids can go through the faire looking for booths that are displaying a card with one of the pictures. At that booth they can get that picture stamped. When they complete the map they can get a toy from the treasure chest.

Now, just doing the halloween-style, "stamp my map", "okay" exchange is boring. Thus began some embellishment.

* * *

"So... A treasure seeker are ye?"

"Yes."

"Then ye must pass the Ordeal. Ye must pass for me these trials three, ere the stamp-ed map you see.

"But first, young hero, are ye brave?"

"um, yes."

"Are ye bold?"

"yes"

"Very good! Now the first trial is the Test of Wit. Point out to me the symbol on your map to be stamped."

(child points to the picture on their map that matches the one on our sign)

"Aye! Very well, indeed. A hero must be clever. Next is the Test of Nobility. What is the Magic Word when you ask me to stamp your map?"

"uh, 'please'?"

"Right again! You have the makings of a courtly hero! And finally is the Test of Strength. For a hero must be strong! Now place your hand beneath your map just here, and hold, that when I push the stamp down onto the paper, it may make it's mark."

(stamp the map)

"There! Good luck on your quest young hero!"

* * *

Well, while this shtick was developing, I was using "Are ye Brave?" and "Are ye Bold?" as test questions. One little boy really started messing with Eric and myself.

"Are ye Brave?"

"Um, perhaps."

Eric and I stop and look at each other.

"That wasn't exactly heroic, was it?"

"Let's try again - Are ye Brave?"

"Perhaps."

After a couple more rounds of this, there were a couple other families queued up to get their maps stamped. So we asked this boy to wait a moment, and we took the other children through the routine.

"Now then, those two little girls were true heros - can you be any less? So... Are ye Brave?"

"Maybe" (in a fairly firm tone)

"Is that a definite 'maybe'?"

"Perhaps"

Another pause while we take care of other families. Finally, Mel and Maria - who'd been overhearing this whole charade - stepped in. Eventually, the little boy got his map stamped, and went away smiling, with his father.

I just bent over my harp and started laughing.

* * *

The other nice touch for the weekend happened late Sunday. An older woman (a self-described "grey-haired little old lady") and her daughter stopped to listen to my harping. She told me she played the harp, too, the Latin harp.

"Paraguayan?" I asked.

"The Mexican style" she said.

I asked if she'd try my harp, and her daughter remarked that she'd never had a chance to hear her mother play before. Now it took her a minute or two to get used to my harp, because my big Triplett has an entirely different feel than a Latin harp. (Wider spacing and higher tension, if you must know.) Then she was playing away, doing a lively, syncopated Mexican tune.

As she was playing. I thought about what Eric had mentioned to me earlier that day, about it being easier for him to improvise with me if there was a definite beat for him to work with. So I asked him if he could come over with one of his Native American flutes, and on the way, he asked Stephanie, who was passing by, to bring her doumbek. I put my harp into a pentatonic scale and we did a brief jam, then I asked the lady if she'd take my pace in the ensemble. After only a fraction of a hesitation, she did, and started a perky Latin tune - which only sounded slightly odd for the harp still being in pentatonic.

Afterwards, she told me "We were just going to leave, but you really made my day."