Last night I was part of a group hired to be pirates for a party in Milwaukee. I left home early enough to account for bad roads and arrived in Milwaukee with plenty of time to spare. Once everyone else arrived we met with our gracious contact for the event. He provided an enormous room to use as a green room, water, and validated our parking. Before we knew it the clock said six p.m. and it was time for us to start.
All together there were five of us, three pirates, “Captain Joe Cotton”, “Scuttle Sally”, “John T. Hawser” and there were two “ladies” as well, “Pandora”, and “Chastity”. We headed into the party and were an immediate hit. The 1st hour of the party offered free beer, which were we encouraged to take advantage of and in my case, I did. (ok, I had 2 beers during the free period) We all wandered the floor playing with people and generally just causing trouble. We continued on until nearly nine, a full hour and a half extra. The organizers loved it, and were very pleased, enough that they comped us dinner too.
Read on for Bests
- Being well received by the conference attendees
- Playing with my new barrel
- Having the crowd playing along so well
- Inciting a drinking contest between two tables
- Holding “Pirate Idol”
- Free beer
- Free Food
- Free Parking
- Getting paid to play pirate for a night!
I amazes me how different I can behave from my normal self as my pirate character. For example, I never would rip on some guy while he was trying to figure out how to focus his camera by holding his hand out in front of it… However… As Hawser, well… Here’s what happened… After noticing this man and his camera phone, I sauntered up and said “Sir, I understand wanting a portrait to remember someone by, but do ya really need one of your hand? ‘cides, ya see it every night anyway…” He blushed, and bust out laughing as did his buddies. Keep in mind this was a group of EMS people quite accustomed to such behavior…
I also instituted what I am calling “Pirate Idol”. There was a table of younger 20 something couples. One point while walking by, I heard on of the girls singing along with whatever the DJ was playing. I turned and said “oh no, that wont due, put some effort into it! Sing damn you! Louder!” She blushed and got timid. “Oh I see ya can’t handle the attention, how ya expectin the crew ta follow yer orders if ya cant be any louder than that! Alright the two of ya! Together now!” with that the two girls together sang part of the chorus much louder and then burst into laughter… ” I wandered off, making a mental note to return later, which I of course did. Later in the evening as I neared the table they both chimed in singing along to what ever was playing at the time. “Thats much better lasses… keep it up” at that I put my hand to my ear and leaned in to the 1st girl, listened for a second, then switched ears and leaned into the 2nd girl. I repeated this a number of times, after the 1st repeat one of the boyfriends chimed in “he’s trying to see who better!!! GO FOR IT!!!” I love it when they get it and feed the interaction. 🙂 After a couple seconds I picked one of the two girls and raised her arm in victory and announced “WE ‘AVE OURS SELVES A WINNER!!!” She cheered, her boyfriends cheered her on, and the other girl, slightly disappointed, laughed and the whole group toasted the victory.
I harassed a couple who sat by the wall not really joining in on the festivities and charged them with the task of keeping the wall from falling down. I stopped back by a number of times and they got a kick out of me regularly checking in with them.
All in all it was an awesome night.
John's Musings 
Great story! Looking forward to working with you at the Cedarburg festival this weekend. Both you and I have rooms, so maybe us and the missus can have ourselves a pint before turning in? Take care!