Never Question My Methods

(This is part five of a five part article. Part one can be found here. Part two can be found here. Part three can be found here. Part four can be found here.)

Despite the fact that there are people dressed up as pirates, knights, and other adventurers, it’s very easy to spot Blackwolf in line for the bus at Port Authority.

He’s first in line, and he’s standing perfectly straight, almost motionless. When I greet him, he suddenly springs to life. I hear a woman say in surprise, “I thought he was a statue . . . “

Not too long after we started conducting interviews, Blackwolf invited me to follow him around at the Sterling Forrest Renaissance Fair, to see it from his perspective, and meet some of his other friends.

He also added that it would put me in good standing with the High Istari, the seven wizards who made Blackwolf immortal, and helped him stop turning into a wolf at night.

I’m not going to turn down an offer like that.

My friend Josh joined us. I’d been talking about Blackwolf for a few months about this point, and we decided to record our interactions with Blackwolf at the Renaissance Fair, cobbling together this with the previous footage for an audio documentary (1). This meant calling up the Renaissance Fair organizers and getting their permission, and a bit of organizing, but eventually everything was set, and there we were, on an hour long bus ride with New York City’s Unofficial Wizard (2). For the most part, Blackwolf napped while Josh checked out the audio equipment, and I scribbled in a white binder and spilled coffee all over myself. But occasionally we would chat about costumes, fantasy art, and D&D.

In case you’re wondering, Blackwolf is a fan of the artwork–he’s not so wild about the game itself.

We also discussed the final Harry Potter book, which had just been released. “As far as the New York Times is concerned,” snarled Blackwolf, “they can go fuck themselves.”

This took Josh and myself aback. Blackwolf can be, in his own words, very ornery — and make sure you roll your r’s when you say that word — but I don’t think I’d heard him actually use profanity in either day to day life, or on his blog. While Blackwolf didn’t elaborate, and we were a little too surprised to ask what he was talking about, I later learned it was because the New York Times had taken it upon themselves to reveal the ending of the Harry Potter series. Which is precisely the kind of thing that would send Blackwolf, or any other wizard, into a rage.

Overall, Blackwolf’s character at the Renaissance Festival was much more animated than I’d seen previously, and at alternating points, more withdrawn. He would speed off to introduce us to merchants and performers, and then fall into a deep silence when no one was around. He would frequently tell us to shut off the recording device, irritated. For Blackwolf, I think this trip to the fair was like any big event — exciting and incredibly frustrating. He was playing host to hundreds of people, not all of whom knew who he was. And he wanted to be as entertaining and engaging as he could, so he would direct our attention to whatever was at hand.

For a long time, it seemed like this was just going to be nine hours of recording Blackwolf describing fantasy garb and medieval tcotchkes while merchants started at us, wide eyed, wondering what was going on. But every now and then, we would run into someone Blackwolf knew.

(Hello. This interaction really can’t be read. You’re just going to have to take my word for it, and put on your headphones. The slightly confused person that you hear is me.)

There are a three things that are said in the above clip that I’d like to address.

Number one, Blackwolf doesn’t drink. At all. We asked him about it, and he went off on how drinking is the enemy of imagination, it leads to death and afterwards, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a beer so badly in my life (3).

Number two, I think the reason Blackwolf confused Burton with Alan, is because they are the same person, it’s just that the actor was playing a different role this year. When Blackwolf reads the program for the Renaissance festival, Blackwolf reads the program for the Renaissance festival.

Lastly, Blackwolf did introduce us to some women who he described wenches, and they let us know that they didn’t like to be called that.

We walked on around the perimeter of the Sterling Forrest in the summer heat, and after awhile, we got tired. It wasn’t clear where we were going, we were just kind of wandering around to be seen, which as you might guess, makes for some very thrilling audio.

One of the things that is truly annoying about the festival is that there is a lot of improvised teasing that goes on. Periodically, a merchant, or maybe just an attendee, will sort of call out at people about the state of their costume, or their intelligence, or whatever they think might be slightly amusing. This is something that Blackwolf doesn’t do. But he’s frequently the target it. And because there is effectively nowhere to really go, you just kind of grit your teeth and wait for either the line to move forwards, or for the person to move on to their next target.

Happily, these episodes were counterbalanced with people who had seen Blackwolf on TV and wanted his autograph, or remembered him from festivals previous.

Around lunch time, Josh and I told Blackwolf we needed a break. We went to get some food, and that’s when something funny happened: Blackwolf pulled down his beard to eat his medieval pizza slice, while we were talking to him.

It’s obvious when you look at the photographs, but the white beard that Blackwolf has isn’t real. It’s a Santa Clause beard. For awhile, you find yourself wondering why he’s wearing this fake beard, and then you get used to it.

Seeing him suddenly discard it was very disorienting, and was kind of like seeing someone just throw away part of their face while you were talking to them.

He very quickly pulled up his beard, while we stood there, confused. And then, after something of an awkward moment, we told Blackwolf we were just going to take a minute go over our notes and check the recording thus far. He seconded the idea.

After acquiring some pizza of our own, Josh said the thing that had been on my mind since we were standing in line for the bus:

“I feel completely out of my element here, and it actually makes me a little bit nervous.”

It should go without saying that whether or not we’re with Blackwolf, we’re constantly being stared at, by all the elves, knights, merchants, and musicians. While we’re not wearing costumes, Josh has a set of studio headphones and a microphone, and I’m scribbling in a notebook. And we’re on either side of a wizard.

Occasionally, we’re taunted.

We catch up with Blackwolf, watch some performances, and meet one of his friends, who was dressed up as Henry the Eighth, and eating a giant turkey leg. He declined to be on record. And then we go back to walking the festival’s perimeter.

Throughout this whole day, there’s someone that Blackwolf really wants to talk to, and that’s Queen Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth is very busy during the Renaissance fair; she sings, she dances, she actually fights in a duel with a sword, she has a knighting ceremony for the children who attend. I spoke with one of her coaches, who helps with dialogue, etiquette, dancing, everything a Queen might need to know, which is a lot.

Despondent that we’re unable to get an audience with the Queen, who shows up at performances here and there, before darting off to do something else, Blackwolf suggests we go to the children’s knighting ceremony. I grumble to Josh about how this cannot possibly be an interesting event, but we go along.

In this ceremony, you see a lot of people lined up, not just parents, but complete strangers, happily watching children be initiated into the Fair. And I think about just what this might mean to someone who struggled to get along with his father and mother, to see these kids being happily greeted by this queen who is essentially, the spirit of the whole festival. And, for a moment, I stop complaining.

* * *

Throughout the writing and recording of this documentary, Blackwolf has called and emailed to check up on my progress.

Around the eight month mark, I was getting incredibly frustrated with this project. It just seemed like there was a piece missing.

So I did what I should have done . . . the same thing that King Arthur, Dorothy, and various others did before me. I asked the wizard. Or rather, I emailed him. And, like most wizards, Blackwolf got back to me very quickly. For an immortal, this is an easy question:

“I think that, when people hear this audio documentary of my Wizardly person, they should discover the story of a young man who finds himself at the center of two worlds: one, the cold, harsh world of the grim realities of present-day New York City; the other, the mysterious, magical world where Knights, Warriors, Royalty, Barbarians, Mages and so many more of their kind coexist in the continually evolving struggle between good and evil.

“Yours truly — and, by extension, Master Richard — are the embodiment of all these, and so much more — and I think that the Blackwolf story will, if all goes well, allow my fellow New Yorkers to, as I always remind my fans, imagine responsibly.

Blackwolf the Dragonmaster wanders the city from Easter until Halloween. His blog can be found here. There is a rumor that someone will be making a bonafide documentary about him in the future.

And, if you’re thinking of making a fantasy film, he has one rather epic script.

(This is part five of a five part article. Part one can be found here. Part two can be found here. Part three can be found here. Part four can be found here.)

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1. This proved to be a lot more difficult than I imagined. After writing, rewriting, and re-rewriting, and then adding narration, and re-adding narration, the result was the blog entry you’re reading right now. I have so much respect for podcasters as a result of having tried this project.

2. It’s been over a month, and I still haven’t told you why Blackwolf is called New York City’s Unofficial Wizard. As Thor explained it to me, Blackwolf would send letters and try to talk to city officials about being New York’s Official Wizard. As you might imagine, there was a casual interest on the part of the city as having a wizard, particularly in 2000 when the Harry Potter craze was just starting to go into full swing. But the process, in Thor’s words, “Was like banging your head against a wall.”

Sick of the red tape, Blackwolf decided to make a go at being the unofficial wizard, and has gone with that title since.

3. We actually went to get a beer or two, and then discovered that the lad and lass in charge of serving alcohol were, behind the bar, standing in about a foot of water. Presumably a remnant of the rainstorm the night before.

And this just seemed like a bad omen, so we abstained.

Later on in the day, we saw a drunk man in a pink polo shirt chase around a Fair volunteer with what appeared to be the volunteers own sword. There is something about beer and weapnry on a hot day that should be avoided.