Where in the world am I today?: At sea aboard the STAR Princess…
Before setting sail aboard the Star Princess from Hilo a couple of days ago I had the immense pleasure of getting picked up near where the ships dock by the one and only Robert Nelson, The Butterfly Man. Robert and his wife moved to Hawaii about 5 years ago and it’s easily been eight or nine years since I last saw him at the Windsor Busker’s Festival, so it was a great chance to catch up with one of THE legends of the Street Performance World and just get to hang for a few hours.
We drove back to his place in Pahoa and gravitated towards a couple of chairs in the shade of the car port where we enjoyed cool drinks and great conversation! It wasn’t long before we were joined by another incredibly gifted performer that I first met in 1990 at the Winnipeg Children’s Festival. A puppeteer and super-nice guy named Steve Hansen.
The conversation revolved around great stories from our mutual shared history either from places we’d all performed together, or people we all know and I got to wallow in the fact that this art form that I’m a part of whether you want to call it ‘Street Theatre’ or ‘Variety Performing’ or ‘Busking’ has such a great living history filled with some of the most interesting characters on the planet.
In Japan they have a Sempai – Kohai system that roughly translates to Master and Apprentice though I think some of what that means has been lost in North American/Western culture these days. My feeling in Japan is there is a special sort of acknowledgement that is given to those who have gone before you for the contribution that they have made to the art form that you are pursuing. There’s a certain appreciation for the wisdom of people who have been at it longer than you have. Even if technically they don’t have the skills that you as a younger performer posses, there’s an awareness that the contributions that have been made by these legends in the industry deserve recognition and respect.
As I sat in the shade and listened to the stories, the humour and the wisdom of these two greats that had gone before me I felt lucky that circumstance had allowed for this chance to spend a few hours together. Our time was unfortunately cut short by my need to get back to the STAR Princess before it set sail, but those few hours at the Butterfly Estate will likely resonate with me much more than any other experience I’ll have during the rest of this contract. Good times!
