After the old man had taken care of Jonathan, they traveled together through life.
The old man tried to teach Jonathan a lot of the trade.
"Look Jonathan, do you see that man in his shiny armor? That's a paladin, a brave hero. Do you want to be like him?"
Jonathan saw all the positive attention the man got and nodded.
"Wrong answer, Jonathan. We are not here to be heroes and save the day. We are entertainers. We make fun of those hero's and of the bad guys too whenever we can. We have no principal, no laws, and no friend. Get it? We just make fun of them."
Jonathan nodded again, impressed.
The old man has done loads of performances in many cities. In most of them he was well known and they asked him to perform. Although he was quite old, he was very popular. He made fun of everyone and when someone threatened to get mad, he just sang a nice and moving song to make him or her forget easily.
The power of performing was overwhelming. Easily the old man put some commercials for beer or politic party's into his performance and the effect was notable immediately.
Wherever he came, people cheered.
The old man and Jonathan went along. They wanted to go to a city further on. On the way to there, they had to camp out in the wilderness, one night.
This night, they sat together at their campfire.
"So, Jonathan, when do you want to perform?" the old man suddenly asked.
"Me? But you do so great... why would I..."
"Do you think I train you to just stay and watch?"
Jonathan thought for a while.
"That would not be all that logical. On the other hand, you are an artist, so logical is probably not what you..."
The old man sighed.
"You are an artist for sure, Jonathan. But surely, you must have some ideas about an own performance."
He looked at Jonathan, who holds a bench over the campfire. The bench caught fire and Jonathan managed to get his hand on fire, after which he threw quite much of the water the old man had preserved over it.
"I mean... you must be good at something... I guess" the old man said.
"Autch... well... I did think of a song not all that happy as yours are. Something about how lousy I feel in the morning, when you rude wake me up. Autch. And what about... that feeling of uncertainty, like there is a big destiny for me yet to be found... autch... and then I thought of some jokes about the stupidity of Orcs, but in such clever words they will not be offended because they will not be able to understand it. I wrote it all down! And what about a sort of role-play, in which I will play both characters arguing with different voices... it can be based upon how you wake me in the morning... some sort of cross-over with the song!"
Jonathan got so enthusiastic that he put his hand directly into the campfire.
The old man was satisfied. Jonathan had thoughts enough.
Next morning, Jonathan heard the old man arguing. He tried to open his eyes and he saw another old man with a beard.
He wondered if maybe this one really was Gandalf. He heard his old man say: "I have found a pupil too, he will show the audience what a performance is!"
"Yeah?" the other replied. "Sure. You looked for years, thinking you would find some guy 'meant' to be great. And now you have settled for some loser, while you are to old to teach him right. My pupil has learned all from me. He will steal all the audience away, leaving yours to sweep the floor afterwards."
"My pupil has his own ideas. You know, originality and stuff. We will reach the next village in a short while. Let's go to: 'The Inn That Really Should Have Had A Name But Sadly Did Not Because Of The Lack Of A Good Idea" and have a little contest."
And so it happened. Jonathan woke up and the four of them walked together to this pub. The old rivals together and the pupils went after them. Jonathan really got annoyed by the 'I'm-Better-Than-You-Behavior' of the other pupil.
In the Inn the bartender was more than happy to have a contest. The long 'name' of his bar caused lots of people NOT to go there, because they didn't like to say the whole name while suggesting it. That night, the first pupil wiped the audience away. His jokes, songs and other effects were great and all chairs thrown by displeased audience missed him.
"You can beat him, Jonathan," the old man whispered to him. "He has exactly the same performance his instructor always had. You have fresh and original ideas from yourself. You are enthusiastic about them. Go for it!"
With all the confidence the old man pushed Jonathan on the stage, when it was his turn. The audience was pleased and gave him a fair chance. Jonathan saw everyone looking at him and got scared of ruining it all.
He realized he had to start with something, so he tried to start it of with some funny remarks. But when he tried to talk, his jar seemed jammed shut. He tried to produce some sound. "This is my first performance" he tried to say. The audience started asking one another: "What did he say?"
Jonathan was so nervous that he only could mumble some nervous words; probably hoping no one would hear him. The first chair that got thrown knocked him down immediately, luckily ending the performance, so the people could get back to their beers.
Ignoring the remarks of the other bard, the old man helped Jonathan up.
"You are much better then them and you will beat them some day," he said. "But you are not quite ready, you have some large troubles ahead of you. You need to find confidence... and be hearable by the way. For the last part I have someone that can help us..."

Back to Philosophers Guild

Home | Submit content | Contact | Legal info | Top of page

This website © Copyright 1999-2008, Arjan Wardekker.
All rights reserved.
All trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.