I would argue that Silver Dollar City needs more of this: people demonstrating crafts, people entertaining the crowds in the streets, and store operators that embody the theme of the park - but maybe not more like the fellow in the t-shirt advertising a biker bar named Poopy's. Characters and storytelling need to come back to Silver Dollar City menu.
There has to be a way to regulate what they say and how they say it without scripting them so much. They need to love what they do, and that needs to come out in their demeanor and presentation.
When I saw that the rainmaker was making a return, I was excited. I remember him pulling into Main Street in his horse-drawn wagon, filled with all sorts of weather gadgets. I remember his hilarious spiel, reminiscent of a snake oil salesman, telling crowds how he was capable of making it rain on a perfectly sunny day. And then I remember it raining - a refreshing sprinkle just like he promised. When I was a kid, I had no inkling that the rain was falling out of sprinklers hidden in the trees.
But this new rainmaker? His wagon is parked in a flower bed in the Riverfront area of the park: clearly, he didn't just pull into town. His script is too cheesy and he just has to work too hard to sell jokes that just aren't funny. And when it rains...it pours. There's no reason to soak the crowd like that. If he reduced it to a sprinkle, there wouldn't need to be a splash zone marked on the pavement. Also, the sprinklers are so obvious that they reveal him as a charlatan. Firehoses winding up the trees are obvious and completely unmagical.
The funniest thing about this show was when the rainmaker interacted with the crowd and a little boy handed him a Vienna sausage. Rainmaker held the moist little wiener in his hand for the longest time, not wanting to offend the boy by tossing it to the side, but also distracted by the thing as he tried to deliver his lines. Finally, to the dismay of everyone else in the crowd besides the little boy - believe it or not - Rainmaker plopped the sausage into his mouth, quickly chewed, and swallowed it.
Now that was worth the price of admission.
When I saw that the rainmaker was making a return, I was excited. I remember him pulling into Main Street in his horse-drawn wagon, filled with all sorts of weather gadgets. I remember his hilarious spiel, reminiscent of a snake oil salesman, telling crowds how he was capable of making it rain on a perfectly sunny day. And then I remember it raining - a refreshing sprinkle just like he promised. When I was a kid, I had no inkling that the rain was falling out of sprinklers hidden in the trees.
But this new rainmaker? His wagon is parked in a flower bed in the Riverfront area of the park: clearly, he didn't just pull into town. His script is too cheesy and he just has to work too hard to sell jokes that just aren't funny. And when it rains...it pours. There's no reason to soak the crowd like that. If he reduced it to a sprinkle, there wouldn't need to be a splash zone marked on the pavement. Also, the sprinklers are so obvious that they reveal him as a charlatan. Firehoses winding up the trees are obvious and completely unmagical.
The funniest thing about this show was when the rainmaker interacted with the crowd and a little boy handed him a Vienna sausage. Rainmaker held the moist little wiener in his hand for the longest time, not wanting to offend the boy by tossing it to the side, but also distracted by the thing as he tried to deliver his lines. Finally, to the dismay of everyone else in the crowd besides the little boy - believe it or not - Rainmaker plopped the sausage into his mouth, quickly chewed, and swallowed it.
Now that was worth the price of admission.
