Bonus: Ren Faire feat. Lance Oppenheim | Chapo Trap House

Subscribe at / chapotraphouse
/ chapo-trap-house
Art/Animation by Emily Halaka @emilyhalaka
We talk to Lance Oppenheim, director of Ren Faire, the new docu-series on HBO. Ren Faire looks at the drama behind the scenes of the enormous Texas Renaissance Festival. When capricious 86-year-old owner and founder “King” George Coulam attempts to retire, his underlings, the obsequious & loyal-to-a-fault Jeff and the ambitious & conniving Louie, are pitted against each other in their attempts to gain control of the park. It’s a darkly comedic real-life Shakespeare story, but it also touches on a lot of ideas about work, employment, ownership, power, performance, alienation, and an (unhealthy?) obsession with the past, all in the context of a very particular modern workplace.
All three episodes of Ren Faire are available now to stream on Max (the place for HBO).
#chapotraphouse #chapo

[@garcalej]

Matt would’ve loved this episode. Screw Renaissance fairs, let’s have a 1600s fair. Take selfies with Martin Luther. Learn to fire a musket (at a knight). Help a gang of of Swedish mercenaries loot a German farmstead. Buy over-priced tulips. Watcha a long and exceedingly droll play about how we’re all bound for hell because of our mortal wickedness. And of course learn how to make candles out of tallow and pig fat, cause who wouldn’t want to learn that?

[@Praisethesunson]

Mi lord this is thine Wendy's

[@457max]

Darla understood modeling/predicting the system using external vendor data but she used that knowledge to heartlessly undercut Jeff who understood the intangible metaphysics of the park's attraction but didn't have the money, and Louie was ready to risk his family's money, but didn't have enough (and would have wildly overpaid at $10 million, which George knew)...but King George wasn't deciding who would get the park, he was deciding which job he wanted...and he decided on General Manager, king of labor. It's not enough to be a king without a crown (property), you have to wield power over human beings. It's not enough to be the king, you have to know you're the king by inflicting your power upon the body of the workers.

[@457max]

Darla Guattari. Jeff Gramsci. Louie Napoleon III. George Stalin.

[@c.andrew3944]

I only kinda understand it, but I like it. This does solidify my belief that reading Guattari will make me more insane.

[@ChannelMath]

Hey, if you don't like being lorded over, go work at the Enlightenment Faire

[@berdyderg900]

Imagining all of the minimum wage villagers hooking him up to a rack over a bonfire

[@daniboy2982]

That king aint right

[@22melow5]

Ren fairs also have people specializing in mideval crap like forging and yarn spinning where you can learn about it if you care to talk at their stalls.

[@feydrautha012]

Or you can eat 8 different kinds of meat and be a true Renaissance man.

[@lifeisgood12341]

At the heart of every GREAT documentary there is a woman named Darla

[@rverasart]

jenny nicholson namedrop

[@subularreno]

Unironically my favorite documentary of the last few years

[@Big_ten]

Hell yeah. Jenny go on Chapo

[@subularreno]

@@Big_ten Oh god, I think she'd hate that hahaha

[@Puketapu]

She is amazing. So compassionate to the topic at hand but at the same time super funny

[@GbawlZ]

This was an amazing documentary/narrative film. Say whatever you want, but people like George and his crew make life interesting. They don't care about anything else going on in the world, their entire existence revolves around this one thing. A few times in the series, he alludes to how everything he created was based on depictions from old world renaissance literature. I'll definitely be following this director's future work.

[@jm6406]

Listened to 15 mins and had to go watch it now I’m back. Compelling stuff

[@jm6406]

Decrepit King George is a grotesque petty creep

[@Praisethesunson]

​@@jm6406He dresses like the Texas confederate general version of Muammar Gaddafi

[@raven_g6667]

Haven't actually watched the show, probably never would have if not for the Chapo boys. I went to the reviews on a few sites and one of them said "Creep grandpa filmed on an old Nokia phone" with a 2/10 rating, which I enjoyed lol. Anyways, I'm totally sold on actually watching the show.

[@sweetprimrose]

Did not know that episode of King of the Hill with Alan Rickman in it was a documentry apparently. HOW NOW GAS MAN!

[@cgtrains]

When he goes from British to southern drawl at the end of the episode: “Aw crap I’m gonna lose my fair”

[@adamhbrennan]

As a peasant without HBO, much appreciated

[@UntoTheBreach24]

Would Peggy Hill defeat George at the end of the episode?

[@topdamagewizard]

I have never watched a documentary where I literally hated everyone. George never wanted to sell. But he got off on jerking potential buyers around just like he does his employees. The General Manager guy was a sniveling worm. And he'll never understand that's why George wants him around. But also why he hates him and has no respect for him. And the popcorn creep is just a gross dude. BUT I hate him the least because at least he was honest about what he wanted.

[@topdamagewizard]

@Matt-ru5rw accurate. The inability to speak truth to power and not have power respond to that truth has the downfall of empires larger than the ren faire

[@slug3982]

Megatron -starcsream ass dynamic lol

[@topdamagewizard]

@@slug3982 Damn. But worse. At least Starscream tried to kill tron when he had the chance.

[@erikakcook]

Great ep!!! Loved Will’s questions

[@angryKitt3ns]

Huzzah indeed

[@c.andrew3944]

Media 'attractions' as a false reality is weird to examine in an almost fully symbolic world. Disney sells well because they have the right symbols to create a blend of desire and fufillment, the reality they create is more appealing than the real. However, 70 years has passed since this model has been mass-produced and applied across industries and now so many of our spaces are engineered this way. I haven't seen land in years. We're smart enough apes to know that real reality is hard and painful a lot of the time, like even if youre the most coddeled your body will decay, so there is a deeply rooted urge to escape. Maybe adulthood is learning to deal with that urge. To some degree playing pretend is necessary and normal in childhood development though BECAUSE the world we inhabit is structured around things which require us to play pretend. I think working at a ren faire would melt my brain, but they're fun to visit once in a while. I'll have to give this a watch.

[@Praisethesunson]

Spoiler. Everyone who works under the pervy grandpa have melted brains.

[@burgerpocalypse]

this guy hasn't seen land in years? are you lost at sea?

[@lmackenzie9198]

Why did this guy invent the atomic bomb, and subsequently, anime

[@NSM_2000]

15:57 I hear Matt's laughter. 🤔🤔🤔

[@Praisethesunson]

He is always with us

[@NSM_2000]

@@Praisethesunson Our very large son is always with us. Praise the Christman.

[@zachschreck]

Pretty sure that's Chris. But I want to believe.

[@SpencerHowe]

Huzzah

[@UntilYouCollapse]

Always love those 3am drops

[@andr0oS]

Go West, until it is a better time.

[@mj.l]

@@andr0oS it's fucken 6pm here. go to a better cuntry

[@verysurvival]

What you talking bout bro it’s 10 AM

[@Praisethesunson]

It's how they flex their power over you. Lords of the content.

[@SavagesInMyTown]

i enjoyed the documentary and I felt the scenes with george and his ladies were hilarious

[@Praisethesunson]

That is exactly the kind of thing I would expect a rich old man playing pretend king to have.

[@Zirkusman]

Just finished Ren Faire, great documentary!

[@Canoflegumes]

Forsooth!

[@15clank]

They should make the ren faire into a reality show series I need more jeff and corn lord and king George

[@kevingriener7441]

A mountain lion would fuck a cheetah up if it could catch it.

[@robertusaugustus2003]

IF

[@berdyderg900]

We would've won state if coach had put me in the game

[@jjb.6152]

I watched the last EP

[@joeyrufo]

24:04 it's the master slave dialectic!!!!!!!!! The friendship dialectic is better!

[@jvladcliff4083]

Darkon was the first one for me. Very entertaining.

[@lanceblankenship9995]

Blankenship is a way better surname than Opperheim

[@nummyboo1939]

That was the name of a dentist in my area growing up. She would lie about children having cavities and drill their teeth just to get money from insurance companies.

[@DunkmeisterFresh]

The hell is this?

[@Praisethesunson]

Sounds like the Texas Ren faire version of Tiger King

[@DunkmeisterFresh]

@@Praisethesunson I have no idea what is going on.

[@berdyderg900]

​@@DunkmeisterFreshwhy is your general confusion at the world everyone else's responsibility? How did you get to this podcast? Can you tie your shoes?

[@DunkmeisterFresh]

@@berdyderg900 Thanks for clearing things up

[@maxwellkazemba2299]

​@@DunkmeisterFreshwell this is a podcast, a form of entertainment wherein people have a conversation that people sometimes even pay to listen to

[@seanpatrick1243]

Great interview! Will add the series to my list.