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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).

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Comments

Torbjörn

Fair morrow good sirs! Bonus sloppeth do hit-eth score past the four, perfect timing methinks! Huzzah indeed.

Chris Car

Guys podcast talked about Renn Faire guys this week too!

Bryan Jennings

Forsooth, so sayeth the lord, there be no slop, like unexpected slop.

Brendan Garcia

Is this what the king of the hill episode was based on? With Alan Rickman? “How now gasman?!”

Saya Clarke

THIS IS WHAT I THOUGHT TOO OMG! I'm from and live in TX so always thought it must be loosely based on something real!

Blank

Flawless outro

Sam Zeng

King George, an American

Bman1

Its some episodes where you really miss Matt

T

Mine trencher doth overflow with sloppe

JD Nonce

I’m taking all of my clothes except my crown to read this. Crowning myself The King in the Nude

Chip’s Mom Dre

George only wishes he was going mad because of end stage syphilis.

Jordan Rundle

Was not expecting the Jenny Nicholson endorsement

Billiam

texas’ greatest son

Ian H. B.

The Jenny shoutout omg. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one

m@tt

You can’t have enough documentaries on reptile guy, bird people and ren faire enthusiast.

Billiam

“Milady! thine cheek piercing be mayhap anachronistic.” (immediately after) “this place would bop with an edm festival.”

the Minneapolis Kid

Are Jenny Nichols and Alex Nichols brother and sister, or married? or both?

Jay-Z Pants

This is the first show I’ve been stoked for in ages

Fingerless

thoughts from my time LARPing -for whatever reason, LARPing tends to have more women in it compared to other nerdy hobbies. unfortunately, this leads to many dudes whose main impetus for LARPing is trying to pick up nerdy women. I leave it to the reader to elaborate -Corollary to the above, there's a big sex nerd overlap. Cosplay drama mixed with polyamory drama is a potent mix. -The guys who start and run successful LARPs tend to be personally wealthy while also having massive fabulist streaks. Inevitably this leads to put upon middle managers who keep things running in spite of their nominal leaders. -The dudes there who are the most popular with women are portly, balding, extremely hairy men. One of the ways the patriarchy hurts men is that it obscures society from this fact.

Smith's Fine Electric Amusements

If you're going to crown yourself in the nude, why do you need to take all your clothes except your crown? Wouldn't you need none of your clothes EXCEPT your crown. I don't think you've thought this through, you have it completely backwards.

ResilientBastard

Sometimes a gazelle gets taken down and eaten, some times jack rabbit slaps the bear

C. Ries

My favorite thing about Renaissance Fairs is that they depict the Middle Ages but they’re named after the Renaissance

dingbat44

I always wanted to go to a Ren Faire dressed in nothing but a potato sack and covered in dirt just poke at dirt with with a stick and say "its a living"

Anomalie

edm festival? dungeon synth is right there

MD

I wonder if that great King of the Hill episode where Hank is trying to secure a propane account for a Renn Fair loosely based on this one.

jombeanz

This guy cusses too much! Fuckin this and fuckin that

Jerry Cornelius

This is the closest thing we have to a control group for testing that blockhead Curtis Yarvin’s theory of a future monarchist paradise.

Dustin Johnson

This was great. Does HBO pay you for this interview? This is a great endorsement it's making me open my max app which I constantly consider cancelling

MEAT CLOWN

Hey shut man I haven't listened to it yet

James Kellner

My sister is pretty serious about dressing up to go to the one near us every summer and every time I swear to god it's going to be the time I go dressed as a Star Trek guy who landed on a medieval planet but I never have the guts

chapotraphouse

I was also wondering this but didn’t get a chance to ask…I kind of assume the KotH team was just aware that there was a Texas Ren Faire with an insane narcissist king and went from there because Rickman’s ren faire king is a very different vibe from George

will michel

i took the bluetooth speaker i was listening to this episode on out of the bathroom and my two year old followed after me and said “i wanna listen to chapo” the boys stay winning hearts and minds

Boaz Corey

"Didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective!"

Jordan

I’ve learned that all boomers really are perverted greedy freaks

@ByTheBaeram

Damn so the king of the hill episode about this is accurate lmao

Alex Kowalewski

"loving the culture but hating the boss" sounds like being a chef

T

Alex is Jenny Nichols' son.

Johnny B

Fun fact, they actually did have an EDM fest on those grounds in May 2017 (Middle Lands Music Fest). It was a success, but the neighbors complained about the noise, and they weren’t able to come back. We went, and it was awesome the way they incorporated the stage designs into the park’s theme.

Golander

just finished and I do not like that man too much no not too much indeed!

Gert

No?

Reece Coren

great doc but why did he make me have to relive the phillies losing the world series

Austin Williams

Chris adds a great flavor to a Chapo interview. Good ep.

buttface

it's a paid promo

James Burkeen

My first wife and I used to hang around Scarborough Faire near the Dallas area. We talked about going to Texas Ren Faire, but some people there warned us off. They thought it was too cult like.

Max

What was the name of the you tube channel they talked about

Fingerless

aww, the seppo heard too many naughty naughty cuss words

LOAF

Jeff was a heartbreaking character for me to watch. Like Corky St. Cloud dropped into Succession. Hope he enjoys the chocolate conference and finds a new creative outlet.

Maciek

I wish you’d disclose how you know it’s a paid promo you bored dorks

Maciek

pilkington in the xfm era describing winning an argument.

Professor Jokes

No you're right they probably cold called this over indulgent asshole from LA who made a mediocre TV movie for you the listener!

dingbat44

Your sister sounds like a loser

Reece Coren

glad stav’s family got a mention. i hope darla’s okay ❤️

Hog_bawls

Ill never tell an artist how to do there work, but huge missed oppertunity for a sick Enya drop on the final fade out....

Matthew Black

1.) George is clearly functionally impotent. 2.) Given some of the conversations about numbers that appear, Texas’s lax taxation, and the difficulty finding a buyer I’m making a guess that TRF’s bookkeeping is fucked to hell and nobody can tell what the company is worth.

ResilientBastard

Always good to hear from a director or other person who is a popcorn fan. I hate theaters without popcorn.

William Jarvis

Dude Jeremy Strong is great in this as Louie but I think he's being typecast as a fail son with grand dreams and a white knuckling drug problem

Ksizzle

Fuck you

jombeanz

Ever heard a joke?

NobleStrings

holy shit this guy made Primetime