"The hair is good, right? " - Randal

The Duelists are Randal and Michael, a sword fighting comedy duo that demonstrate the steps of a duel in the Renaissance period during their show. We saw them perform at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in 2009. Their show was very entertaining and after seeing it only a few times we were able to quote many of their lines because they were so memorable. In fact, we still randomly quote some of their lines to this day in our day to day lives!

During their performance, they went through all the steps of an epic duel from step 1 ("Looking Good") to the inevitable death of one of the duelists (which was usually Randal). A fun thing about the Duelists was that they loved hecklers and had no problem with heckling back, and even warned the audience about it at the beginning of their show. One of our favorite moments during their run at the festival was when they said their line "and the women throw themselves" and a lady from the audience ran up to the stage and threw herself onto it. It was so unexpected and made for a very memorable end of the show!

Although the Duelists have only performed at the Maryland festival the one year, they had amassed quite a loyal following by the end of their run, and it was easy to see why. Their show was really fresh and fun and they were also really personable and friendly guys. Depending on the audience their show would usually play out a little differently each time, and they were really good at coming up with quick comebacks to the audience members. We hope they'll come back to the faire someday, but it looks like they are still getting to put on their show at other festivals throughout the country.

Photos

2009