Shield yourself.
Ariane Lange / BuzzFeed
The jouster Matthew Mansour hopped over a fence in the Irwindale, Calif., Renaissance Pleasure Faire's jousting arena to be interviewed and said, "Have a seat, my love. I will recline and look magnificent." Now in his forties and sporting a very dark goatee, he'd started off in character, affecting a British accent and telling me his name was Sir Maxximilian, "two Xs, because I'm just a little dirty." After asking whether he should "drop all this facade," he recounted his decades-long career racing toward the business end of a lance. He began at the beginning: It's not a side job.
1. Jousting is a career.
Matthew Mansour at a show in Irwindale April 5.
Ariane Lange / BuzzFeed
"I'm a jouster. I'm a professional jouster," Mansour said. "It's my full-time occupation, and that's all. I have performed at other venues, and done some acting bits, but I wouldn't — I'm much more of a jouster."
Mansour's interest in jousting has roots in his childhood. "I met a jouster when I was 12 years old, back in 1980, maybe? Would that make me 12? Yeah, that would make me 12. And he was doing the New York fair, and he was an actor, and he started this joust company. I thought it was the coolest thing, and so I started helping him out." Outside the arena, the young Manhattanite had a job getting coffee for the Central Park carriage drivers. He said one of his first riding experiences was getting on a horse headed to its wagon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. "When I turned 18, I went on the road as a squire and learned my way up from the ground up."
He's been jousting for almost 30 years.
