Seth Holmes

"It's a dream come true." When Seth Holmes first saw jousting at a Renaissance Faire, the thought that he could one day be one of those performers seemed nothing more than fantasy, after all, he'd never so much as ridden a horse in his life. Some twenty years later, he finds himself on the back of a horse, in armor, brandishing a lance. "When I hit that quintain for the first time, it was this major rush," Seth recalls. Never mind that it was only at a walk, but it was on the back of a horse. It would not be long before he could walk, trot and canter, lance in hand, striking his target.

Seth came to Paragon with the least amount of horse experience and considered this a major handicap in learning to joust. But coming with the least experience, he had the fewest "bad habits" to break. Seth continued to work on the basics with his riding instructors. Believing he was at the bottom of the list of potential jousters, and likely to be a squire for some time, he simply relaxed and learned. Little did he know this would propel him to the top of the class. "I blame my instructors," Seth jokes. He has performed in a variety of joust exercises both with and without armor and looks forward to joining the ranks of the Paragon Jousters.

Seth has been performing at Renaissance Faires since 2000. Somehow, he's always wound up performing with Scott beginning with The Maine Renaissance Faire and then with and Autumn Tree Armored Combat Company. Most recently Seth has worked on the production side of things with Autumn Tree Productions acting as the Fight Captain at The Connecticut Renaissance Faire. "Scott and Stephen [Pasker] have taught me a lot about performance, stage combat and armored combat. It's been a great six years working with them. We've been together through ups and downs. They've become my extended family."

Seth is looking forward to jousting for the first time in front of an audience. "It's frightening, yet exhilarating. There's always an audience at Joust Camp which means the pressure is on. And these are some really critical people watching me. But they can show patience when things don't go right. The pressure of a crowd waiting to be entertained is something altogether different. But you can feed off that, build it into your performance. And when it's time to go, it's time to go. No more messing around." Seth has also made himself useful as the "go to guy" when someone needs a new leather strap or something riveted.

Seth has spent the last four years playing the Italian pirate, Alfredo Cacciatore with the fight troupe, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Feeling this character is not appropriate for a persona within Paragon Jousting, Seth has recently adopted an English persona with the name William Sidney. "These are the first names of my grandfathers who died when I was young. I thought this would be a fitting tribute to them."