Pirates And Parrots

Performance can be tailored to a wide range of audiences, from children birthday parties, boat and travel show display booths, community festivals, Renaissance fair-like events, to corporate events. Presentations can usually be adjusted to your requests.

Audiences typically enjoy two parts; Pirate Stories (with 'tricks' that our parrots can do), followed by a meet-and-greet, Photo-Op.

(– For Corporate Events, consider option below; "☠ Corporate Events; Photo-op 'red Carpet' shoot".)

Details:

☠ Story & Song:
– The pirate story & song part can be 15 min to 1 hr long (pricing adjusted to length, complexity, additional cast requirements, and prop requirements.)
– We can select story options for audiences ranging from 5 to 205.

⚔ The Epic Story of Capt'n Flint and Mr. Gentry – Flying right out of the pages of THE classic children's book, Treasure Island, Captain Flint was the parrot of the story's pirate captain, Long John Silver.

Our story relates how Capt'n Flint came to now be in Kansas. Here, Capt'n Flint reenacts some of his most memorable pirate voyages. Our sailor's tales include pirate jokes and riddles, and the interactive root beer tavern song, "The Ballad of Captain Flint." Capt'n Bencke sings and plays the squeeze-box, while your guests participate in the mug-swinging refrain. (The following tricks occur during the ballad in short presentations, and within sailor's yarns in longer presentations.)

= > • Broadsides! – During the story and song, the parrots will fire their cannon with a Thunderous-Roar! (spring-loaded cannon which shoots a short distance, marshmallow-cannon balls.)

⚔ Hand-to-hand, er, Buccaneer-To-Beak Battles © –
During the tavern tales, Capt'n may battle Redbeard and his mate, or the mutinous crew; Gregory Goldtooth, and Bad Patch lead by their mutinous leader, Admiral Jack Daniels Nelson (he's not really an admiral).

Treasure!
⚔ One treasure chest, Captain counts coins into; uno, dos, tres.
⚔ The Gold Crystal Chest Captain has to hoist up to him, while he balances on the highest yardarm. From there he has to display his parrot intelligence by twisting each of the two key locks to open the chest. Captain will battle the evil Redbeard and his mate, Hornpipe, tossing them into the sea.

First Mate's Story – The smaller parrot, Mr. Gentry, a pionus parrot, also of South America, has his own pirate ship (Playmobil). The smaller size works best as a tabletop presentation for small audiences of 3-10. During his story (optional, needing additional props, with additional charge) he adjusts his course with his ship's wheel ☸, turns the hour-glass ⌛, navigates with his globe and maps ⊕, then fires his own cannon to sink an attacking Bad pirate ship. Then celebrates his victory, toasting with his mug of root beer.

Parrots Of The Rainforest And Beyond – If you want a more nature-related parrot story, your guests will learn about the unique features of parrots. Our research has taken us to the Costa Rica rainforests, where we followed wild macaws in the forest canopy, and to the Yucatan, where the Maya society recognized Seven-Macaw as their creation god. Parrots, with a social structure that predates humans by millions of years. Whose diet is a model for us. A group of species with unique bird toes that can manipulate items as if they had hands (unlike other birds, parrots have two-toes forward and two back, allowing them to grasp and hold items like nuts and fruit. Peel an apple or grape.) With his powerful beak, Captain can show how he crushes open a Brazil nut, which requires some 200-pounds of force. We can share with you the uniqueness of the many species of parrots, who's species numbers surpass the days of they year, who live in not only the tropics, but also snowy mountains, or windy arid grasslands, all over the world.

☠ Photo-Op; Basic, & Options –
- Basic: We'll provide pirate hats and bandannas for your guests to don.
- Options: For additional charge, we can provide multiple photo-props that you can arrange groups of your guests upon, resulting in a unique, powerful photo of Your Crew in Action! (with Capt'n). In addition to the pirate hats and bandannas, we can provide; ship's wheel, kegs & crates to sit some of your guests on and lean on, ⚔ pirate swords to brandish, treasure chests for your guests to display towards the camera.

Adventure Location Options:
Your Venue, or Pirate Ship Playground Party -
We can set sail to your venue location. Or, sailing through southwest Kansas City area are at least six Pirate Ship Playgrounds (4 in Olathe parks and 2 in other locations, listed below.)

You might plan your party at one of these, and have our crew of Pirates and Parrots join you. At the playground, in addition to our stories & song, we can provide balloon pirate sword-cutlasses ⚔ for your scalawags to engage with.

To see a map of the pirate ships that we've spied, go to our Facebook page, Pirates And Parrots. There in the Photo's tab you'll find our Chart of KC Area Pirate Ship Playground Fleet, with photos of each ship. Most have picnic shelters just a few paces away.

Pirate Ship Playgrounds at address: (or map on our FB page, Pirates And Parrots)

⚔ Lake Olathe Park, west shore, 650 S Lakeshore Dr, Olathe, KS 66061 (2 mile W of K-7 & Santa Fe) (With picnic shelter a few paces away.)
⚔ Oregon Trail Park (w/pond), 1100 S. Robinson, Olathe, KS 66061 (On US 56 Hwy, 1/2 mile W of K-7 (With picnic shelter a few paces away.)
⚔ Frisco Lake Park, 1100 E Dennis, Olathe, KS (near I-35 & US 56 Hwy) (With picnic shelter a few paces away.)
⚔ Frontier Park: 15501 W Indian Creek Parkway Olathe, KS (With picnic shelter a few paces away.)
☠ Other Pirate Playground Parks -
⚔ Listowel Park: 71st and Quivira Shawnee, KS (With picnic shelter a few paces away.)
⚔ Williams-Gates Park: 401 Howard Lee's Summit, MO (no shelter or picnic tables here.)

☠ Corporate Events; Photo-op 'red Carpet' shoot; The photo-op props are great for your corporate event such as trade shows, and boat shows, to let your guests pose with Captain Flint, your corporate banner, and the above listed piratical props.

Experience: Capt'n Bencke (BEN-key) and the parrot, Capt'n Flint are experienced at working with children, 9-99, outdoors and in. Outdoors, they engage with children doing both nature stories with the parrots, telling of macaw life in the rain forests, stories of the life of other parrots of the world, and they tell pirate stories. In the summer, they teach a youth and family sailing program which ends in a ‘final test’ of a sailing treasure hunt. The Blue and Gold macaw parrot, Captain Flint of Treasure Island, participates with the children in the outdoors adventures.

Awards: They have received a number of awards for their work. Olathe Mayor Michael Copland and the City Council awarded them in 2009, the Olathe Community Pride Award for their work with the city. And they've received awards from Johnson County Parks, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts.

Author: Cap'n Bencke is burning the candle at both ends, scribbing the stories of Capt'n Flint for publication. He's a twelve year member of SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.) You'll find his writing sandbox on the web.

To The Horizon, And Beyond: Pirate And Parrots! © are stories with Captain Flint and his beautiful cousin, parrot, Anne Bonny, the first mate. They've voyaged through Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, telling stories, singing songs, blasting their cannon at such events as the KC Renaissance Festival, city park ground breakings, nature centers, schools, libraries, retirement communities, boat shows, and corporate events.

☠ Sailing Master –
- Capt'n Bencke has sailed since he was eye-to-eye with the powder monkeys (9-years old). He first started teaching sailing to adults and children in 1977.

Today, he's sailed the pirate waters of Jean Lafitte of Galveston Island, Capt'n Kidd's waters of Long Island Sound, Blackbeard's waters of the Graveyard of the Atlantic, there, burring treasure at Blackbeard's home. He's sailed the crystal clear waters of his Viking ancestors in the fjords of Norway. And he's sailed the silver coast of Treasure Island, Florida, basking in it's waters of the Fountain of Youth (Capt'n Bencke Claims he will celebrate his 18th birthday this year... again.) And his second most treasured voyage, sailing in the wake of his hero, Columbus, sailing past his replica fleet in Corpus Christi Bay. (His Most treasured voyage; marrying Lady Jackie aboard the Cutwater in the spring of 2005.)

⚔ A final comment from Capt'n Flint, "Arrg!" Which is pirate for, "I hope to cross cutlasses with you soon!"