It's Lionel "Lonnie" Ruland!
35+ Years of Interactive Character Based Comedy!
Lionel has been working as an actor and entertainment professional since 1991. He began his career at the NY Renaissance Faire as part of the Improvisation Company. That on-the-job training has become the foundation for all his work; from faire characters to stage & screen roles, commercials, print work, stand up comedy, musician, and real beard Santa.
Scroll down for the History of Crossbones McCoy.
Click the link below to find out more about Lionel's non-Crossbones performance work.
The Early Years
Hump? What Hump?
At the NY Renaissance Faire, Lionel had the chance to bring to life established characters, characters created for him, and characters created by him.
Brother Incognitus, the Lunchback of Nostradamus started it all. Assigned to the role of Brother Incognitus, a heretical plague carrier, for street work and the "Medieval Medicine Show" stage show, Lionel wanted a hook that tied him to the greater storyline. Certainly Nostradamus would need someone to carry his lunch? So with a loaf of bread and a few tasty items tossed in a bag and stuffed in his shirt, he hobbled through the faire search for the Soothsayer. Often stopping to make friends with a rock or a good stick. He was quickly labeled a "street monster" always eager to "yes and" even if it meant being baptized in a fountain by the Archbishop and Friar Tuck with little more than a whispered "how long can you hold your breath?"
From there it became a personal challenge to create bigger and bigger characters and someday play Friar Tuck. Spoiler: that came true.
In 1992 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and Pepito Bismal, the Seasick Sailor was part of the crew. The sailors had a stage show that was so well received that they were hired to perform it as act one of The Nina, The Pinta, and My Aunt Maria at The Belmont Italian-American Playhouse in the Bronx, NY. Act two we were recast to do a parody of the Godfather. What if Columbus had gone to Don Corleone for the money? This was also Lionel's first step into stage combat, and the crew was given the opportunity to create a scene fighting, and being badly beaten, by Sir Francis Drake.
Mixed in through Lionel's 15 years at NYRF... in no particular order.
Bernardino de Mendoza, Man-at-arms to the Spanish Ambassador as part of the Court Scenario. Lionel speaks no Spanish but that didn't stop him from reciting Spanish Love Poetry - even if it was lyrics to Grateful Dead songs and the ingredients in rat poison.
Snicker the Court Jester, where Lionel pulled his training from UCONN's puppetry graduate program and created a giant bird to ride upon!
Papa Gannouj, King of the Gypsies. Who with his family presented the Sylvanian Shakespearean Circus. Where no one had actual circus skills or facility with Shakespeare.
Friar Tuck. A dream role since he was 15 years old finally come true.
Which leads us to....
Crossbones McCoy - Over 30 years of Piracy!
From Stage Combat to Shanties
In 1996, a group of young and extremely good looking actors created and performed a piratical stunt show, The Buccaneer's Brawl. Lionel created the role of red shirt wearing Dr. Michael "Crossbones" McCoy (ha ha two Star Trek jokes) sailing with Captain Jack Daniels and the all-male crew of the Sea Dog. Who would battle and be defeated by Grace O'Malley and her all female crew of the Crimson Tide.
But what does a band of pirates do when they aren't fighting? They form a pirate band! The Crimson Pirates! Who eventually would all wear red. Lionel lent his musical talents as guitar player and singer to create a sound that would lead another faire's pirate band to refer to us as the "Jazz Musicians of the Pirate World." Fitting, as Lionel played in his middle and high school's jazz bands.
The band didn't always maintain their pirate alter egos, randomly inhabiting other characters but still managing to meet up to perform as the Crimson Pirates. Eventually, Crossbones McCoy became Lionel's signature character and a faire favorite that he would play for his final years at NYRF.
More of a lover than a fighter (until meeting his wife, Julie - if you're old enough you'll get the joke) Crossbones became a street fixture when not singing with the band, performing solo sets; including his Rated Arrrgh Show, creating adult entertainments, and closing the day hosting the Pub Sing.
Crossbones stepped away from NYRF, only performing with The Crimson Pirates at other faires. Eventually the rest of the crew sailed off from their "home faire" and brought their special brand of Sea Shanties and Songs of the Sea to Renaissance Faires across the country.
Around 2013 Lionel stepped away from faire life and the band to pursue other artistic endeavors but occasionally subbed in for a show or two. And then in 2023 a few of the OG Pirates put a small crew back together for a light schedule of local shows before deciding to retire in 2026.
30 years, 8 CDs, and many crew changes later the OG Crimson Pirates are passing the oar to the next generation who are still touring the country with high energy entertainment.
Too Old to Shanty but Too Young to Die?
Crossbones now finds himself MAROONED, without a band, and not ready to retire.
I could dust off the solo sets, learn some new songs, recreate some old ones. But why do more of the same? Lionel is going back to his improvisational roots. Crossbones McCoy was always an irreverent interactive character experience first, and a musician second.
Nothing made this clearer than when on his very first day doing solo work at the New Jersey Renaissance Faire, what could have been a simple guitar player busking on the street in the rain, became an hour and a two-hour set in front of the bathrooms making up stories and jokes about becoming "The Privy Pirate", who's job it is to entertain people on the bathroom line! One fan said, "It's the most entertained I've ever been on a bathroom line."
Click HERE to read more about Crossbones McCoy Music & Mayhem Shows.
