Cory Williamson: Meet Captain Calico Jack

COEUR d'ALENE - Cory Williamson may have the best summer job in North Idaho, perhaps all of the United States.

And what, you ask, is that?

He's a pirate.

The captain of a crew that terrorizes folks on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Well, makes them chuckle, anyway.

Meet Captain Calico Jack, swash-buckling leader of the crew on board Pirates of the Coeur d'Alene that leaves from Independence Point and sails twice a day on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

They'll take you for an hour and a half cruise for an adventure both kids and adults will enjoy, complete with characters - directed by Jillian Kramer - wearing eye patches, hooks for hands, skeletons on their hats and black boots on their feet.

Williamson, who is attending the University of Idaho where he is studying theater and education, has been involved in local theater for years. He's done some Shakespeare through high school and college, and just finished work on a film in Coeur d'Alene. He was also involved in the Laramie Project at North Idaho College.

These days, he's Captain Jack, no relation to Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean fame.

When you come on board, you're on his ship. And know this: The 2009 Lake City High School graduate wants to be sure not that you're forced to walk a plank, drink some rum or engage in a swordfight while swinging from a rope. He wants you to laugh.

It's all courtesy of Lake Coeur d'Alene Cruises.

"That's our major goal, just to make 'em laugh," Williamson said.

What's it like being Captain Jack?

I like playing this character because he's simple. He thinks highly of himself. He's somewhat stupid to an extent. He's oblivious to the things happening around him. He gets in a lot of situations with him and the crew. He's mellow, but he does get crazy.

Is there interaction with the crowd?

We encourage audience participation. They help us find the treasure. We have a character name list, and they give that character a name. That's always a fun part of the show, when the audience can name a character. We get a vast variety of different things happening, and include the crowd as much as possible.

How did you land this coveted role?

I've been doing theater for a while. There was an ad that said, 'Do you want to be a pirate?' I said, 'Yeah, I would love to do that.'

This year, I actually wrote the show and did the fight choreography for it.

What kind of preparation did you do for this?

We actually had 10 days to get this show down to where it needed to be to perform for an audience. Normally, a show has about five weeks of rehearsals.

Have you had anything crazy or funny happen during the shows?

Every single day. What happened today? We had a kid who just rolled up a map, used it as a sword and started attacking us.

We have to figure out how to deal with this because we have a kid attacking us. It's not like television. We have to improv from there, I mean, where do we go when a kid attacks us?

One time the piece that holds the treasure snapped, and it was hanging over the edge, and we almost lost our treasure into the lake.

I think it adds a lot to it, never knowing what will happen.

Kids and adults will like the cruise?

Adults will have a good time. As anything goes that's kid oriented, you have to have something that adults will like. You know, sometimes the adults are kids. They're laughing the whole time. I think it's my favorite part, when the crew is into it, and they're in that happy, child-like state.

Is your character based on Captain Jack Sparrow made famous by Johnny Depp?

No, not at all. It doesn't sound like him, he's not as bumbling. He stands his ground. People watching will know it's not a Jack Sparrow character. He needs to be fierce to be an authority figure.

How does this role rank up there for you career wise?

I'm getting paid! My first paid acting job was doing a pirate cruise. Gotta say yeah, it's a cool way to kind of snake in there to the paid theater world.

What do you like about your time on the ship and being Captain Jack?

It's a time for fun, laughs, to be happy, just be joyous and have a great time. I think we need a lot of that in this world right now.

How is this for a summer job?

There is no better summer job. I'm not putting anything else down. To be a pirate as a summer job, there's not many better things out there.