Story-telling, an oral tradition, has produced over the centuries a wide variety of rich and often symbolic folktales.
Most tales originated in India, in distant times, and spread to the rest of the world where they were adapted to fit the individual and social realities

Thus, though the narrative remains the same, a given story can be found in a multitude of versions.
Over the centuries, folktales have carried messages of simple human wisdom, and over the centuries, from one generation of story-tellers to the next, the tales have been enriched.

The folklorists Antti Aarne ( Finnland ) and Stith Thompson ( USA ) undertook the immense task of classifying and cataloging folktales by their narrative scheme. To each type they attributed a type-number, and noted each country in which the story is told. See : The Types of the Folktale ( Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 ).

The original characters in our southern North America version are: the blacksmith, his wife, Saint Peter, the devil and the devil's two sons. In our show, Saint Peter has become Pete the Sheriff. Thus, with his badge and magic powers ( ability to grant wishes ), Pete maintains his status of representitive
of « good » in opposition ( like St. Peter ) with the devil: representitive of « evil ».

The show begins with a 3 minute history of North America told by Pete. He's a « time immemorial » character like St. Peter, and thus, knows America from the beginning of its existance. His tale is of a beautiful land, throughout which peace, harmony and joy reign, that is transformed into a country where discord abounds, nature is not respected, and freedom is not enjoyed by all. This brief historical outline of the US retraces the successive arrival of red, white and black people ; it retraces the essential history of humanity.
Pete, with his magic abilities, has the power to return America to its initial state thanks to the 3 wishes that he can grant. Unfortunately, our good sheriff has never been able to find anyone willing to consecrate their 3 wishes to ask for general peace, harmony and joy. Which only goes to show that « celestial powers » are useless without human willingness...
This beginning is linked to the tale by the 3 wishes which serve as the thread or main theme of the show.

The day that our story begins, Pete visits Joe the blacksmith, and thus we enter into the type # 330 : The Devil and the Blacksmith. Pete offers Joe 3 wishes, hoping that he'll choose peace, harmony and joy. However, Joe chooses : 1. If someone hammers on the forge, they can't stop so long as he plays his fiddle. 2. If someone gets on the forge, they must dance so long as he plays his fiddle. 3. If someone pulls on the forge blower, they can't stop so long as he plays his fiddle.

Joe avoids work as much as possible in order to play the fiddle as much as possible. With his wife, Mabel, this is made clear as she tries to do chores that, thanks to Joe, never get done : only music is accomplished. Having dissapointed Pete ( representitive of « good »), Joe is now sollicited by Lucifer, boss of Lucifer & Son Enterprises (« bad » guy ).
The devil and his sons try in vain to bring Joe back with them. Thanks to Pete's wishes, Joe's able to outsmart the devils. He even manages to make music with them. Indirectly, Joe has chosen : peace, harmony and joy!
In the end, Joe leaves with Pete to enjoy a long, musical eternity.