Wild West Show

Visited the in-laws, had dinner at their retirement community, Inverness Village, then went to what was billed as a Wild, Wild, West show put on in the founders room at said location. I've been a frequent visitor to Branson, Mo and many of the attractions in that mecca of entertainment, so I wasn't expecting too much, but was hoping for something mildly humorous with some nice music attached. I sat in the last row so I could make an easy exit if it turned out to be too stupid. I wasn't expecting much.

Aparantly this is a program put on by a local churches Sunday school class. The class consisted of people 65 years and older.

It started off OK with three gentlemen singing some little ditties and I was able to take in a couple songs I wasn't familiar with. Then what followed was a collection of lip sync acts with people dressed up as certain celebrities and doing one or two of their celebrity songs.

The first act I'll talk about later. The second performer ( I use that term loosely) was a gentleman who resided at Inverness who came out as Willie Nelson. Because he lived there he was recieved nicely and did a lip sync of "On the Road Again". He had the long gray braids hanging down from each side of his head but really didn't know the song and it couldn't have ended too soon for me. After that came the Oak Ridge Boys, again looking the part, but not knowing the words it just stayed flat. Next was Kenny Rogers doing The Gamber. He at least mostly knew the words and did the best job so far but it was still lacking. He did a second song with Dolly Parton who woke up all the men in the crowd (including myself) when she made her entrance. Dolly was played be a very attractive 60 something and the duet wasn't half bad.

Next was some live songs by Elvis who came out with a cane, made jokes about his age (not funny ones but they were jokes) and sang live. He looked pretty good, sang OK, but had none of the vintage mannerisms that make Elvis Impersonaters stand out. The show ended there. A little less than an hour, so I wasn't in total misery.

The first act was a man that they billed at The Tall Texan with his backup singers the Shorty Brothers who were dressed with jeans that went to the person's knees, shirts that went from the knees to the waist, and a tall hat that encompased the top part of the body so the performer could only see out of a cut out in the hat. The song Long Tall Texan brought back memories of high school when it was performed several times by some talented classmates. I remember Jeff Wirth doing the main vocals with Jim Smith on the piano and it seems there were at least others doing back up singing. I just remember it was a lot of fun to watch and was very entertaining at the time. Man those were good memories.