“Paul Bunyan Lumberjacks”
I must admit–when I was a kid, I always thought it would be fun to work at a fair.
Going to the Allentown Fair and other local carnivals always seemed like a fun place to hang out, and I thought it would be neat to travel around the country to new locations for a week, meet new people, host games or do some shows for several days, and then move on and do it again in another new area.
When I was first asked several years ago to do our live “RCN SportsTalk” show from the Farmerama Stage, I didn’t know how a live, local call-in show would work at this venue, especially since the Fair occurs at the absolute WORST time of year to do a show with sports celebrities—both local and national. While it’s certainly no bed of roses to plan and prepare for our three shows from the Fair, preparation actually starts in late winter. I think after a few years of putting it together (and being blessed with some wonderful guests), I begin to look forward to these programs. Aside from working hard trying to coordinate and ensure that we have the best possible shows, I’ve actually learned to have some fun myself.
In recent years, we’ve had former NFL players Chuck Bednarik, Artie Owens & Bo Orlando on our show, race car drivers and experts from Grandview Speedway racing, and awesome performances by local cheering squads to name just a few. However, I never had an experience like we had in 2012, when I had the honor of hosting our show featuring Lee LeCaptain and the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show. It was completely unrehearsed (HONESTLY!). I really didn’t know what to expect and had great anxiety—especially when I went to do an on-the-spot interview, on live television, with a man I knew was going to make me throw an ax in front of a large crowd.
I was happy with the result (the clip is below) and the RCN-TV crew (which is not an easy group to impress), actually was shocked that I hit the target while not striking any innocent bystanders in the throwing process (which is what I thought would happen).
We are honored to have Lee and his crew back for an expanded role on this year’s “SportsTalk” show at the Allentown Fair, featuring a new live demonstration along with an interview with Lee. Lee truly impresses me with his conversations and vast experience from performing all around the world, in addition to his team. We’re also pleased to have Randy Kane, Mike Feltenberger and race car drivers (and their cars!) back with us again, plus more cheerleading groups and other special shows at the Farmerama for our “SportsTalk” shows on August 27th, 28th and 29th starting at 6pm.
We hope to see you out at the fair! Please post comments below on what you would like to see Joe Craig perform for this year’s demonstrations (you’ll notice on the clip, that he claimed a ‘hip injury’ to stay on stage and steer clear of my throwing lane, which we’ll not accept for this year’s events).
