Sac County Fair, Iowa

The Big Attraction, Sac City, Iowa.

Iowa has an abundance of fields! Agriculture is massive in this heartland state!

And so I found myself headed for the Sac County Fair to entertain a whole bunch of farmers and a few cowboys to boot!

These are real cowboys, the first evening there is a rodeo at the fair, they come complete with boots, belt buckles, jeans and wide brim hats. Their children wander the fairgrounds in gangs armed with lariats ready to lasso any passing and unsuspecting stranger!

The organizers are very lovely and are very pleased to see me, when I show up the evening before I am due to start. Matt offers me as much free ice cream as I want, which is a nice touch, and then tells me I can choose my own show times and shows me the very cute little stage. See below. I get to park right next to it, that's awesome!

Amanda, who I very quickly figure out is the real brains of the fair, comes over to greet me with a brown envelope. She tells me the fair have booked an AirBnB for myself and the chainsaw carver, it's a converted church, I have the entire downstairs whilst Jim (the chainsaw man) and his wife have the upstairs and we all share the kitchen. Amanda assures me that the chainsaw couple are very lovely. After a few more pleasantries, we agree to meet tomorrow morning to discuss the showtimes, I depart for the church.

Sac City with its population of 2063, is not the biggest city. It does have a stop light at the downtown crossing, which apparently is a pretty big thing in this part of Iowa. There is one grocery store, two gas stations and one motel, but apart from that and the world's largest popcorn ball (see above), not much. I'm here for 5 nights.

The church turns out to be really very nice indeed.

And fortunately so do Chainsaw Jim and his wife Grace. We all head off to the shop to see what we can find for breakfast tomorrow morning. I went for a little walk round the town, it didn't take me long.

This is a four-day fair, and Wednesday being the first day will probably not be too busy. Grace made us all a nice breakfast of eggs, which was very kind of her. As we have not arranged a schedule, I go in early (early for me) 10.30 am. I'm really not surprised to find very few people at the fair, at this time of the day it is only 4H kids, who are showing animals and the occasional parent at this hour. I meet with Amanda, and we agree a schedule of 2.30 pm for a strolling set, followed by a show at 4.30 pm and another at 6.30 pm. That is normally prime-time for acts like me! Did I mention that it was stinking hot that Wednesday, because it was! I return to the church for a bit of cooling, it's a two-minute drive or a five-minute walk. Returning at 1.30 pm, I am surprised to find the fairgrounds still empty, but it is Wednesday, so maybe people will just show up a bit later. By 2.30 pm nothing has changed, as this is a strolling set I don't need a crowd to start, I walk the entire fairgrounds, and it would be no exaggeration to say that I had met everyone in the first ten minutes. Wow! I hope it gets a bit busier. 4.30 rolls on in, sadly the patrons do not, I do a show for about 15 people (mostly 4H children) they seem to like it and I finish off on my unicycle to enthusiastic clapping. People do eventually start to show up at around 6 pm (the rodeo starts at 7 pm) so I am lucky, and I have a fairly decent crowd for my 6.30 performance. It's very hot, so I am pleased to get back to the church, I hope Thursday will be better. It wasn't! Nor was Friday. I messaged some friends who had previously performed at Sac County, they told me the same thing, "No one shows up till an hour before the bands or Rodeo start"! Thank goodness it wasn't just me.

Saturday is a different story, the fairgrounds are busy from 10.30 am till 12.30 (when everybody goes home for lunch and then busy again from about 5 pm (just when my show was finishing). My last set is just fine. Amanda is all smiles and gives me a cheque. I drive slowly back to the church to the sounds of the Country Music Band playing in the Fair and start packing up. I say goodnight and a goodbye with the Grace and James, and then I sleep soundly in the crypt!

The following morning, I leave to visit colleagues working the Warren County Fair, Iowa. Which was interesting as it was a relatively small fair with an abundance of free entertainment, at least 10 acts which I am sure is more than the Big E in Massachusetts and that is 20 times larger or more! It was also nice to see both Greg Frisbee (of Rubber Chicken Fame) and Kenny Ahern (who I will be working with in a couple of days at the Wisconsin State Fair).