APPLE CREEK TO HOLD 17TH ANNUAL HEE HAW SHOW BEGINNING TONIGHT

APPLE CREEK -- It isn't unusual for a stranger to come up to Shirley Buchheit and tell her she recognizes her from the Apple Creek Hee Haw. Then the stranger might say, "I heard this cute little joke. You can use it on your Hee Haw."

Buchheit, who plays Cousin Minnie, writes it down and saves it for the next year's production.

About a month ago Buchheit and the other members of the cast got together with all the ideas for jokes and skits that they collected over the last year to start putting together this year's show.

You can see the results of their efforts over the next two weekends. Members and friends of St. Joseph's Catholic Parish in Apple Creek will put on their 17th annual Hee Haw show at Apple Creek Hall at 7:30 tonight and March 22, at 6:30 p.m. Sunday and March 23, and at 1 p.m. March 23.

It is based on the "Hee Haw" television show.

"We have our own Lulu and Dolly, Margaret and Elrod, Idele and Lavern," said Ray Sauer, who has directed the show since it started.

"I try to get people to take it over, and I can't," said Sauer, who is 68 and wanting to take it easy.

It started after the Catholic elementary school in Apple Creek burned in December 1979. Some members of the church choir decided to put on a talent show to raise money to rebuild it.

Sauer said he had never been on stage before, "but when they came up with the talent show, I said, `Well shoot,' I thought we could work on some Hee Haw skits."

The 20 minutes worth of Hee Haw was so popular the church decided to bring it back the next year as a full-blown show. The show includes musical interludes while the cast changes sets.

It has grown enough that it nearly filled Apple Creek Hall five times last year. This year a group from Columbia, Ill., has rented a bus to come down for the show, Buchheit said.

Sauer said they try to have completely new material every year.

Buchheit said they will often take jokes they've heard and make them country. For this year's show they transformed a joke about a tourist at a resort to one about a country boy at a dude ranch.

For years the Little Rock Band has provided musical interludes for the show, but a previous engagement kept the band away. This year's band is the Triple Play.

But one musician who played at previous shows, fiddle and banjo player Kevin Englert, decided he would come anyway, said Lawrence Buchheit, Shirley Buchheit's husband, who plays the old professor.

"He's not a Catholic, and he's just tickled pink," Lawrence Buchheit said. "Everybody pulls together and it's great. He wants to be at our Hee Haw so much.

Lawrence and Shirley Buchheit and Sauer all say the Hee Haw cast is like a second family to them. But not just the cast has fun.

"If you show up," Lawrence Buchheit said, "and if you don't have a belly full of laughs, well then, we'll give you your money back."

The shows cost $5 for adults, $1.50 for children 3-12, and those younger than 3 get in free.