Country cutups

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Ray Sauer is walking around the performing arts hall at the Perry Park Center dressed to kill. He's wearing gaudy overalls decorated with yellow cartoon chicken heads. A straw hat with an upturned brim, like the kind in illustrations of Huckleberry Finn, sits atop his head as he goes around talking to about a dozen country cutups backstage.

On the stage, a complete country band twangs away against a backdrop of rolling green fields, plenty of corn and weathered wooden fences. The electric guitar, fiddle and steel guitar take turns on lead as Bonnie Clements yodels and sings "I want to be a cowboy's sweetheart." Off to one side of the stage, a bipedal pink pig dances a jig in time to the music.

"When we do this, we just become nuts," said Sauer, who directs the show with his wife Evelyn. "It gets crazier every year. It went over so good all these years."

"Hee Haw Apple Creek Style" started 25 years ago as a way to raise money after the school at Apple Creek burned. The Sauers and their friends decided to do a talent show to bring in some cash for the effort, and the rest is hoe-down history.

"I worked up a 20-minute 'Hee Haw' skit and we had the crowd roaring all the way through," said Sauer.

The school was rebuilt, only to be closed, but the show went on. Now the money raised goes to help pay for children in the Apple Creek area to attend parochial schools.

One of them is Dotty Meyer, who plays the part of Lulu Roman from the "Hee Haw" TV show. The diminutive Unterreiner looks nothing like the 300-pound Roman, who was famed for her voice.

"I've lost a lot of weight since I started playing Lulu," said Unterreiner. "But I keep playing her anyway.

"It's a barrel of fun. Lulu is just a part of me."

Another is Lawrence Buchheit. He plays the professor, a character that explains the meaning of words in the country vernacular.

"I just describe words that have a second meaning to them. This year the word is 'pecan.' What's the difference between a pecan and a pee-can? A pecan is something you eat, a pee-can is something you take with you when you go on a trip for emergencies."

Many of the regulars have even brought their family members in on the act. Sometimes there have been grandchildren on stage with their grandparents, making the show a true family affair.

The yodeler Clements (who said her husband once joked her yodeling "sounded like a sick cow"), who along with her sister also plays a dumb blonde, shares the stage with her daughter Brittany, a high school senior at Perryville. Brittany also sings.

"We practice in the basement together," said Brittany. "I grew up around it. I watched all these shows when I was little, like Ma and Pa Kettle. When I was little I just couldn't wait to be a part of it."

One of the keys to the show is its family appeal, say cast members.

"It's wholesome," said Judi Wibbenmeyer, a transplant from New York who's been performing in the show for 14 years. "You can take the whole family. Kids enjoy it, even the teenagers come out to watch."

The Sauers say they don't know how long "Hee Haw" will continue. "Every year it seems a little harder," said Ray.

Buchheit jokes that he'll take over in 2055. But as long as the show goes on, the Sauers and the rest of the cast will continue their mission.

"I like to see people laugh," said Ray. "You live longer when you laugh."

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

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Want to go?

* What: "Hee Haw Apple Creek Style"

* Where: Perry Park Center, Perryville

* When:

- Saturday, April 9, 7 p.m.

- Sunday, April 10, 2 p.m.

- Saturday, April 16, 7 p.m.

- Sunday, April 17, 2 p.m.

* Info: (573) 547-7275