LUMBERJACK GETS ROLLING AT FAIR WITH SKILLS, HOMESPUN HUMOR

When the audience and logs in the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show get rolling at a healthy clip, Lee LeCaptain is in his element.

LeCaptain, the show's owner, captivated a crowd at the SEMO District Fair this week by letting his homespun humor fly as freely as wood chips and sawdust.

"Most people can relate to our material even if they have never seen the kind of work lumberjacks do because it's pure entertainment," LaCapain said.

LeCaptain grew up in St. Cloud, Minn., working with his lumberjack father.

LaCaptain, of Orlando, Fla., also learned a thing or two about show business at his family's dance and production studio. "I guess it's been in my blood for a long time," he said.

Although it seems odd for someone who grew up so far north to end up so far south, he is in Florida because of business.

"I can do more shows in theme parks like Disney World and Six Flags when the weather is good almost year-round," he said. And, Florida grows most of the timber it uses for construction, which fits in well with the lumberjack theme.

This is the first year LeCaptain has brought his show to the SEMO District Fair.

LeCaptain does about 35 shows at major fairs throughout the world, including the one at Renfro, Ontario, which drew 250,000 people in four days.

"I decided to come to this one because I knew it was big enough and run well for what we like to do," he said.

The show features LeCaptain as emcee and includes three lumberjacks who blend humor with athleticism into various demonstrations of log rolling, wood chopping, axe-throwing and pole climbing.

The Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show will take place tonight and Friday night at 7:30 and 8:30. Saturday shows will be at 1, 3 and 5 p.m.

Guinevere, a 5-year-old dog, is also part of the log-rolling demonstration.

Wednesday night Guinevere was too hot and wanted to play in the water, LaCaptain said, adding that before she got hit by a car and had both front legs broken, "almost no one could knock her off that log." Guinevere's father, King Arthur, was the champion. "Nobody could take him off," LaCaptain said. "But he's 15 years old now and can't do shows anymore."

LeCaptain, who has won seven log-rolling titles, began his Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show by performing log-rolling demonstrations. He doesn't do them in the show now because he has to hold a microphone.

Randy Peters, a performer in the show from Hayward, Wis., has been doing lumberjack shows for more than 15 years and was hired for this fair because the timing was right.

Today's fair schedule includes the Brangus beef cattle judging at 9 a.m. draft ponies judging at 9:30 a.m., judging for Angus beef cattle, draft horses and mules at 1 p.m. From 5 to 7 p.m. The Country Sounds will perform in the R&R tent. From 3 to 6 p.m. there will be a SEMO Fair Roundup. A contest in the livestock area will feature questions about livestock and agricultural products. The contest is for "young cowpokes." Free registration will be at the information tent.

Janie Fricke will perform at 7:30 p.m. at the grandstand.