ONTARIO — Crowds of families greeted a new show this week at the Richland County Fair that begins with guns ablazin’.
“Hang onto your hats as you’re taken into a dangerously entertaining journey into the Wild West,” a voiceover promises at the beginning of the show.
Andy Rotz plays “Cowboy Andy” in the traveling Wild West show with his assistant Lindsay Leigh, played by different performers.
Lexi Kriner, a Hagerstown, Maryland-native, is the current Lindsay Leigh. Rotz also grew up in Hagerstown, where his parents own Antietam Entertainment.
Rotz and Kriner made their Richland County debut at the fair this week in a show complete with fire, rope tricks, knife-throwing, gun-spinning and a dog performance.
“Blaze does the balloon trick and Bandit comes over and jumps through fire,” Rotz said. “They steal the show in 30 seconds.”
Bandit is a 6-year-old border collie who is advertised as the “thief of hearts” on the show’s truck. The team also welcomed 1-year-old goldendoodle Nova to the show, who is still learning tricks.
Blaze, a Belgian Malinois, pops balloons in a “showdown” game with audience participation. Rotz asks volunteers to run on stick horses with balloons tied to the end.
“Blaze comes out and pops them and whoever is the last standing wins bragging rights,” Rotz said. “But then we lasso them all in our ‘circle of winners’ afterward.”
Kriner said her favorite part of this week’s fair performances is seeing kids who come back to watch the 20-minute show multiple times.
“There’s been one kid who we’ve seen at least once every day this week, which is so sweet,” she said. “Seeing his enthusiasm stay the same is probably my favorite thing.”
The pair have performed at rodeos together for about five years and added fairs to their lineup about two years ago. Rotz said they have 16 fairs on their schedule for the year.
“We’re really enjoying the Richland County Fair so far because there’s a lot of different entertainers that we’ve never worked with before,” he said. “I’m enjoying the other shows on our time off.”
Rotz is the Guiness World Record holder for most consecutive Texas skips, a record he claimed in 2003 in a stint of more than three hours jumping back and forth through a lasso.
Rotz said the show’s most heart-racing stunt is “the wheel of death” in which his assistant is attached to a wheel while he throws knives toward her.
“It goes up to 80 revolutions per minute and if there’s wind or rain, that makes it more dangerous,” he said. “I don’t know how she does it.”
Rotz said there’s a good chance his show will return to the Richland County Fair, but likely not next year.
“We try not to go to the same place two years in a row so we can switch it up and people aren’t seeing the same show,” he said.
“Cowboy Andy and Lindsay Leigh” will continue performances at the fairgrounds at 3:30, 6:30 and 9 p.m. through Saturday.
