Monthly Archives: November 2009
Smirnoff and SIX…
Sounds like a new drink, doesn’t it.
Today was a twofer. We saw Yakov Smirnoff at a 3pm matinee, and then SIX, a singing group at 8pm.
But first we stopped off for lunch at Sadie’s Sideboard, a well-regarded buffet restaurant on the Branson Strip, and not too far from Yakov’s theater. The fried chicken was really good!
Yakov’s show was great! And as I expected, very pro-American.
What I didn’t expect though, was how decidedly conservative some of his comments were. Having been born and lived in Russia until he was 26, he says “ I know socialism when I see it, and I don’t like what I see”.
He also had a team of Russian folk dancers that were really good.
And the “Santa Claus and the Pirates” was cute , but corny. As Yakov said during the scene, “Maybe we should have hired real writers”.
And his President of the United States skit was pretty good, too. He took real questions from the audience and answered them both seriously, and hilariously.
And everyone seem to enjoy his Secret Service detail.
And of course, the obligatory dancing toys Christmas skit.
It was a great show, and as good as we had heard. It was easy to see why Yakov has been filling an 1800 seat theater almost daily for the last 17 years.
What I didn’t know is that he is a well-recognized artist. His large mural painting “America’s Heart” has hung at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11.
And this one is called ‘God and Country”
Leaving the show we decided to eat dinner at El Portal again, since we liked it so much last night.
A little before 7 pm we drove over to the Hughes Bros. Theater to see SIX. We had never heard of them before, but we saw their billboards coming into Branson, and the ticket guy said it was one of the most popular. We only got tickets because of a cancellation.
SIX is a group of six brothers who have been performing since the late 70’s. They are six oldest of ten boys and no girls. As they said, their parents really wanted a girl!!
The really neat thing is that they perform everything a cappella, but not without instruments. They make the instrument sounds, too.
They do drums, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, etc., and they are dead on. It’s really amazing.
And their harmony is fantastic. Check out their version of the Star Spangled Banner on YouTube. And this one too is done a cappella.
And they do dead-on voice impersonations of Elvis, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, etc.
They also did a great “Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons”.
And they tribute to their mother who died of cancer in 1992 brought tears to everyone’s eyes.
If you’re in Branson, this is a show to see.
By time we got home it was almost 11 pm.
Tomorrow we’re going to take a road trip about 90 miles up the road to Colaws RV Salvage in Carthage, MO.
More later…
Spiders and Snakes…that’s not what it takes…
Today we headed out about 11am to try and get tickets for the shows we wanted to see while we’re in Branson. Yesterday while we were eating at Famous Dave’s BBQ at Branson Landing, we saw a store that sold discount tickets, so we decided to start there.
We knew we wanted to see Jim Stafford, and probably wanted to see Yakov Smirnoff. After that we weren’t sure.
We ended up with tickets Jim Stafford’s 3pm show today, Yakov Smirnoff ’s 3pm tomorrow, and the 8pm show tomorrow for a group called SIX. We were lucky to get the SIX so quickly, because this show stays sold out.
After getting our tickets, we walked down the boulevard looking for a place to eat lunch. Branson Landing is a new shopping area that has over a 100 shops, 10 restaurants, and 2 hotels, and includes a water, light, and fire show on the river.
We just wanted a light lunch so we found a wine shop that also served soups and sandwiches. Jan and I split a turkey panini, and each had a bowl of soup.
After lunch we walked around the Landing for a while and then headed out to drive around. I wanted to be sure I knew where the theaters were located.
We took MO-76 also know as “The Strip” where most of shows are located. The guy that sold us our tickets said while we were at the Jim Stafford Theater, we should pick up our tickets for the SIX show tomorrow night. He said the box office would get very crowded if we waited till the last minute.
The Jim Stafford Show was great! We’ve liked his music for a long time, and it was our first time to see him in person.
The show stars Jim,
his band,
a couple of Russian ballet dancers/ Russian folk dancers,
his 12 year old daughter, GG (Georgia Garland) who plays piano,
his 16 year old son who plays piano and fiddle,
And his wife Ann, who also performs.
GG also plays the harp and dances.
Her mother, Ann, also plays the glockenspiel.
The first half of the show was Jim’s songs, jokes, and stories, and the second half was a Christmas show. He also did a number of instrumentals on the guitar and the harmonica. Many people don’t realize that Jim Stafford is considered one of the finest guitar pickers in the world, and his performance showed it.
I also liked the fact, that as you can tell from the pictures above, there is no problem with taking photos during the show.
After the 2 hour show we stopped for supper at El Portal, a Mexican restaurant we had heard about and it turned out to be really good.
We got home about 6 and got settled in. We’re really looking forward to our two shows tomorrow.
More then…
