Even with Thursday’s storms, the PRCA rodeo had ‘full-throttle fun’ | News, Sports activities, Jobs

Photo by Samantha Davis
Shawn “Boom Boom” Thompson entertains the group at this 12 months’s Lyon County PRCA Rodeo Thursday evening. This is Thompson’s first time visiting Marshall, and is a full-time skilled rodeo clown.

MARSHALL — After a short delay and shelter order, extreme storms passing by means of Marshall didn’t halt the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Rodeo Thursday evening on the Lyon County Fair. The rodeo took to the sector following the rain, nonetheless filling the grandstand with keen followers.

The Lyon County Fair has hosted PRCA rodeos the final 25 years, that includes bareback driving, saddle broncs, tie-down roping, crew roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing and bull driving.

Of the handfuls {of professional} cowboys that took to the sector to compete was additionally skilled rodeo clown Shawn “Boom Boom” Thompson to entertain the group and fill the realm with laughs, in his first-ever go to to Marshall and the Lyon County Fair. 

“I’m excited to come see a new place and visit new people, and see the new traditions that rodeo brings,” Thompson mentioned. “(It’s an) exciting new place to go. I love the state of Minnesota. It’s one of my favorite states to rodeo in actually.” 

Thompson comes from Sidney, Iowa, within the southwest a part of the state, however travels in every single place throughout the nation to host rodeos. 

“I like to stay in the Midwest, but I’ll go everywhere and anywhere. I’ve been as far east as Maine, and I’ve been as far west as working into New Mexico and Nevada,” Thompson mentioned. “The only state I haven’t been in yet has been, believe it or not, California.” 

When prompted by the chance to go to Marshall and examine one other city off his listing, Thompson was intrigued rapidly with the thought of getting to fulfill a brand new neighborhood. 

“I am looking forward to seeing all the new people of Marshall,” Thompson mentioned, who famous he’s been across the state of Minnesota however by no means to Marshall. “It is really cool to come to someplace for the first time.” 

As an expert rodeo clown that will get to work alongside a number of the most-known within the enterprise, Thompson made it right into a full-time profession two years in the past. 

“I’ve been doing it for 35 years now, and (been) everywhere. I have been very fortunate to work some (really large crowds), and some really small crowds, and both have filled my bucket. I’ve had a great time,” Thompson mentioned. “Two years ago, I went full time. (I) taught high school and junior high industrial arts, woods classes, for 18 years, and then I also was a head football coach here in my hometown of Sidney there for a while. I gave it up two years ago to pursue this full time.” 

“I have had the time of my life. I’ve enjoyed it so much,” Thompson added. “I get to actually slow down, and see parts of the country I really just never have dreamed I’d get to see.” 

Thompson first received into the rodeo world in highschool and began in bull driving, and shortly after navigated to the comedic aspect of the business. 

“I was your typical class clown in high school,” Thompson mentioned. “I had a teacher, she asked her seniors what we wanted to do when we graduated. I told her that, jokingly about what’s (the funniest) thing I could say here as a teenager, I said, ‘Well, I’d like to be a rodeo clown.’”

That similar evening after college, Thompson mentioned he received a telephone name from his instructor’s sister that occurred to be a secretary for a rodeo firm and requested if he was all for attending a rodeo college in Wahoo, Nebraska. 

“It (rodeo school) was only like three days … I started fighting bulls there at that school. Then, there was a guy there that lived just up the road from me,” Thompson mentioned. “He was just starting his own rodeo company. He’s like, ‘Hey, will you come work at my (event) again every Wednesday?’ “And I’m like, ‘Sure.’” 

Thompson continued to combat bulls in rodeo for six years after that earlier than realizing his ardour was in a special a part of rodeo. 

“I liked a little bit more of the comedy things,” Thompson mentioned. “(I was) fighting bulls and doing comedy both for a while, and then rolled over finally into just doing the comedy side of things … I’m an old school, traditional rodeo clown that likes to do the skits and have fun, yet I like to keep it modernized.” 

There shall be one other likelihood to see the second evening of the PRCA Rodeo and Thompson once more tonight on the Lyon County Fair. 

“It’s the PRCA … It is the best athletes in rodeo today, versus the best stock in rodeo today,” Thompson mentioned. “A show that’s going to be full octane, and full-throttle fun … It’ll be fun, it’ll be thrilling with a little bit of comedy thrown in there. It’ll fill everybody’s bucket, and it’ll be a good show.” 

Today’s rodeo will start at 7 p.m. on the fairground’s area, with a child’s boot scramble to happen as effectively. 

“I just love the fact that I get to not only entertain someone who might be 96, but someone that’s 6 as well. It’s just getting to entertain a spectrum of people of different, different ages, to different nationalities,” Thompson mentioned. “Getting to do things like this (is) just unreal. Just to put a smile on somebody’s face and make them laugh, and forget their troubles for a couple hours a night.”