Bob McCarty Writes

In case you’re wondering about the small number of posts on this blog in recent days, I have an explanation: I took the family — minus the recent high school graduate — on a 48-hour “stay-cation” dash to Branson.

It had been four years since our last trip to the Ozark Mountains city where the city limits sign boasts a population of 6,050. This time, instead of spending most of our time riding roller coasters at Silver Dollar City, we opted to spend most of our time attending four shows, each of which lasted at least 2 hours. Below, I offer ratings of those shows.

After arriving early Tuesday afternoon, we ate lunch and rode some go-carts before heading to our first show, The Shoji Tabuchi Show, which began at 3 p.m. at The Shoji Tabuchi Theatre.

The star of the show, Shoji Tabuchi (above right), was a fiddle-playing native of Japan who explained to the audience that he came to the United States with a dream of playing country music after seeing legendary country music star Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys perform in Osaka in the mid-’60s. A consummate entertainer and extraordinary fiddle player, Tabuchi’s show is a must-see for anyone open to being entertained. [Rating: 8 out of 10]

Our next show, Acrobats of China Presents the New Shanghai Circus, began at 8 o’clock and, except for the 10-minute Chinese government-provided propaganda video that preceded the show, was thoroughly entertaining. Offering samples of every sort of human activity involving agility, balance, beauty, grace, speed and strength, the performance was inspiring. [Rating: 7 out of 10]

We began Thursday morning with breakfast and a swim before heading to the Amazing Pets show — my pet-loving wife’s idea — at 10 a.m. While the show appealed to the under-10 set, it lacked the entertainment value and professionalism evident in the shows we had watched Tuesday. We did, however, enjoy a number of laughs during the show; unfortunately, they came at the expense of the show and for all the wrong reasons. [Rating: 3 out of 10]

The fourth and final show we saw was also the best.

Yakov Smirnov, a Russian-born comedian who came to the United States with his parents 30 years ago, touched nerves on love, laughter, patriotism and respect during his show which lasted almost two and one-half hours. The theater was the largest and most spectacular of the four we visited. More importantly, the entertainer was able to teach his audience some important lessons while making them laugh. If you see only one show during your trip to Branson, Yakov Smirnov’s show is the one to see! [Rating: 9.5 out of 10]

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