You can get a Basic Bullwhip Kit with a 5-foot bullwhip by Victor Tella. OR you can get the Basic Bullwhip Kit alone for $19.95 (save $11!).
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DANTE UNVEILS 'BULLWHIP STIMULUS PACKAGE'
In this time of economic uncertainty, whip cracker Robert Dante has announced a bullwhip stimulus package.
"I have made a deal with whip maker Victor Tella (snakewhip.com) to sell his 5-foot 8-plait kangaroo bullwhip for only $150.00," says Dante. "This is a great price from one of the better whip makers in the U.S. You can find out more by going to my home page at www.bullwhip.net." Each person who buys a Victor Tella whip through Dante will get a Basic Bullwhip Kit for free.
Dante's Basic Bullwhip Kit, which sells for $19.95,consists of safety glasses (or goggles, for smaller faces), 4 pairs of ear plugs, a leather whip holder for your belt, a cracker box with 3 crackers, and a signed copy of "Let's Get Cracking! The How-To Book of Bullwhip Skills." Whip crackers can save $11.00 off what they'd spend if they bought each item separately, but they can buy items individually.
Go to http://www.bullwhip.net and click on the link.
In the late 19th Century Wild West shows paved the way for modern variety entertainment and traveling circuses throughout the United States. With specialty acts, theatrical re-enactments and daring feats of skill, these shows traveled the world welcomed by heads of state and the grandest of theaters.
As America’s tastes moved towards radio, film and eventually television, the live Wild West arts entertainment of the past faded into history. Today modern practitioners keep the age-old skills alive while paying tribute to a true superstar of that era named Phoebe Ann Mosey, known better as trick shooter Annie Oakley.
Every summer western artists from all over the country gather in Oakley’s hometown of Greenville, Ohio for the Annie Oakley Western Arts Showcase; a convention for performers and hobbyists of the western arts. Now in its seventh season, the convention has become a national attraction. The event offers four days of workshops, practice sessions, public performances and competitions for whip artists, trick ropers, knife throwers, stage performers and gun spinners.
The founder and coordinator of the event is writer and entertainer Gery L. Deer, of Jamestown, Ohio, who is also a professional whip artist and instructor. “We started this event in 2002 as a small whip arts workshop on my family farm in Jamestown, Ohio,” Deer said. “A year later, the Annie Oakley Days festival committee offered to let us hold it on the grounds of the event that honors one of the Wild West arts’ most celebrated performers.”
The Annie Oakley Western Arts Showcase offers hobbyists and professionals alike the opportunity to meet and work with some of the best artists in the business. Each section of the event is coordinated by an expert in that particular skill.
Award-winning trick roping artist and steel guitarist Doug Smith, of Medway, Ohio, is the coordinator of the roping events at the convention. Smith holds several national lariat competitions at the national level and is also a seasoned performer.
Distance knife throwing champion Kirk Bass, of Xenia, Ohio is a certified thrown weapons specialist with the International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame, or IKTHOF. Bass manages the thrown weapons events and oversees each of the official IKTHOF competitions held during the convention. Kirk and his wife, Melodee, have a unique knife-throwing show called Bass Blades.
The Society of American Whip Artistry (SAWA) provides guidelines for the whip competitions, expanding them each year. Various participating whip artists serve as judges for the competitions and virtually all do some instruction.
Of course, the main focus of the event has always been to promote and perpetuate the Wild West arts. “Most of the people involved in the showcase share a similar desire to pass on what others have taught us,” said Deer. “Some of us work in TV and movies, others on stage and some are just people who just learn these skills for their art, sport or exercise value.”
Convention goers also pay tribute to their favorite western heroes of history and fiction. Many go to great lengths to insure period-accurate costuming while others dress as their favorite Western movie characters. With the release of the new Indiana Jones film, many attendees of the 2008 convention dressed as their favorite whip-wielding archeologist. The character is noted as an off-shoot of the old western serials of the 1930’s and 40’s and, not surprisingly, quite popular among whip artists.
Highlighting the weekend will be three special events beginning Thursday evening with a caravan to the grave site of Annie Oakley just outside Greenville. At 7 p.m. on Friday a free public performance will be held at the Garst Museum and Annie Oakley Center. The Saturday night awards show will feature a banquet dinner, entertainment and awards ceremonies. Contest prizes will be presented along with lifetime achievement and other awards honoring Wild West artists and their supporters.
The 2009 Annie Oakley Western Arts Showcase is set for July 23 through July 26 at the Darke County Fairgrounds. Pre-registration opened February 1 and runs through July 20. Tickets are available online at http://www.ohiowesternarts.org or by mail. Full participation tickets are $75 per person, and a family ticket is available for 4 people at $250. The event is open to the public and no group affiliations are required to attend.
For those who wish to support the event, sponsorship packages are available as well starting at $100. For more information visit the event website noted earlier or contact GLD Enterprises & Productions at (937) 902-4857.
"It was a lot of fun and the crew was one of the best we'd ever worked with up to now," said Gery Deer.
The Ohio-based bullwhip artist has been seen on national TV before, having made a good showing a few seasons ago on "America's Got Talent."
Deer's segment from the Bonnie Hunt Show is now online at
You can see more Gery Deer and Scout at
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