HERD THE ONE ABOUT . . .? : Storytellers Rustle Up Interest in Summer Reading Project With Tall Tales and Songs

It was an ornery crowd that Thomas Hurner and Ken Frawley faced down that steamy afternoon in Villa Park.

Jammed inside the library community room were wet-headed kids with expressions that read “my mom just pulled me out of the pool for this,” and young mothers more absorbed with reining in their offspring than listening to a pair of cowpokes yak about the Old West.

But, with more than 25 years in the family entertainment/education biz between them, storytellers Hurner and Frawley knew how to handle this bunch. They cut straight to the cow poop.

Right on the heels of their audience-participation cattle drive, the pair galloped headlong into a humorous discussion of “prairie coal”--dried cattle droppings that cowboys used as campfire fuel on the trail. Within seconds, the same kids who had been muttering puny “moos” and “yee-haws” were gleefully tossing invisible poop into a roaring “fire” as their guides recoiled in mock dismay (Frawley: “Oh, no! Not the wet ones!”).

Frawley, 42, and Hurner, 57, have been taking their show, “The American Cowboy,” into public libraries since late June and will continue through Aug. 18. Funded by Wells Fargo Bank and library support groups, the shows are designed to boost the Orange County Public Library System’s summer reading program, “Reading Rodeo,” by promoting children’s interest in books about the Old West. If funding can be found, the pair hope to tour local schools with cowboy-themed programs in the fall.

“The American Cowboy” will be presented today at 11 a.m. on the Centennial Stage at the Orange County Fair. That show, which is free with fair admission, will include an appearance by a professional trick roper who goes by the name of Kowboy Kal. (By the way, if you’re in the cowboyin’ mood, you may want to plan a return trip to the fair on Friday, when 125 riders will drive a herd of 250 Brahma crossbreeds down Fairview Road into the fairgrounds arena (see story on page 9).)

With their rumpled blue jeans, Western-style shirts and battered cowboy hats, not to mention Hurner’s weathered face and chest-length gray beard, the pair certainly looked like cowboys at last week’s Villa Park show. Neither one is, although years ago Hurner did put in a stint as a rodeo concession-stand worker. And his current day job does bring him mighty close to livestock. Knott’s Berry Farm visitors will recognize him as the theme park’s Old Prospector, who wanders the Ghost Town area with his donkey, Clementine (first and middle names: Ohmy Darlin’), spinning tall tales for park guests.

Hurner figures he’s learned some 500 “windies” or tall tales and 150 stories and historical facts about the Old West since taking that job in 1990. (Example: “You know where they got the word ‘cowpoke’? It was the guy who stood on the side of the rail car when the stock was being loaded and poked the cattle with sharp sticks.”)

Like Frawley, he says he’s a “real library hound” who takes every chance he gets to promote reading.

“When I get attitudes from kids about reading, I tell ‘em, ‘Write down everything you watch on TV for a month, and then write down all the books you read. Then, go back to those lists a few months later and see which stuff you remember best. The things you learn in books will always come back to you.’ ”

It was Hurner and Frawley’s mutual love of stories that brought them together two years ago through the South County-based South Coast Storytellers Guild. Hurner has created storytelling shows for children and adults and helped develop scripts and characters for some of Knott’s Passport to Education school shows. Frawley, an entrepreneur with a string of small businesses that includes a children’s video production company, has performed as a musician and storyteller for more than 20 years. The past several years he has focused on family audiences, especially with his children’s pop band, K.C. and Company.

In “American Cowboy,” the pair re-create a day in the life of a working cowboy, circa 1860 through 1890, when the invention of barbed wire made cross-country cattle drives impossible. Using minimal props, they cover topics from the origin and meaning of cattle brands to the path of the Chisholm Trail to the way cowboys told time by the stars, all punctuated by a doozy or three from Hurner. The team varies the show a little at each location and may throw in historical information about real cowboy heroes such as black American rodeo star Bill Pickett. In Villa Park, Frawley’s wife, Georgia, chimed in with a true tale of a prairie woman interrupted in her soap-making by hungry Indians.

Frawley is the act’s singing cowboy. Packing a 12-string guitar and a bouncy if not particularly polished singing voice, he leads the audience in period tunes such as “The Old Chisholm Trail,” “Home on the Range” and even a lullaby for the herd titled “Slow Up, Little Dogies.”

“Folk music is really wrapped around the culture of the times,” Frawley explained. “It helps make the stories come alive, because it shows what the people were like, what they sang about. It helps you feel the time.”

What

“The American Cowboy.”

When

Today, July 14, at 11 a.m. on the Centennial Stage at the Orange County Fair. (See page 9 for a list of other performances this summer.)

Where

Orange County Fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

Whereabouts

From the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, exit at Fair Drive and go west. From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Fairview Road and drive south, turn left onto Fair Drive.

Wherewithal

Performances are free with fair admission: $5 for adults Monday through Friday, $6 on Saturday and Sunday. Admission for seniors 65 and over is $3; $2 for children ages 6 to 12 (free on Thursdays); free for ages 5 and under.

Where to call

(714) 708-3247.

MORE KID STUFF

IN MISSION VIEJO: ‘JACK AND THE BEANSTOCK’

Jack networks with a fairy godfather and earns fame and fortune in a comic adaptation of the children’s tale Friday, July 15, through Aug. 7 at Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway. The open-air staging of the one-hour show features actors from local high schools. $6. (714) 582-4656.

IN COSTA MESA: SPACE CAMP

Seven- to 12-year-olds will “tour” the galaxy in a four-day session beginning Monday, July 18, at Launch Pad science center in Crystal Court. Highlights include use of the center’s new portable planetarium, building a model biosphere and sending a laser message to Mars. $120. (714) 546-2061.

IN ORANGE: ‘PETER PAN’

Peter, Tinker Bell and the gang will have crowds clapping at The City shopping center every Friday through Sunday, July 15, through July 31, in a staging by the Broadway on Tour children’s theater. Directed by BOT founder Daniel Halkyard. $6 to $8. (714) 385-1555.

* CHILDREN’S LISTINGS, Page 22

Schedule for “The American Cowboy”

Today, July 14:

* 11 a.m. at the Orange County Fair, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. (714) 708-3247.

Wednesday, July 20:

* 1 p.m. at Mesa Verde Branch Library, 2969 Mesa Verde Drive East, Costa Mesa. (714) 546-5274.

* 3:30 p.m. at Costa Mesa Branch Library, 1855 Park Ave., Costa Mesa. (714) 646-8845.

July 21:

* 2 p.m. at Garden Grove-Chapman Branch Library, 9182 Chapman Ave., Garden Grove. (714) 539-2115.

July 27:

* 2 p.m. at Los Alamitos-Rossmoor Branch Library, 12700 Montecito Road, Seal Beach. (310) 430-1048.

July 29:

* 10 a.m. at Crown Valley Branch Library, 30341 Crown Valley Parkway, Laguna Niguel. (714) 249-5252.

Aug. 3:

* 3 p.m. at Dana Niguel Branch Library, 33841 Niguel Road, Dana Point. (714) 496-5517.

Aug. 4:

* 11 a.m. at Tustin Branch Library, 345 E. Main St., Tustin. (714) 544-7725.

* 1 p.m. at Placentia Library, 411 E. Chapman Ave., Placentia. (714) 528-1906.

Aug. 10:

* 2 p.m. at Heritage Park Regional Library, 14361 Yale Ave., Irvine. (714) 551-7151.

* 7 p.m. at La Palma Branch Library, 7842 Walker St., La Palma. (714) 523-8585.

Aug. 11:

* 3:30 p.m. at Cypress Branch Library, 5331 Orange Ave., Cypress. (714) 826-0350.

Aug. 17:

* 3 p.m. at Villa Park Branch Library, 17865 Santiago Blvd., Villa Park. (714) 998-0861.

Aug. 18:

* 2 p.m. at West Garden Grove Branch Library, 11962 Bailey St., Garden Grove. (714) 897-2594.

* 4 p.m. at Canyon Hills Library, 400 Scout Trail, Anaheim. (714) 974-7630.