Outdoor Wisconsin host Dan Small appeared recently at this year's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show. Dan and all the Outdoor Wisconsin gang were there, along with special guest Red Green!
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by Dan Small
The promoters of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show shinnied out on the proverbial limb when they scheduled an appearance by Red Green on a Monday night, traditionally the slowest night of the show's 10-day run, and this year, St. Patrick's Day to boot. Apparently they thought the fans of this off-the-wall Canadian and his Possum Lodge gang would rather stand in line for a roll of autographed duct tape than drink green beer in a local watering hole. Or maybe sports-show vendors thought they'd sell both red and green beer that night in his honor. Judging from the throngs that turned out to see him, it was a gamble that paid off by packing the Wisconsin Center with plaid-shirted, bearded Red Green and simpering Cousin Harold look-alikes.
Steve Smith, the soft-spoken creator of Red
Green, can't believe the reception American audiences have given his
north woods handyman. Neither can the folks who bring him to town. A
couple years ago, several thousand Red Green fans descended on an
ice-fishing expo in Waukesha on a normally quiet Friday night. The
show director had never heard of Red Green but begged to have him
back the next year. Red's fans, many of whom looked as if they had
just crawled out of the Ontario bush themselves, waited patiently for
a moment with their hero in a line that snaked through three halls of
the cavernous Waukesha County Expo Center. While they waited, they
bought tip-ups, teepees and tackle. Show vendors wanted to invite Red
back, too.
Red Green's fans are hard to categorize. Joe Hunt-'N'-Fish types love him, but bankers wear his trademark red-and-green suspenders to hold up their pinstriped pants, and you'll see enough buxom babes waiting to have their photo snapped with the hoary old coot to fill a 'Possum Lodge pinup calendar. My wife, who rarely watches TV, laughs hysterically at the antics of Red and his silent sidekick, "Bill" (Rick Green), in the Chaplinesque black-and-white slapstick segment "Adventures with Bill" and at the duct-taped contraptions Red fashions in his "Handyman's Corner" skits.
"This show isn't about the outdoors," Smith said on an earlier visit to Milwaukee. "We're making fun of men and the things men do." Maybe that's why women love him.
When told that some people think his Red Green character is the real thing, Smith replied, "That's scary, isn't it?"
At any rate, Smith -- Red -- was in town for two days, along with his traveling "Best of Red Green" show, which featured many of the props, stunts and gags his fans love. He brought a truckload of stuff along, and rumor had it you could purchase a "Life is short -- play dead" T-shirt, a pair of official Possum Lodge suspenders, or a bumper sticker that proclaimed "I'd rather be at Possum Lodge." No, Harold wasn't there. But some show-goers went ahead and dressed like him, complete with slicked-back hair. Funny thing is, they fit right in.
Al Lindner was the other big-name talent who appeared at this year's Milwaukee Sports Show. Not to be outdone by the caravaning Canadian, Lindner offered fans of his "In-Fisherman" magazine and TV show a multi-media "Fishing Spectacular" to kick off the show's opening weekend. Lindner was keeping tight-lipped about details of the spectacular, but we ended up seeing exciting footage of Al catching lots of big walleyes and hearing him recount his exploits and share tips first-hand. 'Possums, walleyes and lots, lots more. I can't wait 'til next year!
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