Confessions of an RVer: CLAY COOPER

The park where we have a membership in Branson has an annual meeting every year on the last Saturday in October. Since I am there at that time, I usually attend. The meeting is actually a lot more than "business" of the park. There are entertainers there and they give away MANY door prizes. This year, I had made the statement that we never have won any of the door prizes. Sure enough, we won 2 tickets to see the Clay Cooper show.

Well, boy, that turned out to be a GREAT prize! We went to see Clay Cooper's Christmas show. Most of the theaters do half of their regular show and half a Christmas show during the Christmas season. Clay Cooper was no different. Everyone told us that we would enjoy his show and we sure did. This was one of the best shows we saw this year.

Born to a musical family in Wylie, Texas, his grandmother played the piano for the Wylie Baptist Church, and gave piano lessons for twenty years. His dad played guitar and performed at all local Opry shows. Clay first began singing at the Wylie Opry at the age of fourteen, and continued to perform there until 1986, when he then joined the Texas Goldminors at age 16 and moved to Branson, performing at the Ozarks Country Jubilee. Since 1986, Clay has worked for many area shows, including the Country Review Show in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the Down Home Country Show, the Buck Trent Show, the Jim Owens Show and Country Tonite, where he spent nine years as lead vocalist and emcee. In 2003, Clay joined his buddy, Paul Harris, as the featured male vocalist in Paul Harris Live. Clay and his wife, Tina, began Clay Cooper’s Country Music Express in 2005 as a morning show in Branson, Missouri. It has evolved into one of the best evening shows in Branson.
Clay loves singing and playing bass, and loves meeting new people. He interacts a lot with the audience and is very quick with his comebacks and reactions to everything that his audience might say. He now celebrates his 29th season performing.

There is something for everyone in the show. There are dancers. Clay's wife is one of the dancers and she does all of the choreography for the show. They have 2 sons who also perform in the show.

There is singing by not only Clay, but also by Ezrah Noelle. Ezrah Noelle joined the Clay Cooper Show in May of 2012. She is an extremely energetic 11 year old singer, dancer, yodeler and songwriter. Ezrah hails from Kingfisher, Oklahoma where she began her singing career in church when she was 20 months old. She was introduced to the American Kids organization at 2 years old opening the door to many singing venues across Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri. She has been televised on Sprint, Local Oklahoma Weather, Relay For Life commercials and has been a special guest on the Rodeo Opry show which airs all across Oklahoma. Her YouTube videos have scored well over 3 million hits and contains many of her career performances. Ezrah taught herself to yodel when she was 7 years old. When she isn’t performing, Ezrah takes dance, place video games, and enjoys time with family.

And, there is lots and lots of comedy and laughing! Matt Gumm is the main comedian. Matt literally grew up around variety shows at Lake of the Ozarks, so at the age of 30, he takes to the stage like a seasoned pro. Matt was added to the Main Street Opry act at the age of seven. His mom will tell you that he spent everyday up on his bed, with a make-shift curtain that hung from the ceiling, with wigs and props doing his “show”. It was in these very early years that a family friend thought it would be “funny” to buy Matt a toy set of drums. Well, the joke was on him, because Matt started playing those things and he was a natural! All that practice may have been painful at times for the family, but it definitely paid off. While in High School, Matt was the only student chosen out of his class to attend the Missouri Fine Arts Academy because he excelled in Music, Art & Drama. Fresh out of high school, Matt spent 5 years developing his own reputation as a gifted comedian and musician on the stage of the long-running Lee Mace’s Ozark Opry in Osage Beach, Missouri. There he honed not only his comedy skills, but he came into his own with his impersonations. He’s brought the house down with his take on such artists as Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart & Sammy Davis, Jr., just to mention a few. Clay Cooper caught his act and knew he wanted to be the first to introduce Matt to Branson. So, here he is!

I would definitely go back and see this show again. Clay Cooper hangs around the lobby after each of his shows to talk with any and everyone at the show. He seems to love the audience and the audience loves him. What a great show.......go see it.