Indian With Teepee Outruns Cowboy

I've got a great installment of The Pinkie Chronicles ready to publish but I feel I should get the OK from Pinkie first despite the relative anonymity of the "Pinkie" sobriquet.

Instead, here's an exciting episode that took place a few days ago during the second show.

Byron was "dancer" that night. Included in the dancer's duties is the task of carrying the "teepee" into the arena for the Medicine Ball Pass. The "teepee" is really a large tripod made of three 3-inch steel pipes roughly 10 feet long, bound together 1.5 feet from the top. It is carried on stage in a closed position then set up to form a "basket" at the top. The first of four Medicine Balls to be successfully launched and lodged in the top of the teepee, after first being passed through the audience, wins the event.

The teepee is fairly heavy and awkward to carry in any case but on this night Byron had an added challenge. As he approached center stage with the closed teepee balanced on his shoulder, Brice grabbed one end of the pipes and walked in a wide circle around Byron, causing Byron to spin and creating a visual effect reminiscent of helicopter blades, with Byron as the pivot. After a few turns Brice stopped with a big grin and started towards his position on stage, probably thinking he'd had his fun and that would be it.

It wasn't.

Byron lowered the steel pipes to his side and charged Brice. Around the arena they ran as the other performers tried to concentrate on the task of demonstrating to the audience how to pass the Medicine Ball and the Principles described the game. Byron chased Brice through Gold Star, then towards Blue Moon. Brice cut over to Green Mountain but Byron didn't let up. Brice seemed to be feeling cornered and ran towards Red River. Byron kept on him, cutting him off, forcing him against the wall, until finally Brice had nowhere else to run. Later backstage Brice told me, "Next time I'm going to pick on someone who's slower than me." All in good fun.