When you come see the Hamner Barber Variety Show live, you’ll see a short pre-show video showing how Dave Hamner and Jim Barber met as young vaudeville performers working in New York City in 1920. Of course, there has been a small amount of artistic license added to the truth, but it makes a fun way to start the show.

The real truth, is that the two met in the mid-90′s in Branson. The Hamners were guests in the audience of the Glen Campbell Goodtime Show and saw Jim perform as the featured comedian. At the time, the Hamners were performing with the Osmond Brothers, Hot Country on Ice show. A few days later, Jim and Dave bumped into each other at a local shopping center and personally got to know each other. Dave was impressed with Jim’s unique performance and thought he was the greatest ventriloquist he had ever seen. Jim then went to see the Hamners perform their famous Pirate Parrot Act at the Osmond Theater and was equally impressed with their originality and dynamic stage presence.

Over the years to follow, Dave and Jim kept in contact and discussed the possibility of one day having their own show together. In 2002, Jimmy Osmond hired both Jim Barber and The Hamners to be featured variety acts in his new American Jukebox Show. Sharing a tiny dressing room backstage, the performers became quite close and their friendship grew stronger.

Shortly after the American Jukebox Show closed in 2003, The Hamners and Jim Barber were offered the evening slot at the (then named) Sons of the Pioneers Theater on Shepherd of the Hills Expressway. This was their opportunity to finally perform together in their own show as they had dreamed about 10 years before. The owners of the theater renamed the venue, The Victorian Theater and the Hamner Barber Variety Show took flight for it’s first season in Branson.

That first year was full of tremendous challenges as the theater owners were going through some financial difficulties. Both Dave and Jim were determined to keep the show running and offered to take financial responsibility for running the venue by leasing the theater from the owner with the goal of purchasing the property. In 2005, The Hamners and The Barbers took ownership of the theater and the land around it and changed the name once again to The Hamner Barber Theater, a name they feel confident will remain on the venue as long as they desire to perform the show.