Dusty Myers, an old-school rodeo clown who also adds some new-school flavor, will bring his National Finals Rodeo resume to be one of the featured entertainers at the Big Spring Cowboy Reunion and Rodeo during this year’s festivities, moved to the first weekend in June.
(PRCA PHOTO BY CLICK THOMPSON)

 

BIG SPRING, Texas – Dusty Myers is a student first. His lessons have led him to be a well-recognized entertainer.

His first appearance at this year’s Big Spring Cowboy Reunion and Rodeo will reflect that. Howard County is the home of Quail Dobbs, a rodeo-clowning legend who has been inducted into four halls of fame, and Myers will be working on hallowed ground.

“I’ve talked to the committee a couple of times over the years, and one of the reasons they wanted to bring me there was because I’m kind of an old-school rodeo clown,” said Myers, 44, of Jumpertown, Mississippi. “It’s exciting to me to get to go to someplace new.”

Clowning is nothing new to Myers. He’s been nominated for PRCA Clown/Barrelman of the Year and Comedy Act of the Year. This past December, he was selected to work the National Finals Rodeo. Dobbs had a few of those honors over his career, too.

“Lecile Harris was my role model,” Myers said, pointing out that the late-Mississippi rodeo clown has joined Dobbs in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. “When I was 2 or 3 years old, I dressed up like a clown.”

He’s still doing it.

“For as long as I can remember, this is what I’ve done,” he said. “From a small child, I have loved being in the trailer and on the road. I love going to new places. It’s exciting for me to go to new rodeos, so when I book some new places each year, it is very exciting.”

He’s added a few in 2026, but the biggest “new” in his career came at the NFR. Inside the Thomas & Mack Center with more than 17,000 packed into the coliseum, Myers shined in the dirt and in the barrel. It’s an honor he never expected. Why?

“I try to stay in the Midwest, and I don’t really go out West that much,” Myers said. “A lot of the guys that’s been featured at the NFR over the years work a lot of them Western rodeos. I just didn’t feel like it would be me, but when it come down to the votes, I guess I had a chance.”

Members of the PRCA decided the Mississippi man deserved the opportunity.

“That means a lot to me,” he said. “Anytime you get to work some thing like the NFR, it absolutely does.”

In the 66-year history of ProRodeo’s Super Bowl, less than 35 men have been chosen as its barrelman. Myers is in distinguished company, with men like Dobbs, Leon Coffee and Keith Isley.

“I call myself a traditionalist,” Myers said. “I’m really an old-school rodeo clown. I still wear the makeup and the baggy clothes. I still do big-prop acts, and I want to mix it with the dancing, getting up in the crowd and bringing out the laughter. I’m kind of a mixture between what we call an old-school clown and what they call an entertainer.”

His approach to his job is about bringing value to the rodeo, whether it’s laughing with folks in the stands or just interacting with announcer Anthony Lucia.

“I tell a lot of jokes, and I like to do a lot of stuff with the crowd,” Myers said. “I try to do a lot of my own material so that it’s new and not something they see all the time. I’ve studied the guys that did that really well, so I enjoy bringing that into my own work.”

“I’m excited to be there and help bring smiles to everybody’s faces.”

That’s what being a clown is all about.