Going Wild West in Grapevine

A longtime performer

Whatley, who sports a gray handlebar mustache and thick gray hair, is no novice to the entertainment business. His penchant for the 1880s cowboy genre began when he was a college student at the University of Texas at Arlington majoring in theater while performing gunfights at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington.

With a couple of friends he met in 1975 during his Six Flags gig, Whatley founded the Gunfighters, a Wild West touring act that became popular across the United States and performed at places including Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Teaming up with Addison in 1998, whom, he met during a stage production at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth and married in 2001, he decided to expand the Gunfighters beyond their signature comedy gunfight shows. The Gunfighters disbanded in 1999, and the transition also led to a name change.

His résumé includes corporate functions, private events and festivals. His traveling comedy Wild West gunfight stunt show, Tumbleweed Crossing, performs across the country.

“We produce a comedy gunfight show on the same courthouse stage at Six Flags where I first performed years ago,” Whatley said, adding that they are in their ninth year there.

The laugh factor

The company has a roster of more than 80 performers who produce about 1,000 shows annually.

In the Great Train Robberies series, in which several times during the year “deputies” and “outlaws” hold a shootout along the route from the Grapevine Vintage Railroad to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

“I still perform, riding horses and shooting a Colt .45,” said Whatley, a native Texan who has lived in Tarrant County all his life, the past 10 years in Keller.

Addison said everything they do is comedy.

This story was originally published December 23, 2014 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Going Wild West in Grapevine."