‘Puppy Pals’ to show off their tricks in Hobart
A comedy stunt-dog show comprised almost entirely of rescue dogs is coming to the Hobart Art Theater.
“The Puppy Pals” will take the stage at 7 p.m. Friday at the Hobart Art Theater in Hobart. It’s a night of stunts, comedy and cute dogs with a feel-good back story.
Wesley Williams, 24, is the owner and creator of “The Puppy Pals.” The dogs were seen on season 15 of “America’s Got Talent.”
Originally from Weston, Florida, Williams was a unicyclist traveling the world when he decided he needed some company on the road. He rescued two dogs, Cash and Rudy, and started training them. Just for fun, he started performing shows with them.
All of the tricks are trained using positive reinforcement, he said.
Cash and Rudy are still in the show.
“The dogs you’ll see in the show clearly love to do what they do. We don’t even have to tell them what to do. They know the show better than we do most times,” he said. “They’re all super-friendly
and have a feel-good story. The show was supposed to be a 45-minute show, but we’ve actually gone bigger.”
It will last about 90 minutes with an intermission, he said. Doors open an hour before the show.
“You’ll have the opportunity to get photos with the Puppy Pals at the show,” he said. “Those are at intermission and if we have too many, then we will resume after the show. So you do have a chance to meet the dogs at the show.”
Williams has appeared as a unicyclist on “America’s Got Talent.” He received the Guinness World Record for “The World’s Tallest Rideable Unicycle” by riding a unicycle that was 29 feet and an inch long.
“I’ve had the show business bug since I was very little,” he said. “My mom says that they hired a clown for my sixth birthday party and they don’t know why they (bothered) because when the clown came, I just decided to do the show myself.”
Despite all his activities, animals were always a passion of his, he said.
“I truly love it, every minute of it,” he said. “We have a bond. These dogs are our pets fulltime. They perform, but that’s not their life.”
Rudy, Cash, Gizmo and Koko will appear at the Hobart Art Theatre, along with some additional canine acts, Williams said.
“We’ll have Frisbee dogs, we’ll have high-jumping dogs and we’ll have agility dogs as well,” he said. “We’ll also have a comedy dog. There will be all kinds of dogs and mayhem going on. As many dogs as you can fit in the theater.”
Audiences will see dogs jumping rope, climbing ladders, walking the high wire, back flips, high-jumping hurdles: “Going for height and going for distance, so two different things,” he said.
“And you’ll see a lot of comedy woven into our show,” he said. “Big thing about Puppy Pals is, we like to share the character of each dog with the audience. It’s not a cut-and-dried dog act where you just see the dog jump hurdles and go back to the seat. We try to show their personalities so you’ll see a lot of comedy and also a lot of audience participation. If you show up to the show, you might just find yourself in the show.”
There’s a comedian in the show as well and the host is a second-generation circus performer, Williams said.
“My brother is on the tour, Austin Williams, and he’ll be helping out with the presentation of the dogs,” he said.
The show is such a well-oiled machine at this point he can send another unit to perform in a different part of the country while he himself performs anywhere in the world.
Dog lovers will love the show, he said.
“We show their personalities and showcase all the amazing things they can do,” he said.
“We don’t want to showcase anything the dogs aren’t capable of doing or don’t want to do. When they show up, they can expect to see dogs from ‘America’s Got Talent’ and they can expect to see a really amazing show.”