For those like Dan-Dan the Farmer Man and his sidekick, Scare Crow, it’s all part of the show.

The traveling comedy show for all ages from Arlington, Texas, squirts plenty of water into the audience from the show’s Columbia MEGA electric utility truck, painted a John Deere-esque green and yellow.

It surprised the dozen kids sitting up front for the show, even though they were already soaked from sitting in the rain waiting for a few punchlines after lunch.

“They’re fresh, they light up when they see something new. They’re not jaded,” said Scare Crow, who reluctantly broke character to give his legal name, Ron Cameron.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
Leah Bean, 13, and Linnea Bloom, 12, hang out with Lexi Roberts, 14, as she washes Judy. Roberts is showing the angus cow at the Sac County Fair with her 4-H club, the Buena Vista Providence Go-Getters.

Cameron, the show’s executive producer, has been doing this for 35 years, and those fresh reactions are what keeps him going. His double-sided business card also reveals he is a jack of all trades, running “SwashChucklers Comedy Pirate Show” as well.

“They laugh at stuff without looking at each other to see if anyone else thinks it’s funny,” he said, “so you get an honest reaction out of them.”

He got started in the business, formally owned by ShenaniGuns! Comedy Wild West Show, as a job in college as a theater major at Oklahoma State University.

What started as doing shows at Six Flags in Georgia in 1979 quickly became his full-time gig, from building sets to writing scripts in between travelling, doing about a thousand shows per year.

He sees the comedy written for everyone from age 4 to 84 as a way to bring folks together, despite their differences, in a 20-minute break from the woes of the world that kids are now exposed to at an earlier age.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
Klarrisa McBurnuy, 17, passes some down time with the nearby ponies at the Sac County Fair. The self-described “carnie kid” helps her grandfather run the rides during the summer.

“We specialize in writing jokes for everybody,” he said. “You can laugh at something, and the person next to you thinks it’s funny, and it sets up a relationship.”

Kids really buy into the parallel reality Dan-Dan offers, frequently wanting to know if his rubber prop used for slapstick comedy is indeed a real fish.

The “clown truck” is an added bonus, one that garners new reactions when driven around the fairgrounds.

“Most people are good people,” Cameron has come to understand through his show. “There’s not a huge difference (between most).”

And, he has a job he enjoys.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
Dan-Dan The Farmer Man, right, and Scare Crow, played by Justin Hill and Ron Cameron, respectively, put a show on at the Sac County Fair on Tuesday. They make good on their slogan, “If you watch this show, you oughta get your soaked,” squirting the crowd even in the rain.

But he’s not the only one having all the fun in the rain with a quirky vehicle. Nearby, Richard Renner gives him a run for his money with a car more reminiscent of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang.

His car, pedalled down the fairgrounds, brought all the kids back out with a cacophony of distractions. Buttons at the front, horns at the cab and instruments with sticks at the back telling patrons to, “BEAT IT, KIDS!” brought simple joy to even the jaded pre-teens too cool to be seen having fun.

And, of course, one trigger mangled in an assortment of horns shoots a stream of water out the front of the hood.

Down the fairgrounds a bit, 4-H’ers like 14-year-old Lexi Roberts, with the BV Providence Go-Getters, use water in perhaps a more constructive way.

Roberts’s Angus cow, Judy, behaved as she was hosed down in cold water while it continued to sprinkle, exacerbating the mud around the confinements.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
This year’s petting zoo at the Sac County Fair had a litter of piglets on display with their mother. Here on Thursday, they catch a nap while waiting for the rain to pass.

But you won’t see this kid complaining.

“It’s harder to keep her clean at home,” she said, because their pasture doesn’t have a cement lot. “You should have seen her yesterday, it was even worse.”

The breeding female is washed twice a day, sprayed down with cold water to promote hair growth for showing. The Pocahontas girl then brushes the hair forward and up to make it “bigger and bolder.”

“She’s the calmest cow I ever had,” Roberts said, perhaps a moment too soon, as Judy got more vocal immediately after getting her leash caught on the spigot. But perhaps the cow was just agreeing.

At the petting zoo, 17-year-old Klarrissa McBurney took the light sprinkles as a chance to chill in her hoodie.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
Monarchs and moths on display took it easy during the chilly periods of rain Thursday at the Sac County Fair.

“I’m just a carnie kid,” she said, discretely taking quick drags off her watermelon-flavored electronic cigarette in between gazes at the pony that had captured her attention. “The rain is a good break.”

She takes being a carnie kid as a badge of honor.

“Everyone’s just one big happy family,” in the carnival that has been in her family for several generations, she said.

This summer, it’s just her and her grandpa on the road. Her younger sisters stay at home with their single mom.

But despite seeing all the smiles for a living, she says it’s hard work.

“When we’re on the road, people think we’re a nobody, pretty much,” McBurney said. “Like we’re different from everybody else, like we have no money or anything — even though we make $300 a week.”

“And sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get to travel to Florida,” the eastern Iowa native added.

She says the stuck-up patrons don’t affect her, but rather, “that’s just how it is.”

“It’s just whatever. We’ll be making more money than (them),” she chuckled.

But sometimes, the midway’s electric lights shine on kinder faces in the evening, between constant set-ups and tear-downs.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
Lane Smith, 7, left, and Tate Sandhoff, 10, right, pretend to drive a Gator, one of the few animals not on display at this year’s Sac County Fair.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
Richard Renner’s unconventional mode of transportation is a hit at the Sac County Fair.