One Arm Bandit set to perform at rodeo

Approximately 7,200 volts of electricity shot through John Payne’s body in 1973, leaving him essentially “dead” for five minutes before cardiopulmonary resuscitation brought him back.

Tough horses before have bucked him, but this shock threw him for a loop. It happened as he helped to demolish a house. He thought a main electrical wire was off, but it was live.

As a result, Payne lost his right arm, among other injuries, and spent six weeks in a hospital.

However, he’s proved that you can’t keep a good cowboy down. He’s capitalized on the injury and now performs a specialty act in rodeos across the country as “The One Arm Bandit & Company.”

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association named him Specialty Act of the Year at least eight times.

Payne takes center stage in the arena Wednesday through Saturday nights in Joseph, about halfway through the Chief Joseph Days rodeo show.

Joining him will be two buffaloes, Bugsy and Bart, a stubborn mule name Moe and Payne’s 6-year-old tricolor horse, Paint.

With a bullwhip in hand, Payne promises to herd the two buffalo until they ascend the back of his pickup and climb to the top of his custom-made horse trailer. Then, Payne and his horse will join them on top.

“It’s an impossible feat to accomplish, and it’s through sheer nerve and the drive to excel in one’s field,” Payne said recently in a telephone interview from the Reno Rodeo, where he had just performed before 8,000 people.

“If you don’t think my show alone is worth the price of a rodeo ticket, convince my mama of that, and I’ll give you your money back,” he added.

The act is no small feat for a right-handed man from Shidler, Okla., with a wooden right hand. He’s turned lefty in the past 30 years.

He’s also learned to ride a horse differently. He was a horseman who “broke” horses before the electricity shot through his body, but he did not perform at rodeos.

He’s learned to ride horses with his legs, not his hands. He’s taught his horse leg cues, and he doesn’t use the reins a lot.

He first started performing his specialty act around 1987.

“I got started in the business by drinking a little too much beer and mouthing off,” he said.

He told a stock contractor that his act stunk.

“He challenged me to do something next year, and I took that challenge,” Payne said.

The two Plains buffalo he’s bringing to Joseph weigh about 1 ton each. Payne considered bringing three to Joseph, but “two of ’em always gang up on one,” he said.

Buffaloes once knocked Payne and his horse off the top of the trailer. He and the horse recovered and continued the show, climbing to the top of the trailer again, he said.

Moe the mule will perform his own show, Payne said.

“Now don’t misspell his name because it will aggravate him, and you won’t be able to make him do anything,” Payne said.

Payne performs at about 40 rodeos a year. His son and daughter also do the same show, although they will not be coming to Joseph.

Payne plans on riding in the Chief Joseph Days parade while he’s here. He performed at Chief Joseph Days in 1992 and 1995.

“It’s sure a bunch of fine people up there,” he said. “They’re trying to have a good time, and I just kind of try to help them out a little.”

Payne has broken about 15 to 20 bones over the years.

“Anytime you break horses for a living and mess with buffalo, you’re going to get in a bind and get bones broken,” he said. “Buffalo are tough to handle, and they’re mean and unforgiving if they get you down.”