Larry Maurice Cowboy Entertainer & Poet
The Olaf Wieghorst Museum has the rare privilege of hosting Larry Maurice – the Cowboy Entertainer – for a one man show on September 12, 2026. Rarely in Southern California, Larry brings his classic frontier humor to a contemporary audience.
Much like 19th-century humorist Mark Twain, Larry Maurice uses storytelling, verse, and oral history to preserve the culture of the American West. Using minimalist staging, Larry’s personal charisma, vocal modulation, and timing holds his audience. His stories of the Old West blend historical education with entertainment.
Beyond the stage, Larry has been an author, a poet, a rodeo announcer, a master of ceremonies and a historical advocate. He can recite cowboy poetry and share historical anecdotes with the best entertainers of the Century.
Early Life & Cowboy Years
Larry was born and raised in the Connecticut. He grew up immersed in standard American history and Hollywood Westerns. He began writing poetry from a young age. In the 1970 he worked as a successful real estate agent until he decided to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a cowboy. He left real estate and moved to a remote mountainous region in California to begin working hands-on with livestock.
Larry Maurice spent the next 35 years working as a cowboy, horse wrangler, and packer across the Eastern Sierra Nevada and the high deserts of Nevada. His work included driving Longhorn cattle in Virginia City and managing horses at his “2 Cent Ranch” in Palomino Valley.
Larry Maurice the Entertainer
When you are a packer, taking paying guests into the high country for camping excursions, at the end of the day you sit around the campfire telling stories. Larry’s natural ability came out.
In 1989 he became a regular performer and tour guide at the annual Lone Pine Film Festival. The following year he began touring nationally, performing at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Gene Autry Museum, and hosting television specials like Heroes on Horseback for the FOX network.
In 2000 Larry was honored by the Academy of Western Artists with the prestigious Will Rogers Cowboy Award for Cowboy Poet of the Year. Then in 2004 he received the American Cowboy Culture Award at the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas, celebrating his lifetime contributions to Western poetry and history preservation. In the mid 2000’s, he took over the famous “Sunrise Tour” in the Alabama Hills for the Lone Pine Film Festival following the death of character actor John Mitchum.
Today, Larry Maurice continues traveling the country with his acclaimed educational one-man show, Cowboy: The Spirit, The Lore, The Legacy, while balancing speaking engagements at schools, museums, and historical festivals.
We are so glad he decided to spend some time with us.
Ticket information at 619-599-3686