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I thought it was just another cute prop until he explained that the pottery had been handcrafted by his father at the Veterans Home. That hasn’t happened, but my photojournalist colleague Michael Zamora and I welcomed Barton into the Register video studio where he unleashed his hog call in front of our green-screen backdrop (the kind you see meteorologists use all the time). Then Zamora superimposed him into the middle of what had been hallowed ground for his father.īarton at one point stood there clutching a giant ceramic pig. His other dream would be to deliver his hog call on the the field at St. His dream would be to win the world championship chili cook-off in Reno, Nev. He already has toured a few dozen countries rather than waiting for retirement. MUST-SEE: Watch the Winner of a Hog-Calling Competition Call Hogsīarton now has a wife and infant son. “It just made me want to get out there and see the world,' he said.

'Really, the base of it is,' said his mom, Lynne, 'he loves to hear people laugh.'īut Bill's stroke and eventual death in November 2012 also was the catalyst for Barton to reassess his life. On one hand, Barton's hog calling is all about fun. I had no idea of how seeing his dad hobbled in a flash had spurred Barton to raise his own voice. He estimates that he has racked up a relatively modest $4,000 in prize money and probably spent twice as much to earn it. He competes in a couple dozen chili cook-offs each year, whether staged in a tiny church or on a sprawling fairgrounds. Meanwhile, Barton also has become a chili champ and always enters a broad array of fair food contests.

#Sooey pig call tv#

He's due to appear this summer on 'The Gong Show,' a revival of the classic network TV entertainment revue. He was part of a 'High on Hogs' video art installation by Danish artist Marika Seidler that was exhibited in Copenhagen. He filmed a clip on an Iowa farm with Taylor Hicks for the 'American Idol' winner's 'State Plate' program.

#Sooey pig call how to#

Jimmy Fallon has joked about Barton's hog call.īarton taught TV host Steve Harvey how to squeal and snort.

His snorts so unnerved host Meredith Vieira that she jokingly called for security to storm the TV set. He unleashed his hog call in 2011 on the 'Today' show. In 2010 he swept the state fair hog calling contests in Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois. He has won as many as 10 titles and routinely places among the top three at the State Fair (which he won again last year). She stood just outside the entrance to the historic barn and listened as Barton clinched second place.īarton has bellowed like a boar ever since. Lynne was so nervous for her son that she couldn't bear to watch. He nearly toppled off his chair with laughter yet also studied it with his engineering mind, refining his notion of what made a successful call.Ī decade after his father's stroke, in 2002, he finally entered the hog-calling competition himself. Year after year Barton watched the competition.

'He imagined hogs situated somewhere,' Lynne said, 'and then you’d call and see if they’d come.' At first he mistakenly thought that the contest's purpose was to coax actual pigs down the aisle.