Willey’s Gunning For Gold!

ALL MY CHILDREN’s Walt Willey (Jack) knows a thing or two about the law: He played Pine Valley’s most stand-up attorney for nearly a quarter of a century! And now the talented actor — who balanced his 24 years of daytime drama with a popular comedy act — is back on stage as another lawmaker. Only this time, he’s playing the famed 1800’s gunfighter/scout James Butler Hickok (aka Wild Bill) in a one-man show he wrote himself! “It’s been so much fun!” the actor raves of the project that came to fruition after he passed a road sign in his home state of Illinois that indicated the well-known Western lawmaker was born there. “I find him to be the most fascinating person. And [we’re both] six foot two, blond with blue eyes, both from Illinois, both having received a modicum of fame. It’s just very interesting.”

Inspired by the similarities, Willey spent a year researching and then a year writing the one-man show, which takes audiences on a fierce, no-holds-barred trip back to the Wild West. “It’s just me and the many voices in my head,” he jokes of the fun, adding that surprisingly, the Q and A session he holds after each performance tends to focus more on his piece rather than AMC. “Not that I would mind answering [AMC] questions at all, but I really take it as a compliment that people have embraced me doing this after all of those years of doing that and coming out and supporting me. It’s just really great.”

Willey has taken the wild western on the road, and his next stop: the Acme Comedy theater in Los Angeles, where on Saturday, June 16, and Sunday, June 17, some of his former AMC castmates could be joining the fun! You won’t want to miss it, so be sure to visit www.acmecomedy.com for tickets and more information. But don’t fret if you don’t live near L.A.: Willey will continue to take the show on the road and could stop at a town near you! Follow www.facebook.com/WildBillAnEveningWithJamesButlerHickok for upcoming tour dates and information. Yee-haw!