A life on stage.
A different experience behind it.
I’m Barry—a producer, vice president of the company behind SIX in Branson, and a professional entertainer with more than five decades on stage. I’m also neurodivergent, deeply introverted, and have lived with depression since my teens. The person you see performing and the life behind that performance are both part of my story.
People rarely follow the script.
I’m interested in the gap between how things are supposed to work and what happens when actual people get involved. A family business supplies plenty to think about. So do technology, belief, and the ordinary business of getting through a day with other human beings.
Sometimes I write about those things. Sometimes a question sends me off learning about something I hadn’t expected to find interesting. AI is one of those subjects; human behavior seems to turn up in just about all of them.
I don’t leave myself out of this. Being certain I understand something and actually understanding it are not necessarily the same thing. Annoying, but there it is.
A few things worth talking about.
I’ve Used ChatGPT for Years. Here’s What I’ve Found.
What I value most isn’t a clever prompt. It’s being able to question an answer—and have my own thinking questioned, too.
Whatever doesn’t quite add up.
I’ve written things from time to time about what interests me, what bothers me, and what I’m trying to understand. Not all of it arrives at a tidy conclusion.
The selection includes older posts, with their dates. They show what was on my mind then—not a promise that I’ve stopped thinking about it since.
Five decades.
A family business.
A lot of shows.
I’m one of the original Knudsen Brothers and a longtime member, co-owner, and producer of SIX in Branson, Missouri.
Performing is a substantial part of my life. So is the work around it: rehearsals, production, people, and the ordinary problems that don’t disappear just because there’s a show tonight.
Have a look around.
Start with an essay, the onstage history, or a subject that catches your attention. You don’t have to begin with my life story.