By now, Charlotte County knows one of the best places to spend New Year’s Eve is at Visani Comedy Dinner Theater. This year is extra special as local favorites Cowboy Bill Martin and Gid Pool perform for their 8th annual gala party.

Comedian Cowboy Bill Martin has been busy these days adding other words to describe his brand such as television writer, songwriter, children’s book author, screenwriter, philanthropist and even designer of his own clothing line. To say he is busy is an understatement. He’s been all over the world as the headliner of his own tour, a cruise-ship comedian and on good will tours for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of his latest acts is, well, a hat act — but perhaps not in the way you’re thinking. Earlier this month, Martin and his fiancée picked up a U-Haul, drove to Garland, and loaded up nearly 300 hats donated by Resistol and drove them the nearly 2,000-mile round trip to Camp COCO, a summer camp for boys and girls who have cancer. This was part of Martin’s work with an organization that he founded, called Cowboys Who Care Foundation, which provides cowboy hats to children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. JD Ryan, with CBS Radio, calls Martin’s act “raucous, rowdy and nothing you’ve come to expect with a ‘country’ comedian. It’s like spending time late at night at the kitchen table with your cousin, laughing until you cry. Then you find out he’s a big, loud Texan with a great big heart.”