Stage

An Above-Average Evening

radio legend Keillor brings one-man show to State

Tom Giffey |

IT’S BEEN A QUIET WEEK IN LAKE WOBEGON. Garrison Keillor will perform at the State Theatre on Sept. 23.
IT’S BEEN A QUIET WEEK IN LAKE WOBEGON. Garrison Keillor will perform at the State Theatre on Sept. 23.

While public radio legend Garrison Keillor may have recently retired from hosting A Prairie Home Companion after more than four decades, the word “retiree” does not apply to the 74-year-old Minnesotan once billed as the “the world’s tallest radio humorist.” Though he stepped back from the Prairie Home microphone in July (hosting duties will be taken over by musician Chris Thile when the show resumes in October), Keillor maintains a hectic, high-profile schedule that belies the unhurried nature of his homespun Lake Wobegon monologues: He’s penning a weekly column for The Washington Post (including a recent evisceration of Donald Trump), working on a novel, crafting a screenplay, and maintaining a busy schedule of solo stage shows that, before the year is done, will take him from Denver to London to Boise.

Keillor’s next performance, however, will bring him to The State Theatre in Eau Claire for a Friday, Sept. 23, performance titled “An Evening for Africa.” The show will benefit a charity called Transforming Individual Lives Today, which was created to honor the memory of Menomonie native Alec Johnson, a cousin of Keillor’s who worked to improve the lives of people in rural Uganda.

“I don’t prepare, and that’s the good part. I’m a writer, and so I have things in progress and things on my mind, and I simply go out and talk and one thing leads to another. It’s sort of free association, and people seem to like this.” – Garrison Keillor, on his stage show

For those accustomed to Keillor’s long-running radio show – a potpourri of humorous sketches, fake advertisements, musical guests, and the host’s inimitable monologues – Keillor’s performance in Eau Claire will be a  bare-bones affair. “It’s just a man at a microphone,” he explained. No band or acting troupe – just a tall guy with bushy eyebrows and a rich baritone voice.

“I don’t prepare, and that’s the good part,” Keillor said in a recent telephone interview. “I’m a writer, and so I have things in progress and things on my mind, and I simply go out and talk and one thing leads to another. It’s sort of free association, and people seem to like this. ...

“I wouldn’t stand up and in front of people and read something off a piece of paper. I get that enough in church.”

There will be jokes, stories, poems, and singalongs to traditional tunes such as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “American the Beautiful.” Keillor refers to the performance as “stand-up,” but it’s not what you would get from an average touring comedian – yet another reason he’s given the humorist label.

“A humorist is the literary term, and it usually refers to a writer,” he said. “I’m a writer, but I like to write as if I’m talking directly to people, so when I go out to talk to people, I hope it has the shape and the form of writing. I hope it’s literate without being pretentious.”

Casual fans may be surprised to hear Keillor call himself a writer, rather than a radio guy, but in the past he’s gone on record saying his time on Prairie Home amounted to a “42-year detour.” And with that detour in the rear-view mirror, Keillor said he’s dived into several big projects in an attempt “to keep up a steady flow of productivity.”

“I’m working on a couple of books,” he said. “I’m still imagine writing print on paper between hard covers. Some people think this is passé, I don’t. I still do that. I’m working on a screenplay and I’d love to make another movie, but I am 74, so it’s not as important to me as if I were in my 20s.”

And while Keillor’s Lake Wobegon monologues may be a thing of the past, the fictional Minnesota burg where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average” still lives on in Keillor’s imagination. In fact, Keillor’s screenplay is a Lake Wobegon tale. The writer acknowledges he’s pondered possible filming locations: Osakis, Minnesota, could serve as a stand-in for the lakeside city full of stoic Midwesterners, or perhaps Cumberland or Ashland on the Wisconsin side of the state line, he said.

All humor aside, Keillor’s Eau Claire performance is prompted by a serious cause that is dear to his heart. His cousin, Alec Johnson, accidentally drowned in Lake Superior at age 40 in 2014. An astrophysicist by profession, Johnson eschewed the comfortable life of an elite scientist and “used his time and his money to go walking out among the world’s poorest people,” Keillor explained. In his travels, Johnson ended up in Nebbi County, Uganda, and dedicated himself to helping ameliorate poverty there by building schools, housing, and wells.

“He was a devoted Christian, but he did not go out to evangelize; he was simply there to help people get what they needed to begin to live a decent life,” Keillor said. After Johnson’s death, his parents and some of their relatives, including Keillor, banded together to continue his efforts. Among other things, the charitable group, Transforming Individual Lives Today, offers training, scholarships, and micro-lending for women and children in poverty.

“We live in this large, affluent, and really very peaceful country – for all that we try to scare ourselves, it’s an island in the midst of a very different world out there,” Keillor said. “And it’s very few who leave here to go out there and see what it’s like. I admire them.”

For those who admire Keillor for his humor and deep insight, his upcoming performance is unmissable.

Garrison Keillor: An Evening for Africa • Friday, Sept. 23, 7:30-9:30pm • The State Theatre, 316 Eau Claire St. • $60 or $150 (includes reception with Keillor before the show) • (715) 832-ARTS (2787) • eauclairearts.com