Radio host entertains crowd with jokes about Lafayette

Liz Nicol/Senior Photographer MORE THAN TALK: Radio talk show host sings a song Saturday might at Elliott Hall of Music in front of a sold-out crowd.

By Megan Finnerty
Features Editor

The man could've read instructions on how to program a VCR and the sold-out audience at Elliott Hall of Music would've laughed. He could've sneezed and the 6,000 plus audience of middle-aged fans would've been thankful for the chance to see it happen.

But Saturday evening Garrison Keillor, the host of National Public Radio's, "A Prairie Home Companion," didn't discuss the details of how to set the timer on a VCR; he joked about engineering's nerds, liberal arts' poor poets and the Bug Bowl. He did "The News from Lake Wobegone," he waxed philosophical about Lafayette's railroad relocation project and he sang songs few students would recognize, but that everyone in the audience knew verbatim.

Keillor hosted his two-hour live show standing in the expansive darkness of the stage wearing a black suit, a white shirt, a red tie and red socks. His mad-scientist eyebrows jumped and wiggled as he spoke to a rapt listening audience of millions. He would purse his lips, grimace, smile and then, looking quite serious, would start to do it all again as he moved into a different story or interview.

His voice makes every word he speaks sound special. It is a rare blend of just enough cigarettes and not too many whiskies — smooth on top, with gravel beneath the surface.

Indianapolis resident ChiChi Guy loves this voice. "His voice is just so mellow, it makes you want to hear more of it. He's just amazing."

Guy's husband, John, has been listening to the show for 15 years and was thrilled to see Keillor in person.

"The show's superb; he really knows how to relax the audience, to come out and talk to the audience, he just knows how to relate to them," he said. "It's just a conversation with millions of people."

The show, as usual, was an eclectic mix of live musical performances, humorous skits from the shows imaginary "sponsors" such as Café Boeuf, Keillor's stream-of-consciousness sermon, "The News From Lake Wobegone" and interviews with special guests, such as Purdue professor Tom Turpin.

When Keillor broadcasts from anywhere other than his studio in Minnesota, he researches the community he's in and incorporates local talent, issues and facts about the community into his show.

He works from note cards, but rarely looks at them. Keillor's brilliant. He keeps it all in his head.

And there is so much up there. Keillor was involved in almost every skit or performance, many of which lampooned Purdue's reputation for being an engineering school and therefore full of socially inept engineering and physics majors who can't date. He knew fact after fact about Lafayette's origins, about the trains that come through, about the Wabash River and its songs and legends, about its courthouse and more.

I know, even though there are five pages of detailed, complete notes in front of me which I scribbled in the darkness of Elliott Hall, I cannot capture for you the humble and consistent brilliance of "A Prairie Home Companion."

Know that corporate radio sucks, but that salvation can be found by tuning to 101.3 FM at 6 p.m. on Saturday nights and checking in with the good people of little Lake Wobegone and learning something about the world.

 

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