I’ve been a fan of APHC since I was a kid (I’m 38 now), and I finally got a chance to see a taping at Tanglewood in Western Massachusetts tonight. We had great seats (about 10 feet from the stage, stage left), and it was really a phenomenal production.
First of all, Garrison Keillor is an amazing performer, in a reserved, calm, poised sort of way. After seeing Robert Altman’s APHC movie (which I didn’t like), I was afraid Keillor would be kind of boring in a perfunctory, phone-it-in kind of way, like he was in the movie. I was completely wrong about it – Keillor was vibrant, funny, and full of expression; it is obvious that he loves doing the show.
Second, the other actors and musicians were tremendous. Seeing Fred Newman doing the sound effects live and ad-lib (upon Keillor’s suggestion of a specific sound effect) was magical. The musicians were wonderful, and the skits were grand.
The best part of the whole evening was watching Keillor deliver the week’s News from Lake Wobegon: even after listening to it for 25+ years, I never knew that he delivers it without a script and while parading around the stage. I’m guessing he has memorized the key points of the story, but I have no idea how much is rote and how much is ad-lib.
Anyway, if you ever get the chance to see the performance live, do it. Even though I loved the show before tonight, I’ve gained a thousand times more appreciation for the gem that it is.
Thanks for that account. I saw Keillor on stage in Nashvile one time with Chet Atkins and a few local celebs and even though it wasn’t an APHC recording session, it was pretty much like the way the radio show sounds.
Keillor is an amazing person, about my age, and I hope he can stay at it for many years to come.
Off-topic: I just saw for the second time a Billy Bob Thornton movie called Daddy and Them (2001) which was Jim Varney’s last movie appearance. Over the closing credits Iris Dement and John Prine do a fun duet and I could tell before seeing her name in the credits that she was the voice I had heard so many time on APHC. I love her voice and her music. One of a kind.
That sounds wonderful! It really is a whole different experience seeing it live isn’t it? Like you I was wowed by Newman both times I saw the live taping. I am from DC so it’s always the Memorial Day show that gets taped here, and Keillor leads the audience in softly singing (IIRC) God Bless America before the show starts. Really a magical experience.
I heard Keillor speak at the National Cathedral in D.C. a year or two ago. I only went there because I wanted him to autograph some books. I wasn’t expecting much from the talk. It was great. He sang a lot of the talk he was giving. It wasn’t entirely a canned thing, since he made local, current references while he was singing. He got everyone to join in and sing “Amen” at the end of each verse. This sounded wonderful with the reverberation in the cathedral. he answered questions afterwards. He even did a great autographing session. Instead of him sitting down and people moving slowly along in a line, he stood up and walked down the line to sign autographs. He was allowing people to take pictures and ask questions privately as he did this. I found myself thinking, “He’s 66 years old. He doesn’t even really need to do this. He could have retired years ago.”
Seconded. St. Paul, 1985 or so, 2d row. Was it the World Theater back then? Went backstage after, chatted a bit, and got a restaurant recommendation from GK himself.
My parents taped that when it was broadcast (1987, I think), so I’ve seen it. At the time I watched the tape, though, the show had probably been back on for at least four or five years, meaning that I was seeing it around 1997 and I didn’t know the show had even been off the air for 7 years. Dad used to tape the show each week and then episodes would be played during family road trips.