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Fairbanks Concert Association

FAIRBANKS — It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.

Garrison Keillor speaks these words in his smooth, rhythmic, familiar voice every Saturday right before sharing the week’s news from this fictional Minnesota town, full of staunch Lutherans and Norwegians, and Norwegian Lutherans. Often the news seems a bit less than quiet but welcome as it floats across the radio waves into the homes and cars of loyal listeners of the radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.” Creator, writer and performer on the show, Keillor also sings praise for Bee Bop A Ree Bop Rhubarb Pie, tells of the health benefits of consuming ketchup, shares stories of a cowboy’s life, and embarks on adventures as the infamous Guy Noir. His weekly performance on the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater is only one of his many tasks in a busy career that keeps him at pen, at microphone and on the road.

Keillor has authored 12 books, has another on the way, reads the daily National Public Radio installment of “A Writer’s Almanac,” writes and prepares for the radio variety show that also became a movie in 2006, produces CDs of his books and annual joke show performed on “A Prairie Home Companion,” and takes time for visits to places like Fairbanks, where he will offer “An Evening with Garrison Keillor” Sept. 9.

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy a good story, and Garrison Keillor is the quintessential storyteller of our time,” Anne Biberman, executive director of Fairbanks Concert Association, said in anticipation of Keillor’s appearance.

Biberman said she couldn’t be more excited about FCA’s opportunity to bring the radio personality and author to the area. A long-time supporter of public radio — she worked at the local KUAC public radio station for over a decade — and a big fan of Keillor, she said the show is one that is sure to please all, regardless of what aspect of Keillor’s dynamic career interests a person most.

“Whether it’s as host of ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’ in his books, as a poet, singer or in concert, Garrison Keillor connects to us all in a way that is both basic and tremendously entertaining,” she said. “The Fairbanks Concert Association is thrilled to bring this prolific writer who uses language so beautifully to Fairbanks for a performance that will be both poignant and hilarious.”

“Hilarious” is a word that is often used to describe the entertainer, despite his simply charismatic and subtle appearance. His approach in spoken and written word is subtle, perhaps old-fashioned, but at the same time is somehow blunt and surprising. On his “A Few Good Jokes” CD he sings of the kind of jokes one used to hear in barbershops and at grocery stores — knock-knock jokes and “Your mamma is so old” jokes, even “How many Irishmen does it take to screw in a light bulb?” jokes — and his delivery is poignantly punchy. As it turns out, it takes 16 Irishmen to screw in a light bulb: One to hold the light bulb and 15 to drink until the room spins.

Keillor’s delivery is just as surprising-yet-comfortable in his written work, whether he is describing what it is like to be a young teenager growing up in Lake Wobegon in 1956 — “Lake Wobegon Days 1956” — or the struggles of a fame-seeking adulterer removed from Minnesota, writing for the New Yorker, simultaneously battling lust, love, the mob and writers’ block — “Love Me” — his stories bring more than just a smile, and more often than not elicit reviews with praise for his humor and craft.

Many of Keillor’s books take place in the town he has made so well known to his listeners and readers: Lake Wobegon. According to reviews submitted to the Penguin Group, the publishing company that has published all of Keillor’s 12 written works, the author has “become the symbol of the small-town Midwest — its absurdities, its stoutness and its warmth,” adding that the stories of Lake Wobegon “evoke nostalgia for a town that never existed.” Keillor is sticking with what works with his newest book, “Liberty,” set for release later this month. It is a story about July Fourth celebrations in sleepy Lake Wobegon, which becomes not-so-sleepy with plans for the holiday and the news that one of its citizens, a local auto mechanic, has decided to run for Congress. The characters, the scene and the story are sure to feel as funny and familiar to readers as previous Wobegon stories.

While his voice is familiar to many, there are a few facts about the Minnesota funny man that even his most avid fans may not know. His birthplace: Anoka, Minn., in 1942. His real name: Gary Edward Keillor. His alma mater: the University of Minnesota, 1966.

According to the Penguin Group, Keillor’s radio career began in 1969 at Minnesota Public Radio. He got the idea to create a radio variety show after he did an on-site cover story on the Grand Ole Opry, and on July 6, 1974, the first episode of “A Prairie Home Companion” aired in St. Paul. Another fact about the show newer fans may not know is that the show went on hiatus from 1987 to 1989, resurfacing as “The American Radio Company” in New York. It later returned to Minnesota and in 1993 returned to its original name.

Keillor has earned numerous accolades throughout his career, including a Grammy Award in 1987 for best spoken-word album. He has also received two Cable ACE Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award, according to the Penguin Group. In 1994 he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications, and he was recently presented with a National Humanities Medal by the National Endowment for Humanities.

Writing, broadcasting, humanities, comedy—is there anything he can’t do? Perhaps not; Keillor is also an accomplished musician, having performed with many orchestras, including the Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Dallas and National symphonies. He has appeared at Wolf Trap, Carnegie Hall and other major concert halls as a member of the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, and, thankfully for Fairbanksans, performs many a one-man show.

It may be a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, but it seems a day in the life of Garrison Keillor is hardly quiet at all.

What: An Evening with Garrison Keillor

When: 8 p.m. Sept. 9

Where: Hering Auditorium

Tickets: $51, available at www.alaskatix.com. Season tickets for Fairbanks Concert Association's 2008-09 season are also available at www.fairbanksconcert.org

Contact Features Editor Erica Goff at 459-7523.