WOBEGON UNTO CALIFORNIA: HERE COMES 'PRAIRIE HOME'.Byline: Rick Mortensen Staff Writer A calm descends on cars and homes across the country every time Garrison Keillor Garrison Keillor (born Gary Edward Keillor on August 7, 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, columnist, musician, satirist, and radio personality. utters the phrase, ``It's been a quiet week in my hometown, Lake Wobegon Lake Wobegon is a fictional town in the U.S. state of Minnesota, said to have been the boyhood home of Garrison Keillor. Keillor reports the News from Lake Wobegon on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion , Minn.'' It's how he begins the ``News From Lake Wobegon,'' the final segment of his weekly radio show, ``A Prairie Home Companion.'' The segment is a folksy folk·sy adj. folk·si·er, folk·si·est Informal 1. Simple and unpretentious in behavior. 2. Characterized by informality and affability: a friendly, folksy town. 3. , funny and often philosophical look at the residents of the fictitious town of Lake Wobegon. Keillor has been improvising the weekly monologue - with only sparse notes - for nearly three decades in his soothing, avuncular a·vun·cu·lar adj. 1. Of or having to do with an uncle. 2. Regarded as characteristic of an uncle, especially in benevolence or tolerance. voice, and he has a few theories about why the segment has been so popular. ``It's useful for putting small children to sleep,'' he said. ``I know this. There are families that come up after the show and talk to me, and I crouch down and talk to the kiddos. As I talk to them, I can see their eyes start to get heavy, and they start to sway a little. I think it's kind of a tranquil moment, and there aren't many of those in broadcasting.'' Keillor started doing ``A Prairie Home Companion'' in 1974, five years after he started working for Minnesota Public Radio Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is a regional public radio network based in the U.S. state of Minnesota that has been broadcasting since 1967. The network includes more than 50 FM transmitters ranging from low-power translators in small and hard-to-reach areas up to full-power . At the time, he was also writing for the New Yorker magazine, and the idea for the show came while he was working on an article about another folksy show, Nashville's ``Grand Ole Opry Grand Ole Opry, weekly American radio program featuring live country and western music. The nation's oldest continuous radio show, it was first broadcast in 1925 on Nashville's WSM as an amateur showcase. .'' The format of ``A Prairie Home Companion,'' which remains unchanged, is a variety show complete with musical guests, recurring sketches and commercials for imaginary products. For 13 years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time show broadcast from Minnesota, setting up shop in what is now the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul in 1978. The show ended in 1987 only to pop up two years later in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of as ``The American Radio Company.'' In 1992, it returned to the Fitzgerald Theatre and revived its original name. While Keillor cherishes ``Prairie Home Companion's'' home base, touring has always been an important part of the show. ``A Prairie Home Companion'' will broadcast this weekend's show from L.A.'s Greek Theatre, after a successful visit to the venue last year. ``We like to go places where people are happy to see us,'' Keillor said. ``Traveling is pure pleasure. The audience at home knows you a little too well. You're not really an act to them, you're more like a relative. People don't applaud their relatives. They're just sort of mildly amused.'' The show maintains the flavor of its hometown as it moves from place to place, which Keillor said is the mark of a good traveler. He always acknowledges the place from which he's broadcasting and often lovingly lampoons it in a sketch. In California, he finds a wealth of material. ``Californians have a large sense of humor Noun 1. sense of humor - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humour, humor, humour about themselves, and they particularly love to hear themselves being poked fun at,'' Keillor said. ``Their sense of humor about themselves I think is based on the idea that California is sort of the forward edge of the new-age high-pressure front. This is not exactly true, but it certainly offers rich opportunities for satire.'' When he speaks of Lake Wobegon, Keillor focuses on the stoic, joyless joy·less adj. Cheerless; dismal. joy  less·ly adv.joy mind-set of the citizenry. It's a mind-set he insists still exists in many parts of the country. ``It's the simple phenomenon of farm people who live at the mercy of climate and weather and distant markets over which they have no control, and which cannot be understood, and the doings of government, which are complicated,'' he said. ``These people live at the mercy of invisible forces, and it is not good luck to talk about your good fortune.'' ``A Prairie Home Companion'' has kept quiet about its own good fortune, which Keillor believes is a key to its longevity. He said a television show could have a smaller audience and be a big hit, but the overexposure overexposure too long an exposure time or too high a milliamperage causing too black a picture, loss of detail and some anomalies of translucency. would quickly burn it out. Because radio is experienced more privately and seldom talked or written about, Keillor believes it has more longevity. ``Our staying power is a kind of anonymity,'' he said. ``We keep a low profile. We just sit out here in St. Paul, Minn., in a one-story building, and we don't try to do too much, we just do a little radio show, and radio is under the radar This article is about the magazine. For other uses, see Under the Radar (disambiguation). Under the Radar is an American magazine that bills itself as "The solution to music pollution." It features interviews with accompanying photo-shoots. .'' GARRISON KEILLOR Where: The Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave. in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. When: 7:45 p.m. Friday, 6:15 p.m. Saturday; Friday's show will be taped and broadcast at 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday on KPCC-FM (89.3). Tickets: $35 to $75. (213) 480-3232. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: no caption (GARRISON KEILLOR) Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times |
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