Garrison Keillor Tonight

Garrison Keillor brings his comedy and storytelling to the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater at the Tobin Center on Monday, Nov 16. If you've spent any time with public radio over the last few decades, you know the name: Keillor fronted A Prairie Home Companion for forty years, where he wrote fiction and comedy and invented the town of Lake Wobegon—the place where every child is above average.

That town grew out of a specific kind of childhood. Keillor grew up evangelical in a small separatist flock where the children expected the imminent end of the world, and that tension between the cozy, small-town ideal and a more austere, certain kind of faith often runs through his work. In retirement, he's kept busy with a memoir and a book of limericks, and he's currently working on a musical and a Lake Wobegon screenplay. He also continues to send out The Writer's Almanac daily and free to internet subscribers.

Critics have praised his low-key, familiar style, noting that his shows can turn an audience into a small-town community with an intimacy only radio and its podcast descendants can achieve. That's the thing that carries over to the stage: the feeling of a room full of people listening to a story told by someone who's just sitting there with them. It's less about a polished performance and more about the storytelling itself.

He'll be at the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater on Monday, Nov 16. You can find tickets and more details at tobincenter.org/garrisonkeillor.