Garrison Keillor Tickets

Garrison Keillor was born in Anoka, Minnesota on August 7, 1942. With a Norwegian and Scots ancestry, he is six feet and three inches tall. While pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Minnesota, he started working on Radio K, a student-operated radio station. In November 1969, his professional radio career started when he joined Minnesota Educational Radio (MER) now known as Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). Here, he distributed programs under the label of American Public Media (APM). He hosted a 6 to 9 a.m. morning weekday show covering the drive time slot for office going people. It was broadcasted from KSJM at St. John’sUniversity in Collegeville at 90.1 FM and was known as "A Prairie Home Entertainment." As compared to the usual classical music fare at the station, the radio show became known for its more selective music and was a success. While working on this show, Garrison Keillor also decided to try his hand at writing and started submitting fictional stories to The New Yorker. His first story was titled "Local Family Keeps Son Happy" and was published in the famous American magazine, known for its fiction, cartoons, satire, and commentary, on September 19, 1970.

In early 1971, Garrison Keillor resigned from his morning show when he felt that there was an attempt to interfere with his musical selection. However, he was convinced to return due to the show’s popularity; he came back in October and the show was rechristened "A Prairie Home Companion." He started looking for innovative ways to make the show more popular. Despite the limited studio size, he started presenting local musicians in his morning show. He also started working on the concept of a live Saturday night version of his show.

On July 6, 1974, the first live Saturday night version of "A Prairie Home Companion" was performed with a variety of entertainment such as music and comic skits accompanied by elaborate sound effects. It was a brilliant creation of Garrison Keillor marked by wit, satire and observational comedy. With cooked up commercial spots raving about the benefits of such fictional products as Powdermilk Biscuits, Jack's Auto Repair, and later on  Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery,  Bertha’s Kitty Boutique, etc., the audience was humorously entertained throughout the show. The show also contained serial melodramas such as the Private Eye, The Adventures of Guy Noir, and the Lives of the Cowboys.

 Another integral feature of the show was "The News from Lake Wobegon," a weekly monologue by Garrison Keillor. The stories of LakeWobegon, a fictional Minnesota town where women are strong, children are above average and men are good looking, were greatly inspired from Anoka, Keillor’s hometown, and other small towns of Stearns Country where he spent his early 1970s. The show was hugely popular and continued for thirteen years; then, it went on a hiatus for six years while Garrison Keillor worked on similar projects like "The American Radio Company of the Air." "The Prairie Home Companion" came back on air in 1993 and is still going strong. Keillor takes it on the road occasionally and entertains packed audiences in different cities live.

Garrison Keillor definitely has a way with words and he is a true story teller. He makes his audience feel that they are sitting in his front parlor and turns the most boring story interesting with his way of telling. It will definitely be a marvelous treat to hear this great man tell his anecdotes live. He will be right in front of you so it will be extra fun because now you can see his funny expressions. Be in the presence of this humorous man with his signature red shoes. Get your Garrison Keillor tickets and forget your worries for one day.