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Arts and Entertainment

From the archives: Comedy with a local flavor

Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion radio show keeps listeners laughing
Garrison Keillor, founder of “A Prairie Home Companion,” rehearses in Durango on June 13, 1998, in the Field House at Fort Lewis College, before his show.

Special to the Herald

This story was originally published on June 14, 1998. It was coverage of Garrison Keillor’s performance in Durango at Fort Lewis College. Keillor is retiring July 1.A Prairie Home Companion was the best of company Saturday.

Twenty-eight-hundred thrilled Durangoans watched as America’s storyteller, Garrison Keillor, turned his pen on Durango in a live staged broadcast of the weekly public radio show from the packed Fort Lewis College Fieldhouse.

Others who only got to listen – some 2.5 million on 400-plus public radio stations around the world – heard a sound portrait of Southwest Colorado in Keillor’s narrative and skits, including hilarious favorites from the Ketchup Advisory Board, The Lives of the Cowboys and Guy’s Shoes.

In a relaxed and also visually rich show, “Town Guest” Jackson Clark and the Durango Children’s Chorale shared the stage with musicians Mary Flowers and the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band, actors Tim Russell, Sue Scott and sound effects man Tom Keith.

Keith not only did sound effects, but also voices like Maurice the French chef.

A standard Prairie Home Companion prop, the front of a quaint frame house with windows lighted behind drawn curtains, drew eyes past microphones, lights and yards of cable.

The chorale, dressed brightly in red shirts, sang a handful of songs throughout the two-hour show that began after a brief warm-up that started at 3:45 p.m. The chorale sang several songs including “Durango Ladies,” a humorous, Keillor-authored ditty to the tune of Camptown Races.

Durango ladies sing this song/Tourists, tourists/Fine with me if they want to come/So long as they don’t stay

The chorale was directed by Diane VanDenBerg.

Keillor chatted with Clark, a fifth-generation native, who noted Durango had its beginning as a mining and railroad town and has made it to a national worse-dressed list, prompting Keillor to observe that “every day is casual day.”

A message from the Ketchup Advisory Board found Russell and Scott lamenting after moving to Durango from the Midwest that “our lives are so rich we don’t see each other any more.”

The remedy? Driving to the top of a mountain for hot dogs and ketchup.

A tuxedo-clad Keillor strolled across the stage while weaving a thoughtful “News From Lake Wobegon” narrative. His alternately poignant and comical story visited a high school graduation in the fictitious Lake Wobegon, where seniors, among other things, spent three hours in the bathroom “bringing themselves to a high gloss” before the ceremony.

Keillor spoke of humorous senior graduation pranks like fireworks rocketing out of a teacher’s car.

Keillor gave complimentary nods to KSUT-FM – for bringing the show to the area – and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe that sponsored it along with Norwest Bank.

Jun 30, 2016
From the archives: Garrison Keillor shares his observations of the Southwest, the internet and being funny – politely
Jun 30, 2016
Garrison Keillor retires: A look at his 1998 performance in Durango


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