Garrison Keillor: Christmas Blizzard

[@WHITEBOARDSTRATEGIES]

True story. In February of 2014, and for reasons I will never understand, a salesman in a motorcycle shop in Fargo, N.D. suggested I check out Garrison Keillor. I'd never heard of him as I am from the UK - and I was just visiting Fargo. When I returned to the UK only a few days later I looked up GK on KZbin and watched this video. I enjoyed it. One week after that, I am sitting in a Starbucks in the City of London killing some time before a business appointment when I look up from my coffee and see.... Garrison Keillor walking past the Starbucks! With the exact profile I had seen in this video. Stunned, surprised and shocked I rushed out of the coffee shop and ran after him calling his name. He stopped. We chatted for a minute or two as I tried to explain (and simultaneously hoped he could explain) the strange series of events that had taken place over the previous two weeks and across two continents. I'm not sure he fully understood what I was trying to explain. Anyway, he was lovely. He complimented me on my choice of braces and we had a photo taken together. How strange is that...?

[@tm502010]

Love this odd little story!

[@uab50]

Very strange indeed🇺🇸💙‼️

[@cherylc6493]

How wonderful!!

[@lynnmcculloch-m4h]

Really miss this show. Garrison was a the greatest communicator!

[@radios10001]

Time is a stand still. Just hear him and get energised. A genius belonging to an era which lives for ever. A very good English, emphatic voice and mesmerising humor.

[@BigDaveEnglishTeacher]

You undersell him. Time and future Americana investigation will look most favorably upon him and his work.

[@unclefester9113]

Seeing Keillor would be a once in a lifetime event. Simply Amazing.

[@wholovesyoujoe]

What a talented man. Lucky to have caught these moments of humor, reflection and beautiful songs.

[@bethleslie3994]

This is beautiful, a chance to embrace the gentle moment. it’s chance to hear a first rate story teller.

[@connieharris932]

Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion saved my sanity and opened my mind to storytelling back in the '70s, when I was first married and moved to a small rural town in SE North Dakota. The popular entertainment was city in the bar and telling stupid jokes.

[@uab50]

Thank you for all your healing art; these podcasts are helping me with my chronic depression and more! A long time ago I made decisions about draftees going to Vietnam; I read a typed response and labeled that person as 4F because of psychological problems. I tried to keep everyone out unless they really wanted to go fight in the jungles since I was opposed to that war! Captain Yoder MD

[@nbenefiel]

We listened to Prairie Home Companion forever. We’d put our babies in the car and drive around listening to Garrison. We had a big Norwegian Christmas party for years. I always made lutefisk (which only one person ever ate) and tons of food from my grandma’s recipe book. I also made a thousand baked goods. We played Norwegian Christmas music, Garrison’s Now it is Christmas Again to Odd Norstroga and some I picked up at Vesterheim in Decorah Iowa.

[@sillymrgiggles]

This is a joy to watch. Garrison Keillor is, as always, brilliant.

[@Ar7wen]

A great storyteller, something we are sorely lacking these days. Sweet and funny. Always relaxes me and lifts my mood......

[@mandyinseattle]

Mee too. He makes me laugh when I least expect it.

[@marshawoods4983]

Love this man he touched so many lives ❤

[@noelbyrne8661]

Garrison Keillor is fantastic

[@DEdens1525]

A national treasure.

[@johnunderwood3132]

I would have loved to been in that church. I just enjoy Anderson’s stories so much. Thank you so much!

[@FigaroHey]

Anderson? Hilarious that you got his name wrong...

[@ginikleinfelter6848]

As always, wonderful

[@Learnamericanenglishonline]

No notes. It's all in the noggin. See Garrison Keillor perform while you still have a chance.

[@mandyinseattle]

I saw him this march and I laughed with poignant tears in my eyes :) I miss him already.

[@rosalindmartin4469]

Yup. I made sure to catch him on stage. Funny ..but it FEELS so personal listening in pardon😅

[@barbaraperry5023]

I was so lucky to get to do just that...wonderful evening.😊💞👍

[@jackbmcelhaney4824]

This performer is about all I miss from Minnesota.

[@mstcs40]

Just love this guy . Hope to see him in person sometime soon in Seattle:).

[@dwetick1]

Too good to pass up...I collect all Garrison Keillor's stuff...

[@paulMcGlothin]

Magnificent!

[@bryanlint9327]

People talking to each other. What a change!

[@chrisfireymusic]

thanks so much for uploading this.

[@donnacsuti4980]

Love your prayers would be happy with that prayer for my life and the world

[@philipinchina]

Great stuff.

[@dwaynebrue6028]

Garrison Keillor is The Greatest!!

[@wayne00k]

Does anyone know who might be keeping the storytelling alive in the tradition of Garrison Keeler? I would appreciate suggestions... Cheers

[@maryzambrana7141]

Sorry to say, but no one has or will match GK. Have you listened to Stuart McClain, now deceased, from Canada? He had a good story telling catalog from an Eastern Canadian point of view. 🤗

[@nbenefiel]

You do it.

[@bingbingdeluca]

most underrated

[@STOLSPEED]

I do have to note that Garrison interpreted that song 'Little Boxes' wrongly at 1:13:23. As the bearded gentleman noted, it was indeed about "...doctors, and lawyers and business executives...", not about poor people's housing at all. I've seen those multi-colored little boxes on that hillside at that time. Yes, they did look like little boxes, but very expensive little boxes, old row houses probably made of ticky-tack, but at that time an expensive hip district having been 'gentrified'.

[@billrollins4127]

Love it

[@jeanette1946]

the segment on storytelling (actually writing) is so true. i recently saw a video in which Toni Morrison said she wanted to go back and rewrite something a character either said or did, but it was too late … it was already at the publisher's and they weren't going to give it back. (haha!) [the recollection of the NYC driver giving a piece of his mind to a pedestrian (GK, in this case) is classic Garrison Keillor, sometimes i think the delivery separates a good anecdote from a great one.)

[@horticasey]

I don't care how many women he "assaulted" (which he didn't do by the way). The man is an American treasure.

[@gwenrosewater3672]

Pure beauty....

[@kborgeling]

Amazing Man

[@leomontie8980]

garrison must have passed on his genes because his grandson is a good friend of mine and he is very charismatic.

[@JasperSteering]

What's he up to?

[@leomontie8980]

@@JasperSteering Kinda crazy you responded. Freddy actually committed suicide 5 years ago. I hadn't spoken to hime for a while and I still don't know what happened to this day

[@MyKingdomForAK9]

Keillor, Frederick James "Freddy" Age 17, of St. Paul. He caught his first fish at age five, only to immediately, and frantically, work to save its life. When the fish died, he demanded a proper burial along the banks of the St. Croix River. Freddy had a St. Francis of Assisi-like love for animals, and a special affinity for St. Jude's hopeless cases. Recently, a group of orphaned ducklings met a similar fate as that first fish, but not before he'd toiled for weeks trying to offer the motherly care they needed. Frederick Keillor's earthy journey ended much too early on Monday at the age of seventeen, leaving behind many questions as well as countless comforting memories of a gentle, sensitive soul who never balked at helping out all animals, humans included. A brilliant mind who excelled at St. Paul Academy (even when he overslept), Freddy could master a debate class one year, and win an anthropology poetry contest the next. Freddy spoke Chinese, and built his own computer at the age of ten. A voracious reader, and painter, his canvases revealed works that showcased his artistic gifts. He'd looked forward to prom, and spoke glowingly of his date. Just last weekend Freddy was discussing college choices. Drawn to water, and nature, he wasn't solitary. Freddy was wonderful with children even as a small child. His preschool teacher remarked that she felt comfortable leaving the room if Freddy was there. The streets of St. Paul are slightly quieter this week. His proficient whistling is silenced, as is the SUV carrying Freddy, and his mother, windows open, blasting 80s music, both of them singing along with off-key abandon. We'd like to think the Big Next for Freddy is an outdoor picnic populated with all the animals he tried to save over the years, past pets (including Gus), and a new brood to care for. Nearby will sit all of those who went before him, including his grandmother Mary, and great- grandmother Elsie, all the while surrounded by the pile of mismatched shoes he was always losing, and a big tree to climb, like the one he mastered at age seven to get a better view of the river. (One wonders if grandfather, Garrison, wrote this lovely tribute. 💗)

[@SaitFaik54]

I wish to see him one day in St Sophia to tell us "in the middle of the stories" in the Mid East.

[@janicemoore5455]

Very identifiable

[@jacobprater6041]

The closest we will ever get to having mark twan agian

[@ijc9984]

Or Swilliam Wakespear

[@captainmorgan757]

I'd be interested to know if the aspiring young man at 1:02:00 - 1:07:00 ever became the writer that he desired to become.

[@nonoozabletodogmaisaiah4577]

Whose idea was it to have a camera? I love this guy! He is the original Prairie Home Companion!

[@bobareebop]

Keillor is a humorist, not a comedian. I found this to be quite humorous and enjoyable. He may not weave a yarn quite as deftly as he used to. The Wobegon monologues were (mostly) actual stories with a beginning and an end. More recently and for some time they had become stream-of-consciousness rambles. Good but not as good as before. I don't think Keillor has "become a flaming liberal", I believe he always had a progressive view...pretty liberal socially and quite conservative fiscally. He is my literary hero, and I recommend his books, especially "Lake Wobegon Days", "Love Me", "Lake Wobegon Boy", and "Homegrown Democrat".

[@Trichomes503]

I've never seen another male openly tear up to music like the bald dude in red. I know dat feel.

[@thomasmatthew9515]

Was this freestyle?

[@RosieTheRiveter07]

👍🏼

[@BrentBart70]

Your generation likes him Two times. Read "Lake Wobegon Days" too.

[@oldowl4290]

I hate to give you the first dislike on this video but this is just of him speaking and singing some songs. At no point does he ever read from his book or tell stories apart from various travel experiences followed by a 40 minute question and answer session. Therefore the description in this is wildly inaccurate.

[@adams115]

Is that man drunk?

[@sugarlanskee8]

Sounds like Jack Speer, both of which are up for world's greatest.....................somethings.

[@pascoesvale]

Thumbs up if you are here from Big Mouth

[@dboydboy1000]

This is all CGI right?!

[@Danimal-D-Animal]

Wow! I love Prairie Home Companion, but if I have to hear this for another second I'm going to snap. How long could this possibly go on? I'm 5 minutes in and pounding the stop button.

[@Danimal-D-Animal]

It says I'd be happier doing something else. Thanks for your concern though.

[@Mutlap]

just had to get climate change in there !

[@IBEMOM2]

Bùñdēvãr

[@FigaroHey]

I can listen to Garrison Keillor, but I can't look at him. He is frightening looking. (shudder)

[@lionstandingII]

Anti-Christ sentiment comes in all forms.....That "prayer" at the beginning was outright blasphemy.

[@robinjohnson5014]

Save homeless

[@tanner955]

what is this? is it supposed to funny? entertaining? i don't get it

[@MondoMiami]

Jesus Christ. People will laugh at anything.

[@mandyinseattle]

You're dead inside.

[@johnkyle3749]

Go listen to Justin Beiber

[@jum1801]

Actually, you're right. And I say this as someone who listened to Keillor for over 20 years, beginning in 1981. But he turned into a taxpayer-supported political player, and the most bitter passive/aggressive old fart ever. As far as his schtick, he's been phoning it in for at least a decade....and this video is irrefutable evidence.

[@sonlyme4445]

The gentle and the subtle are old fashioned now, but remain of value to those who can hear.

[@rapier1954]

He is easy to listen to but just the stuff on KZbin proves you are right, it is the same old stories and poems over and over. But he is now a flaming liberal and not a particularly nice in real life at times. Sad but true. This is just an act but still fun to listen to but not to be taken seriously.

[@Trichomes503]

I've never seen another male openly tear up to music like the bald dude in red. I know dat feel.