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Friday, March 29, 2024
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NPR host sings, jokes at Phillips Center on Monday

<p>Seventy-three-year-old NPR radio host Garrison Keillor performs songs, recites poetry and cracked jokes to a crowd of over 1,000 in the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night. “You can’t be remembered for radio, because radio is self-erasing,” he said.</p>

Seventy-three-year-old NPR radio host Garrison Keillor performs songs, recites poetry and cracked jokes to a crowd of over 1,000 in the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night. “You can’t be remembered for radio, because radio is self-erasing,” he said.

Garrison Keillor sang a hymn and made sexual jokes in the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night.

The 73-year-old NPR radio host performed a variety show for a crowd of more than 1,000 people, where he recounted his life and career while cracking jokes that led the audience and ushers in laughs.

His visit was sponsored by UF performing arts. Keillor was paid to perform, but his compensation is confidential, said Brian Jose, the UF performing arts director.

“What I can say is that no two shows are alike,” Jose said. “Whether you’re an NPR fan or not, he’s a character and a legend.”

The parking lot was full 30 minutes before the lights went down, but that wasn’t a problem for the three retirement center vans right outside the front doors.

Anthony Thomas, an employee at Oak Hammock at UF, said speakers like Keillor always mean a full bus.

“They love it,” he said. “Any night of the week.”

Keillor, dressed in a white suit garnished with a red tie and shoes, sang his opening monologue and followed it with a comedy routine, which included everything he didn’t have “back in the day,” such as spreadable butter and car seat warmers.

He compared seat warmers to “falling in love all over again.”

About 30 minutes in, his pianist, Richard Dworsky, joined him onstage to accompany his songs and sonnets, which ranged from rhyming lines about life on his family farm to one-liners, woven among arpeggios.

His own rendition of “Pass me not, O gentle Savior” was followed a few songs later by a risque song about an opera singer in bed and then a song written for his daughter.

After an hour of music, he returned to his stand-up routine.

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“You can’t be remembered for radio, because radio is self-erasing,” he said.

Molly Brennan, a senior at Buchholz High School and future Florida Gator, attended the evening with her dad Tim, a UF alumnus.

She said she listens to NPR in the car with her dad, who has been a fan of Keillor’s program since he was a student at UF.

“I used to love him,” Tim Brennan said. “My wife’s not a fan so I dragged her (Molly) here with me.”

A few minutes before the end of the show, 74-year-old Barry Guinagh sat, watching the final comedy act on a screen in the lobby as he got ready to leave.

Guinagh, a Gainesville resident since 1968, said he has been a fan of Keillor’s for 40 years.

“The program’s too long,” he said. “It’s time for bed.”

@mollyidonovan

mdonovan@alligator.org

Seventy-three-year-old NPR radio host Garrison Keillor performs songs, recites poetry and cracked jokes to a crowd of over 1,000 in the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night. “You can’t be remembered for radio, because radio is self-erasing,” he said.

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