EP 01 / Garrison Keillor / Author, Humorist and Radio Icon

Quotes

“I’ve started a new enterprise as an octagenarian standup. I do a solo show. There’s some audience singing and I toss in some poems. I string together stories. It’s great fun.” (Garrison)

“I try to stay away from politics, though it’s not always possible.” (Garrison)

“I’m hoping to continue to be lucky (as I age). People I know who get into their 90s run some real risks that we all want to avoid.” (Garrison)

“I accomplish meditation by way of writing. I do it early in the morning. I sometimes wake up at 3 and 4 in the morning. I’m awakened by ideas. They’re not always taking the form of words, but they want to. And so I arise in the dark and I make coffee and I sit down and try to put the ideas into words.” (Garrison)

“The (delete button) is wonderful. The best. If only there was a way to take a ray gun and delete whole piles of things on my desk I would do it.” (Garrison)

“My bookshelves are full of books I will never read. And so I’m at the deletion stage of life. I want to make life smaller and smaller.” (Garrison)

“Performing has its own end and it will come to” an end. I hope that I recognize (the end) before other people do.” (Garrison)

“I am working with an audience – people my age and their children and some of their grandchildren – who, when I say ‘It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota,’ they laugh. They recognize this. Somehow, without intending to, I’ve become a familiar person to them.” (Garrison)

“I like to exit through the audience and I like to stand out in the lobby. And here comes a young woman with a nose ring. Here comes a middle-aged woman whose left arm is covered with tattoos. These are people I didn’t know were in my audience.” (Garrison)

“I think that politics and government has become discouraging to many people. But I think that the big enemy is isolation. Many people are more isolated than I remember being in my middle years. Partly as a result of this technology that you and I are using right now.” (Garrison)

“I do have regrets. Of course I do. I think I worked too hard for a period of my life and I don’t think I was a particularly good father. I had two marriages that did not work out and of course I regret my part in that.” (Garrison)

“I think I am a Minnesotan. I’m not even sure exactly what that means. First of all, it means don’t think you’re somebody – and I don’t. I still have the sensation when I do my show and I come to the end and I am embarrassed by applause.” (Garrison)

“There’s no time to waste. And so, don’t. Don’t waste it.” (Garrison)

I like to be old. I think it’s humorous. And I like to comment on it, especially to younger people.” (Garrison)

“I think that every person in their 20s should have somebody in his or her 80s to pay attention to. I’m not sure that I did when I was in my 20s.” (Garrison)

“I remember what it felt like to be young. I don’t run anymore. I suppose I could, but it doesn’t bother me that I can’t.” (Garrison)

Notes

Garrison Keillor is an American author, humorist, and radio personality best known for creating and hosting A Prairie Home Companion. His work captures the charm of Midwestern life, blending storytelling, music, and wit. Keillor has authored numerous books and remains a celebrated figure in American humor and literature.

Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80 by Garrison Keillor is a reflective, humorous memoir exploring life in his seventies and eighties. Keillor shares stories and insights on aging, love, and everyday joys, blending his signature wit and warmth to celebrate the beauty of growing older with grace and laughter.

Despite being retired from A Prairie Home Companion for eight years, Garrison is still very active as a writer – writing two columns each week – and as a performer.

Garrison had heart surgery in which he received a valve from a young pig. To this day, he’s appreciative to the pig and avoids eating pork because it’s “the decent thing to do.”

Garrison credits quitting drinking 20 years ago at 62 with restoring his early mornings and allowing him to rise early each day.

On the topic of whether he’s a Minnesotan or New Yorker, Garrison says he’s not sure and it’s for other people to decide. He does admit that he thinks he’s a Minnesotan.

Transcript

03:44.35
varsitybranding
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of Roundtable Talk. Our goal is to share fresh perspectives about aging, retirement, longevity, and a variety of other topics related to issues facing today’s older adults.

03:57.69
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To say that I’m excited to introduce our first ever guest would be an understatement. Joining us is Garrison Keeler, a man whose accomplishments and resume are too long to mention here, but I’ll list a few things. 40 years as host of a Prairie Home Companion, best-selling author, a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame, one of the funniest people in America at any age, and someone who refuses to let age get in the way of staying busy. Garrison, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to Roundtable Talk.

04:26.31
Garrison Keillor
It’s my pleasure. Good to talk to a fellow Midwesterner, albeit one from North Dakota.

04:34.30
varsitybranding
Yes, indeed. I can’t think of but a better way to kick off the podcast, especially for me personally. You know, as you mentioned, I’m from North Dakota and a fellow Golden Gopher. I’ve attended many of your book readings around the Twin Cities and our family even journeyed to California to your final broadcast from the Hollywood Bowl.

04:51.17
Garrison Keillor
I remember that Hollywood Bowl show very well. I took the wrong exit coming off the stage. After the show was over, we stood around with the audience for a while and we sang. We sang all these old songs. And then I took the wrong exit and I found myself in a crowd of people leaving leaving the ball. And it was very it was it was wonderful.

05:24.06
Garrison Keillor
we We mixed and we mingled.

05:27.64
varsitybranding
That’s great. That’s wonderful. And I know you often do that. You’ll come down into the crowd after the you know after your shows. And I remember you telling a story because when we were there, it was in the evening. And typically your broadcast is live at five o’clock central, I think, which would be you know three o’clock Pacific. And you said it had to be.

05:47.93
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done in the evening and tape delayed because ah you had done it once before in the afternoon and in the California heat in July, you don’t want people sitting out there for for two hours and in the under the hot sun.

06:01.47
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So, well, as of last week, you’re 82. Happy birthday, by the way. but you haven’t slept

06:06.90
Garrison Keillor
it slide do i I went out on the road doing shows to avoid having a birthday party. and But I made the mistake of telling audiences that I was doing this. And so they all sang to me anyway. So I heard it eight times in 10 days.

06:28.85
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Why can promise you I will not sing happy birthday to you right now?

06:32.21
Garrison Keillor
but Thank you. Thank you.

06:33.48
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Yes, yes, yes, but you haven’t slowed down as we were just talking about it’s been eight years since your last episode of a Prairie Home Companion But you’re still writing still traveling and touring.

06:33.66
Garrison Keillor
I appreciate that.

06:44.08
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What’s your secret? What keeps you going?

06:46.38
Garrison Keillor
I lost my ambition, I think is the is the answer. And i i’m I’m doing it for the pleasure of it.

06:57.74
Garrison Keillor
And, you know, my my

06:57.86
varsitybranding
Hmm.

07:02.66
Garrison Keillor
I cut back on some things. I ah no longer go and do lectures to groups.

07:14.07
varsitybranding
Okay.

07:14.38
Garrison Keillor
or that was That was pointless because I i was trying too hard to speak to their particular interest. And so I’ve started this this new,

07:29.68
Garrison Keillor
Enterprise as an octogenarian stand-up. I do a solo show and there’s some audience singing a little bit and I toss in some poems but I string together stories but each show is different and because I don’t work from a script and it’s it’s just great fun. I also enjoy writing a column.

07:55.94
Garrison Keillor
I write to a week 750 words, and it’s a, and it’s a wonderful. It’s a wonderful form, I try to stay away from politics, though it’s not always possible.

08:10.04
Garrison Keillor
and

08:11.60
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There’s a little bit to write about when it comes to politics right now, right?

08:14.59
Garrison Keillor
Well, that yeah, but but other people are are writing in a much more interesting fashion.

08:21.82
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Sure.

08:22.51
Garrison Keillor
And I don’t ah don’t pay that much attention.

08:28.13
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Good.

08:28.84
Garrison Keillor
But there are you know interesting characters, as we all know. and and it is And it is always a good subject for satire.

08:40.59
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Indeed indeed. Now you mentioned that you’d like to live to be 97 just like your mother. What are you looking forward to as you age?

08:49.15
Garrison Keillor
Well, I’m hoping to to continue to be lucky. People I know who get into the 90s decade, you know, run some real real risks that we all want to avoid. But medicine is is is marching forward.

09:15.61
Garrison Keillor
And I think that they’re solving some of these problems. I had a stroke, I think about five years ago, but in the meantime, this anti-seizure medication has come along, levatoracitin, and they can increase this dosage I had a little episode doing a show out on Long Island, I think two years ago, of aphasia.

09:52.90
Garrison Keillor
It came at the end of a show. I was about to say, good night. And then I couldn’t form words.

10:01.53
varsitybranding
Wow.

10:02.33
Garrison Keillor
And I stood there and something, you know, the audience looking at me and Then something clicked in my brain and I started to sing Old Lang Syne.

10:16.59
Garrison Keillor
And so that made a fitting end to the show. And a stage manager came out and guided me backstage and the EMTs were all in there. These wonderful men. And, you know, they packed me off on a gurney and took me to a hospital and so forth. And they simply upped the dosage of this levatoracitum. And it never has happened since.

10:45.30
varsitybranding
Well, thank God. and And boy, you know how to end a show, don’t you?

10:45.82
Garrison Keillor
So medicine is on our side. And and so this this I think offers some real possibilities.

10:50.31
varsitybranding
Indeed.

10:55.87
Garrison Keillor
My mother was good right up till she, I think, hit around 96. But it wasn’t so bad. She carried on conversations with her beloved sister, Elsie, who had died a number of years before.

11:18.03
Garrison Keillor
But she was conversing with her. And she paused and listened to some sort of response. And then she responded to what she thought Elsie had said.

11:30.90
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Mm

11:31.76
Garrison Keillor
Not a dreadful thing.

11:33.98
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hmm. Absolutely. And since you’re talking about some of your your health episodes, I happen to have your your book Cheerfulness here and was reading it. And it was interesting, you were talking about, I believe it was a pig valve that that you had installed. Is that correct?

11:51.60
Garrison Keillor
Yes, yes, a Val from a young pig and Dr. Durrani at Mayo Clinic did the work and it was ah it was a it was a clean, successful operation.

12:09.83
varsitybranding
That’s great. I think you said in the book that you’re appreciative of the pig, but you’re not now suddenly going to become a standard bearer for pigs and and pig treatment, right?

12:20.06
Garrison Keillor
I have avoided pork since I had this procedure. I just felt it was was the decent thing to do.

12:31.71
varsitybranding
That’s great, that’s great. In 2017, you said in an interview that relaxation is a dangerous thing, it’s to be avoided. Retirement is very perilous. You know, seven years on, do you still feel that way?

12:45.52
Garrison Keillor
I’m not sure, I think that i think that relaxation,

12:55.22
Garrison Keillor
by relaxation I think I mean just sitting around, but but there is room for meditation. and But meditation is a discipline.

13:09.55
Garrison Keillor
And I think that I accomplish meditation by way of writing. And that I do it early in the morning. I sometimes wake up at three and four in the morning. I’m awakened by ideas.

13:38.16
Garrison Keillor
And they are not always taking the form of words, but they want to.

13:47.66
varsitybranding
Hmm.

13:48.53
Garrison Keillor
And so I arise in the dark and I make coffee and I sit down and I try to put them into words. To me, this is a crucial thing that was helped along by the fact that when I was 62, 20 years ago, I simply stopped alcohol.

14:18.92
Garrison Keillor
And I did it because I had a little girl, and I i was ah i was a two-fisted drinker.

14:19.12
varsitybranding
Hmm.

14:33.72
Garrison Keillor
I didn’t embarrass myself. I don’t think I did. But but I didn’t want her to grow up with this father.

14:45.47
Garrison Keillor
and And so I simply stopped. And but that restores your early morning.

14:51.88
varsitybranding
That’s interesting. Sure it does.

14:56.95
Garrison Keillor
You rediscover the early morning. a Before that, you know, your your early morning can often be hung over, and you may not recover until afternoon, and you lose.

15:11.93
Garrison Keillor
You lose a real asset as a writer, a real asset. And I’m glad I discovered that when I was when I was 62.

15:18.38
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Sure.

15:24.30
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That’s great. Hey, no time like the like the present, right?

15:27.92
Garrison Keillor
Yes, it’s never too late.

15:29.76
varsitybranding
Never too late. the Well said. Well said. Now, I’m curious. You said you sometimes wake up at three or four in the morning with an idea. you You fix a ah pot of coffee. Do you have a and ah tape recorder, an audio recorder, or do you mull it over in your mind?

15:44.32
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How do you hold on to those ideas? Because I find some of those things that you know I have clarity when I wake up, and by the time I’m moving about, it’s gone.

15:53.03
Garrison Keillor
You have to put them down on paper, I think is is helpful. I don’t sit down at a laptop, i but I sit down with a paper and pen and I want to put down whatever words come to mind, sentences if possible. But when I’m working on a book, which I’m doing now, when I’m working on a book, then I have a framework for these ideas. There’s some place in this book for this to go. I’m working on a Lake Wobegon novel now and I’m

16:40.65
Garrison Keillor
up to 40,000 words and I think I’m probably about two-thirds of the way done.

16:46.51
varsitybranding
Oh, great, great. Well, again, in the book Cheerfulness, you talk about the delete button and how, you know, talk a little about that. I loved your story about, you know, how how freeing the delete button can be.

16:58.64
Garrison Keillor
Oh, it’s wonderful. It’s the best thing. If there were only, you know, some way that I could take a ray gun and delete a whole piles of things on my desk.

17:12.26
Garrison Keillor
I would do it.

17:14.76
varsitybranding
That’s great.

17:15.86
Garrison Keillor
My bookshelves are full of books I will never read. And so I’m at the deletion stage of of life.

17:26.40
varsitybranding
Sure.

17:26.50
Garrison Keillor
I want to make life smaller and smaller.

17:31.06
varsitybranding
And how are you doing that? I know we when we talk with folks who are you know in their 60s, 70s, 80s, downsizing is is a big part of it. But you’re still you know out there living your life. You’re still traveling. How are you kind of sorting through everything and determining what to keep, what to what to set aside?

17:52.12
Garrison Keillor
The big change came when I decided to live full time in New York. My wife loves New York. She’s a Minnesotan, but she came here when she was 16, 17 to study violin at Manhattan School of Music and to become a freelance violinist. And she lived here through many years of near poverty as a musician.

18:19.35
varsitybranding
Hm.

18:21.66
Garrison Keillor
And so she really learned the city and she learned self-sufficiency. She learned to combat ah depression by walking. Walking, walking, walking, walking. And she and she’s she’s ah she’s a walker in the city. She does six, seven, eight, maybe 10 miles a day. I came here because she had lived my life in St. Paul when we married.

18:54.83
Garrison Keillor
And now that I left the radio show, it was her turn.

19:00.91
varsitybranding
that’s great that’s great

19:01.08
Garrison Keillor
So I came to the city because whatever you can do to make your wife happy is a good thing to do. And moving to the city where I’m a stranger,

19:15.60
Garrison Keillor
suddenly my time becomes very free. I know a few people. I used to work at the New Yorker magazine. I have a few friends from there, but mostly my time is very free.

19:32.63
Garrison Keillor
I don’t drive anymore and so I’m a pedestrian and suddenly life becomes much, much simpler and I’m not in charge of an office of people. I was never a good manager and so that part of my life is all over. I simply get up in the morning and I need to take care of myself.

19:57.07
varsitybranding
That’s great. That’s great. So do you see a day when you’ll truly retire when you’re no longer touring and performing for audiences? What does retirement look like for Garrison Keillor?

20:08.00
Garrison Keillor
ah Performing has its own end and and it will and it will come to an end.

20:15.85
varsitybranding
I hope it’s a very, you know, very long in the future.

20:18.78
Garrison Keillor
Well, I don’t know. i I just hope that I recognize it before other people do.

20:26.46
varsitybranding
Interesting.

20:26.85
Garrison Keillor
But to I think it i think it I think it has ah a good way to come. I think that I do a different sort of show than most stand-up comics. And I have so much material from having done monologues about Lake Wobegon.

20:52.73
Garrison Keillor
ah that I can weave it in different directions. I can revise it. I can i can play with it. It’s a very playful thing. I never try to memorize or work from a set outline.

21:12.51
Garrison Keillor
so it’s So it’s fun to do. I stay away from politics. Other people do that much better and I am working with an audience, people my age, and their children and some of their grandchildren.

21:31.88
Garrison Keillor
who, when I say it’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, say they they they laugh. they They recognize this. i Somehow, without intending to, I became a familiar person to them. And I say, you know, it’s the town where all the women are strong, and the men are good looking, and all the children are above average, and they laugh.

22:00.77
varsitybranding
That’s great.

22:00.94
Garrison Keillor
I say, you know, I refer to Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. If you can’t find it at Ralph’s, you can get along without it. And they laugh. And so onward we go.

22:12.85
varsitybranding
That’s great. That’s great. Now, more recently, you wrote on your website, the beauty of octogenarian is and octogenarianism is freedom. Your career is over. You’re done. You look out at the crowd and see people googling your name to figure out who you are. You were just mentioning that there is a yeah a wide age range at your group, at some of your shows. you know Can you expand on that? Does it really happen? Or I’m sure there was a lot of self-deprecating humor in there, but I love that quote.

22:43.39
Garrison Keillor
I walk out into the lobby. I like to exit through the audience. And I like to stand out in the lobby. I’ve been lucky so far. I only picked up COVID once.

22:56.53
varsitybranding
Hm.

22:57.41
Garrison Keillor
and And here comes a young woman with ah with a nose ring. Here comes a middle-aged woman whose left arm is covered with tattoos. These are people I didn’t know.

23:14.62
Garrison Keillor
were in my audience.

23:18.09
Garrison Keillor
There are plenty of men with ponytails. There are plenty of male couples who appear to me to be couples. I’m sure they are. And so it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s interesting to go out and and see these people. And they want to tell me, you know, I grew up with your show. I love your show. My father, my late father loved your show. And you listen to that. And then you start asking them questions. And they’re happy to talk about themselves. And in this way, you you you learn about your audience and you also pick up material.

24:11.01
Garrison Keillor
that you can use farther down the road. It’s so it’s it’s a very, I hesitate to use the word joyful, but it but it is actually sort of joyful. They are fond of me in ways that I’m a little embarrassed by, but I turn the tables on them and I find out What do you do? What do you do? Not just how do you earn a living, but but what’s your purpose? What what are you what do you here on Earth for? and And tell me a little bit about your parents and your ancestry. And they will talk and talk and talk. It’s fun.

25:03.55
varsitybranding
That’s great. I do remember a time ah our family was at a performance of, I think it was Twelfth Night with Mark Rylance, and we were leaving the theater and you happened to be standing there amongst the crowd, so I went up and introduced myself and our son, who was probably, you know,

25:24.10
varsitybranding
12 or 13 was there, and I just remember you putting your arm on ah or your hand on his shoulder and leaning in and and asking him you know questions about him, just like you just said, and and it was really, I think, a meaningful time for him, so that’s that’s wonderful.

25:39.92
Garrison Keillor
It was a meaningful time for me.

25:42.13
varsitybranding
That’s great, that’s great. Well, you know, you have a few shows coming up in September, as we’ve talked about, and the theme is cheerfulness, and it’s the title of your most recent book, as I mentioned earlier. Do you think that America needs some cheering up?

25:54.50
Garrison Keillor
I do, I do. i think that I think that politics, government has become discouraging to many people.

26:09.79
Garrison Keillor
and But I think that the big enemy is isolation.

26:15.40
varsitybranding
Hm.

26:16.68
Garrison Keillor
And many people are more isolated than I remember being in my middle years, partly as a result of this technology that you and I are using right now.

26:32.42
Garrison Keillor
which makes it possible for many more people to sit alone, be at home, do their work, have some kind of social life on social media. But it’s it’s a perilous life to my mind. and i And I remember my social life When I was in college, I remember ah remember family gatherings. I remember the close proximity of people ah playing on a softball team, sitting sitting in in a beer joint, a whole group of men packed into a booth.

27:29.74
Garrison Keillor
and and alcohol was not the main reason to be there. The main reason was to talk and tell jokes.

27:38.75
varsitybranding
Hm.

27:44.02
Garrison Keillor
And and we and we did this. I remember parties where people stood around and sang.

27:57.22
Garrison Keillor
And and i I’m not sure that I have a sense that we are leaving this culture behind.

28:08.99
varsitybranding
Hmm.

28:09.33
Garrison Keillor
I try to keep it going in the shows that I do, and I find a way to ask the audience to sing My Country Tis of the Sweet Land of Liberty.

28:24.89
Garrison Keillor
If they are singers, which I would say most audiences are, we would go on and maybe sing the Battle Hand of the Republic. If they’re in certain parts of the country, surely if I did a show and in North Dakota, rural Minnesota, Utah, oh wow.

28:55.48
Garrison Keillor
Mormons. I do a show in Utah and we are definitely going to sing hymns. We’re going to sing abide with me fast falls the eventide. We’re going to sing when peace like a river attendeth my way and sorrows like sea billows roll whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it as well it is well with my soul and the singing.

29:19.52
varsitybranding
That’s great.

29:20.83
Garrison Keillor
I did a show at the Methodist camp in Ocean Grove, New Jersey and I walked out into the crowd and we sang it as well with my soul and sitting in a seat on the aisle I walked in, I would say about 20 rows in.

29:48.27
Garrison Keillor
It’s a huge, big auditorium. And sitting in an aisle seat all by himself with a pair of motorcycle boots ah was Bruce Springsteen.

30:00.83
varsitybranding
Hmm.

30:01.75
Garrison Keillor
And he was singing, it is well with my soul.

30:05.09
varsitybranding
What an amazing story.

30:07.50
Garrison Keillor
What an amazing sight.

30:09.59
varsitybranding
Yeah.

30:10.57
Garrison Keillor
Very nice guy, he came backstage afterward and, you know, we talked a little bit. But that’s the culture that I come from and I accept that it is changing, but I don’t want it to change too fast and entirely.

30:17.53
varsitybranding
That’s great.

30:32.23
varsitybranding
No, I feel that too.

30:33.58
Garrison Keillor
But i have I have great nephews who admit to me they do not know the words to the Star Spangled Banner.

30:43.51
varsitybranding
Wow.

30:44.82
Garrison Keillor
I don’t like that.

30:47.41
varsitybranding
I agree. It’s amazing how some of those things that you take for granted are not being passed along.

30:50.70
Garrison Keillor
I don’t like that. i’m ah I’m an old Democrat, but I don’t like the fact that they don’t they have not recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands. They do not know.

31:11.73
Garrison Keillor
I would like them to know the beatitudes. I would like them you know to be able to recite the Lord’s Prayer, but I especially would like them to be able to sing songs with other people.

31:25.23
varsitybranding
that’s that’s That’s beautiful.

31:26.11
Garrison Keillor
without looking at your cell phone.

31:28.36
varsitybranding
That’s right, that’s right. Hey, I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about your book Serenity at 70, Gayity at 80. And I have a copy of it here. You describe it as a book about the joyfulness of aging.

31:42.32
varsitybranding
In it, you tell stories about the beauty of getting older, getting kissed by Meryl Streep, and about mortality. You also offer 23 rules for aging. Can we talk about a few of those rules?

31:53.14
Garrison Keillor
I don’t remember those rules whatsoever. my ah My memory does not include things that I myself have written.

31:59.98
varsitybranding
Well, I’ll remind you of them if that’s okay. So rule number three was that regret is not so interesting.

32:04.20
Garrison Keillor
ah I do, of course I do.

32:07.32
varsitybranding
You know, you talk about here about letting go, moving on. Do you have any regrets?

32:14.53
Garrison Keillor
I do.

32:15.40
varsitybranding
And you don’t have to share them, but just curious.

32:18.04
Garrison Keillor
No, I absolutely do. I think I worked too hard. for a period of my life. And I don’t think I was a particularly good father.

32:31.85
varsitybranding
Hm.

32:33.03
Garrison Keillor
I don’t think children are absolutely dependent on on their parents. I certainly was not. My father worked double time.

32:48.56
Garrison Keillor
I had a number of aunts who were very sympathetic in ways that probably my father was not equipped to be.

33:01.68
varsitybranding
Hmm.

33:02.03
Garrison Keillor
But I do bet i do regret i do regret that. I had two ah marriages that did not work out. And of course, I i regret my part in that.

33:14.22
varsitybranding
Sure, sure. Well, thank you for sharing that. Rule number four was remember where you’re from. You tell a fantastic story about meeting a woman in Paris and telling her that you’ you’re from New York. She corrects you and says, no, you’re not. You’re from Anoka.

33:29.00
varsitybranding
So I know you talked about moving from St. Paul to New York. You’ve lived in New York for a few years now, but you’re indelibly linked with Minnesota. Would you call yourself a New Yorker or would you call yourself a Minnesotan?

33:40.29
Garrison Keillor
I don’t know, it’s not for me to decide. Other people can decide. My wife thinks that I fit in in New York. I mean, I i know how to converse with strangers, how to find some common base. I’m not all that patient going to ah Concerts, plays, I’m not patient at all going to art galleries. I i make up my mind much too soon and I don’t i don’t let them ah don’t let the work seep into my consciousness the way

34:28.51
Garrison Keillor
i should but I think I am a Minnesotan and I don’t you i’m I’m not even sure I’m not even sure exactly what that means I think it first of all it means don’t think you’re somebody and I don’t I still have the sensation when I do my show and I come to the end and I say, thank you everybody.

35:03.89
Garrison Keillor
I am embarrassed by applause.

35:06.36
varsitybranding
Hmm.

35:07.63
Garrison Keillor
And I walk off stage and I don’t know what to do. And stage manager says, go out there, go out there, go out there. So I go out there, but I find it embarrassing.

35:18.55
varsitybranding
Interesting.

35:19.68
Garrison Keillor
Yeah.

35:20.15
varsitybranding
Interesting. So do you get back to Anoka often?

35:24.69
Garrison Keillor
No, I don’t. I don’t get back often. I don’t. Most of my classmates left an OCA, but i bet I like talking too to them on the phone.

35:41.84
Garrison Keillor
i

35:44.68
Garrison Keillor
I’m missing a class reunion this summer. Some of the classmates whom I loved are gone and i and I still find this very painful.

36:03.91
varsitybranding
sure so know

36:06.11
Garrison Keillor
One of them died by suicide and I just cannot, I just cannot get get get get get into her death and i I keep running through in my own mind her last days, the last times I saw her and I so i just I cannot make sense of it.

36:21.80
varsitybranding
Sure, sure. Now i’m I’m really sorry to hear that. And I know in this day and age, it feels like people are are talking more about issues of mental health and and it’s it’s more acceptable to you know lean on other people, but you know obviously it still happens and it’s probably happening you know more regularly than ever in in some instances.

36:54.23
Garrison Keillor
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

36:56.30
varsitybranding
Well, thank you for sharing that.

36:59.17
Garrison Keillor
Yep.

36:59.30
varsitybranding
Rule number nine. Old age is foreign territory and you should enjoy it. You say, I make no bucket list. There’s nothing I need to do before I die.

37:08.94
Garrison Keillor
ah

37:08.92
varsitybranding
Each day is sufficient unto itself. Do you really have no bucket list? Nothing that’s unfulfilled?

37:15.55
Garrison Keillor
I’m thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. i don’t think I don’t think there is any any and big unrealized purpose. i can’t I can’t think of any offhand.

37:37.26
Garrison Keillor
No, I think Shakespeare was right. He said, this though oh this thou which makes thy love more strong, to love that well which thou must leave ere long.

37:54.04
varsitybranding
Hmm.

37:54.27
Garrison Keillor
And and this is this is true. There’s no time to waste. And and so don’t don’t don’t. Don’t waste it.

38:06.13
Garrison Keillor
i I did not sit and watch the Paris Olympics. I found YouTube, which ran a nightly recap of it, but I didn’t turn on the TV and sit and watch.

38:25.88
Garrison Keillor
I don’t have that sort of time. I did get to see the Swedish pole vaulter and I got to watch the incredible 1500 meter run in which the American came up from nowhere and won it by about two feet and the the women’s relay and

38:31.26
varsitybranding
Hmm.

38:46.79
varsitybranding
That’s great.

38:52.14
Garrison Keillor
the shot put and some other and the breakdancing. My god, the break, the Olympic event.

38:58.97
varsitybranding
The memes that are happening with the breakdancing is amazing. I hear it’s not coming. It’s not going to be there in 2028 in LA. So once I’m done.

39:05.10
Garrison Keillor
Well, won by a Canadian. I never associated Canadians with breakdancing.

39:11.81
varsitybranding
Yeah, that’s that’s that’s amazing. But hey, it’s great to have things like YouTube and you know and the the ability to to kind of have it be broken down and and consume that kind of media when when you want.

39:22.92
varsitybranding
So yeah.

39:23.00
Garrison Keillor
It saves time. And this is crucial when you have when you have less time.

39:30.85
varsitybranding
Yeah. So I’ve got a couple more rules here. Rule number 18, be lucky. Here you talk about how luck is crucial and doing whatever it takes to improve your chances. And I know you touched on this earlier. You mentioned that you were lucky, but how lucky have you been? how Where do you think luck has played into your, you know, your, your, your amazing career, your, your life, etc.

39:52.60
Garrison Keillor
I chose my parents well, and as a result, I think I am in pretty good, steady condition.

40:04.26
Garrison Keillor
I knock on wood. I had some wonderful teachers. I had a teacher, my first grade teacher, Estelle Shaver. I remember my elementary school teachers.

40:20.49
varsitybranding
That’s great.

40:20.88
Garrison Keillor
I remember them very well. I would have to think hard to recall high school teachers and college instructors.

40:29.99
varsitybranding
Isn’t that interesting?

40:31.66
Garrison Keillor
College instructors are a blur to me. But Estelle Shaver was my first grade teacher, and she noticed that I was having difficulty reading.

40:45.96
Garrison Keillor
And she kept me after school. I was the only one she did this for. I stayed after school and I read aloud to her from Dick and Jane standing by her desk. And when the janitor Bill came in the room to empty waste baskets, I remember precisely what she said. We’re talking about 75 years ago.

41:15.32
varsitybranding
And what was it that she said?

41:16.99
Garrison Keillor
She said, listen to this boy, Bill, doesn’t he have a wonderful voice? He’s entertaining me while I’m correcting workbooks.

41:29.14
varsitybranding
Wow.

41:30.30
Garrison Keillor
And this was remedial reading, but she made this seem like a privilege that I had been given and that I was doing this as a favor to her.

41:30.34
varsitybranding
That’s great.

41:46.75
varsitybranding
Boy, the power of a good teacher, right?

41:48.57
Garrison Keillor
And this, and I would, I mean, I, i think that I think that she changed my life, this little act of kindness.

42:02.91
Garrison Keillor
Where it came from, I have no idea.

42:05.50
varsitybranding
That’s great.

42:06.25
Garrison Keillor
Yeah.

42:06.51
varsitybranding
What a beautiful story. Thank you. One last rule. ah Rule number 19. In this rule, you talk about not getting caught up in all of the outrage happening all around us. Do you think that’s easier as you to do as you age, not not getting hung up on just the world?

42:24.75
Garrison Keillor
I do, I do. I am sometimes with people who have a keen sense of outrage and I listen to them and they and and what they say makes sense to me.

42:49.76
Garrison Keillor
ah British people who are socialists and who are outraged at the corruption of the Tory party and the corruption of the monarchy and so forth and who a can tell about all of the shameful aspects of English history that the and and and the the country profiting from the slave trade and and so forth and and onward.

43:24.99
varsitybranding
Sure.

43:25.59
Garrison Keillor
and i And I get all of that. It’s history. But I don’t

43:35.45
Garrison Keillor
I don’t share in it. It’s somebody else’s outrage.

43:44.02
varsitybranding
Sure.

43:44.11
Garrison Keillor
And I don’t want to be diverted from what I feel I was put here for. Everybody’s here for a reason.

43:56.12
Garrison Keillor
And and we don’t pick up our reason by admiring great, the great people.

44:05.09
varsitybranding
Interesting.

44:05.85
Garrison Keillor
oh When I was in eighth grade, I got a copy of A.J. Liebling and I loved his writing for The New Yorker. and And I wanted to be him. Well, I’m not. And and so I put that ah put that aside. For a time, I wanted to be Franz Kafka when I was in college, but I’m not. So I want to focus on doing what I was put here for and and not waste, not waste anything.

44:40.80
varsitybranding
<unk>s That’s wonderful. Now, is there anything about the aging process that surprised you?

44:49.53
Garrison Keillor
I find that though the decline of agility is is just is just not a problem.

45:02.00
Garrison Keillor
I remember what it felt like to be young I don’t run anymore. I suppose I could, but it doesn’t bother me that I can’t.

45:14.69
Garrison Keillor
I have some some balance problems, but but you simply deal with them.

45:21.43
varsitybranding
Sure.

45:21.92
Garrison Keillor
My eyesight is still pretty good. I have a kind of a drooping eyelid, but but i you you make accommodations for it.

45:35.18
varsitybranding
Sure, sure. and

45:37.10
Garrison Keillor
But life gets smaller. Life gets smaller. And and i I accept that so long as I can still do what I feel I ah need to do.

45:49.85
varsitybranding
Talk a little about that. What do you mean by life gets smaller? I can imagine, but I’m curious to understand what you mean by that.

45:56.83
Garrison Keillor
I am not nearly as interested in travel as I used to be. I will go anyplace to work. i will I will go off to Minot, North Dakota, and do a show. I think nothing of it. I take a taxi out to LaGuardia, and I have work to do, sitting, waiting,

46:25.83
Garrison Keillor
in at at the gate and I get on a plane and I’ll sit and work and I work all the time.

46:36.31
Garrison Keillor
So travel to work does not mean anything.

46:40.53
varsitybranding
Interesting.

46:41.38
Garrison Keillor
I have no i have no interest in going back to Italy. I’ve been I’ve been there. I ah don’t have any curiosity about it. ah Asia. i’ve I’ve never really, I’ve never been to Asia. And at one time I felt this was a terrible deficit and now it isn’t. I’ve never been to South America.

47:07.28
Garrison Keillor
I have done a few ocean cruises I don’t need to do anymore.

47:17.00
Garrison Keillor
But I could continue.

47:17.08
varsitybranding
That’s something I’ve never done is a cruise.

47:19.51
Garrison Keillor
It’s a long, it’s a long list.

47:19.67
varsitybranding
Sure.

47:22.09
Garrison Keillor
But I wake up every morning with this sense of, of purpose. And to me, this is, this is absolutely beautiful and all that I need.

47:35.21
varsitybranding
That’s wonderful. That’s great. Now, Andy Rooney once said, the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone. But the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone. How do you feel about that statement?

47:47.57
Garrison Keillor
I disagree. i I like to be old. I think it’s humorous. and And I like to i’d like to ah comment on it, especially to younger people.

48:03.27
Garrison Keillor
and and i think that they And I think they regard this with curiosity.

48:03.47
varsitybranding
That’s great.

48:10.13
Garrison Keillor
And I think that’s a healthy thing. I think that i think that every person in their 20s should have somebody in his or her 80s to pay attention to. I’m not sure that I did actually when I was in my 20s.

48:34.61
Garrison Keillor
I had a grandfather who died at 73. People were dying young back then.

48:38.34
varsitybranding
Mm.

48:39.76
Garrison Keillor
And my my grandmother lived to be 84. I remember sitting with her when John Glenn made his flight.

48:53.57
Garrison Keillor
and And she watched this with great enthusiasm and was sure that man would go to the moon.

49:03.70
Garrison Keillor
My grandmother was born in 1880 and she still was disappointed that her father refused to take her to the 19, no, the 1893 Chicago Exposition.

49:24.97
Garrison Keillor
She had wanted so badly to go to see a ferris wheel, to see a moving sidewalk, to see other moving vehicles oh and and she was so disappointed.

49:33.47
varsitybranding
Wow.

49:39.58
Garrison Keillor
She was a very forward-looking person who nonetheless had been a farm wife and ah was a wonderful baker ah working with a wood-burning stove. and but But she looked forward to two two progress. She believed in progress.

50:05.56
varsitybranding
That’s great. That’s great. Well, you’ve had such an interesting career with your radio shows, your standup tours, as well as your writing. Which do you prefer, standing in front of an audience or writing at your kitchen table? Which feeds your soul?

50:19.96
Garrison Keillor
I can do sitting at the table anytime I choose. You only get an audience when you’re invited to do it. And so that’s so that’s a piece of luck. But sitting at a table is always is always available.

50:40.85
varsitybranding
That’s great. that That’s great. Now, and I find it interesting. you Earlier in the discussion, you referenced yourself as a stand-up comedian. And I know I’ve been seeing that in some of your you know recent writings and your blogs and emails and such. I always thought of you as as a storyteller. Not that the two are necessarily at odds with each other, but have you always considered yourself a stand-up comedian?

51:05.35
Garrison Keillor
No, no, no, I would never ah would never presume stand-up comedy is a real art. And and ah and and there’s ah and it’s a particular gift. I have a niece, Erica Rhodes, who is 40 and is a fabulous stand-up comic. I admire her.

51:33.04
Garrison Keillor
so much. She was just did Late Night with Stephen Colbert and and she’s got a she’s got a big future ahead of her.

51:38.04
varsitybranding
Oh really?

51:44.10
Garrison Keillor
i’m I am a big fan of hers so I don’t put myself in that same category. But I go out on stage when I do this solo show and I am standing up and the

52:00.18
Garrison Keillor
The territory between stand up and story is a movable boundary. and so you And so you can move back and forth. I don’t want to be stuck in the position of being a narrator. I want to be able to speak in my own voice, even as I’m telling a story about invented characters. And so you you you keep you keep going back and forth.

54:47.43
varsitybranding
one but i love that One last question. We’ll end each episode of Roundtable Talk with this. What have you learned that you wish you could have told your younger self?

54:58.57
Garrison Keillor
Mm, mm, mm, mm.

55:04.56
Garrison Keillor
i wish that I wish that I had stopped drinking when I was 25.

55:15.11
varsitybranding
Hm.

55:15.55
Garrison Keillor
I think that would have been more than enough. Some people can do it, I guess, I guess. But I wish I had, I wish I had stopped doing damage to myself. I have other regrets, but you know, I don’t know how to separate them, separate them out. I think

55:46.61
Garrison Keillor
That was one thing I could have done better and thus had more time to fulfill the purpose, whatever I was put here for, because the truth is, life is not long enough.

55:53.37
varsitybranding
Hmm.

56:03.69
Garrison Keillor
It simply is not.

56:05.73
varsitybranding
Well, that’s beautiful. A great way to end. So when can we expect your new Lake Wobgan book?

56:14.27
Garrison Keillor
Well, I have an agent who’s waiting for it. And if a publisher wants it, fine. But if a publisher does not want it, I’ll publish it myself without any hesitation, in which case, I’ll probably come out in the spring.

56:35.01
varsitybranding
OK, well, we’ll look forward to that.

56:36.74
Garrison Keillor
All right.

56:37.12
varsitybranding
And Garrison, Ken, thank you enough for your time today. It’s been a a true pleasure. Safe travels as you crisscross the country doing doing your show.

56:46.26
Garrison Keillor
Thank you so much.

56:48.01
varsitybranding
All right, and thanks, everybody, for joining us for the first episode of Roundtable Talk.