All About the Jokes from 2007

Chicago Bound on July 21st!

Once again we offer a special presale to our Garrison Keillor and Friends subscribers. For all of you in the Chicago area — and those of you who would like a nice midsummer weekend in the Windy City — join us at the Chicago Theatre on Sunday, July 21. Over our fifty years, Chicago was one of our regular stops: the Chicago Theatre, the Masonic Temple, the Auditorium Theatre, and the Ravinia Festival. We are happy to be back celebrating our long-standing love for Chicago fans and their city.

A note from Garrison re Chicago from an earlier visit:

Chicago is the home of WLS which was the home of the "National Barn Dance" back in my childhood, and we listened to it in Lake Wobegon when the wind was out of the southeast. Homer & Jethro played on the show, and the Hoosier Hot Shots, and Pat Buttram, the Sage of the Airwaves, and it was corny and fun and full of hijinks. Chicago gave us Jim and Marian Jordan (Fibber McGee and Molly) and the famous closet that cascaded junk every week and the saying, "Tain't funny, McGee." And The Breakfast Club with Don McNeill. And it gave us Studs Terkel, of course, a patron saint of public radio. Chicago is a city with a heart and we hope you can join us.

APHC FAN PRESALE is open for newsletter subscribers now.(CODE: APHC50)

BUY TICKETS

Public on-sale date is Friday, February 2, at 10:00 a.m. CT

Listen to the February 3, 2007

Humor is the ability or quality of people, objects, or situations to evoke feelings of amusement in other people. The term encompasses a form of entertainment or human communication which evokes such feelings, or which makes people laugh or feel happy." - Wikipedia

Producing an eighth Joke Show was a lofty goal, our interns have lost weight (and some hair) over the last few weeks, but they actually found some funny jokes we haven't used in the past, so here goes nothing. This week on A Prairie Home Companion, it's jokes, jokes, and more jokes. Jokes read by professional radio actors, willing to sacrifice their dignity for the greater good of giggling, guffawing, and groaning. The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band will be joined by Dan Newton and Andy Stein, with a new batch of humorous songs, plus we'll have a surprise lineup of comic re-enforcements to help deliver the massive payload of punchlines. If you're someone who is easily offended by PG-13 humor, please don't send us complaints, just tune into the "Murder, She Wrote" marathon on the Biography channel instead. Listen to the show. Listen to the show.

Dan "Daddy Squeeze" Newton has been wowing audiences with offbeat accordion music ever since he won the Nebraska State Accordion Contest back in the 1980s. In the 20 years since he moved to Minnesota, he has become an acclaimed fixture on the music scene, both in the Twin Cities and beyond. A singer, composer and producer, he heads up a bunch of different groups, including the incomparable Café Accordion Orchestra, which specializes in vintage swing, Latin, polka, gypsy swing and French musette. Café Accordion's latest recording, Cinema, is an album of songs from the movies.

Andy Stein (violin, saxophone) definitely has far-flung musical leanings, He collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson, and he's performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan.

Garrison Keillor's newest book, CHEERFULNESS.

THE REVIEWS ARE IN!

"Humorist and author Keillor (Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80) delves into the different faces of positivity and “the great American virtue” of cheerfulness in this playful and resolutely upbeat offering....Dead-serious themes of aging and death pop up throughout, but Keillor plumbs them for humor and insight in his customary style, an approach that will of course please A Prairie Home Companion devotees but also buoy the spirits of readers who feast on wordplay, witticism, and squeezing the best out of life."
---BookLife from Publishers Weekly. An Editor Pick.

"Cheerfulness is a charming memoir by a beloved humorist that reflects unabashed happiness in defiance of age, loss, and the weight of life’s unpredictability."
---Ryan Prado, Foreword Clarion Reviews

"This is a humorous, insightful perspective on life that showcases Keillor’s signature cocktail of droll storytelling and wry commentary."
---BlueInk Review

Get the book.

A Prairie Home Companion Joke Book

This book gathers together all the jokes from past joke shows on A Prairie Home Companion and arranges them in wacky, humorous categories. Yes, all the one-liners, light bulb jokes, Yo Mamma and Ole and Lena jokes are here from the 13 shows plus a few bonus jokes that did not make it to broadcast. With an introduction by Garrison Keillor on the importance of humor and how to tell a joke. Get the book.

Pretty Good Jokes LIVE

Jokes are made for sharing, and everyone loves to laugh. This nonstop collection gathers the best jokes from the most recent Joke Show (11/4/2014) plus special joke segments from 2011 to the present, all recorded before live before doubled-over audiences in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and New York. Performers include show regulars Garrison Keillor, Sue Scott, Tim Russell, Tom Keith and Richard Dworsky along with special guests. There's music from the Guys All-Star Shoe Band, a bucketful of Halloween jokes, a musical tribute to bad jokes, a celebration of Jewish Jokes from New York radio legend Larry Josephson, Ole and Lena jokes, a Guy Noir sketch, Dusty and Lefty, and of course, even more jokes.  Get the CDs.

So it's everything fans want and expect: good jokes, good music, and a pretty darned good time.

CD 1:  The Secret of Comedy - We are the World - The Differences between Men and Women - Men Don't Change Lightbulbs - Athiests and Unitarians - Innocent Jokes - You Make Me Feel like a Minnesotan - Off Key Jokes - City Jokes - Religion Jokes - Joke Hotline - Catschup  Advisory Jokes - Listener Jokes - Jokes from the Band

CD 2; New Jokes - Everybody Eats - Frankenstein - Bad Jokes - Guy Noir - Newish Jokes - Starbucks - Jokes with Larry - Lives of the Cowboys - News from Lake Wobegon - Laughing at Life - Bar Jokes - Marriage