After intermission, Garrison reads a few of the messages people write to friends and family listening in across the country.  

You scribble them out in the lobby before the show.  Hundreds are written.  Maybe a dozen or two get read.  He didn't read ours. 

The notes and other script pages just get dropped on the floor as they're finished, and stage hands collect them.  The stage hands move silently around, setting up the next act while whatever's currently on the air plays on.

The highlight of the show is always the "News from Lake Wobegon."  If you're in the right frame of mind, and are free of distractions, it can be spellbinding to listen to on the radio.

In person, it is amazing.  Garrison rambles on for more than ten minutes, weaving the story without notes, almost never missing a beat.  I think I've heard him get a little lost once in years of listening. 

As he gets started, he'll putter around the stage for a minute, moving the music stand that holds scripts, settling the stool he might sit on.  He'll turn his back to the audience for a few seconds.  You can't tell any of this by listening. 

Some of the show is played to the theater audience, and some (the skits) really are not.  The "news" is about half and half.

 

I think you can see a "webcast" of the show on their web page, though I've never watched.  It's been on PBS TV at least once, but I don't think it makes particularly compelling television.  You may not need any more than these pictures to complete (or completely destroy) your own mental picture.  But if you're a big fan of the show, and need a weekend getaway, see if you can get tickets and go.

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