That's a Jackalope

Ace Jackalope and entourage went to the Kansas State Fair tonight where the headlining act was Garrison Keillor with a live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion."
Garrison was delighted to make Ace's acquaintance, and pose for a photo after the show. As he exclaimed, "Whatever the joke is, I'm in on it."

How can you not love that?


Kansas native, Kelley Hunt, did a fabulous job during her songs, and made us proud. She's been on the show before, and we're lucky to get to see her around here now and then.

Our beloved Governor, Kathleen Sebelius, played herself during the Guy Noir skit and did a great job. She was on stage again and just handled herself amazingly well. She and Garrison seemed to really hit it off. She is a democrat in this very red state, and is loved by many in both parties.

Garrison is very interested in politics, and did have a few comments about everything from evolution to the lack of response to the hurricane victims. The crowd was very responsive to him.

The set was an elaborate one, including a house front with a porch, from which Garrison started the monologue. But, he only sat down briefly - showing his red socks and shoes off - but then got up to wander the stage as he talked. He does favor the left (his left) side of the stage so if you're planning to see him you might bear that in mind.

Later tonight there was a fundraiser for the democratic party that both Garrison and Kathleen were going to. I wish I could have gone, but I just couldn't. Instead I ended up working the democratic party booth with Debbie, as last minute replacements.

Garrison signed autographs and chatted with people for well over an hour after the show. He was really quite charming, although Greg and Ace were the only ones in our party who visited with him.

I got to see Garrison years ago in Minnesota when the station I worked for did a trip. He was much more casual tonight about chatting with folks.

You can listen to repeats of the show on the website if you miss it. Prairie Home Companion has been the most popular public radio show for years.
http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/archive.php

The show was really great. If you listened to it tonight or if you catch a repeat on Sunday and hear the Catchup script late in the show, you'll know why this photo is here, although I don't have a cheese danish handy.