Garrison Keillor holds the floor

At the historic Embassy theatre in Fort Wayne, built in 1928 and originally named the Emboyd, Garrison Keillor put on a one-man show Tuesday night. The restored theatre is grand, ornate, and has wonderful acoustics, according to Mr. Keillor. He came in singing some sort of liturgical canon or hymn, and his voice sounded much richer on this stage than he comes across on his radio show. He was happy with his voice on the microphone so much around the room, he went on to lead the crowd singing the Star Spangled Banner, rather slowly. Everyone stood and sang dutifully.

He held the crowd captive for two hours, spinning his yarns about life in the Midwest, growing up Lutheran, and being an obsessive and awkward teenager.He said he had flown into Fort Wayne, and that "March was to show people who don't drink in Indiana what a hangover is."

The leftover snow and slush, grey weather and rain - he has a point.

Born Gary Keillor in Minnesota, a middle child of six (he said) he went on to create the live A Prairie Home Companion radio show in the 1970's. He's continued it on National Public Radio ever since, and he starred in the 2006 film adaption of the show with Meryl Streep and others. He is also the author of books and has performed with orchestras, etc. But here he just paced the stage randomly and told a long tale about ministers in a pontoon boat, a parasail and human ashes in a bowling ball dropped by same. He stopped for no intermission and never left character. He is one old-fashioned storyteller, brilliant at his craft.

I read in a newspaper interview last weekend he is looking for someone else to host his weekly show, while he hopes to move into the position of producer. After having a stroke a year or so ago, he's doing well but thinks it might be time for a younger person to take the torch. He said he would like it to be a musician, someone who would continue a "Midwestern format." He really has a passion for his work.

Red shoes, red socks, but no glasses; he was otherwise plainly dressed. 68 years old, he said, and has a grown son and a 13-year-old daughter. He talked about a road trip with his family when he was a teen and being left at a filling station: as the tale went on I'm sure this one wasn't true because he said the family went on to North Dakota and didn't come back to get him for two days - just called to check on him. But you had to wonder, he told it so well.

This was a baby boomer crowd, but I saw some familiar faces, and GK has a loyal following all over. There must have been one child in the crowd, because near the end of the show she cried out a little, or whimpered, and he moaned with her, sympathetically - it was funny. I enjoyed him very much, and still would like to see a performance of the radio show with the whole crew.