Keillor back in spotlight after sexual misconduct allegation

[left-of-center2012]

Garrison Keillor looked comfortable on the small stage as he sang Christmas lullabies, told off-color limericks and spun a tale about a lutefisk dinner at the fictitious Lake Wobegon. Starting off with his familiar opener “Tishomingo Blues,” Keillor offered up a warm, nostalgic take on his former public radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” minus his hard-boiled Guy Noir, Private Eye and Lives of the Cowboys skits.

Fans laughed, applauded and sang along throughout Sunday night’s two-hour show — the second of back-to-back, sold-out Keillor performances at Crooners , a jazz nightclub in a northern Minneapolis suburb not far from where Keillor grew up.

For Keillor, it’s a much smaller audience than the millions of radio listeners he entertained on Saturday evenings during the heyday of “Prairie Home.” But the nightclub show also represents a step into the spotlight for the 76-year-old Keillor a year after Minnesota Public Radio cut ties with him over a sexual misconduct allegation. A former freelance researcher for “Prairie Home” alleged that Keillor had sexually harassed her, but Keillor maintains that sexually suggestive emails he had exchanged with her were simply “romantic writing.”

Crooners owner Mary Tjosvold says Keillor’s performances did not spark objections at her club. “I think people are happy to see him back performing. He’s a performer. My feeling is, he’s happy,” Tjosvold told the AP. Both of Keillor’s November performances at the club’s smaller, 90-seat room sold out, so Crooners moved his December shows to the larger, 200-seat room, she said.

https://apnews.com/101ae90e3e5c4500b7a148751b14304a

[3Hotdogs]

1. --- glad to have him back.

I was at the last show he did, South Orange, N.J., before the shit hit the fan.