English Majors - A Comedy Collection for the Highly Literate (Prairie Home Companion)


ENGLISH MAJORS. You know who you are and here is a double-CD celebrating the secret society of those who, though they may be chauffeuring kids to swim lessons or writing Unix programs or frying cheeseburgers, still could, if need be, write a term paper on the water imagery in The Waste Land.

Includes the Six-Minute Hamlet, tributes to Hawthorne and Kerouac and Emily Dickinson, a Guy Noir adventure that exposes an M.F.A. scam, Garrison Keillor’s recollection of growing up bookish in a football-loving town, the Ballad of John Henry ('John Henry was an English major and poetry was his line. He sat by the window with his yellow legal pad and he wrote one sentence at a time.'), and some 'Lives of the English Majors' dramas.
 
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With guest appearances by Billy Collins, Roy Blount Jr., Robert Bly, Donald Hall, and Calvin Trillin.

Disc 1

English Majors with Dave Barry (11:56)
John Henry, Garrison Keillor & The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band (3:20)
"The Old Life," Donald Hall (5:55)
Guy Noir, Private Eye with Billy Collins (13:03)
"The Lanyard," Billy Collins (2:23)
"The Revenant," Billy Collins (2:24)
Emily Dickinson Suite, Roy Blount Jr. (6:02)
The Six-Minute Hamlet (6:29)
Long Time Leaving, Roy Blout Jr. (6:02)
English Majors: For Whom? (6:11)
The Hochstetter House (14:11)

Disc 2

Celebrity Classics: The Ten-Minute Macbeth (10:59)
Red, Red Rose, Garrison Keillor & The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band (5:45)
Starting a Poem, Robert Bly (0:54)
Song of Myself, Walt Whitman, read by Allen Ginsberg (11:10)
Kerouac (5:38)
The Scarlet Letter with Calvin Trillin (4:29)
Family Man, Calvin Trillin (7:40)
The Family Shakespeare (6:43)
"Wild Geese," Mary Oliver, read by Meryl Streep (1:17)
Helen Marie (23:06)

About the Author

Garrison Keillor is America’s favorite storyteller. For more than 30 years as the host of A Prairie Home Companion, he has captivated millions of public radio listeners with his weekly News from Lake Wobegon monologues. Keillor is also the author of several books and a frequent contributor to national publications including Time, The New Yorker, and National Geographic, in addition to writing his own syndicated column. He has been awarded a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment of the Humanities. When not touring, he resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 
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Product Details
Audio CD
Publisher: HighBridge Company; Original radio broadcast; 2.5 hours on 2 CDs edition (March 4, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1598875884
ISBN-13: 978-1598875881

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Leave it to Keillor to satirize Guy Noir: Private Eye, by exposing the M.F.A. degree as a tool of organized crime. The parodies of American literature, however, including Dickinson, Frost and Hawthorne, are generally sophomoric. You know whose woods these are. The collection of vintage performances improves in a 10-minute rendition of Macbeth, with the lead character as Mr. Rogers and Lady Macbeth as Julia Child. There are two versions of Hamlet, both of which reduce Ophelia's madness to La, la, la. Yes, that's a quote. The Prairie Home Companion cast members fare better when they move away from parody. One of the best bits involves an English major (Keillor) working at a fast food job and correcting customers' misuse of who or whom. Billy Collins's satirical ode to The Lanyard is both hilarious and astute. There are some nice fillers, including Meryl Streep reading Mary Oliver and Allen Ginsberg's overblown recital of Whitman's Song of Myself. In the end, listeners will feel that these two so-so CDs could have been reduced to one good one. (Feb.) 
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Review

You do not have to be a college graduate to enjoy A Prairie Home Companion English Majors; a taste for American poetry and a smattering of knowledge about American literature is enough.

—The Serious Comedy Site

. . . this compilation will certainly evoke laughs from listeners.

—AudioFile

From the Back Cover

English majors comprise a secret society devoted to the helpless love of books by dead people and an aversion to flummery, persiflage, gobbledygook, gibberish, and high-flown malarkey. And here from A Prairie Home Companion—the only live radio variety show in America today that is hosted by an English major—are the Six-Minute Hamlet, the Ten-Minute MacBeth, tributes to Hawthorne and Kerouac and Emily Dickenson, a Guy Noir adventure that exposes the M.F.A. scam and the ballad of John Henry ("John Henry was an English major and poetry was his line. He sat by the window with his yellow legal pad and he wrote one sentence at a time"). With guest appearances by Billy Collins, Roy Blount Jr., Robert Bly, Donald Hall, Allen Ginsberg, and Calvin Trillin.

About the Author

GARRISON KEILLOR is America's favorite storyteller. For more than 35 years as the host of A Prairie Home Companion, he has captivated millions of public radio listeners with his weekly "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues. Keillor is also the author of several books and a frequent contributor to national publications including Time, The New Yorker, and National Geographic, in addition to writing his own syndicated column. He has been awarded a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

GARRISON KEILLOR is America's favorite storyteller. For more than 30 years as the host of A Prairie Home Companion, he has captivated millions of public radio listeners with his weekly "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues. Keillor is also the author of several books and a frequent contributor to national publications including Time, The New Yorker, and National Geographic, in addition to writing his own syndicated column. He has been awarded a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

From AudioFile

In this satirical collection of skits, Keillor pays tribute to, while simultaneously mocking, our literary tradition. With skits like "The Ten-Minute Macbeth," "Kerouac--Minnesota Style," and an updated version of THE SCARLET LETTER, this compilation will certainly evoke laughs from listeners. Besides some of his own classic skits, such as "Guy Noir," Keillor also includes several celebrity performances, including those of Dave Barry, Billy Collins, and Roy Blount, Jr. Overall, this compilation proves enjoyable, but some skits fall short of the mark in terms of their level of humor and interest. The abbreviated and revamped classics prove the most amusing as do the several skits that satirize grammar rules. L.E. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine