Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop- Day One

Thursday night is always the gala Workshop launch here in Dayton, typically starring the big-name keynote speaker. Last night featured the keynote speaker that helped sell out the entire workshop in less than 100 hours this year – Garrison Keillor.

There’s no way to downplay how much I was looking forward to hearing the creator of countless Lake Wobegon stories, and A Prairie Home Companion. Much like everyone else in attendance last night, his easy-going presentation was perhaps the primary reason for attending this year’s event.

And what a presentation! Part tribute to Erma Bombeck, part master class in humor writing, Keillor had the crowd roaring with scripted and ad-libbed reflections on what makes writing funny. I’m hoping his speech is included in the MP3 set I’ll be ordering today, otherwise I’ll have to rely on notes scribbled hastily, while laughing my backside off – not tremendously legible.

An added perk was an interview he did at the very end of the show with two of Erma’s adult children, if that makes any sense at all. He opened the floor to questions, and we all had a rare opportunity to find out what it was like, growing up as fodder for one of America’s most enduring humorists. Pretty cool, for lack of some description more eloquent…

Better run. The official courses start this morning, and I need to catch one of the shuttles over to the University of Dayton.

More to come!

Chow for now!