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What Everyone Else Thinks They Know . . .
H.L. Mencken wrote that "criticism is prejudice made plausible," which is not only wittily accurate but a pretty good description of the work of H.L. Mencken.
Critics have been kind to us for the most part, although there have been one or two who didn't get it or did and didn't care for it. One guy said the show was all right, but that I didn't appear to have a personality in real life (he caught me at the end of a bad day.) The guy from The Washington Post said the show reminded him of a farm report peopled by an audience who thought a funny hat was just hilarious (probably my fault; in the warmup I encourage people to over-react because it sounds better. We can't afford a laugh track).
Mostly we get features writers in newspapers, who are pretty friendly, in towns we play on the road, where the local references and personalities are well-received and a good time is had by all -- what's not to like? We've had some national attention over the years, including a review in The Wall Street Journal, where I actually got one of those dotty portraits done of me and was characterized as "The King of Small Talk Radio." It's a title I take lightly.
An AP story did the old "face made for radio" routine (although Annie Lamott defended my looks, which I'd like to follow up on), but it was the online magazine Slate that produced an illustration to back it up. You're going to have to take my word for this, but I am not that ugly. Anyway, the review was good (although "obscure" is not an adjective you generally like to see modifying you.
In this space we'll share with you some of the ink that has been spilled on this subject -- if you see some more in you local paper we might have missed, please send it our way. I'll try not to take it personally.
"10 Years Later, The Fun Stays The Same" in Columbus Dispatch
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