“From the Top: Brief Transmissions from Tent Show Radio”

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• Wisconsin Author, Humorist Shares Musings On-Air, On Stage

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  There are a lot of reasons why Michael Perry thinks that he’s a pretty lucky guy. He said he feels like he married up, he has two wonderful daughters to learn from and he gets to make a living writing books and driving around to meet nice people who want to talk with him.

  Perry, who is an author, humorist and musician, has completed a new book, “From the Top: Brief Transmissions from Tent Show Radio,” and he said that’s another reason that he feels pretty lucky.

  “I can brag on it (Big Top Chautauqua, home of ‘Tent Show Radio’) because I was a fan long before I ever stepped foot on the stage, or did the radio show, or anything like that, “ he said. “I would go up there to see shows, buy a ticket just like anybody else because I love the place.”

  Perry is a performer and said he finds story material at home with his family, out taking care of the pigs and chickens on their farm, and on the road as an author or volunteer paramedic. Those experiences are the fodder for his monologues as the host of “Tent Show Radio,” heard on the Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio on Saturday nights at 7 p.m.

  Open “From the Top” and a reader will see right away that it’s eclectic and defies classification. Perry said that “it’s about chickens, it’s about Scandihoovian Spanglish, it’s about hope, it’s about existentialism, and Victoria’s Secret.”

  Coming up on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 2 p.m., Perry will appear with Judith Siers-Poisson, producer of “The Larry Meiller Show,” at the Mabel Tainter Theater in Menomonie. Billed as “A Conversation with Michael Perry,” Siers-Poisson will ask him about how he goes about writing his books, articles and monologues, what the family members and neighbors that he writes about are doing, and what we can look forward to next. Perry will also answer audience questions and will read a couple selections from “From the Top.”

  Tickets are $15 and include a copy of the book, signed and personalized by Perry. Tickets are available online through the Mabel Tainter Theater website or Perry’s web site, SneezingCow.com.

  Maybe Perry will share the story behind that domain name, too.