Hello everyone and welcome to the special edition of listening to America.

I'm Clay Jenkinson. I'm in Chicago or Greater Chicago, and I gave a performance as Jay Robert

Oppenheimer the other day, and in the audience was a dear friend of mine, Stephen Ducro,

who among other things is an impersonator,

if I may use that term, of the great poet Carl Sandberg. We've had a conversation on this program

before about how Chautauquins do their work. You were in the audience the other night,

and thank you for coming. I would never have invited you because I

have a shyness about this sort of thing, but there you were, and I so appreciated it. And then

you said really nice things afterwards, and now I would like to talk about what you and I do.

I portray a number of historical characters. I think you portray two. Correct. Working on a third.

So who are your two?

I know Carl Sandberg, a famous poet, poet. Carl Sandberg and not a household name, Vachel Lindsay.

So they're both the Illinois prairie, two of the Illinois prairie poets. And who's the third?

And I'm working on Mark Twain. Mark Twain. Okay, you joined the 350,000 other Mark Twain impersonators.

Yes, I know.

It might just be more to learn Twain and get some acting chops because he was so interesting and socially relevant. And, you know, I had an opportunity to have Hal Holbrook perform once. And I was so

touched by Hal Holbrook, the man that I thought, you know, I'll just, these monologues are

extraordinary. So it's good practice. Just promise me you will not wear a white suit. No, I won't.

He didn't often wear a white suit. He wore a black suit sometimes.

So Hal Holbrook immortalized Twain.

Mark Twain tonight.

I've seen him in, I think, Albuquerque.

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