I'm fairly certain that a key lime pie story - or slice of the wonderfully tasty dessert, for that matter -- had never brought me to tears. Until Friday night. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've never heard anyone tell such a story about key lime pie. Well, again, until Friday night at Vogel Hall inside the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.
Leave it to Milwaukee's own John McGivern, a master storyteller, to package 90-minutes of his best "growing up during an East Side Milwaukee summer" stories and perform them in front of an adoring audience.
Key lime pie, Winkie's, bike decorating contests, fireworks, sparklers, storm windows, porches, Lake Park, windmill cookies, camp, bugs, cabins, picnics, wooden spoons used with those little cups of ice cream, corn on the cob, parades, kick the can, Memorial Day tributes, Grandma at the cabin, flags with 48 stars, Newberry Blvd., mowing the lawn, naughty behavior from your cousins and more - it's all part of McGivern's highly entertaining one-man trip down his Summer memory lane called "A Midsummer Night McGivern."
Tradition and summer go hand and hand. And, in this new performance that he's been writing with collaborator Edward Morgan for months, McGivern shares his wonderful stories from Memorial Day to Labor Day and all the season in between. It's a glimpse into the McGivern family history and frankly into all of our family histories, especially if you grew up in Wisconsin.
Set on a simple stage with various summer artificates (kiddie pool, lawn mower, etc.), "A Midsummer Night McGivern" is pure McGivern. It's honest, real, insightful and darn funny. Similar to his other one-man shows, this one also puts family and humanity first. It's funny (hilarious, at times) because the stories trigger a personal connection that we all have or, at least, long for.
It's hard to write much more without giving away too much of McGivern's fine material, so I won't. I'll just urge you to take an afternoon or an evening, head Downtown and sample these stories of a Wisconsin summer of yore. Thanks, John, for the memories. Here's to summer!
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
