Geoff Herbach, Stephanie Wilbur Ash, and David Salmela fit right in at the lovably laid-back hipster hangout Bryant Lake Bowl in Uptown Minneapolis. Herbach has tousled light brown hair and wears Ira-Glass-sized frames. Wilbur is sporting a subtly 70s-style blazer and her trademark hairstyle: reddish-brown bangs, in a perfect crisp horizontal line. Salmela parts his shaggy brown hair left of center. All three are drinking coffee, black, and considering whether live storytelling is making a comeback.

"We've talked about this before," Herbach says. "'Could it be that technology has made us feel separate from other beings, and so there's a desire to get in front of other people?'"

Salmela, the musician in the group, thinks it has to do with changes in the music industry. "The music business has become so difficult to enter into�people are looking for different means of telling stories that used to be done in song."  

Wilbur Ash, a writer, adds that the publishing industry, too, has changed.

But for the three creators of the radio-style variety show Powderkeg Live!, which is performed on stage at the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis--you can see and hear video highlights on the 'Keg web site)--none of those reasons was the inspiration.

"We just wanted to tell funny stories," says Herbach, who also writes novels and teaches creative writing at Minnesota State University in Mankato.

And that's what Powderkeg Live! is, above all--it's really funny. In true vaudevillian style, it combines fictional storytelling, original music, trivia, skits, wacky sound effects, and practically every other form of entertainment you can think of besides dance (though Herbach says they're on the lookout for a dancer whose work translates well to radio).  Previous incarnations of Powderkeg Live include the Lit 6 Project, a sort of literary stand-up comedy series that emerged in 2004, and Electric Arc Radio, an hour-long narrative which added music to the mix and aired on MPR's The Current in early 2008.

Powderkeg Live! opens with banter and meandering tales from Herbach and Wilbur Ash. On stage, the pair plays "non-married domestic partners," raising their family in a big yellow house in the "Powderkeg" neighborhood (which more than loosely resembles Minneapolis' Powderhorn). Off stage, they're romantic partners too--minus the yellow house.  As a character, Herbach plays up his anxious, self-conscious side, while Steph chimes in with reassuring "Mmm-hmms" and loving jibes. Throughout the show, various quirky "neighbors" drop in to amuse and enlighten.

Urban Agrarian Woman Meets the Trivia Mafia

But a clear narrative wouldn't be true to the spirit of the variety show, which is why Powderkeg Live! doesn't linger on any subject for long. Instead, the show leaps from one amusement to the next: Now you're tapping your feet to a pop-friendly song about neglected parking tickets by the Powderkeg Men's Glee Club (consisting of Joel Liestman, John Munson, and Ken Chastain, along with Salmela); Now you're chuckling at the satirical superhero "Urban Agrarian Woman;" Now you're weeping as local singer/songwriter Mary Everest croons about love lost; Now you're cheering on your friends as they compete onstage with the Trivia Mafia.

Music, sound effects, skits� it can't help but bring to mind that other musical theater production that elevated Minnesota to the national airwaves.

"I think we are always, in whatever we do in this medium, in conversation with Prairie Home Companion," says Herbach. "Our generation is not nostalgic for old-time radio. Our understanding of what old-time radio is, is essentially Prairie Home Companion."

"[Prairie Home] is the only radio show that has an element of storytelling," adds Wilbur Ash.

But while Prairie Home portrays a rural Minnesota life full of Lutheran niceness and "above average" intelligence, Powderkeg Live! is distinctly urban and smart.

"The ethos of the show is Minnesota centered, but I think its appeal is anyone who lives in urban grown-upness." says Wilbur Ash. "It's not a rural sensibility. It's not a small town sensibility. We're in Powderhorn or Northeast Minneapolis. It's a mix of different kinds of people. It's dense. The stories come from urban life."

And because most of the stories are funny stories, Powderkeg does its share of poking fun at the young urban way.

Wilbur Ash, says currently she's having fun writing for the character "Urban Agrarian Woman," played by Jenny Adams. She's enjoying satirizing "this idea of people wanting chickens and wanting to live an organic, sustainable life�but refusing to leave their coffee shop or leave their awesome work life."

"It's a purchasing of a lifestyle�that we do as well," says Herbach.

"Oh we totally do it!" Wilbur Ash says, laughing.

Your Civic Questions Answered in Song

Powderkeg also makes good-natured fun of local politics in Minneapolis, which they describe as very "neighborhood-centric." The Powderkeg Men's Glee Club actually performs (completely original and quite catchy) songs in response to "your civic questions," which is a subtle poke at how Minneapolitans like to combine politics and art.

But lest their words sound unappreciative of their hometown, Herbach adds for clarification, "It's not satirical necessarily. It's almost like an earnest inflation of what really happens and it's both funny and really sweet. I think we more celebrate the Twin Cities than satirize it."

"That's a good point," says Wilbur Ash. "There's some satirizing, I suppose�but it's with love."

There's no question that Powderkeg Live! is distinctly "Twin Cities." But what is it exactly, that makes it belong?

Wilbur Ash says it's the audience. "I think we're incredibly smart," she says of her fellow Minnesotans. "We're brilliant. I mean, statistically we are--we have the highest ACT scores."

Herbach laughs. "Of course the ACT is only taken in Iowa�"

"There's definitely a collaborative spirit in Minneapolis though. Doesn't it seem like there's easy entry into doing things?"

"Yeah, it's easy to get your foot in the door, to get your first performance somewhere, like here for example," says Salmela, referring to Bryant Lake Bowl. "And there are tons of people around that are capable and willing to come along for the ride."

While none of Powderkeg Live's creators will provide any specifics about national opportunities, they admit that The Current isn't the only entity interested in airing their work.  But you can't focus on potential stardom, says Herbach.

"It's such a crapshoot," he says. "We're writers. And there are tons and tons of great writers. And most of them don't do anything and it's not for lack of effort. I think the only thing you can be focused on is doing great work. And that sounds like a sappy answer. But honest to god that's the only thing you can do, because we have no control."

"You just focus on the next show," adds Wilbur Ash.

Or as Urban Agrarian Woman might put it, don't count your chickens.

Andi McDaniel is a writer and multimedia journalist living in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. She is a new and baffled homeowner and wishes Urban Agrarian Woman would come fix her leaky faucet.