Coming to ETH on December 2, 2023!
Doors at 6pm | Show starts at 7pm
Fred Newman is an actor, writer, musician and performer. Garnering awards for his
appearances on the BBC, Public Television and National Public Radio, for 17 years, he created
voices and sounds on Garrison Keillor’s live, weekly radio broadcast A Prairie Home
Companion. This beloved show is known for its musical guests, especially folk and traditional
musicians, tongue-in-cheek radio drama, and warm humor. Keillor's wry storytelling segment,
"News from Lake Wobegon," was the show's best-known feature during his long tenure.
Mr. Newman also created voices and sounds for dozens of movies, including Gremlins,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Harry & the Hendersons, Cocoon, Far & Away, Explorers, Bright
Lights, Big City, Wolf, Practical Magic and many others. His character "Lurleen Cheatwood" -
the trailer-park-answer to Martha Stewart – was a regular on CBS Mornings. Fred can be heard
in dozens of commercials, as voices for parrots, squirrels, lawns, yodelers, old men, and babies.
Fred began his work in television as the host of Nickelodeon’s Peabody Award-winning show,
Livewire, a talk show for teenagers, and he went on to host six seasons of the Mickey Mouse
Club, The Disney Channel's top-rated comedy/variety show for teenagers, for which he won
Cable ACE Awards. As the Original Sound Designer and Music Composer for the hit animated
series DOUG with both Nickelodeon and Disney, he created the voice of “Skeeter,” “Pork
Chop,” “Mr. Dink” and others.
Fred has also written an award-winning book and recording for children entitled Zounds!,
and each spring, for more than a dozen years, he received a special performance grant to take his stories, sounds and music, live, to thousands of rural Georgia & Alabama school children. Fred, appearing solo, on-camera, wrote and improvised sketches for the award-winning television series Between the Lions (WGBH/PBS), a phonics and reading show airing nearly a dozen years, for which he was awarded multiple Emmy Awards. His work is now a part of PBS Kids online.Fred ran for President of the United States – something he never thought he’d say – in the 2000 election (Bush v Gore) working with cartoonist Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”) - in the character of “Duke.” A self-described “nerd in a basement,” Fred continues to write and create sounds for radio, gaming, television, and film, as well as appearing live on stage with Garrison Keillor and, separately, performing his own his own personal show of stories, sounds, and music that he occasionally titles Growing Up Weird.