No way in hell was Michael Shannon actually going to sit down and chat at Duck Duck Coffee, thought owner Kat Naden.
It’s tough to blame her for that skepticism; it was early 2024, and Naden had been contacted more or less out of the blue by a local man named Billy Nord, who asked if he could host a live talk show with the actor at her shop.
Nord is a former resident of New York City who spent a lot of his time there producing shows—“live stuff, weird stuff, stuff in basements and bookstores and things like that,” he says. His production work included a live talk show for character actor Kevin Corrigan where “random people” would stop by—random people, in this case, being actors and comics like Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, and Vincent D'Onofrio—but he moved to Minnesota during the pandemic, started a family, and “fell out of the whole producing thing.”
That is, until Nord saw that his old friend Michael Shannon was coming to First Avenue with Jason Narducy to play some R.E.M. songs. “I had no venue at that point, I was just like, ‘Hey, do you want to do a conversation or a talk show while you’re here? Just hang out in the afternoon?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, sure,’” Nord says.
Nord knew Duck Duck had hosted shows before with local comics like Devohn Bland, so he reached out to Naden on Instagram.
“And I was just like, dude, this guy is full of shit,” Naden laughs. She said yes, figuring that she’d at least get a funny story out of it. Even on the day of the event, after Nord promised that Shannon was on his way, she remained unconvinced.
“A half hour later, in walks Michael Shannon,” she says. “He’s like, ‘I just walked here from First Avenue—I’ve never been to Minneapolis before, I figured this would be a great way to see it.’ I was just like, ‘What the fuck is happening?’”
Over the two years since, Nord and Naden have hosted all kinds of conversations at Duck Duck: Dan Licata, Bobcat Goldthwait, John Early, Dave Hill. Drummer Jon Wurster has dropped by, and so has Ed Larson from The Last Podcast on the Left.
“Billy just kept being like, ‘Hey, can I do another one?’” Naden laughs.
“I think Janeane Garofalo is gonna do it next month when she’s in town, and David Cross will likely do it … if I beg him enough,” adds Nord.
And on Saturday, March 14, Shannon will return to Duck Duck, the third time he’s done a talk show at the 38th Street coffee shop.
The guests are occasionally announced in advance—Shannon’s upcoming appearance has been publicized since February—but not always, and you’d have to be following Duck Duck on Instagram or see a flyer at the shop to know a conversation was happening. As a result, there’s never really a line out the door, and the vibe is a lot like you’re just sitting together in someone’s living room. (During Shannon’s first appearance at Duck Duck, its hosts say, there were maybe only four or five people in the audience.)
There’s also no way to watch or listen to the events once they’re over: “We don’t record them, these conversations, we kind of just do it for the room and let it live there,” Nord says. And it’s not always someone visiting from out of town; in October, he hosted a live talk show with local independent journalist Taylor Dahlin and comedian Comrade Tripp.
As for what drives him to continue hosting these little espresso machineside chats? “I guess I’ve always been the person at a party that kind of likes to bring little groups of people in one big space into one big group of people,” Nord says.
Plus, it’s a fun way for him to catch up with old friends when they come through town—it’s always nice to get a cup of coffee with an old pal, why not do it in front of a small audience?
Conversation: A Live Talk Show With Michael Shannon
Where: Duck Duck Coffee, 1830 E. 38th St., Minneapolis
When: Saturday, March 14, 3 p.m.
