St. Thomas graduate and New York resident, Dustin Nelson, will return to the Twin Cities April 24 for the first time in two years, after an unexpected transition into the radio business with his writing.

Nelson is coming to Minneapolis as one of the producers and writers of “Radio Happy Hour,” a live comedy show performing at the Cedar Cultural Center.

“I love the radio and I am a total geek about it, but it was never my goal in college to do anything in the radio business,” Nelson said. “It’s super fun though and amazing to work with a variety of guests.”

“Radio Happy Hour” isn’t actually on the radio. It is instead a live variety show featuring a made-for-radio murder mystery sitcom, guest stars, musical performances, an audience quiz and interviews. The Minneapolis show will be a break from the show’s usual home at Le Poisson Rouge in New York’s Greenwich Village. The show will feature Tapes ‘n Tapes, Chris Koza and Geoff Herbach, while including its usual crew.

“This is our first time taking the show on the road and it will be interesting to see how it goes with a different formula of people,” Nelson said. “I’m excited to see how a new audience reacts to the show since the same people usually come to our shows in New York.”

Last year, Sam Osterhout, the show’s writer and host, talked to Nelson after a literary reading. Osterhout asked Nelson about getting involved in the “Radio Happy Hour” project. Nelson agreed, and the first show was in June 2009 with only one guest. The April 24 show will be the show’s ninth episode.

“People can expect to see different music performances, most likely hear Sam tell a few fart jokes before the show, and see guest stars made uncomfortable, like no other time before,” Nelson said. “The only other time our guests would feel this uncomfortable is if they appeared on “Saturday Night Live,” but it’s definitely an odd version of stars you like.”

Tickets for the show are $15 and can be purchased at the door or online at www.RadioHappyHour.com.

More than a producer

Although Nelson is involved in the Radio Happy Hour, it isn’t his only job. He also is a founding editor of InDigest, an online literary magazine.

While at St. Thomas, he took Literary Magazine Practicum with English professor Lon Otto, who still helps Nelson improve his website and continues to give him encouragement. In 2007, Nelson was an editor of the Summit Avenue Review, a student-edited art and literary magazine for the St. Thomas community.

“Dustin is an amazing networker; people truly like him and he is able to make the needed connections to get stuff done,” Otto said. “It’s rare for a teacher to see a student take what they’ve learned and do such striking things as Dustin has done with his literary magazine.”

After graduating in 2007 as an English major, Nelson took a year off to find the right job for him. He worked at a local coffee shop while freelance writing as he was working on hiring more staff for InDigest.

Then Nelson stumbled upon an opportunity to help open Le Poisson Rouge, a multimedia art cabaret in New York. He took the opportunity after launching InDigest.

“The most obviously unique thing about Dustin is the extent at which he envisions new projects and brings people in and actually accomplishes it,” Otto said. “Some of us just stumble over things, but he recognizes it and does something with it. I’m proud of him.”

Even though Nelson had no intention of moving to New York in college, he said it was a good decision because the Radio Happy Hour is growing in popularity and InDigest recently won a Best of Net in Fiction award for 2009 and had two finalists in poetry.

“I’m pretty happy with how everything has progressed,” Nelson said. “I desperately wanted to do something with my life that I enjoy no matter the pay, and now I am producing during the day, listening to 200-plus shows a year and working on InDigest. I love it.”

For more on the online literary magazine, check out www.InDigestMag.com.

Ashley Stewart can be reached at stew1177@stthomas.edu.