One More Week Of Radio Madness...

Well, here’s the big news in my life right now – I just got back from a taping of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me at the Wang Theater in Boston.

It was pretty far from my first time doing so – Peter Sagal said while warming up the audience that they had been to this theater three times before, and indeed I had seen them at this theater in both 2008 and 2009. Still, I happily bought tickets to go a third time. For those of you who need to know these things, the panelists were Alonzo Bodden, Jessi Klein, and Mo Rocca (who got something like three times the applause Alonzo and Jessi got upon being introduced). The celebrity guest was Jim Bouton, former professional baseball player and author of the famous (infamous?) book Ball Four.

Here’s the first thing you should know about going to see a taping of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me – the show is about as far from live as you can possibly get. Most public radio stations broadcast it on Saturday mornings, but it’s taped on Thursday nights, and a good half of the material taped is not used. The second thing you should know – they don’t stop the show to do retakes, but at the end they rerecord some sections that didn’t come through right, with the audience expected to clap and laugh as if it were the first time. The third thing you should know – if you ever get the chance to go see a taping of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, do so. It’s a lot more fun than I could possibly describe in a blog post.

There you go – after five weeks, I can finally stop writing about radio. I’ll be back to actual news next week.

I realize this is a minimal post, but I need some sleep.

Aaron