Since 1998, people have enjoyed NPR’s funny news quiz show, “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” On Thursday, the show, which is usually recorded in Chicago, will bring live laughter and current event insights to the Benedum Center.
“Wait Wait” is a weekly show with host Peter Sagal and a rotating panel of three comedians joking about the news. It includes games with listener contestants and a segment called “Not My Job,” where Sagal interviews a notable person and quizzes them on a subject unrelated to their expertise. Recent “Not My Job” guests have included Chris Pine, James Patterson and Janet Yellen.
While the recorded shows, which air on NPR stations nationwide and are also available in podcast form on all major platforms, have millions of fans, Sagal said that the live shows offer a completely different experience.
Sagal explained that the live shows are similar to what is heard on the radio, but with much more content.
This additional material leads to many listener suggestions to release the raw tapes as a bonus.
Sagal’s response to that? “Well, if we do that, why would anyone come see us?”
The show records a lot of material because the writers can't always predict which jokes and stories will resonate with the live audience or the three panelists.
“Sometimes our panelists just find something to be incredibly funny and it inspires them to do great and wonderful things, and sometimes they stare at me like I’m speaking another language,” Sagal said.
While “Wait Wait” has a group of around six to eight writers who find the week’s wildest news stories and enhance punchlines, the panelists also have a significant role in creating some of the show’s funniest moments.
“Our show is weird because we take all that prepared material and we throw it at our panel … A lot of times they come up on the spot with something better than what we had,” Sagal said.
Regular panelists for the show include comedians and media personalities like Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca and Dulce Sloan. Sagal said that they choose their weekly panels with some intention, though all of the panelists play well together.
“We try to put together panelists who are varied from each other … we want to have three distinct voices,” he said.
The news that they discuss ranges from the biggest stories of the week to tales that are a bit more off the beaten path.
“A lot of it is just stuff you happen to find lurking out there, some story we find on some obscure website about a study, or some strange crime that happened,” Sagal said.
He’s been highly impressed by his visits to Pittsburgh — and not just because of the multiple Primanti’s sandwiches he’s eaten. “I remember we flew into the Pittsburgh airport, got into a cab and went through a tunnel, and I found myself looking at downtown Pittsburgh. And my jaw dropped … I was just stunned by how gorgeous it was. Nobody had told me.”
He talked about what sets the show's “Not My Job” segment apart from a typical celebrity interview, where he has conversations with notable people.
“We usually avoid asking the typical questions,” Sagal explained. Specifically, he discussed how Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen's interview covered more than just monetary policy. “It's not that those topics aren't important, they are, it's just that they're covered every other time.”
“What we like to do is, here's Janet Yellen, and you've heard of Janet Yellen, but who is she? What else is there about her?” he continued. “There has to be something — because we all have something — outside of her job, that's not her job. I love doing that.”
He hopes that this approach helps to make these famous individuals more relatable for the average listener. “If it's a person who evokes strong feelings, both positive and negative, if they're on our show, you will probably still have those feelings, but now you'll know that you're having those feelings about a human being,” he said.
“Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” normally records at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, but Sagal mentioned there's something special about taking the show on the road.
“People really appreciate it when we come to their town,” he said. “In a strange way, it's like a fan convention in that people come out because they have this shared interest in what we do and there's this celebration in the audience.”
The live recording of NPR's “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” in Pittsburgh will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. For more information and tickets, visit trustarts.org.
