This is the show of the taping we were at.
Panelists: Luke Burbank, Paul Provenza, and Paula Poundstone
We made it to the Auditorium just in time thanks to a cab after getting super lost. The Chase bank auditorium is in the basement of the Chase bank building. It seats 500 people. They did not come out and warm up the crowd, but when it started they had some party lights and treated it like a sporting event with the introductions. Peter Sagal spoke to the crowd a bit to explain how it all works. We were encouraged to make lots of noise so the folks who listen later could hear it. It was almost 2 hours of recording.
When they started they goofed the introduction twice and decided to try it later. So there are many games in the hour long show. They take callers and there is much dialog between the caller and the people on stage. Then they get into the questions and the panel is allowed to make as many jokes as possible on each question. It was then that we figured it all out. They just keep making jokes on each question to be able to edit it later and make a great show. At times it would go on for 5-10 minutes before they got back to the next question for the caller. We forgot that there was a caller on the line a couple times while they were doing their schtick.
They would mess up and redo it during the taping multiple times. Science Writer Mary Roach Played Not My Job. They spent about 20 minutes interviewing her before she played and it was funny as hell. After listening to what made it into the show I was sad. She went off on so many of the topics of meeting the astronauts for her book and all the quirks of space travel. Made me wish wait wait was a 2 hour show. I was crying during the show because it was so full of so many jokes and funny situations.
During the show all of the folks on stage are writing stuff down, and there are the people in the back of the auditorium marking down stuff and fixes. Paul Provenza killed with his fake story. Carl messed up the introduction (vid above) twice and they ended up fixing it after the show. The lady who was a lawyer was talked to for at least 10 minutes and the panel and Peter grilled her so hard. It was hilarious, but after listening to the taping only a bit of it made it into the show.
After it was done they had to do the retakes. Both Carl and Peter have ipads that were updated with what they had to retake. Paul had to revise his fake story to not be so raunchy, and they fixed a few jokes. It was strange how Peter just read them all as if they were a book right in a row so that the editors could reconstruct with editing the show.
After Carl and Peter did a Q&A with the audience and it was fun. Then they let us come up and get autographs and pictures with them.
I asked Carl if he does the voice on his answering machine, he said his wife does it.
I offended Peter when asking about the Lied show he will be doing that we have tickets to. Asked him if he will have jugglers to make it entertaining. He did not like that and asked “am I not funny enough to do a show?” He is stil really excited to come to Lincoln and I told him how much I liked his book.
Theresa got to meet Paula and had her sign a gift for her Parents. “Your daughter kept shouting out during the show”
It was so much fun and all of the banter for nearly two hours made our sides hurt. I feel sorry for the crew that edits that, because it must be one heck of a tough job. They really do put on a great show and I hope if you are ever in the area to check out a taping.
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