Wait, Wait -- Don't Tell Me!

By Chris Karr in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 7, 2005 2:17AM

Last week, Chicagoist sat in on the weekly recording of "Wait, Wait -- Don't Tell Me!" "Wait, Wait" is a weekly program on NPR that packages the week's news in a quiz show format where callers work with panelists to answer questions about the important stories of the week. (It actually's a bit more complicated than that, so listen to the show online to get the full scoop.)

The taping was done deep in the bowels of the newly renamed Chase Building downtown in the middle of the Loop. We sat behind a couple of rows filled with the new Chase overlords as a panel of Roy Blount Jr., Roxanne Roberts, and Mo Rocca provided the week's entertainment. Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell (the voice of NPR) ran the show. Blount gave his best impression of mice singing "Let's Get It On", Rocca speculated about Scooter Libby's new prison nickname, and Roberts took issue with the fact that she was not the winningest panelist on the show. In the middle of this, Adam West (of 1960's "Batman") called in as the celebrity guest. With all of this stuff going on, we had no idea that taping a public radio show was so much fun.

We heartily recommend the experience, and since the show is produced weekly here in the Windy City, we hope that more Chicagoans take advantage of the fact that the tapings are public. Tickets are twenty dollars, but it's money well spent if how quickly it was over is any indication. We had a blast and got caught up on all that news stuff to boot!