I've been a fan of NPR for a few years now. Don't know why I started listening, but on long drives I really enjoy listening. Their news stories are much longer and full of information you just don't get anywhere else. Some of the shows are great, too. One of our favorites that Carol and I listen to every week is produced by Chicago Public Radio and usually airs multiple time over the weekend - it's a "game show" called Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!. This year, they're broadcasting in front of a live audience all summer. So Carol and I along with Diane & Melinda went down to the Bank One Plaza Auditorium to watch the taping.

Now, mind you, this is a radio show, so the stage was sparse (2 podiums, a table, and... a multicolored disco light). It's a nice little auditorium that seats about 500 people. At about 7:30pm, the lights dimmed, the unmistakable sounds of the Allan Parsons Project started up, along with the disco light. Yes, they introduced the cast like the Bulls intros.

Today's show had Carl Kassel (NPR newsman and the show's Official Judge and Scorekeeper) Peter Sagal, the Host, and tonight's panelists Mo Rocca, Paula Poundstone and Richard Roper.

The broadcast is just under an hour but the session lasted about an hour and a half. As Peter told us up front, things will have to be redone, either immediately just because of speaking flubs, or later after the show was complete, to "fix" bad readings of lines or somesuch. We were asked to stay for the "redo's" so that we could absorb sound and match the original content!

The cast was great - Paula was quick-witted in her great, odd style, with great one-liners that probably won't make it to air. Even though she was hot, Mo beat her to the punch in his own way and was drawing huge bursts of laughter throughout the show. I'm sure a lot of his stuff will wind-up on the cutting room floor, but it was great for the show. Richard had a few great lines as well, as one of the running jokes going throughout the show had to do with Anne Bancroft, The Miracle Worker, and not being recognized for her best dramatic role.

There's a segment of the show that's called "Not My Job", where they ask someone well known to answer three questions about a subject they know nothing about. Tonight's call-in guest was S. Epatha Merkerson (Lt. Anita Van Buren of Law & Order fame) and questions had to to with the production of what may be the worst movie of all time - 'Manos' the Hands of Fate. Unfortunately, she went 0-for-3, so the contestant didn't get Carl Kassel's voice on their home answering machine.

We'll have to see if some of the running gags/lines make it into the final edit: Anne Bancroft, Millard Fillmore (and East Aurora and his Noodle Roller), and "it's just us here" - Paula's line after being reprimanded for swearing between segments because there are kids in the audience (which everyone questioned what kid would ask their parents to go to a radio gameshow about current events!)

GREAT TIME, fun time. We want to do it again this summer!

UPDATE: Listen to the show here.