I went to see the recording of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me at Blossom last Thursday. My brother and his girlfriend had bought tickets, and we decided to get my dad a ticket and have me come along as well since they couldn’t sit together.
It was interesting to see how they put on a show for us that would be edited down for the radio. It was a little weird at times, but overall went well for us, and presumably for the radio too. Near the end, they re-recorded numerous bits of dialog.
There were some good laughs. One panelist told a funny story about vomiting on a plane, which became a running joke for the rest of the show. Plenty of other good stuff, and some political commentary too. The audience would clap frequently, and it was sometimes hard to hear what was being said.
When quiz questions were asked, the audience had a strong tendency to say the answer. It was kind of silly. They even threw off host Peter Sagal for a moment with a question about “birds”.
Piper Kerman was interviewed, author of Orange is the New Black (the book). It was interesting hearing her stories and opinions about prison and the justice system.
I didn’t get to listen to the radio broadcast, because I was at GiveCamp working on entering content at the time. I do wonder how it came together, what was removed, and how they dealt with some things.