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Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me: Radio Show Taping and Tickets

If you’re a news junkie who enjoys headier humor and social commentary, you can attend a live taping of the popular NPR quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me in downtown Chicago. It may not be as hot a ticket as Oprah, but the show still attracts sellout crowds of public radio fans and news geeks. Produced by Chicago Public Radio in conjunction with National Public Radio, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me is an hour-long program taped in a two-hour session on Thursday nights for broadcast the upcoming weekend.

For those unfamiliar with Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, Peter Sagal (the host) and Charlie Kasell (the scorekeeper/newsreader) welcome a group of three semi-celebrity panelists each week who provide levity and play games along with contestants who participate by phone. Common panelists include “media gadfly” Mo Rocca, comedy personality Paula Poundstone, Motel 6 spokesman Tom Boddett, and even the libertarian writer P.J. O’Rourke. Games include a quote quiz called “Who’s Carl This Time?,” a complete-the-limerick challenge, an NPR geek game, and a take on truths-and-lies called “Bluff the Listener.” Most of the games are news-related, often making specific reference to NPR shows like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but others are more generally oriented toward political and social humor independent of the week’s real (or imagined) news stories.

Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, once produced at the WBEZ Chicago Public Radio headquarters at Navy Pier, is now recorded in the Chase Auditorium at 10 S. Dearborn Street in the Loop to accommodate increasingly eager audiences. Individual tickets for the two-hour taping are $20 and be purchased online at www.chicagopublicradio.org; however, if you are buying tickets in a block for a group, you should call Chicago Public Radio at 312.893.2956 to take advantage of a 25% discount. The taping begins at 7:30pm and runs until around 9:30pm. And make sure you’re prompt. Unlike a typical theatric performance, this is being recorded for the radio, so they don’t like stragglers. It is common for tickets to Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me to sell out several weeks in advance, so buy them early if you know you’ll be in Chicago on an upcoming Thursday night. It’s not something you can usually do on a whim.

If you are interested in being a contestant for one of the many Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me games, that process remains mutually exclusive from the ticket purchases. Prospective contestants may call or email to indicate they want to play a game, and then the show’s producer’s sift through the wannabes to select the week’s contestants (who must agree to be available by phone during the time of taping). In other words, you can’t watch the taping and also be selected to participate on the show itself. The up side to this is that the contestant pool is more diverse because they don’t have to be residents of or visitors to Chicago.

If you’ve never been to a live taping of a radio show, consider tickets to Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me if you’re in Chicago or just visiting!