WCQS is bringing Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! The Oddly Informative News Quiz from NPR back to Asheville this summer. Host Peter Sagal, official judge and scorekeeper Carl Kasell and a few of their [yet to be named] witty panelists will return to the 'Cesspool of Sin' for a live show at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium August 1st. The Asheville performance will be broadcast nationwide on Saturday, August 3rd.
Tickets will go on sale Thursday, June 6th at 10 a.m. Sustaining Members of WCQS will have the opportunity to purchase tickets in advance. If you are a Sustaining Member, watch your email to find out how.
All tickets are $48 and seating is assigned, so the sooner you purchase, the better your seat.
Tickets will be available online and by phone at 800-745-3000.
Now in its 15th season, the Peabody Award-winning show, Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!, uses current stories (from the global to the ridiculous) for questions and comedy. Host Peter Sagal, along with official judge and scorekeeper Carl Kasell, leads a rotating panel of comedians, humorists and journalists, listener contestants and celebrity guests through a comic review of the week’s news.
Each week, Sagal quizzes the panelists and listeners to determine just how closely they paid attention to the week's news. He serves up questions in all forms: lightning rounds, tape from NPR news shows, multiple choice, identify the “fake” stories, and fill-in-the-blank limericks. Listeners call 888-WAIT-WAIT for a chance to win the show’s coveted prize: a custom-recorded greeting by Carl Kasell for their home answering machine or voicemail.
One of the most popular segments is “Who's Carl This Time?,” in which Kasell recites quotes from the week’s newsmakers as contestants guess who he is impersonating. The show’s “Not My Job” segment, when famous people are quizzed on subjects about which they know absolutely nothing, has attracted such names as President Barack Obama (okay, he was Senator Obama at the time…), actor Tom Hanks, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, comedian Stephen Colbert and actor, comedian and banjo player extraordinaire Steve Martin.
A rotating trio of witty panelists completes the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! team. They include author and humorist Roy Blount, Jr., advice columnist Amy Dickinson, Washington Post columnist Roxanne Roberts, writer and performer Adam Felber, author P.J. O’Rourke, comedian Paula Poundstone humorist Mo Rocca and more. We don’t yet know who the panelists will be for the Asheville show, but as soon as we know, you’ll know.
WCQS broadcasts Wait Wait.. Don't Tell Me! Saturday mornings at 11 and Sunday mornings at 10.
WCQS will also host a listening party for the Saturday August 3rd broadcast of the Asheville show. Details TBA.
Stay tuned for more!
