Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! Taping in Seattle

Note: I had written this post a few days after going to the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! taping at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle back on September 18, 2014. Unfortunately, it got stuck in the blog submission queue and didn’t get published until today.

When I heard that Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! was coming to the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, I knew that I had to find a way to get tickets to the show and go to the show. I decided to reach out to my Wait Wait contacts in Chicago and was able to pull the trigger on getting a pair of tickets as an insurance policy. Fortunately, my contacts came through with a pair of tickets, as tickets to the show sold out extremely quickly. Once I got confirmation, I promptly put in my request for a few days off of work and booked a hotel.

I started putting feelers out there to find out which panelists would be at the show. From the outset, I already knew that Luke Burbank would be on the panel and he had mentioned that Paula Poundstone would also be on the panel. It wasn’t until the week building up to the show did I find out that the third panelist would be Maz Jobrani. On the day of taping, Rick Steves announced that he would be the Not My Job guest for the show.

As I was walking to the theatre with my mum, after having dinner with friends, I ran into Brian Babylon and chatted with him for the first of a number of occasions that night. I picked up the pair of tickets to the show, which put me nearly in the center of the main level (thankfully with an aisle seat). As people were getting to their seats, I saw Brian sitting across the aisle and Rick Steves ended up sitting right behind me up to when he went on stage for the Not My Job segment.

During the “Who’s Bill This Time?” segment, the gang had to record two versions of the Scotland independence vote to cover both potential outcomes. That said, they didn’t record a version in the case that the vote when to a recount. The discussion of the Scotland vote caused all three of the panelists to hilariously discuss the peculiarities of what is the United Kingdom versus Great Britain, and whether something was part of the United Kingdom and/or Great Britain, throughout the entire taping of the show. There was another great moment in which there was a discussion about fanny packs and Paula mentioned if a fanny pack worn up front ought to be called a “dicky pack”.

Paula Poundstone autographed by Wait Wait notebook
Paula Poundstone autographed by Wait Wait notebook

After the show, Brian got both my mum and I into the after-show meet-and-greet for those with VIP tickets. There, I got to meet and say “hello” to Maz Jobrani, who I met in person for the first time. Both of us also got to meet and chatted with Paula Poundstone and Luke Burbank. Paula was kind enough to sign my little notebook that I have used to record notes and stats for that taping.

At the post-show meet-and-great, one of the directors from KPLU and Peter Sagal thanked the people there and Peter discussed the visit to Seattle and the taping. Peter also introduced me to the group as the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! “stats guy”. A number of those in attendance came to me and asked about the stats page and asked a couple of stats questions. I was also able to meet and talk to Rick Steves.

I want to thank the guys at Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! for the tickets and for such an awesome show. I can’t wait for the gang to come back to Portland, Oregon!