I finally get Carl Kasell’s voice and message
Posted: April 23rd, 2011 | Author: Linh Pham | 8 Comments »Just about two years ago today, I could have had a message recorded by Carl Kasell as a prize if Monica Seles correctly answered two out of three questions during her Not My Job segment on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!.
Well, earlier this week, I received a call from one of the WWDTM producers regarding one of the messages I had sent to WWDTM a while back. The producer said that they have referred to my Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! stats page quite a bit for various information and asked if I wanted to be a listener contestant on this week’s show. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I said yes.
Since the shows are recorded in front (or behind) a live studio audience on Thursday nights, starting just about 19:00 Central Time. This week, the show is in Baltimore, but still started at the same time, so I got a call just after 16:30 Specific, I mean Pacific, Time and would be the first contestant. After the initial introductions were done, then the actual show introduction started, it was my time to shine. So, after Peter asked who is on the line, I gave my introduction and mentioned that maintain the stats page and got quite excited. Anyway, I answered all three questions correctly (US, Royal Wedding and the iPhone) and will now get Carl’s voice and message :)
BTW, when I said, “the miraculous iPhone”, the “miraculous” part is supposed to be sarcastic, but my dull voice didn’t reflect that. Ditto with the implication that there isn’t a lot of sunny days in Oregon. Also, about a minute of chatting and interjections were edited out from the final program due to time and dullness on my part.
Anyway, I’m super-glad that I have finally won Carl’s voice and message on Wait Wait. Now, to get one of my correct answers picked for Car Talk’s puzzler, I can rest in public radio peace. :D
Enjoyed you on WWDTM today, and learning about your stats blog. Why not post Karl’s greeting somewhere so we can hear it. I called a guy once who gave his full name to hear the greeting, but he (actually, his mom answered the phone) claimed he’d recently moved and not unpacked his answering machine with the message on it.
Linh, you are so cool!
I attended the Seattle show in 2008, and they cut a LOT out of the final show. That was the “Clippy Must Die!” episode, and the panelists went on for 10 or 15 minutes with Clippy riffs. They even had panel questions that were cut out of the final show. I can’t remember if the panelists got the questions correct, because that would affect the score before the lightning round. When one of the panelists said to Paula “Brainstorm” during the lightning round, that was a reference to a cut panel question about renaming epileptic seizures.
More recently, they mentioned “first world problem” several times in an episode, which must have been a reference to something else cut from a show.
They really should play some of this unaired material in place of some of the “best-of” shows they do air. Don’t feel bad about having part of your segment cut. There’s some great stuff that’s never been aired, so you’re in great company.
Yeah, I went to most recent show they did in Portland, Oregon and they cut a good chunk of the show out as well. I was able to listen in to some of the chatter from the panelists and it almost seems like they have to mention something about the topiary on the stage. For me, I’m just super happy that I was able to go on the show and get all three questions correctly… and that it wasn’t for the Listener Limerick Challenge. ;) Cheers.
I plan on putting a link to the message on my blog once I get a copy of it. I definitely want to share it with the rest of the WWDTM fans. Cheers.
While I’m thinking about it, I noticed something else strange a couple of weeks ago. The United States Government avoided a shutdown late on a Friday night, but that morning’s show reflected this news. It still seemed as slickly produced as normal, so it was prerecorded. They must have recorded two separate reactions to the first question of the show, so they could use whichever one was true by the time the show aired.
Heh, even I didn’t catch that one. For big news items, it makes sense that they record the two (or three) possible options and slice in the appropriate one. Nice catch!
Can’t wait to hear the message!