A small queue started forming Thursday afternoon in front of San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House for a taping of the Chicago-based NPR comedy quiz show, "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!"
The tickets reportedly sold out the 3,000+ seat opera house within minutes of being offered to the public and the large line on Thursday was for the 200 standing room tickets that went on sale at 6PM.
Fans of the hour-long show, which started broadcasting in 1998, are fervent. The mother and daughter duo above drove from Santa Barbara six hours away to watch the taping.
My "Domestic Partner" Tony above recently became one of the show's addicts and I stood in line to buy a ticket for him while he finished his work day. He thoroughly enjoyed the evening, though the eventual 45-minute show took over two hours to tape because its quick-witted, rapid-fire improvisations are actually the result of editing out the boring stuff.
The dullest and most longwinded person onstage, according to Tony, was the special guest Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder whose lengthy replies were in complete contrast to the 140-character brevity of his social networking site. The edited version that aired this morning, meanwhile, made Mr. Stone sound fairly witty and to the point.
The funny tweet above from the standing room line refers to the "awkward-yuppie level near critical mass," while Tony couldn't help but notice that the lesbian couple critical mass was also off the charts, possibly because Paula Poundstone (center right) is one of the regular guests on the show.
If my partner had been aware of this, she'd have been in the line. I don't quite get it, but different strokes ...
ReplyDeleteDear Jan: I don't quite get it either, and it's funny that we're partnered up with people who are serious fans.
ReplyDeleteWell, I feel a little better knowing that the show benefits from a lot of editing.
ReplyDeleteStill don't understand the obsessive love people have for it, but oh well...it's harmless. Maybe that's the point. No agenda, just play.