I’m in Chicago (with ADale) for the Midwest conference to present out paper on text messaging. Our presentation is going well, and we received very helpful feedback. The complete results will be ready in August and we’ll be back in Chicago (for APSA) to present the final paper then. We’ll have a larger audience then as well – we were placed in the “Technology and Politics��? section yesterday, but we’ll be in “Voting Behavior��? at APSA. Unfortunately, not too many people have moved from comp sci to poli sci as I have, though I had a great conversation with Micah Altman about his new redistricting algorithm.
But, the conference isn’t the exciting part of the trip. On Thursday night, ADale and I attended a taping of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (the NPR News Quiz). And, yes folks, it’s not live, but taped on Thursday night (this fact has already disappointed a few people I’ve run into).
When I had listened to Wait Wait in the past I had formed the mental picture of the cast/setting. Since Carl Kassel makes the “CHASE AUDITORIUM in downtown CHICAGO��? sound so impressive, I pictured this large theatre with stadium seating. In reality, it’s this small, flat auditorium in the basement of the Chase building – my high school’s stage sat more people. I had also imagined the panelists facing each other in triangle formation with large radio mikes hanging down at mouth-level. But, without my make-believe stadium seating, this arrangement would force at least one of the panelists to have their back toward the audience, so that wouldn’t work. Instead, they are seated at a long-rectangular table, and the lack of panelist-to-panelist eye contact causes some problems when two of them attempt to make a joke at the same time. (But, since the show is taped, the can edit these goofs out.) Also, Peter Sagal and Karl Cassel are standing at podiums, which I found odd.
This week’s show featured Julia Sweeney (from SNL fame) as the “Not My Job Guest.��? She had some funny stories, and hearing about new act about converting from Catholicism to Atheism tempts my to skip the conference this afternoon and get tickets.
But the funniest part of the show was the “Bluff the listener game.��? Roxanne Roberts completely lost it as she tried to read her story. She was fine until a third of the way through, at which point she couldn’t stop laughing. She barely got through the piece the first time, but then at the end of the show, the re-tape lines that they screwed up. So Roxanne had to do a “clean take��? of her story. This, of course, proved near impossible, as she would get about four lines in and then burst out laughing. We, the audience, weren’t helping as we found this situation hilarious and added to the contagious laughter. Eventually, on about the sixth or seventh take, Roxanne pulled herself together and recorded the version that you’re likely to hear on the radio this weekend. I can only hope that they’ll air the original though.