Do tell – Peter Sagal discusses the NPR hit Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

Each week, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me delights audiences thanks to its mix of witty banter, absurd news bits and fan interaction.

Peter Sagal hosts the quiz show, which features official judge and scorekeeper Carl Kasell as well as panelists such as comedians Mo Rocca, Paula Poundstone and many more chiming in.

The radio show will do a live taping at the Baton Rouge River Center Thursday, Sept. 26. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $45 and are available here.

Sagal, a former Brooklyn playwright, was swept up as part of a nation wide talent search to be a show panelist when the show began in 1998.

It’s hard to imagine NPR’s hit being an unfunny bore, but Sagal remembers those early dark days.

“The very first show was terrible for a lot of reasons, and I implicate myself as one of those reasons,” he says. “It was forced. It’s hard to be funny in general, especially in a studio with no live audience.”

By May of 1998, NPR and the show had to make a decision—be generic or be goofy.

“It was explicitly ‘Are we going to make this a serious news quiz’ or ‘Are we going to just screw around and have as much fun as we can,'” he says. “Once we decided to [go with the latter], it was hard to put in practice, and it took a long time to get where we are now.”

Along the show’s development, Sagal says there were moments of brilliance, especially when the show went live in front of a studio audience in Salt Lake City for the first time in 2000.

“Before that, we had no connection with listeners,” he says. “It was a one-way connection. We didn’t know if they were laughing. [At the live show,] they laughed when we said something. It was a huge boost. It was that psychological thing we needed.”

In its 15 years on air, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! has become a standard for public radio listeners and comedy fans thanks to its consistency and willingness to let the absurd fly. That spontaneity and silliness takes a lot of work, Sagal says, but it isn’t something he’s willing to give up anytime soon.

“We spend the whole week researching, reading lots of news stories,” he says. “We find something funny, then go on in the show, try a lot then sometimes fail. I have no qualifications for this job whatsoever. There are people who are paying their dues, acquiring skills. I’m not one of those people. I was handed this on a platter 15 years ago. It’s really unfair, especially those people. I’m sorry, but I’m not giving it up.”

For more information on Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, click here.