Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - More Best of Not My Job

Episode Date: August 20, 2022

Wait Wait prepares for a return to full time live performances by reliving some of our favorite guests who joined us in front of live audiences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

So, you've seen the TV show The Bear, and now all you want to do is come to Chicago and eat an Italian beef sandwich. And I don't blame you, they are great. But that's one meal. What are you going to do with the rest of your time? How about a spicy, juicy evening of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, live at the Studebaker Theater? Not only is it hilarious, but if you stick around afterwards, I personally will tell you the very best non-fictional place to get Italian beef in Chicago. For more information on Wait, Wait, not Italian beef, go to nprpresents.org. Hey everyone, Bill Curtis here.

If you're like me and you love the panelists on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, then check out the Wait, Wait stand-up tour. This fall, we're doing two shows in Michigan, October 21st in Ann Arbor and the 22nd in Kalamazoo. Both shows feature some of our funniest comedians. Alonzo Bowden is the host, along with Maz Jobrani, Helen Hong, and Nagin Farsad. See them live, uncensored, and uninterrupted by Peter Sagal. For tickets and information, go to nprpresents.org.

From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. Grab your bros and meet me on the quad. We're playing Spike Bill with me, Bill Curtis. And here's your host, who just realized summer is almost over, so he's last-minute power tanning in a pottery kiln, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. Now, as much fun as it is to have a summer break, we are even more excited to get back to work because now we have live people in the audience and live people on the stage. We're not sure about the backstage crew, though. They wear black and never speak. So in order to get ourselves psyched up to talk to real people again, we are listening this week to some of our favorite visits with actual humans. For example, in July 2017, we were honored to host Maestra Maren Alsop,

then music director of the Baltimore Symphony, and one of the foremost conductors in America. So, I always ask sort of musical geniuses like yourself, were you like a musical prodigy? Did you have to be forced to practice the piano, or did you love it? No, I was born with a job. My parents were professional musicians. Oh, they were?

My dad was a violinist, and my mom a cellist, and so they needed a pianist, and so they said, oh, let's make one. So I was born with a job, and really, I hated the piano. I hated it. I retired when I was six from the piano. Now, was that because you didn't like the piano, or because you just resented your parents saying,

like, this is why you were here? Well, how much time do we have now? No, they tricked me into playing violin, and then I, you know, for every kid, there is the right instrument. How do you trick a child to playing the violin? I've left some candy inside this odd wooden object. It was very close because they said,

you want to go to summer camp. So I already had an archetypal image of summer camp, with sailing and swimming and horseback riding. Somehow horses got in there. And they said, oh, before we go, we forgot to tell you, you might have to play the violin. And this camp is called Meadow Mountain. It's fondly called the concentration camp for violinists.

So that's where this happened. And when you got there, they just put you in your little cell and handed you a violin? Yeah, the teacher said, so you're going to practice from 8 until 1 every day, five hours. Luckily, I was 7. I had no real sense of time. Right. Wow. Seven years old, and they made you practice your violin five hours a day,

and this was supposedly for pleasure. This was camp. Right. I mean, there's so many things to say. But she was on top of a horse while she was practicing. What were the other activities, like weeping? No, no. The only sport we were allowed to do was ping pong. And so I am awesome at ping pong. And is it true, we read that you decided at some point you wanted to be a conductor? Well, what happened was that after practicing for five hours for eight weeks, I was pretty good, so I got into Juilliard right after that. But I played in the orchestra, which I loved,

and they got some complaints that somebody was trying to lead the whole orchestra from the back of the second violins. And so... Wait a minute. So they actually brought you in?

Did they complain about you? They brought my... How do you try to conduct the orchestra from the second violin? You know, I was just moving, and everybody else was, you know, already,

like, Stonehenge, and I was busy. And then, luckily, my dad took me to a concert, and I saw the conductor. He came out, and he started talking to me, talking to the audience, talking to me, I thought. And, you know, he was really excited, and then he started jumping around and conducting,

and I thought, oh, nobody's yelling at this guy. I could do that. In fact, he's doing the yelling. Exactly. And he was sweating and spitting. And that was Leonard Bernstein. Oh. Wow.

Why? So you saw Leonard Bernstein, and I should say somewhat famously, you became, I guess, a student isn't a good enough word, one of his protégés. I did, luckily. And that was the highlight of my life. How does one become a protégé of a conductor? Like, I'm thinking of a karate kid.

Is there a lot of work with the swish of the arm? There's a lot of that, yes. There is a lot of that. Yes, said Maestro Bernstein to his student. It's all a swish of the arm. I guess what's really under the question is that every kid who goes to see a concert thinks he or she can be a conductor, right?

The actual movement that you make, forgive me, looks simple. So what is it that goes into conducting? Oh, my God. These questions, you said they were going to be easy, Peter. I said my questions were going to be easy. I said nothing about faith. But listen, it's true. It is a lot of it. I think about who we are as human beings that creates a different sound and elicits a different response. It's all about body language and connecting. Not only that, and I say this because I'm privileged enough to see you work, something

I noticed, most people can't see this because the conductor has their back to the audience. But because music is playing, you cannot shout instructions. You must indicate what you'd like a musician to do through facial expressions. You have to have a wide range of dirty looks. Really? Or encouraging looks, or question marks. Or maybe it just looks like you're not really going to play it that way, are you?

Sort of more like that. Or also, you know, you have to anticipate. Sometimes people are about to play at the wrong moment, you know, and you have to kind of anticipate, like, preventive conducting, I call it. You know, like, don't do that. Well, Marin Alsop, it is a pleasure to talk to you, but we have, in fact, asked you here to play a game we're calling...

You're a good conductor, but are you a super conductor? You're pretty good, we have heard, I have seen, at musical conducting, but what do you know about the other kind of conducting? Conducting electricity. We're going to ask you three questions about that other kind of conducting. If you get two right, you win a prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might like on their voicemail. Bill, who is Marin Alsop playing for?

Lucinda Watson of Chattanooga, Tennessee. All right, you ready to do this? Here we go, maestro. Lightning rods were all the rage after they were invented in the late 18th century, so much so that they turned up where? A, attached to racehorses, hoping they'd give them an extra kick. B, on cannonballs, in the hope that it would attract lightning

onto someone's enemies. Or C, on top of ladies' hats, because they looked cool. Oh, let's see. We got the horseback? on top of ladies' hats because they looked cool. Oh. Let's see. We got the horseback. You have the cannonball. So it would fly over there, lightning would hit the cannonball,

blow up your enemy. Or ladies' hats because they looked stylish. Yeah, but that would hurt, wouldn't it? The ladies? That could be really dangerous. Well, ladies have already made sacrifices for fashion. We're going with the hat? Yeah. Okay, we're going with for fashion. We're going with the hat? Okay, we're going with the hat.

You're all right. It's amazing, by the way, how you got them all to work together like that. All right, next question. Electric fences are excellent conductors, of course, but they're not just for farms.

Someone once seriously suggested using an electrified fence for which of these uses? A, surrounding mixed martial arts fighters at the first UFC bout. B, keeping the political press from harassing senators. Or C, managing the line, which gets quite extraordinary, at Franklin's Barbecue in Austin, Texas.

Okay, I'm going to go with the barbecue because the electric and the barbecue, it sounds kind of... No, it wasn't the barbecue. It was the mixed martial arts, but I just want to say that I'm glad that you mentioned the barbecue because the only reason I put it in here was that they would hear it and send us some barbecue. So I appreciate the help.

All right, you get this last one right, you win. Your last question is about superconductors. These are the remarkable materials that conduct electricity with almost no resistance. Very useful in industry and science. In 2010, a group of Japanese scientists made an incredible discovery about superconductors. How did it happen?

Was it A, one of them was picking out ham at the grocery store freezer section, noticed it was colder than the frozen chicken, that led to the discovery that ham makes an excellent superconductor. B, an incompetent lab assistant made contact with two electrical leads and the current passed through his body

with excellent efficiency without harming him, so he now works as a professional superconductor. Or C, the scientist got drunk, dunked a superconductor in booze, and discovered that red wine increased its conductivity 62%. C. All right, we're going with C. I'm trusting them. It is C. It is amazing. What happened, they all got drunk, and they were like,

oh, what are all these boozes? They tried all the boozes in the superconductor, and all got drunk, and they were like, oh, I wonder what all these boozes are. So they tried all the boozes in the superconductor, and they got amazing results. Red wine increases conductivity of the substance they were using 62%. Bill, how did Marin Alsop do in our quiz? Well, she's a winner in our book. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. And now, here's a fun moment with our panelists. Adam. Yes. Paleontologists have yet another new explanation for why T-Rexes had such short arms. They helped them do what? I think T-Rexes would like it if we stopped talking about their short arms. They help them do what? I think T-Rex would like it if we stopped talking about their short arms. Can you move on? I have other qualities. Would you like a hint? I like French

poetry. You never bring that up. I'll take a hint, yeah. It's not the size of the arms. It's the motion of the parts you don't see in the museum. Good Lord. Why did I have to get this question? Is it something prurient? Is it something like... Wait, is it so they don't... Is it so they don't... Were T-Rex's Catholic?

Is that what you're saying? Is that what you're saying? Can't sin with short arms. No, but you can do what? Floss. Floss? I'm going to go with floss. That makes most sense. Have sex.

What? A group of Argentinian paleontologists have determined that T-Rex's little arms were useful for sex. Why? Because, and this is their real reasoning, in a scientific study, they had to be used for something. they say perhaps the male used them to hold the female during mating or maybe to never call her afterwards hey I was trying to text

but what female T-Rex is going you know what they say about a dinosaur with short arms you thought his arms were short. Don't give up. I'll be here with arms that won't give up on you. When we come back,

one of the pioneering figures in American dance, the choreographer Garth Fagan, and it's Drag Queen Story Hour with Peaches Christ. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, and here's your host, who just realized we're halfway through

August and he forgot to buy a vineyard estate in Provence, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. After two years or so of isolation, we are reveling in the possibilities of seeing people face to face. And to get ready to do it again, we are remembering what that is like. In October of 2016, we went to Rochester, New York to interview a giant of American dance, choreographer Garth Fagan. Peter asked him if he had always dreamed of being a dancer, long before he choreographed The Lion King on Broadway. Yeah, I danced with Ivor Baxter National Company in Jamaica.

And they traveled around the world, wore beautiful clothes, drove fancy cars, and shallow, shallow, empty reasons, I was thrilled to do it. Really? So you weren't interested in dance because of the aesthetic pleasures of beauty? No, no, no. You wanted to live that legendary, fast-living, international dancer lifestyle. Hallelujah.

Yeah. Right? Did that ultimately work out for you? Did you live a life of luxury and ease? Oh, luxury, yes. Ease, never when you choreograph human beings. That's the problem. We were reading that your father was not happy

with your choice of a career. Is that the case? Absolutely not. He's an Oxford graduate, but he wanted me to be a doctor like him. And you know, something more respectable than dancing. But I have 11 or 12 honorary doctorates. So daddy, I'm doctor, doctor, doctor. What was his attitude? Well, that's fine for a hobby, but how are you going to make a living? Yes. And in fairness to him, in 73,

I didn't know why I was driven to take the company to Jamaica. Yeah. And I charged airline tickets and hotel on his American Express car. No, wait a minute. This is great. He, who didn't want you to be a dancer,

paid for your tour to Jamaica. Right. And what did he say when he got that bill? Well, when I told him, I said, Dad, I have to tell you something. I charged the strip on your account, and I'll pay it back to you in four or five installments. And that beloved man said, you don't owe me a dime. Oh, wow. What a story.

Just beautiful. Boy, I feel like a sucky parent now. So Garth, let's talk about The Lion King. This is the smash Broadway show running for 20 years now. You choreograph these amazing sequences with dancers and puppets of animals that they're performing.

How in the world did you figure out how, for example, a giraffe should dance? Well, happily, when I did Lion King, I'd been to Africa seven times before. Yeah. did Lion King, I'd been to Africa seven times before. And I'd been on safaris. So I had a really good idea of how they should move. The only problem is, they don't have to do eight shows a week.

The giraffe, the actual giraffe. And my dancers had to do eight shows a week. So I had to keep that in mind, that it should look like the animal, but there's a human being in there who has muscles that ache

and bones that get fractured. Jeez. Yeah, and wives and husbands and lovers and mistresses that go A-W-O-L. You know, it's a little-known fact that gazelles on the Serengeti got together at one point and said to their parents, look, we got seven safaris a week. You know, what do you say we use four legs and walk a shorter distance?

Well, Garth Fagan, what a pleasure to meet you and to talk to you. We have asked you here today to play a game that this time we're calling... Lion King, meet the Lion King. So, as we discussed, you helped create the Lion King, which made us wonder, what would you know about the kings of lying, that is, really deceitful people. Answer three questions about people who were royally dishonest

and you will win our prize for one of our listeners, Carl Castle's voice and their voicemail. Bill, who is choreographer Garth Fagan playing for? Audrey Middleton of Rochester, New York. Audrey! There you go. Ready to do this?

Yes, sir. All right, here's your first question. In 2014, French authorities launched a month-long investigation into a kidnapping that was based on a lie. Which of these was it? A, a woman was embarrassed her friends spotted her on a date with a dorky guy so she said he had kidnapped her. B. A young boy who made up a

kidnapping just to get out of going to the dentist. Or C. A couple who wanted to visit Paris but couldn't avoid the fare so they said they were kidnapped so the police would take them quote home. I think it was a couple who wanted to get

kidnapped so they could go to Paris. You know, Paris is worth it, but in fact it was the young boy. He really didn't want to go to the dentist. They found him hiding. They said, oh, I was kidnapped. That's why I'm not at the dentist. It took them a month to figure that out.

I understand that, young dentist. It took them a month to figure that out. You still have two more chances. I understand that, young man. Here's your next question. Every year, England holds the world's biggest liar festival when people from around the globe are given five minutes to tell the most convincing lie they can. There's only one rule. What? A, the contestants are required to tell the lies

while looking into the eyes of their disapproving mothers. B, politicians and lawyers are not allowed to enter the competition because they're, quote, too skilled at telling lies. Or C, the lies have to be told by the contestants' pants are literally on fire. B. B. It is, in fact, B. B. B. It is, in fact, B. B! Yay!

Last question. Lies have played an important role in American history, such as, well, in which of these cases? A. In 1860, a lobbyist made up the word Idaho, said it was a Native American word, and named a state after it. B, in 1884, the Republican Party created a completely fictional presidential candidate with the unlikely name of Grover Cleveland. Or C, democracy itself is a lie. Am I right, sheeple? A. It is, sheeple? A. It is, in fact, A.

Wow. Idaho is not a real Native American word, but it sure sounds like one, doesn't it? It's made up by a lobbyist. Bill, how did Garth Fagan do in our quiz? It's the circle of life. Two out of three win! Yay! Yay!

Garth Fagan is a Tony Award winning choreographer. You can find more information about his dance company at GarthFaganDance.org. Garth Fagan, thank you so much! Thank you, Peter! For joining us today. so much. Now, a few years before that, in 2014, we spent the summer in San Francisco doing our shows at what is now the Sydney Goldstein Theatre. And the highlight of that visit was, without question, legendary drag queen Peaches Christ. Bill was quite taken with her.

Yes. We've never seen each other again, but we'll always have San Francisco. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure. Now, I have never been sadder that we are a radio program. So you are dressed casually, I imagine. This is a casual look for...

This is daytime. Grocery shopping, going to the gym. So you are wearing let's see, a glitter... What do you... It's sort of a fully Charlie's Angels inspired silver sequins jumpsuit. Yes, that's what it is. With a lot of cleav, you know, Charlie's Angels-inspired silver sequins jumpsuit.

Yes, that's what it is. With a lot of cleavage. Oh, yeah. Elvira-inspired cleavage. Yeah, I believe that's the Colorado River snaking down through there. You know what? It's formed over eons, that cleavage.

The drought is over. Yes. All drag performers, drag legends have origin stories. What's yours? Well, I really started my drag career in a movie. I was a film major at Penn State University and was making a movie, which the title I can't say here on NPR.

Right. But there was a drag queen character in the movie and the actor we'd hired kind of dropped out. And so, as the director, I came in and saved the day. I put on the wig and the costume, and the rest is history, because I moved to San Francisco a year later and started performing at the legendary Tranny Shack Club in 1996. A Tranny Shack. And when you got to San Francisco, did you feel like, oh my gosh, I'm home? Or did you feel like, oh my gosh, I'm home? Or did you feel like, oh my gosh, I can walk down the street dressed like this and nobody notices?

A little bit of both. You have to, you know, to be a successful drag queen in this town, it takes a lot more than putting on a wig and some lipstick. I know, I tried that yesterday. I got nothing. So what are the shows like that you do? You introduce films. You have these big shows around films. Yes. I, I, I'm in the business of celebrating cult movies. So I grew up in Maryland and I, I worship divine and John Waters from a young age. And we do full drag, you know, spectacles before, you know, films. My next show is Showgirls.

Well, this is, I know, this is one. This is, I understand, one of your big shows that people look forward to. It sells out. So when you do a big show, sort of, you reenact the film before a show? We do. This is our NC 17th annual Showgirls screening. So I started showing Showgirls 17 years ago. The first show I did, I did, I put on the poster

that we would offer free lap dances with every large popcorn. And how many tankers did you get on that? Hundreds. I can imagine. The Castro Theater, we keep their doors open because they sell more large popcorns that night. I can imagine. Than they do in a year. Now, hold on.

Do you hold the popcorn as you lap dance or do you just put it down to the side and then pick it back up? This is the thing about that. You see guys come who think that they're getting a lap dance who don't really understand that it's a drag show. So their first horror is me bursting out of a volcano naked. That's the first thing that happens. And then when I introduce the lap dancers, you can kind of see their popcorn start sliding under their seats, sort of disappearing, because, you know, they're my kind of lap dancers, you know?

So the lap dancers are also in drag, is what you're saying. Some of them. You can't always tell what's going on really with them. So it's like, all you know, all you know is you're getting popcorn. You don't know what flavor it could be. So Peaches, you do a show about or with the movie, The Wizard of Oz. Can you tell me about that? We did. We did The Wizard of Oz at the Castro Theater. It's in the middle of the Castro, which is the big gay neighborhood. And so The Wizard of Oz, with a drag show at the Castro Theater, probably is the gayest thing that's ever happened here.

Maybe. And, you know, I love The Wizard of Oz. It's probably one of the most inspiring movies I've ever seen or experienced. And I think it really launched my love of horror films. I'm really a horror queen. Is The Wizard of Oz a horror movie? I think it is, if you think about it, really. I mean, she kills someone right at the beginning of the movie. And there's a terrifying witch. And she goes on a journey to kill again. And, you know, it's scary. Yeah, from a witch's perspective, it is kind of a serial killer movie.

Oh, yeah, she kills two people. You know, that's a body count. So it's creepy, but we did an age restriction, and that way we could do our drag pre-show, which was a 75-minute big pre-show spectacle before the movie where I, you know, land in Oz and go on a journey. After 75 minutes of watching you play Dorothy in Play Out the Story, doesn't the movie seem boring, thin, and silly?

Yes. I would imagine. Well, Peaches, we are delighted to talk to you. And we've asked you here to play a game we're calling... Forget about it. That's quite legitimate. So, you're a drag queen, but what do you know about Queens? Not the royalty.

No, the borough of New York City. Destined to be the next hipster capital now that Brooklyn is old and done. So we're going to ask you three questions about what's happening right now in Queens, New York. And if you answer two of them correctly, you win a prize for one of our listeners,

Carl Castle's voice on their voicemail. Bill, who was Peaches playing for? Todd Phillips of The Hague in the Netherlands. Whoa. All right. Here's your first question. In 2010, a woman sued a Queens costume store. Why?

A, she got a peg leg, a parrot, and an eye patch when she expressly asked for a Somali pirate costume. B, she tripped and fell wearing their, quote, defective clown shoes. Or C, she got stuck in her horse costume

for four hours and she was the back half. I'll say B. She tripped and fell wearing their clown shoes? Yes. You are right. That's what happened.

He says that the defective shoes caused her to trip and injure herself at a costume party. The lawyer noted, not a professional clown. Next Queen's question. The glory often goes to Manhattan where all the doers and shakers supposedly live. But in 2012, a Queen Queens man distinguished himself how? A, he made medical history by eating the styrofoam container his hero sandwich came in and he survived. B, he swam a mile, a measured mile, in the sewage containment ponds at the Hunts Point water treatment plant. Or C, he broke a record by binge-watching 252 movies in 30 days on Netflix.

Wow. I'll say B again. You're going to go for B? He swam a mile in the sewage containment ponds? Yeah. No, it was actually C. He broke the record for Netflix watching. A man named Mark Malkoff wanted to see how much value he could get from his Netflix streaming membership.

He ended up paying, as he calculated it, less than seven cents per terrible, terrible movie. All right, this is exciting, because, you know, you like drama. This is dramatic. Here we go. If you get this right, you win. Here we go. All is not sunshine and light in Queens. Queens resident Liliana Coelho was sentenced to two years in prison just recently after she was convicted of what crime?

A, walking into a Walgreens and drinking 27 five-hour energy drinks without paying for them. B, impersonating a doctor and performing a horribly failed butt lift procedure. Or C, trying to escape Queens by hang gliding off the top of the Queensborough Bridge. Oh my goodness. Terrible. Let me put it to you this way, Peaches. Answer B involves a butt lift surgery gone wrong. Has a butt lift surgery ever gone right? That's true. That's true. Okay, I'll say B. You're going to say B? You are right. Well, the answer. Well, Ms. Quelo pretended to be a doctor and promised her patient a miraculously

firm derriere for only $2,000. When the first injections did not work, she tried to fix it, this is true, with crazy glue. Oh my God. Ended up going to jail. Bill, how did Peaches do in our quiz? Peaches, you're a winner in our book. We love having you here did Peaches do in our quiz? Peaches, you're a winner in our book. We love having you here.

Thank you. Peaches Christ! Thank you so much for being on our show. When we come back, a legendary diva on stage at Wolf Draft in Northern Virginia, and a heartthrob joins us in Brooklyn. We'll be back in a minute with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me. The NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host,

a man whose skin is naturally SPF 50. It's Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. We are very excited to get back on the road, and we are going to start it off with a bang next week with a visit to the legendary Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts near Washington, D.C. When I'm there, it's one national treasure inside another.

National Treasure Inception. So, to get ready, we are going to go back now to 2019, when we spoke to a legend of opera soprano Renee Fleming, who, among many other honors, was the first classical singer to ever perform at the Super Bowl. While the crickets chirped out on the lawn, Peter asked Ms. Flebbing whether she had always wanted to sing opera. Did you grow up liking opera? Did you love opera as a kid and that was your ambition to sing opera?

No, no, no. I grew up in a very musical household. My parents were high school vocal music teachers, so we all sang. We had to. There was no real choice. I was interested in animals. I wanted to be first lady president. I was very ambitious.

I had that piece. Unfortunately, the job is still open. Well, there's a chance. I always wonder about people who really achieve extraordinary things in their profession. Was there a moment where you were a young age where you knew that this was a path that was open to you, that you could actually make it in this very difficult world? You know, I got interested in jazz. I was doing other styles.

And it was really kind of in my, I was a late bloomer, I would say. So it was really in my mid-30s that things started to really push forward. And I thought, okay, this is going to work. Do you sing in the shower? Only if I'm vocalizing, you know, but car's good. Any place, you know, showers or bathrooms are good because the acoustic is so great, right? Who likes to sing in the shower, right?

Yes. But of course, we all sound like you in the shower. Your great gift is that you continue to sound that good once you've left the shower. That's why. No, but when I'm warming up my voice, I'll do anything to make it work. And sometimes it's just really bizarre, the sounds I make. For example? You know, like a siren.

I'll warm up with my tongue sticking out all the way. Can you do a siren for us? Yeah. Yeah. Do you worry about intimidating people when, like, public singing happens? Like, when you're singing, like, Happy Birthday or anything like that?

You're like, all right, I'm Renee Fleming, but I'm just gonna, I'm gonna be cool about it. I so worry that it's the opposite, that people are gonna say, oh, that's it? Oh, no. Oh, wow, I thought you'd be louder. You have to tell us about singing the Super Bowl, singing the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl. Well, that was incredible.

So 110 million people, something like that. Did you stick around and, like, cheer for the game? Absolutely. Yes. Could people hear you, like, tackle him, you son of a bitch? You know, that is the best way to cheer. I think so. It is. It can be heard. You know, anything else the best way to cheer. I think so. It is.

It can be heard. You know, anything else is sort of, oh. It does occur to me that that, again, would be a superpower in case you were the group of people and you're all trying to hail a cab. You would win. Well, you know, and I do this at dinner parties, actually, or in restaurants, and particularly when it's loud. If I just really pitch high, like, hello, then I can be heard. Otherwise, forget it.

My speaking voice is too weak. Right. We have to ask you one other thing. We have on occasion tried to get opera performers on our show, and we have often been told, oh, I'm sorry, they're on vocal rest. Yes. That's what we were told. Is that a real thing, or are we being shined on?

You know, interesting. It's always been a real thing. Are you okay? Yes. Vocal rest. Vocal rest. I hear something coming on. It definitely has been a real thing.

I've had to do it a couple of times and once because I was yelling at one of my children. Really? You were yelling at your child? Well, not at length. It was just like an emphatic come down here right now. And I felt it go. I went, oh my God, what did I just do? And I missed three performances.

Oh my. I mean, my children laugh at me when I'm angry. Right. They just laugh. Because it is usually, what have you done? There it is. It is a little funny. I'm in my room.

No. It's not really scolding. It is a little funny. Clean up your room. No. It's not really scolding. It's just recitative. It's recitative. It's on pitch. It's somebody playing like a harpsichord while you're singing. Go clean up your room. I know what my job is.

But nowadays they say that you don't have to be on vocal rest anymore. Really? Yeah. You have to kind of take it easy but not silence. Right. Which is why you didn't have an excuse, and now you're here. All right, Renee Fleming, we have asked you here to play a game we're calling... Baby Shark.

Do-do, do-do, do-do. So you are world famous for, shall we say, swimming in the deep end of the musical pool. for, shall we say, swimming in the deep end of the musical pool. So we thought we'd wade into the other end and ask you three questions about the song Baby Shark, very popular with toddlers and the Washington National. Answer two to three questions about the song, taken from a history of it, put together by Vulture, and you'll win our prize for one of our listeners,

the voice of anyone on our show they might like. Bill, who is Renee Fleming playing for? Nick Isaac of Minneapolis, Minnesota. All right. Great town. Are you ready to play? Yep. All right.

Here's your first question. The origin of the song Baby Shark is actually lost in time. People think it might have started decades ago as a campfire song. Now, the first version of the song ever to be put up on YouTube more than a decade ago is different from the version that our kids have all been singing for the last year. How? What is the difference? A, instead of sharks, it's about a family of eels. B, the sharks in the song hunt and dismember a swimmer. C, instead of do-do-do-do-do-do, it's don't-da-don't-da-don't-don't-don't. You really think it's B, don't you? Wow.

All right, I've got to go with them. It's B. They're right. They've heard the song. Wow. Thank you. All right, second question. There's another version of the song. There are lots of versions

of this song. Another one that was recorded back in 2007 achieved a particular honor. What was it? A, it became the number one song in Germany. B, it was the first song ever to be officially banned by the Catholic Church, or C, it was played as punishment to prisoners at Gitmo?

Okay, I think I'm going to go with A. You're going to go with A, it was the number one song in Germany. You must have been to Germany because you're right. Whoa. So let us hear... Wow, I never win anything. Great. Let us hear, if you will, the number one dance hit in Germany in 2007.

Baby, hi. Doo, doo. Doo, doo, doo, doo. China, hi. Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. There you go. All right. Earworm.

One more chance. Ear eel. Now, everybody talks and jokes about how incredibly annoying it is to have Baby Shark on all the time, but it has done some good in the world. Is it, A, 10% of the proceeds from the song go to a charity which buys pacifiers for actual baby sharks. B, a woman performed CPR on someone to the beat of Baby Shark and saved their life. Or C, the song has so improved Shark's image that people are now swimming in shark-infested waters, resulting in more food for sharks.

I'm going to say it's got to be B. You're going to go with B. Woman performs CPR. You're exactly right. Bill, how did Renee Fleming do in our quiz? Couldn't do any better. Three straight.

There you go. Finally, in March 2016, we went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. And appropriately enough, we talked to one of the most popular singers alive, Josh Groban. Peter asked Josh about the unlikely way he launched his career at the age of 17. about the unlikely way he launched his career at the age of 17. I had sung for a wonderful producer named David Foster, who discovered me and produced a lot of my stuff, at a charity event just kind of randomly two weeks prior to that night. And he found my parents' number.

I was living at home, obviously, and said, Hey, you were great at this event. Look, I've written this song. Andrea Bocelli is supposed to sing it at the Grammys, but he's stuck on a plane, he can't get here. Hey, would you mind stepping in for him? And when you're 17, you have no sense of like, this is my moment. You're just so kind of into everything that's in your myopic high school world.

So I said to him, oh man, I'm a baritone, he's a tenor, and also I've got this history test, and I just... No. No, I really, I was not, I did not, I mean, I grew up, I was born and raised in Los Angeles, but my parents are very kind of like real world, I was not a show-busy kid. So, yeah, I really was thinking to myself, ooh, that's a really big job, you really should get someone else for that. So, he called me back about 20 minutes later and said, I don't think you heard me correctly. Wait a minute, hold on.

You turned him down. I did. I actually said no. I actually said no. And just at the very moment, my mom was going, what did you say? He calls me back and he said,

get your ass over to the Shrine Auditorium at three o'clock. I will see you there. You don't have a choice in the matter. And he didn't give me any passes or anything. It's just me and my dad like telling this enormous bodyguard at the door, hey, this is my son Josh,

he's supposed to sing a duet with Celine Dion in 20 minutes. And I'm like, sure he is. Yeah, sure. And I sang my face off. And that was kind of a... Were you nervous? Oh, I was absolutely terrified. But it made for a great story when I had to postpone that history test.

Yeah. Did you get Celine Dion to give you a note? D'yeux historique de chair. Postponement, postponement. Yes, yes. And then, I mean, it's just like, and then Rosie O'Donnell had you on her show, right? Well, she was the host that year,

and then after I was done singing, I was like, I was sitting in the audience, and I was like, Dad, you know, was that okay? And Rosie just goes, hey, hey, opera kid. I want you on my talk show. You got 90 seconds. I want you to sing a song. You were in the Rosie O'Donnell show, and then that got you a part on Ally McBeal.

That's right, yes. Was there a single touchstone of 90s culture you did not participate in? I don't think so. No, I never guessed it on Friends. Yeah. But no, it really was serendipity because Robert Downey Jr. was going to get married to Calista Flockhart on that episode of Ally McBeal, and I was going to be the 22nd wedding singer.

And then Robert Downey Jr., who is one of the greats of all time and one of the kindest people I've ever met, he had a little bit of trouble at that point in his life, and so he was arrested and could not make it to set. And so, again, it was like, hey, kid, can you act? This is sort of mysterious. Yeah, this is weird. So wait a minute.

Andrea Bocelli gets stuck on a plane. Robert Downey gets arrested. Robert Downey gets arrested and all of a sudden you benefit. Well, look. I had just become a junior member of the Illuminati. So it was really just kind of like things just started to happen for me.

Can I say, you were Tevye in high school, right? I certainly was, Mo. Yes, I was a 16-year-old Tevye. And actually, that was one of the things I said to David E. Kelly when he asked me if I could act on Ally McBeal. I said, no. Without any irony in my answer,

I was just like, well, you know, I mean, if it matters, I was just heavy at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. My notices were quite good. Yes, they were. My Aunt Sylvia thought I was excellent. You know, in terms of the different kind of music you want to sing and the way that you've come into your jobs,

I happen to have read that one of the singers from ACDC has been have to leave his tour because he was told that he's going to go deaf if he continues to play. And so you might want to just check in with ACDC.

I will. Thank you for that. Thank you. You can take over. That would be awesome. AC stands for Adult Contemporary, right? That's exactly right. Well, Josh Groban, we are delighted to talk to you. But we have asked you here to play a game that this time we are calling... You Bring Me Down. So you had a big hit with You Raise Me Up.

So we thought we'd ask you three questions about things that actually lift you up and bring you down, namely elevators and escalators. Answer two of these questions correctly and you'll win a prize for one of our listeners, Carl Castle's voice in your voicemail. Bill, who is Josh Groban playing for? Ellen Lee from New York, New York. All right. You ready to do this? Yes. The first escalator was installed at Harrods Department Store in London in 1889, but it was not entirely automatic. It had an attendant on duty at all times to do what?

A, to quickly cut away the clothing of any passenger caught in the escalator before they were dragged into the gears and crushed. B, to stand back 30 feet from the top of the escalator and catch any passengers thrown into the air, as happened when the thing suddenly sped up from time to time, or C, to provide alcohol to any passengers traumatized by the experience. Oh, man. I'm going to go with alcohol.

You're right. It was a guy. He stood there. Apparently, people were so freaked out by this moving stairway that sometimes they became faint, and he had smelling salts and medicinal brandy for them to revive their spirits. Born in the wrong time, I was. Here in the United States, we are used to your basic escalator. You get in, you push a button, it takes you where you want to go.

But some elevators around the world have some special features, such as which of these? Some elevators around the world have some special features Such as which of these? A. In Romania, many elevators have little coffee shops in them To get a snack and a drink while you go up and down B. In Chile, there is a tradition of live elevator musicians Or C. In Singapore, urine detectors will lock the elevator And alert police if anyone chooses to use that elevator as a toilet. Ooh.

I'm going to go with that one. You're right again, and that is in fact the case. They're very, very committed to public hygiene. Yes. So don't be doing that in Singapore. Don't do that. All right, last question. You go for perfect here.

Elevators, like everything else, I guess, have their enthusiasts. Which of these is a real elevator-related hobby? A, homebrew elevation, people who build full-size elevators without a building. B, elevator filmers, people who go around the world and film elevators in operation from the inside. Or C, elevator racers, people who compete to see who can ride an elevator faster from the lobby to the top floor. I still do that with my little brother at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles.

Oh, man. I'm going to say people who build elevators without the building. It's so interesting an idea. It's a great idea, but it's not true. It's elevator filmers. Elevator filmers. It's elevator filmers. And if you go into YouTube, you can see these guys. It's so interesting an idea. It's a great idea, but it's not true. It's elevator filmers. Elevator filmers. It's elevator filmers. And if you go into YouTube, you can see these guys.

It's amazing. They go into elevators, and they press the button, and then you hear them going, whoa, this is great. And they're documenting it. They're documenting the elevator. They're live videoing their experience in the elevator. Yes. Bill, how did Josh Groban do in our quiz? Two out of three.

You're still a winner. I'm still a winner. Thank you. And that's all that matters. That's true. That's it for our quick refresher on how to talk to people edition of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Godica writes our limericks.

Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our production assistant is Sophie Hernandez-Semunidis. BJ Liederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornbos, Lillian King, and Nancy Seichau. Our pool noodle is Peter Gwynn. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our business and ops manager is Colin Miller. Our tour manager is Shana Donald.

Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilock. And the executive producer of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is Mikeana Donald. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilock. And the executive producer of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is Mike Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard this week, all of our panelists,

all of our guests, the amazing Bill Curtis. And thanks to all of you for listening. I am Peter Sagal and we will see you live from Wolf Trap next week.

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