Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me Live Cinema Event

Valley Public Radio to host screenings Thursday May 2 at 8:00pm

“It's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! like you've never seen it before! Because, well, normally you can't see it -- it's a radio show.”

Watch the week’s news get the treatment it deserves in the comfort of your neighborhood theater, when the NPR news quiz show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! brings its star power to the big screen for a special LIVE performance in select cinemas nationwide.

Host Peter Sagal and official judge and scorekeeper Carl Kasell will lead the cinecast, broadcast live from the New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

Peter and Carl will be joined by panelists Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca and Tom Bodett to play the quiz in front of a live audience. Carl reading limericks! Celebrity guests answering stupid questions! Faces made for radio! You've heard it in 1D, now see it live in glorious...2D.

Don't miss Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! live on the big screen on Thursday, May 2nd, at 8pm. (the event broadcast is tape delayed on the west coast)

It all happens locally, on Thursday, May 2 at 8:00pm at theatres in Fresno, Bakersfield, Merced and Hanford. Valley Public Radio is pleased to host this rare event at the following theatres:

Fresno Stadium 21
Bakersfield Stadium 14
Mainplace Stadium Cinema in Merced
Movies 8 in Hanford

A repeat showing of the event will take place on Tuesday, May 7th at 7:30pm at the Fresno and Bakersfield theatres only.

For this stage adaptation of the weekly radio show, Sagal and Kasell will quiz Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! panelists – the comedians, writers and style icons Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca and Tom Bodett – special guests and listener contestants through a comic review of the week’s news. Carl reading limericks! Celebrity guests answering oddball questions! Faces made for radio! You’ve heard it in 1D, now see it live in glorious...2D.

Tickets for Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! – Live are available at presenting theater box offices and also at www.FathomEvents.com, where there is a complete list of theaters and prices (theaters and participants are subject to change). The event is presented by NCM Fathom Events, NPR, WBEZ-Chicago and BY Experience, and will be broadcast to more than 600 movie theaters across the country through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network.

“We’ve always wanted to do our show all over the country, simultaneously, and finally turned to this idea of a nationwide simulcast when our experiments in cloning didn’t come out as well as we hoped,” says host Peter Sagal. “That said, ‘Little Carl’ has shown a real propensity for handling simple tasks and grunting the hour’s news.”

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! – Live will feature all the fun and games of the weekly radio show, only this time NPR has to add a budget line for pants. See celebrities sweat it out during “Not My Job,” where the famous (past players include Tom Hanks, then-Senator Barack Obama, Martha Stewart and Alec Baldwin) are interviewed and quizzed on subjects outside their area of expertise. Contestants will guess what newsmakers Kasell is impersonating in “Who’s Carl This Time?,” and select the one true story out of three unlikely tales from our panelists, in “Bluff the Listener.” Players vie for the most coveted prize in all of public radio: a custom-recorded greeting by Kasell for their voicemail.

Now in its 15th season, the Peabody Award-winning Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me! has an audience of more than 3.2 million listeners weekly on nearly 630 NPR Member public radio stations. The radio show is produced by NPR and WBEZ. To find local stations and broadcast times, get the free podcast and digest the culinary courageousness of Sandwich Monday, visit www.npr.org/waitwait.