Wait Wait goes wild on spring break

24:18Yeah, really. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you seek them out? Did they call you? No, no. It was way back in April. I got an email from my agent saying, you know, they've offered you this. And I've told this before. My first instinct was, say no and don't tell my wife that they asked. Right. Like, just because, you know. And then a minute later, I felt like, I have to do this. And so I said yes. And then as it got closer, I just thought, oh, I've made a terrible mistake. Tell me about your dance experience and expertise before this all began. I'll just tell it to you in an anecdote that my wife reminded me of when I said yes to Dancing with the Stars.

25:02For our wedding, my only requirement for our dance was that the song be the shortest one possible. Right. Because I just, I wasn't comfortable. I mean, I can dance with some drinks at a party. So what was the song? Was it like the boot-up tone from Microsoft Windows? Yes. And what was it? Yeah, it was my ringtone. Yeah. And so what was the preparation? So you show up, you say, I've been to the gym, I've been doing my cardio. Yeah. You start dancing. You start being taught a routine. Did you get assigned a partner, in your case, Emma? I was lucky enough to get Emma Slater, who is an angel and really an amazingly talented person, an amazing choreographer.

25:47She understood me. She understood, like, how to teach me. Right. Because I don't enjoy being pushed. Right. You know, like, the hard line kind of thing, I just say, F this, goodbye. So I need to be treated, you know. And also, she's very fun. And she also, part of her genius, was that she said, oh, and by the way, every day we're going to make two or three TikToks. Uh-huh. And I very quickly, she would point and say, look how many views this got. And I'd be like, 1.3 million? Right. Like, that's what? And this is. That number has never been connected to me other than for taxation purposes. I watched a lot of your dances, and I'm saying this with complete love and respect, speaking as a man that for good reason has not danced in public for 25 years.

26:38But it kind of seemed like your job was to stand still and watch with amazement while your partner did amazing dance moves sort of around you. Andy, don't let him do you like that. Don't let him do you like that. But, but, and here was the charming part, you made a lot of very expressive faces as you watched her dance about. No, no, no. You make it sound like, I mean. You weren't entirely. Yeah, I moved from one point to the other, and there was footwork that I had to remember. Really? Yeah. Yes! Yes! I learned to cha-cha a foxtrot. You know, I pulled off a foxtrot, so yeah. Yeah. And thank you.

27:25Thank you. And by the end, too, I was with each new week's dance. I would learn it in one rehearsal. It was like one rehearsal? I did have the ability. One rehearsal. You can do that now. Yeah, I can remember, yeah. Wow. You sort of learned that muscle. There's like, thank you. I tried to emulate the real dancers because I would do the dance that we were doing that week and think, I really nailed that one. I really got it. And then we would look, because we'd record it on our phones, and I'd look at it on the phone, and I'm like, look at that old man stomping around. Waving his arms. Yeah, I would try to, I tried, you know, in different times to sort of emulate the sort of more sort of fluid movements.

28:10And it's, you know, I was a rhino in a gazelle contest. I'm never going to be a gazelle. There you go, the people's princess. Well, Andy Richter, it is always such a pleasure to have you on our show. And as always, we'd like you to play a game that this time we are calling... Gotta Dance. So given your performance on Dancing with the Stars, we thought we'd ask you about somebody who was really good at dancing, Gene Kelly. Answer two or three questions about the legendary song in Dance Man, and you will win a prize for one of our listeners. Also, who is Andy Richter playing for this time? Firma and Barry Kipnis of Prescott, Arizona.

28:44Nice. Not far from here. All right, ready? Here's your first question. Gene Kelly went from being a dance instructor in Pittsburgh to one of the biggest movie stars of all time. What was among his many secrets of success? A, custom-made motorized tap shoes. B, pants that were one size too small to accentuate his butt. Or C, whatever the music you heard watching him on screen, on set he was always dancing to the same song, Home on the Range. I think it's the butt pants. You're right. And if you've ever seen him, you'd know that's true. Not only did he have his pants made a little tight, he would sometimes make sure his male co-star's pants were a little loose.

29:28Okay. Kelly went on after his own career on screen to be a director. He directed the movie Hello, Dolly. And the star of that film, Michael Crawford, said that he got the part after Kelly said which of these to him. Was it A, quote, you remind me of a young me before I knew how to dance? B, quote, we can shoot somebody with talent from the waist down and edit it in? Or C, quote, we're looking for an attractive idiot. My wife thinks you're attractive and I think you're an idiot. Boy. I think maybe the third one. The third one. Yeah, about the wife and the idiot. You're right. You know this business.

30:10You know these people. That's exactly what he said.

30:15And he is kind of an attractive idiot in the film, so it works out. All right, last question. You can be perfect here. Gene Kelly and his wife hosted these massive parties for his famous friends in Beverly Hills, and a mainstay of those parties was what? A, Kelly's toe-tap and punch, which was just, as it turned out, grain alcohol and red food coloring. B, Kelly challenging any guest there for the first time to a dance-off. or see a cutthroat version of charades that could last for 24 hours straight? It's got to be the charades. It is the charades, Andy. A man who's been to his Hollywood parties.

30:4924 hours of charades. It was known as the game. We're going to play the game. Wow. True story. Also, how did Andy Richter do in our quiz? He danced his way to a perfect score, three out of three. You did. Thank you.

31:09There you go. Andy Richter was the people's princess on this year's run of Dancing with the Stars. He is the host of The Three Questions with Andy Richter podcast, which airs Mondays on the SiriusXM app or wherever you might get your podcasts. Please give it up to our friend Andy Richter. Thanks so much. Andy, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much.

31:36When we come back, our panelists go all out to earn their meager paychecks. And John M. Shue, the director of the Wicked Movies, explains how it really isn't easy being green. That's when we come back with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. Support for this podcast and the following message come from SimpliSafe. Are you desensitized to the dozens of notifications on your phone each day? But if that latest ping is from your security camera, ignoring it could spell disaster. Traditional security systems only act after someone has already broken in. With 20 years of experience in home security, SimpliSafe's active guard outdoor protection can help prevent break-ins before they happen.

32:16Right now, get 50 % off their new SimpliSafe system at simplisafe.com slash wait. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. This message comes from LinkedIn ads. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first but didn't live up to the hype? For marketers, that's impressions. When ads don't create revenue, that's a tough conversation with the CFO. Instead, invest in results your CFO will love. LinkedIn Ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. So advertise on LinkedIn. Spend$250 and get a$250 credit. Just go to linkedin.com slash nprpod. Terms and conditions apply. This message comes from BetterHelp.

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33:36From 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 at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. So we are not the only ones enjoying a deserved spring break. So are our panelists. Do you know how hard it is to appear regularly on a quiz about the week's news, sometimes for years, and still never seem to know the answers to the questions? Here's some proof. Joyelle. Yes. Joyelle, the Consumer Electronics Show was this week. That's the big show where all the tech people bring out their cool new tech products for people.

34:19And one new gadget caught our attention. It's called the Eye Polish. that's the name of the device what is the eye polish the eye polish yeah it doesn't polish things it takes the place of a kind of polish like for bald men's heads no no one's no one cares about that it'd be like maybe like you'd be saying to your boyfriend oh hold on before we go out let me download my french manicure oh it's for nail yes it's digital nail polish all right so eye polish the product is digital press-on nails. You never have to paint them. They display up to 300 colors just with the push of a button. So, twing.

35:00Yep, exactly. Basically, little digital screens, little digital, you know, panels that shape like fingernails that light up in whatever color you choose. And someone who bites my nails, and I do, I think would really help it if every time I did it, I was electrocuted. It just, you know, when you hear about, like, that's the product that's catching people's eyes and that's the great thing that's coming out of the world of technology. It's hard to believe that the international world rules-based order is on its way out. It's just kind of a leap. If you read that in the paper, like if that was the headline, it just seems like how can we even be thinking about that?

35:43Yeah. So everything else going on. We'll be living in this dystopian Orwellian hellscape. Yes. But we will have like light brights on our fingernails. Exactly. Right. What's a paper? Panelists, this week we read a term in the news that was new to us and you each get one guess at what it means. What are clanker balls? Peter Grimms. Clanker balls? Those things in the offices that you clank and they knock into each other and they go. That's the first thing I thought of. Why? What are the other implications? Joyelle, what do you think clanker balls means? The type of parties Trump's going to have in the ballroom.

36:32Rachel, where'd your mind go with it? I don't want to say right away, but clanker is AI, usually a term for AI usage, right? Am I close? Okay, yeah, no, you're close, but that's not, I'll tell you, there, oh, can I guess again? Is it the things that go on the back of a truck? Those are... That's also a really good guess, but those are truck nuts. Sorry. Truck nuts with a Z. So, okay. Clanker balls are balls that hang above a road before a low bridge to warn trucks they're going to crash. So if any of you guessed that, you're right, but you're also boring. Like Peter. Did something happen this week where it was like...

37:21I think what happened this week is that the... Wait, wait, don't tell me why writers were like, oh my God, you guys, have you heard of clanker balls? I think that's what happened this week. I'm confused though. They're hanging from the bridge that's... They're like right in front of the bridge before you... Yeah, so they're like a block before... Some amount of space before the bridge. Oh, okay. So then you... They're called clanker balls because they're engineered to let out a loud clang when something crashes into them, which differs from the sound you hear when something crashes into regular balls crying.

37:56There's no exit after the clinker balls. They just let you know you're about to die. I think... You're about to experience a world of pain. No, I guess there's like enough room for you to break and then turn around or whatever. Sounds like standard highway behavior. Yeah, people love that. Just turning around a truck. Oops! But to your point, Rachel, earlier, like a while back on this show, we actually talked about how clanker is a derogatory slur term for robots, which would suggest another meaning for clanker balls. And if you think the idea of those clanker balls is absurd, you've never taken a look under R2-D2, huh?

38:39Am I right, ladies? So we're not supposed to say clanker with a hard R?

38:47Paula, question for you. It is spring cleaning season, but this week, Real Simple magazine warned that when you're decluttering, you should not be tempted to declutter what? Well, money.

39:01Yeah, do you have a hint for me, Peter? I do. I mean, you need to keep this around because you've run out at home. You can't ask someone to hand you some under the stall divider. Oh, toilet paper? Toilet paper, do not... Who would get rid of old toilet paper? Get rid of your toilet paper. Apparently enough people are doing that that Real Simple had to tell you not to. That's absurd. Why would anyone get rid of toilet paper? Exactly. I mean, if it's used, that's different, but that's ridiculous. Apparently this is a problem enough. They declared you should not get rid of your toilet paper. This is true now.

39:33It's always been true. That's why in ancient Egypt, when someone died, they would wrap that person in their leftover toilet paper. This sounds like something that Costco's pushing. Really? oh yeah do people get to an age where they don't use toilet paper anymore I mean I mean I'd say like on my deathbed I might roll over to somebody and say you can get rid of that toilet paper now

40:17Support for this podcast and the following message come from SimpliSafe. Are you desensitized to the dozens of notifications on your phone each day? But if that latest ping is from your security camera, ignoring it could spell disaster. Traditional security systems only act after someone has already broken in. With 20 years of experience in home security, SimpliSafe's Active Guard Outdoor Protection can help prevent break-ins before they happen. Right now, get 50 % off their new SimpliSafe system at simplisafe.com slash wait. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. This message comes from LinkedIn ads.

40:54Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For marketers, that's impressions. When ads don't create revenue, that's a tough conversation with the CFO. Instead, invest in results your CFO will love. LinkedIn ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. So advertise on LinkedIn, spend$250 and get a$250 credit. Just go to linkedin.com slash NPR pod. Terms and conditions apply. Finally, I grew up on movie musicals, a form that died out years ago when everyone realized that in real life, people don't just burst into song. So I was grateful to talk to John M.

41:37Chu, director of In the Heights and the two wicked movies who might have single handedly revived the genre. But he didn't grow up singing and dancing. Instead, he worked in his family's legendary Chinese restaurant in the Bay Area. 56 years later, my dad's still there. He's 82. It's called Chef Chews. And he's there all the time. He loves to work and loves to eat. Wow, yeah. And were you ever tempted to go into that business? Never. Not once. Not even a little bit. You know, a restaurant, being raised in a restaurant, it's great because it's a house of stories. Everyone's telling stories to my dad.

42:10My dad's telling stories to them about me. and it's the people in that restaurant, because it was in Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, that people from Adobe gave me software to edit with, gave me cameras, gave me computers. So it was a very beautiful place. And that's what I meant, that you were identified pretty early as somebody with a flare. Yeah, so you went to film school and you made a short film, which got a lot of attention, and I was able to find the trailer for it online. Oh, man. And it's called When the Kids Are Away, right? Yes, yes, it is. And if I understood correctly, because it's just the trailer.

42:43The idea is a little kid leaves for school with all his friends leaving for school, leaving their housewife mothers. They're all sort of traditional housewives. And as soon as they're gone, the housewives break out into these fabulous big choreographed musical numbers. Yes, what they do when the kids are away. And I watch this and I'm like, oh my god, it was true. But the twist of the movie is at the end, I'm just going to ruin it for people, but at the end because you'll never find it. The end of it is that this kid gets found and he starts to share his moves. He thinks he's in trouble, but he shares his moves.

43:17And he actually introduces new moves to them. And we find out that he's actually little Michael Jackson and that it's the passing on of the old musical to the new musical. Because from then on, he knows how to do that. Wow. I'm just thinking. It was very deep. It was very deep. Yeah. It was very deep. I didn't have a different faith. You were a dancer. You studied tap dance for a long time, right? I did. I mean, I was forced to tap with my sister because my mom didn't. I was in the car when she would take all our brothers and sisters to different dance things. So I did tap with my sister. I didn't want any other people in our class.

43:52So me and my sister did our local talent show, our school talent show every year. Wow. Were you any good? If by tapping well, you mean like glitter and gloves. And I did this one, me and my shadow with my sister. and we got in a fight right before we're doing it in front of our school and my mom brought in the wood panels and my sister and I are fighting and she's really shy and I don't sing along with her so she had to sing in front of our whole school by herself and I'm in this big black unitard as her shadow and so I haven't lived it down since then. Really? I actually still feel very guilty about that.

44:31And she's never seen any movie you've ever done because she's still mad. So you grew up on musicals, and so you must have been excited when you got to direct the movie version of probably the biggest musical of the last 20 years, right? Wicked? Yeah, I was psyched. I saw Wicked before it was ever on Broadway, when it was at San Francisco, because we had season tickets, and my mom called me up. I was at USC at the time. She said, come watch Stephen Schwartz's new musical. So I got to watch it sort of as patient zero before anyone knew anything about it. I just have to ask, for personal reasons, when you were watching Wicked, were there any middle-aged men in the audience sobbing at defying gravity?

45:15Did that happen at all? We were all sobbing. We were all sobbing. Okay. So I have to ask you about this, especially with the first installment, Wicked. There were so many marketing tie-ins. There was Wicked-branded Crocs, Wicked Mac and Cheese Cups, Wicked Barbies, Wicked Stanley Cups, and Wicked Build-A-Bears. I'm assuming you own all of that? Yep. Yep. You have it all? Now I know who sponsors this show, by the way. Did you have a favorite one of those that they threw at you? Listen, the Swiffer is pretty cool when you go to Target and you see the Elphaba and Galint sections and they're there.

45:53I mean, it's not a broomstick. It's like, you know, but it's close enough. Wicked Swiftens. It would make sense. Honestly, no. That's a good way to get your kid to clean the house. Like your kid that loves Alphaba is like, I'm defying gravity. I got one more question. So I watched before Wicked some years ago, you made not one, but two movies with Justin Bieber. And I'm watching the second one. I had to, it's the one that's leaving Netflix soon And And here's the thing, you designed the concert In addition to filming the movie Of the concert, and including Which I thought was intensely cool Justin's entrance Into the concert, in which he is He flies in Foreshadowing Elphaba, right?

46:45With these enormous Wings, and I was wondering Speaking to you as a creative genius If you have any idea that how I can improve my entrance.

46:57Because I just kind of walk out. You need some lasers. You need some dancers. And you need your wings. You know, his wings were made of all his things that he actually knows how to do. It's built of all the things that have carried him. You know, again, I'm very deep, guys. I'm about to find your wings. Wow. So my wings, all the things that got me here would be standardized tests and antidepressants. I could see it. John Chu, it is a pleasure to talk to you. We have invited you here today to play a game we're calling... That's Wicked Good. Since you directed Wicked for Good, we thought we'd ask you about a famously Wicked Good place, Boston, Massachusetts.

47:37Oh, God. Where, by the way, now that I think of it, Wicked Swiffa sounds like something they'd say, right? Wicked Swiffa. Anyway, answer two to three questions correctly, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, is the voice of anyone they might choose in their voicemail. Bill, who is John Chu playing for? Joe Robbins of Seattle, Washington. All right, you ready to do this? All right, let's go, Joe, I got you. Okay, man, here we go. Here's your first question. Scientists have tried to study what makes people from Boston become people from Boston, and one actual study discovered which of these findings.

48:11A, Bostonian skulls are 5 % thicker than the average American. B, 15 % of Boston toddlers drink coffee. Or C, all Boston school districts have a unit on how to climb light poles. Oh my God. The one that is like crazy enough, but not too crazy, would be the coffee B. You're right, John. That's right. What? 15%. Yeah. Here's your next question. Boston sports fans are known for their enthusiasm. During the parade to celebrate the New England Patriots' first Super Bowl win in 2002, what happened? A, the crowd started chanting, Yankees suck, even though they play baseball. B, three fans were arrested for trying to throw beer bottles right into the hood of Bill Belichick's sweatshirt.

49:11or C, fans crowd surf Tom Brady all the way from his duck boat to a nearby bar. I'm going to go A. You're right. That's what they did. I mean, of course that's what they did. That's what I would do. That seems fun. Yankees suck. I got to tell you, I saw it on TV. It was wicked Swiffer. Here's your next question. Earlier this month, Boston's WBZ News i-team launched an investigative report after a man had something he'd been saving to pass on to his kids ripped away from him heartlessly. What did that man lose? A, his Red Sox season tickets located where his heckles could be heard on TV. B, a 1981 Pontiac Trans Am that was missing both axles.

49:56Or C, 93 ,000 Dunkin' Donuts rewards points. Ripped away from him. I'm just going to go with my what I think is just the most logical. I'll go see. You're right. That's what it was. He had accumulated 93 ,000 rewards points at Duncan. He was hoarding them to hand out to his children as his only legacy. And then Duncan changed the rules and they vanished. Isn't that sad? It's terrible. It's terrible. Listen, we had a great partnership with Duncan for Wicked for Good. You could get these little munchkin tins. It was great. It's fantastic. Of course. Munchkins. Yeah, it's right there. Can you talk to them about this guy's points?

50:38I think we should talk to them. Come on. Come on. If you're out there, help this guy out. Bill, how did John Chu do in our quiz? Three right answers is wickedly good. Wicked awesome. Wicked awesome.

50:56John M. Chu is the award-winning director of the Wicked movies. You can stream Wicked for Good now. John M. Chu. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your wonderful movies. I cried like a baby. Take care. That's it for our own spring break edition. We'll be back next week, tanned and nursing a hangover. But first, 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. B.J. Liederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornbos, and Lillian King.

51:32Special thanks to Monica Hickey. Peter Gwynn is the only body we'll do shots off of. Our Vibe curator is Emma Choi. Technical director is from Lorna White, our CFO. That's Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chillock and the executive producer, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, is Mike Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard on our show this week, all our panelists, our guests, our guest scorekeeper, Alzo Slade, and, of course, Bill Curtis. Thanks to all of you for listening. I'm Peter Sagal. We'll see you next week.

52:08This is NPR.

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