WWDTM: John Leguizamo

0:04From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. Forget pumpkin spice latte season. I'm all the basic bitch you need.

0:20I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Segal. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. We have a great show for you today. Later on, we're going to be talking to actor John Leguizamo about his new documentary series for PBS. Yes, the man has starred in 100 movies and TV shows, but he's finally made it to the promised land, public broadcasting. Well, you can skip right to the front of the line and be on the air now. Just call us to play our games. The number is 1-888-wait-wait. That's 1-888-924-8924.

0:55Let's welcome our first listener contestant. Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi, this is Kevin Teal from Des Moines, Iowa. Hey, how are things in Des Moines, Kevin? Very nice for the summer. Heat wave's gone, so we're getting ready for fall. That's good. You sound like you're from Iowa, and I love it. What do you do there? I'm currently retired, working down that bucket list of things everybody does when they retire. Okay. And I have to say, being on the show today is one of those bucket list things. Great. Okay. Great. That's great. Well, we are honored to make that list. Let me introduce you to our panel, Kevin.

1:28First up, she's the host of the trivia podcast, Go Fact Yourself, which now airs weekends on Southern California Public Radio, LAist 89.3. It's Helen Hong. Hi. Next, he's a comedian headlining the Ann Armour Comedy Showcase October 3rd through the 5th and the Atlanta Punchline October 17th through the 19th. It's Hari Kondabolu. Hey, Kevin. And a humorist and woodworker who is the founder of Hatch Space Community Woodshop and School in Brattleboro, Vermont. He can make one hell of a spice rack. It's Tom Bodette. Hello, Kevin. Hello, Tom. So, Kevin, welcome to the show. you're going to play Who's Bill this time.

2:08Bill Curtis is now going to read for you three quotations from this week's news. If you can correctly identify or explain just two of them, you will win our prize, the voice of anyone you might choose for your voicemail. Are you ready to go? Ready to go. Okay, your first quote is from Baltimore Orioles play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Brown. The White Sox have just gone full White Sox. Brown was reacting to yet another Chicago White Sox loss as they approached the Major League Baseball record for what? Most losses in a season, I think 107, 108 right now. You're very good, yes. And they, of course, are not.

2:48The Chicago White Sox are on track to end the season, if they go according to their current pace, with a record of 36 wins and 126 losses, which would be the worst record in baseball's modern era. Now, for decades, the White Sox have tried to get just a fraction of the national attention the Chicago Cubs always get, and congrats guys, you found a way. I love this team, Peter. I love this team. Tell me the things you love about it, Harry. I love the fact they make regular people feel like they too could play major league baseball. Yeah, that's exactly, that was my impression. I was like, I could be on that team.

3:24I could do just as well. You know, if you say that one more time, you might get a call from them. These are things that really happened to the White Sox this season. A player was hit in the face by a warm-up throw. A game against the Braves was delayed because they couldn't find their first base coach. It's possible he defected. And just this week in Baltimore, three players ran into each other trying to catch a ball. They did not catch the ball, and three runs scored. I could play on this team, Hari. I could. The three of us could play on this team. I mean, it comes from the top down. You know, like the manager, Grady Sizemore, he's been asked a lot of questions about this, about all these losses.

4:17He said, quote, it's not about wins. It's just about competing and playing together as a team. Nah, bro, it's about wins. Oh, exactly. There's no participation trophies in the major league. Well, some traditionalists are against it, but the league will be letting the White Sox hit from a tee for the rest of the season. All right, Kevin, here is your next quote. Bloody hell, my 44th birthday is in a few days. That was a social science researcher reacting to a new study that discovered we rapidly do what at age 44 and then again at age 60? I'd say a mental health decline. Everything declines. I'll give it to you.

5:03We age rapidly at those two points. A new study by scientists at Stanford has shown that most people don't age gradually, as you might have thought. Instead, you have basically aging spurts. The first big wave is at 44, and the second is when you realize that all of your favorite child stars are on TV doing commercials for prescription drugs.

5:26I'm 41 right now, so does that mean I have like three more years of youth? Before you fall off a cliff. This is the time to go full-on rumspringa. This is the time. No, this is when you start working on your delusions. when I was 44 that was still four years before I decided to have two more children so I mean that's delusion and the other milestone was what? 60 apparently it happens again at 60 what I really noticed there is like before 60 like you still have your strength you know you can still do things and if something wouldn't go it was stuck you pull harder and it would go but after 60 you pull harder and something in you goes.

6:13You still have the strength, but it's not connected to anything. Yeah. It's not the jar that opens. This all has to do, by the way, with the biochemical markers of aging rather than say your appearance. Scientists analyzed thousands of stool samples and nasal swabs from people at various ages. And the results suggest that there's a significant leap in aging at age 44, because that's when people realize, oh my God, I have grown up to be somebody who analyzes stool samples. I think I'm 69 this year, and I think there's another milestone. It's a mental thing. Like, you know how you're going around the house, you have your phone or something in your hand, you're doing something, you set it down, and then you just can't find it.

6:55Where did you set it down? That's your whole life, right? You know, north of 60. But something happened this week where it was a popsicle. Oh, that's a problem. Oh, no. Now you're on the timer. Yeah, that really raises the stakes. And you can't call Siri to a popsicle. No, there's no like find me beeper or anything. You just know it's making a mess somewhere and you can't remember where. Wow, and did you get to it in time, Tom? Yeah, and it was on the bathroom sink, so it wasn't a horrible thing. All right, your last quote is from a New York TikTok design influencer named Lindsay Judish. talking about her latest innovation in home decor.

7:41I feel like I made a very unintentional rage bait. Ms. Judish worries that she might have gone too far when she helps spread the trend of decorating the inside of your what? Kitchen? It's in your kitchen. People decorate their kitchen because normally you can see the kitchen, but this is like taking that to the nth degree. I'll give you a... How about refrigerator? Yes, the inside of your refrigerator. It is called fridge-scaping. Not to be confused with fridge-scraping when you remove whatever has been stuck to the bottom of the crisper for the last year. Fridge-scapers will decorate the inside of their fridges with matching containers, elegantly arranged vegetables, and mood lighting, sometimes including candles.

8:29Ms. Judish even does themes inside her refrigerator like a British royal theme she calls Fridgerton which is great because no one will disturb the display because now they're too nauseous to eat. I do this. No you don't. I do I have vases in my fridge and by vases I mean old jars of spaghetti sauce that I forgot were back there. Yeah and there's something growing in them so they're like vases, right? Right, it is. That's our fridge. It's more like gardening than decorating. Are there little paintings in there, too? Like, what is... Well, I mean, you can look at pictures, look at TikTok, where there are, you know, all kinds of these trends.

9:10They're basically like, you know, like still lifes. And, you know, like there's some carrots next to some beautifully arranged asparagus. It's nice. Other themes, people do it in themes. Other themes include enchanted forest, edible flowers and mushrooms, or perhaps the recently divorced guy theme, which is eight soy sauce packets, half a bottle of flat beer, and an Ikea Allen wrench he's been looking for for a month. And a half-melted popsicle. And a half-melted popsicle. Bill, how did Kevin do on our quiz? Kevin was so good. He got three in a row, which gives you a perfect score, Kevin. Thank you.

9:49Well done. Kevin, thank you so much for playing. You're welcome. Take care. Right now, panel, it is time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Helen, the Chicago Sky WNBA team recently announced that they'll be replacing their current mascot. That's because their current mascot is a what? Is it a cloud in the sky? No. Is their current mascot a white sock? What are the chances? Can I have a hint? I can give you a hint. What's interesting about this mascot is that he would not be allowed to play in the WNBA. Oh, a man? It's a man. No. The Chicago Sky WNBA team is finally getting rid of the mascot they've had since the team was founded in 2006.

10:36A masked and muscly man named Sky Guy. Because nothing says female empowerment like an unidentified male watching women exercise. Wow. Isn't that kind of revenge of the cheerleaders stuff though? I mean like man sports. Yeah, I guess so. Well, I mean everybody does love his halftime show where he comes out and explains to the woman how to play basketball. This guy has unveiled his replacement. It's a new mascot, Sky the Lioness, whose uniform number will be 00, representing we assume boobs.

11:15This is also just like typical male management thinking being like alright we gotta get rid of the guy. Do we go with a girl? Nah. An animal. Let's just pick an animal. Pick an animal. A predator though. At least that. It's based on the lions the famous lions at the Chicago Art Institute the two mascots will share duties through the end of the season at which point Sky the lioness will eat Sky Guy alive in second court.

11:45Coming up, clean up in aisle nine. It's our Bluff the Listener game called 1-888-WAIT-WAIT-TO-PLAY. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

12:00From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis. We are playing this week with Tom Bodette, Hari Gondabolu, and Helen Hong. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Segal. Thank you, Bill. Thank you so much. Right now, it is time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Bluff the listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game in the air. Or check out the pinned post on our Instagram page at Wait, Wait, NPR. You'll find all the information you need there. Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi, this is Rebecca from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

12:40Hey, Rebecca, how are things in Grand Rapids? They're okay. It's almost fall. I'm just going to comment. That was not overly enthusiastic. You're not with the Chamber of Commerce, are you? Yeah. Are you from Grand Rapids? I grew up here, but then I spent a long time in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Yeah. And that's where I left my heart. I understand. as is traditional, I understand. Okay, well, welcome to our show, Rebecca. You're going to play the game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Rebecca's topic? Trouble at the grocery store. Supermarkets have all kinds of problems.

13:19There are supply chain issues. There are milk spills. The guy who keeps squeezing the other customers and yelling, not ripe yet. This week, we heard about another problem plaguing a grocer somewhere in the world. Our panelists are going to tell you about it. Pick the real one, and you'll win the wait waiter of your choice and your voicemail. Are you ready to play? Yes, I am. All right, let's hear first from Helen Hong. A grocery store in Italy is dealing with a mafia shakedown that's way more adorable than Goodfellas. The Sicilian town of Bendotti has been plagued by a gang of street dogs that are menacing shops into paying them protection fees in the form of deli meats.

14:01A pack of about 20 dogs maraud from shop to shop, and if they're not tossed at least a few slices of salami, they block the entrance, growling and barking at potential customers. Back in the day, we used to have to pay off the mafia. Now we have to pay off the pa-fia, complains the owner of the only grocery store holding out. Rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr, exclaimed one of the gang members, which probably means, Why is this guy being so stingy? We just want to wet our beaks. We'll even take bologna. Thank you. You're welcome.

14:43Grocery store in Sicily getting threatened by the paffia, a pack of dogs who demand cold cuts as tribute. Your next story of something mucking up the mart comes from Tom Bodette. In the Spanish city of Bilbao, police responded Tuesday to a flash mob of hopeful romantics packed inside a Mercadona food store looking for love. Singles have been drawn to the supermarket chain across Spain after a TikTok video gone viral claimed they can find romance if they visit between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. and put a pineapple upside down in their trolley. Other items in someone's trolley provide clues about their intentions.

15:26Chocolates or sweets mean the person is looking for long-term relationships or something more serious. A wobbly wheel means you are not paying attention at all and probably came in for pineapple and dates to actually eat. Which is the problem. But it's a problem rival grocery chain Lidl would like to have. They've launched their campaign to encourage customer hookups in its stores, but with watermelons. Eggplants, watch your six. A grocery store in Spain overwhelmed by people who come in not to shop, but to signal to each other their willingness to mix using upside-down pineapples. Your last supermarket snag comes from Hari Kondabolu.

16:11Indian supermarket chain Reliance Fresh Supermarkets are dealing with protests around the country after rumors of the return of classic Indian soda Gold Spot proved to be false. Gold Spot was a hugely popular orange soda that was discontinued after Coca-Cola entered the Indian market Because, you know, capitalism Older Indians ranging from 35 to 80 lined up to be the first to receive new bottles of Gold Spot Holding banners reading, you kids don't know what's good Which is actually quite funny when translated into Hindi The stores attempting to pacify the angry mobs gave away free cans of orange Fanta, which were instantly thrown back, exploding like Molotov cocktails and drenching employees with an inferior orange soda.

17:05Coca-Cola released a statement saying they, quote, stand behind Fanta during this troubling time, and though it's not proofable, it's a shame Pepsi would stoop to this. So one of these things happened at a supermarket or supermarkets somewhere in the world. Was it from Helen Hong, a supermarket in Sicily being, well, held for hostage by a pack of wild dogs who demand their daily cold cuts? From Tom Bodette, a supermarket in Spain that is being overrun by hot young people interested in meeting each other, which they're signaling with pineapples, or from Harikandabolu, a supermarket beset by protesters demanding the return of their favorite orange soda.

17:50Which of these is the real story of supermarket chevails in the news? I think I'm going to go with Tom. You're going to go with Tom's story about the supermarket singles scene. Well, we spoke to someone who knows all about this real story. You would grab a pineapple, place it upside down in the cart, and bump into the cart of whoever you're interested in. That was Grace Snelling, a reporter at Fast Company, who reported on the pineapple takeover at the Spanish grocery store. Congratulations, Rebecca. You got it right. Yay. Thank you so much. You earned a point for Tom Bodette, but more importantly, you have won our prize, the voice of anyone you might choose for your voicemail.

18:30Congratulations and well done. Thank you so much. I'm very excited. Thank you. Thanks, Rebecca. Take care.

18:42And now the game where we ask people to answer questions about things they know nothing about. It's called Not My Job. John Leguizamo came up in the theater and stand-up scenes of 1980s New York, but his first big film role was as Luigi in the movie Super Mario Brothers. And according to him, after three decades of film, TV, theater, and activism, he is just about made up for that. his latest project is voces american historia the untold history of latinos which premieres september 27th on pbs john leguizamo welcome back to wait wait don't tell me oh so good to be back it's great to have you been too long i know we were wondering when you were going to call man it's so good to talk to you again and we're so excited to get you now because we've been following your career obviously for many decades and we're so excited you have finally reached the pinnacle of achievement, public broadcasting.

19:35Yes, an overnight success after 40 years. I know, but was it weird? Because maybe I'm wrong, but everything you've done has been in Hollywood and TV and New York theater and touring theater. Public broadcasting fans tend to be a little more passive aggressive. So expect people to say to you, so John, what did you think of your series? Don't worry, I'm an actor. I'll tell them exactly how much I love myself. So the series the series American Historia, the Untold History of Latinos, I understand was inspired by one of your many one-man shows. In this case, your own personal examination of Latino history, right?

20:11Yes, you know, it was based on Latino, Latin history from morons because I learned my son was being bullied and I wanted to weaponize his knowledge and his history of his people. You know, I didn't know we finished building the railroads. I didn't realize we were the first fighters to create unions in the 1930s. And then, you know, we've been persecuted, but we've also contributed so much. We just reached a milestone last year. We contributed$3.2 trillion to the GDP yearly as a Latino culture. Wow. So I want some **** back. I understand. My son is a huge fan of yours. And by that, of course, I mean because of your Ice Age movies and TV shows.

20:57Yes. I'm so happy to hear that. We're about to do Ice Age 6. Wow. You are, as you just reminded everybody, Sid the Sloth. First of all, I've got to ask, did your kids love that growing up? Because they were just about the right age, right? Based on, I think, when the movies came out. No, they were weirded out by their father, you know, the way I look. and then doing that voice. And they were too young. It's weird. You know, a lot of parents come up to me. They go, oh, you know who this is? Sit this sloth. And I go, sir, it's not going to work out. And they go, no, do the voice. And I do the voice.

21:33And the kids are like freaked out because they see this face. They don't get it. They don't get it. Yeah, Ray Romano was in the show. And I told him the same thing. Oh, my son's a big fan because of the mammoth. He's like, yeah, don't tell your son you talk to me. It's just going to mess them up. We read. It's going to ruin them. We read, so you play, for those unlucky not to have seen the 4 ,000 Ice Age movies and TV shows and video games, you play Sid the Sloth, a prehistoric sloth, and we read that you actually got really deep into the research for his voice. Is that right? Oh, you know, yeah, because I did like 50 voices for the director, Chris Wedge, and he wouldn't, he said, I just want you to do your voice.

22:10I go, I don't want to do my voice. I want to do a voice. I'm an actor. So I did, you know, a southern voice for the sloth because he's slow. Then I went a little more ghetto on it. Come on. What do you want? What do you want? And he goes, nah. So then I got Discovery Channel footage. And I saw that sloth stored food in their cheek pouches. And it would ferment. And they'd get drunk. And so I started eating a sandwich. And I put in my cheek pouches. And I walked around the house waiting for it to ferment. And it didn't. But what happened was that I got slushy in my mouth. And I called the writer.

22:41Chris, guess who this is? And he was like, I have no idea. Shit, the sloth. I found myself. and that's how I get to do it. Wow. That's amazing. You do belong on PBS. Yeah. Next time I'm sitting watching the movies with my son, I'm going to say, you know, that's historically accurate. Among the many, many things you do, you've done these one-man shows where you play all these characters, and as you just demonstrated, you're really, really, really good at voices. Have you ever used that power for evil? Yes, of course. I mean, when I was much younger, it was great because people when the school would complain they would call my house and I would answer my mom and I'd go oh he what?

23:24no he's fantastic oh you want to expel him? well expel it for me and I would mess with them for hours and they wouldn't be able to expel me did your mother know you were doing that? no but not she knows now because you blabbered You mentioned your mother. We also read that your mother to this day sees everything you do and offers a critique afterwards. Yeah, my mom's very judgmental. I think I get it from her a little bit. We both watch PBS too much. Yeah, I know, man. I'm telling you. And she does. She comes to every show and she sits front row and then she comes afterwards. Oh, Joan, that was fantastic.

24:10but I didn't really like the punchline. It didn't really hit the way I thought it would hit. It didn't murder. And I was like, Mom, please stop criticizing. You're just my mom. Just be unconditionally loving for once. Wait a minute. You started as a stand-up. You've been doing this for a long time. And your mother actually critiques you in stand-up? She always does. She's like, oh. I go, Mom, you're not a director. You're not in the business. Stop giving me notes. I don't need your notes. Really? I'm 60 years old. Stop giving me notes. Does she, like, pitch you jokes? No, she doesn't pitch jokes.

24:45She just, you know, wants to change this, change that, fix this, cut that, kill your darlings. Is she going to critique this? Is she going to listen and go, oh, I don't think you talked about me enough? I'm not going to tell her about this. Okay, yeah. All right, that's fine. That's the only way to keep her away. Well, John Leguizamo, it is such a pleasure to talk to you again. And this time, we have asked you here to play a game that we're calling... Can we fix it? Yes, we can. So this year, as I'm sure you know, because everybody's been celebrating, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Bob the Builder.

25:16Oh, wow. The beloved kid's show about a British contractor whose trucks are alive. So in honor of that, we're going to ask you three questions about, I guess we'd call him Mr. Builder. Get two out of three right. You'll win our prize for one of our listeners. Bill, who is John Leguizamo playing for? Nora Wing of Ithaca, New York. All right. Here's your first question. You ready? Go for it. I'll do my best. Bob the Builder is popular around the world, but some changes needed to be made internationally to show there, including which of these? A, in France, they had to add clocks to the background to prove that no one goes over their 35-hour approved work week.