He’s the host of one of the most popular shows on public radio. This week, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me's Peter Sagal is coming to Santa Barbara to take part in a fundraiser for a historic Santa Barbara theater.
He's hosted the show since 1998. Did he have any idea that this would be the focus of his career? "None...zero...zip...nada...nope," said Sagal. "It was a total surprise to me. In fact, I'm still kind of surprised."
He grew up in New Jersey, went to Harvard, and wanted to become a playwright.
When NPR and Doug Berman (the producer of Car Talk) started development of the show, they did a national search for a host, and panelists.
The original choice for host was a comic named Dan Coffey. Sagal was selected to be one of the panelists. But, when the show didn't click, the producers decided they needed a different host, and gave Sagal a shot at it. Sagal says they felt like he might be "hosty."
Sagal admits while everyone loved the idea of the show, the staff thought it would be quickly cancelled. So, they decided instead of trying to do a serious quiz show, they’d have some fun with it while it lasted.
"We thought we'd do what was fun until they stopped us, and they just haven't stopped us." said Sagal. "We came up with a lot of things (segments) which are the hallmarks of the show...Who's Karl, now Who's Bill, ...we came up with the listener limerick challenge, we started having a guest segment.
The format has remained basically unchanged, but they'll throw in some special topical segments from time to time.
Now, the show is more than a quarter of a century old. Sagal feels the current version of it is the best in its history. He said it has a great executive producer who took over in 2008, a sharp writing staff, and a number of young comics.
But, he said one of the best things is the improvisation. He said the panelists don't know what they will be asked, and the producers don't know how they'd respond.
Sagal will appear at Santa Barbara’s Marjorie Luke Theater Saturday night. What’s being called An Evening With Peter Sagal is a fundraiser for the more than 90 year old theater. He’ll talk about some of his experiences, and observations from his front row seat to society over the decades. Tickets are still available for the Saturday night event.
