Satire Supreme with Peter Sagal

The Marjorie Luke Theatre is marking its 20th anniversary this year, and the celebration launches February 3 with a visit from a humorist and writer whose current job can boast even more longevity. Peter Sagal has been hosting the weekly NPR News quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! almost since its inception a quarter-century ago, taking his turn at the dais to lightheartedly grill three comedian/panelists as well as call-in contestants and newsmaker guests playing the games “Who’s Bill this Time?” “Bluff the Listener,” “Not My Jobs,” “Listener Limerick Challenge,” and “Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank”. 

“An Evening with Peter Sagal” features a brand-new program from Sagal in his first visit to town since Wait Wait taped one of its episodes at the Arlington 15 years ago. Sagal said he plans to visit La Super-Rica, out-of-towners’ (and locals’) favorite taco stand; a place he fondly remembers driving up to visit from L.A. decades ago, especially since it’s just a few blocks from the Luke. 

Here are severely edited excerpts from our nearly hour-long conversation last weekend. 

Q. What’s it like to ponder having hosted Wait Wait for 25 years?

A. It’s a little weird. I’m having a hard time just dealing with the fact that I’ve done anything for a quarter of a century, let alone one job. It’s mind-boggling. But it’s been a very full and rich 25 years… There are worse jobs to have for that long.

I’m not going to ask you to share favorite moments or bloopers, but I am curious about the Not My Job segment. You seem to really enjoy talking with the newsmakers who range from presidents to singer-songwriters. You sound like you’re just chatting with them at a cocktail party, except six million people are listening in. 

You nailed it. It’s very fun and I’m very grateful. Take last week. I interviewed Janet Yellen, who is in an extraordinarily influential and important position, and she’s used to discussing these important issues in situations which range from the inquisitive to the adversarial. But everyone is usually on the air because they have something to promote, whether it’s an actor or a government official. But our conversation is when they’re essentially off duty and they can just be themselves. People aren’t going to learn much about the state of the U.S. economy, but they’ll learn about her habit of playing Candy Crush. It’s a service to both the guest and the listener to see them as something else. And I really enjoy it. 

I love the show, but sometimes I wonder if there’s a danger in skewering somebody stuffing an animal down their pants the same way you guys poke fun at a threat to democracy. Does that come up for you? 

I have thought about that a fair amount. But let me put it this way: I don’t think that satire has any real-world effect. There’s no chance that any of us working in this area are going to make any difference. But what we can do is we can cheer people up. We hear from people who are doing that serious and absolutely necessary work of coalition building, opposition, and political organization – the ones who are actually making substantive change in the world in some form. If they can listen to our show and feel better…if they can feel empowered or even just distracted so they can go about and do that work better, then I’ve played a role. 

I’m told at your event here you’re going to provide colorful commentary on current events and a behind-the-scenes peek at the show, but you posted on Facebook that your evening is about “reviewing the lessons I’ve learned after 25 years of making fun of the news.” 

I wanted to do something that is interesting to me and valuable to the audience that knows me from the show. Not just highlights and stories, but what I’ve actually figured out. If you look at everything you find through-lines, and certain conclusions about people and the world and the way things work. Hopefully, in addition to being interesting, this will be very funny because most of the things we talk about are very funny.

Not to ruin the surprise, but what have you learned?

The short version is that classic saying: You can never go broke underestimating the American public. The grand tendency towards stupidity, and the basic human being’s ability to constantly repeat the same errors over and over and over again in different areas. But it’s not just me making jokes about other people, it’s also making jokes about myself. I’m fairly ancient, and it does seem that in exchange for everything you’ve given up by getting to this age, you should have gotten something in return. Which I guess is wisdom. I’ve gotten remarried and have small children again, so now I’m getting to repeat things that most people just go through once with no rehearsals or practice. But I’ve been through it before. I spent a lot of time thinking these things through, and I realize I’ve learned things the hard way because the first time wasn’t very successful. So the evening is observations about the world and reflections on my experiences, and gags and jokes. Farts and dinosaurs will come up because I’m spending a lot of time with my three-year-old.