Ask Me Another

Saturday, 9:00- 10:00am
Ophira Eisenberg

Puzzlemaster Will Shortz and Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! host Peter Sagal walk into a bar... No, it's not the start of a joke. It's the essence of Ask Me Another, a rambunctious hour that blends brainteasers and local pub trivia night with comedy and music. Host Ophira Eisenberg invites in-studio guests and listeners alike to stretch their noggins, tickle their funny bones, and enjoy witty banter and guitar riffs from house musician Jonathan Coulton.

For an hour, listeners can play along as Eisenberg puts questions to a rotating band of puzzle gurus, audience members and special mystery guests, who then takes a turn in the contestant's chair facing trivia games written especially for him or her. What you'll hear resembles the casual intimacy of game night at a friend's house: one where scores are forgotten in favor of hilarious gaffes.

The puzzle gurus behind Ask Me Another include John Chaneski, who devised tough questions and answers for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" before becoming one of the "puzzle guys" on the radio program "A Way With Words"; Art Chung who has written for and produced television game shows including "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?," "Cash Cab," "The World Series of Pop Culture," and "Stump the Schwab"; and actor/writer Will Hines who has performed and taught improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre for years, and obsessively reads books on compiling baseball statistics, a task he will never have to do.

Ask Me Another is recorded live at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY.

Genre: 
Composer ID: 
5187f364e1c8ae55ab3b89ee|5187f359e1c8ae55ab3b89d9

Pages

Ask Me Another
1:53 pm
Wed January 9, 2013

This, That, or the Other

Originally published on Thu April 18, 2013 3:40 pm

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

And we have our next two contestants up here, chomping at the bit. Let's welcome Shannon Sun-Higginson and Jeremy Lin.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Shannon, I enjoy your job as a documentary filmmaker. What are you working on right now?

SHANNON SUN-HIGGINSON: I am working on a film about women and gaming, but it's video games, so it's the wrong type of nerd.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)

EISENBERG: It's just a different shade of nerd, a different shade of nerd.

SUN-HIGGINSON: Fifty shades of nerd, yeah.

Read more
Ask Me Another
6:08 pm
Mon January 7, 2013

Time To Turn Off The TV

Originally published on Thu January 17, 2013 11:43 am

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's bring up our next two victims, I mean contestants. We have Dan Moren and Alexander Yellen.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Dan, now you refer to yourself as a veritable IMDB.

DAN MOREN: I don't refer to myself; I have been referred to as. I want to make that clear going in, because I don't - it's very possible I was...

EISENBERG: It just says it on your business card. I get it.

MOREN: Yeah, exactly.

EISENBERG: And you are the child - this is so fascinating to me - of librarians.

MOREN: Yes.

Read more
Ask Me Another
6:08 pm
Mon January 7, 2013

Street Music

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 9:10 am

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let me introduce our next two contestants: Sterling Walker and Steve Spinoglio.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Sterling, you have a PhD in neuroscience. I didn't know that was a real thing. I just thought that was something you say sarcastically to people.

(LAUGHTER)

STERLING WALKER: No, that's true.

EISENBERG: But you actually have it.

WALKER: Yes.

Read more
Ask Me Another
6:08 pm
Mon January 7, 2013

Name That Candy Bar

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 9:10 am

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's bring up our first two contestants, and let's welcome Mike Cisneros and Sarah Sheppard.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Sarah, I understand you're a big pop culture fan, and just moved to New York from North Carolina. Welcome, nice to have you.

SARAH SHEPPARD: Thank you.

EISENBERG: And Mike, you're a trivia buff too, since, what, grade five? Is that right?

MIKE CISNEROS: Yeah, roughly.

EISENBERG: You discovered Games magazine and it was all over, right?

CISNEROS: Absolutely.

Read more

Pages

Podcasts

  • Friday, February 1, 2013 11:00am
    Celebrities like to intermingle. This next game imagines some creative combinations of the rich and famous that make "Brangelina" look tame. For example, if you merged the singer of "Candle in the Wind" with the mobster nicknamed the "Dapper Don," you'd get Elton John Gotti. Saturday night's alright for fighting, indeed.
  • Friday, February 1, 2013 11:00am
    Quick, what word goes before the following: man, model, market? If you guessed "super," you may be the exact kind of super-genius who will enjoy this next game, wherein our own John Chaneski challenges contestants to find the common link to create three compound words.
  • Friday, February 1, 2013 11:00am
    When your house musician has the guitar chops of Brian May and the fourteen-octave vocal range of Freddie Mercury, you can't pass up the opportunity to sneak "We Will Rock You" into the set. We've embedded clues about famous rocks (yes, rocks) in the iconic Queen song, and Jonathan Coulton takes the lead. Plus, a rendition of "We Are The Champions."
  • Friday, February 1, 2013 11:00am
    For those abuzz about word games, the rules to this one are simple: we give you a clue, and you give us an answer whose first letter is "A" and whose last letter is "Z." Got that? Then you're sharp as an adz.
  • Friday, February 1, 2013 11:00am
    FWIW, you've probably spent a lot of time on AOL Instant Messenger, or were forced to decipher jargon from a family member who did. This next game is for you. John Chaneski conducts this Ask Me One More final round in which contestants must decode Internet shorthand FTW, from the common (BRB) to the obscure (IANAL).