Q & A with ‘Wait Wait’ host Peter Sagal

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Peter Sagal

Updated: November 16, 2011 10:58AM

Oak Park resident Peter Sagal, writer, actor, author of plays and books and host of NPR’s news quiz show ‘Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me,” is one of 60 local authors who will be recognized at the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner that takes place Thursday, Oct. 20 in Chicago. Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Sun-Times journalist and author Roger Ebert will be the guest of honor, and Rebecca Skloot, science writer and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, will receive the 21st Century Award.

The evening also celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Harold Washington Library Center, the 10th anniversary of the Library’s award-winning One Book, One Chicago initiative.

Informed he will be recognized — and hosting an event table — alongside such writers as Evanston author Stuart Dybek, Lake Forest writer and former astronaut James Lovell and Oak Park authors Alex Kotlowitz and Elizabeth Berg, Sagal was flabbergasted when Pioneer Press spoke to him.

He repeats their names one by one in question form, then added, “I am honored to be among them. When you think suburban author, ya think Erma Bombeck.”

Pioneer went on to talk with Sagal about the evening, his work and his life in Oak Park.

Q. What will you wear?

A. “I don’t know, oh my god, I have to find a dress. What does one wear to be in the company of an astronaut?”

Q. Will you take the Mrs.?

A. “Oh yes! For her, it’s the only benefit of being married to me. In fact, that is somewhat of a stipulation for me to even be invited to things. She is better looking and well mannered too.”

Q. Are you typically well behaved at these events?

“Well, at one actors guild party I was in a monkey suit drinking dry sherry and it was hot. I was pounding ’em back and I tried to make a sherry bong, so this event, I think I will just take it easy.”

Sagal added, “The reason I am doing this event is that I am a fan of Roger Ebert, more so since his sickness. He is intensively writing. He is incredibly brave and he has become one of my heroes. I can’t wait to tell him face to face. I think he is a treasure!”

Q. So you tape NPR’s “Wait Wait” Thursday evening … to celebrate its 14th year this January. What do you do the rest of the week?

A. “I work all week, you’d be surprised the time and preparation it takes to do an hour of radio. There is research and the prep of questions. We actually have a staff of five.”

Q. Were you surprised British primatologist Jane Goodall was so funny recently? (She poked fun at actor Nicholas Cage.)

A. “I learned a long time ago never to be surprised when anyone is funny. I think there is a bias against those who are seriously accomplished and funny. That’s the nice thing about the show, we allow people to be funny and 75 percent of them take the opportunity, although, Bill Clinton would not. But when Barak Obama was a senator in 2005, he came on, took a look around the room and was hilarious! This is a great advantage of my job.”

Q. Who’s been your favorite interview?

A. “Tavi Gevinson, the teen fashion blogger, she has been my youngest guest so far. When it was pitched to me, I had heard of her being at a New York fashion week. She is an Oak Park local. She was so unlike anybody.

Famous people, you know them. At least, we think we do. I have interviewed so many good ones. The people I admired growing up: Leonard Nimoy, Henry Winkler, Dick Van Dyke, Carrie Fisher. It’s a great aspect of my job talking to people especially when they accept your admiration so graciously. Like, Nimoy was so pleasant and grateful; I think, “I wasn’t a fool for being a fan. He was worthy of the affection.”

Tavi was delightful but opinionated, just great! There was a sense of surprise talking to this young woman. But, ask me that question next week!”

Q. What do you like most about Oak Park? How long have you been here?

A. “I have lived here since October of 1998. In 2003, my oldest was to start kindergarten and we could have moved anywhere. I grew up in a suburb of New Jersey, and I swore I would never live in a suburb. I love Oak Park because it is not very suburban. We are near the El, we are less than ten miles from downtown.

I can ride my bike to Navy Pier in the summer I love that the houses face the street and the garages are in the back on the alley. I love that we have a central downtown to walk to. I hate to admit it but I even like that we have the occasional crime. I try to pretend I’m not a suburban dad but I am.”

Q. How is it being the only guy in a house with four females and all that estrogen? (Sagal has three daughters.)

A.“Living with girls is awful. Guys fart, tell dirty jokes, so I have to hang out with the guys. I’m outnumbered but I figure if I’m devoted when I’m old and ill they will take care of me.”

Q. You are a founding member of OCD runners club (Sagal writes a column every other month in the magazine, Runner’s World.) How was the name chosen?

A. “We are a loosely organized group of middle aged 36-55 guys who run together and have logged many sweaty miles together. They are doctors, lawyers, even a pathologist. We travel together and socialize. One meeting at a member’s house we decided to formalize it with a name. We are obsessive, compulsive about running. So it was that easy.”

Q. Your caricature on your website makes you look like a rotund old bald guy but you are actually pretty young and dashing. Who chose that image and did you fire him?

A. “Chris Ware, an Oak Parker, is the greatest living comic book artist and cartoonist. He is astoundingly talented. He has done incredible, intricate art and The New Yorker covers. So when you ask someone of that stature to do a cartoon and they do it, it is appreciated. I would never fire him.”

For more on Peter Sagal, visit http://petersagal.com.