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Friday, September 7, 2001
This N That

- At some point in time, Drew, Wayne, and Greg were discussing that Wayne now had two shows like Drew. Wayne pointed out that Greg also had two shows. I think he was referring to Rendez-View. I guess Greg took the comment as referring to Versus because he said that his show was only on cable and that it had been cancelled. The audience all went "Awww...". Greg whips around to face us and declares "Don't patronize me maggots!" Naturally, we weren't offended at all.
- Although Drew didn't want to talk about his health, Ryan frequently joked about it. All of Ryan's jokes were protective, Don't make Drew do that, type of jokes. At one point, the production guys were discussing something they wanted Drew to do. Ryan waved for their attention and motioned that they couldn't do that because it might give Drew a stroke.
- During the question and answer session, Drew said that the drink in his cup wasn't Diet Pepsi any more. It was a flavored water beverage. I think he said it was mandarin orange.
- Ryan was wearing a watch. Other cast members were wearing watches too. But I don't think Ryan's worn a watch on the show for several seasons. The watch face is rimmed in either diamonds or some faceted metal. It kept glinting in the light, which is why I noticed it in the first place.
- After one of the games, Ryan picked up a lollipop that was lying on the stage and took it back to his chair. Then he put it wrapped sucker head down into Colin's glass. Colin didn't notice for a while. Every so often, Ryan would reach over and swirl the lollipop in the glass. Unbeknownst to Ryan, Colin started taking the lollipop out of his glass and dipping into Ryan's glass when he wasn't looking. So they both had sullied water. During the second major break, the water lady came and replaced Colin's glass with one that didn't have a lollipop in it making for a very interesting continuity problem with the pickups. I'm looking forward to the magical disappearing, reappearing lollipop on the episodes.
- Although it looked the same, Drew said that the Scenes From a Hat hat was different than before. He said it was made from something different and that made it heavier. The extra weight threw off Drew's pitch at the commercial break. He kept trying over and over to hit the boom camera all weekend long. By Sunday, Drew commented that if he couldn't hit the camera, he would try for the cameraman after almost accidentally decapitating the poor guy during one throw.
- If you remember the UK show, Ryan used to occasionally do a gag where he would pretend to be shooting up. (I specifically remember it during the credits reading where he and Greg were brothers.) I'm happy to say that Ryan still does the gag, but now he only does it off-camera.
- Because of the technical problems and the set up and tear down for Helping Hands, this taping was the longest of the three. Towards the end, Ryan started dropping some none too subtle hints about wanting to get home by reminding the crew that the Jerry Springer show was coming on.
- Speaking of technical things, the magic phrase to stop the taping is not "Cut!" like you hear in the movies. The magic word to stop the taping is "Hold!".
- Greg loves doing WLiiA even when he's not playing a game, he seems to having a great time watching the others. Look for him when Colin starts singing in Tibetan during Show Stopping Number. The broadcasts just hint at it, but during the tapings, it's obvious that Greg and Drew have a great friendship. The two of them would often go off on an intellectual discussion during the down times sometimes like in Greatest Hits even carrying the dicussion on during the games themselves.
- At one point during the Drew games, the stagehands brought out a pair of props in preparation for that game. Several people in the audience started buzzing when they saw them because they thought they had been used before. Someone probably either Keith or Dan decided they weren't going to play Props that night after all, and the stagehands took them away.
- Colin was very quiet during this taping, more so than on any of the three nights. Not in his performances, but in his non-performing mode. He would talk to the other cast members if they spoke to him. But he rarely initiated the conversation. And he seldom responded to the audience's comments unless they were specifically addressed to him. There was one time though where he was really animated. He and Ryan were quietly talking to each other during one of the down times. I have no idea what they were discussing. All of a sudden, they both start bobbing their heads at each other very rapidly. I suddenly realized that they had fallen into one of their Greatest Hits routines. I'm talking about the act where one of them announces, "Just wait till we get home. I'll show you." "You'll show me? I'll show you." And then they spout off at each other at warp speed. Here I am at the back of the studio watching the two of them bob their heads at each other in exactly the same way. I had no doubt as to what they were saying to each other. And then they abruptly stop. Just like in Greatest Hits. You might think they were pre-rehearsing something for Greatest Hits except that they never did that bit during Greatest Hits. I figure one of them said something that reminded the other of the gag's lead in and off he went. It was fun to watch them do that in "private" for just themselves and part of what I came to the taping in hopes of seeing.
© LKK

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