‘We’re not used to this, we’re British.’
The hosts of the fact-exploring comedy podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, came to the Terrace Theater in the Kennedy Center on November 10th for a live taping of one of their podcasts, and received resounding applause. They have a right proper audience already in the US, as a ‘clap if you agree’ poll showed that at least 80% of the audience had already listened to their podcast. The Terrace Theater was sold out after all.
The conceit is simple and interesting, and the dynamic between the four hosts was entertaining for the hour long podcast.
No Such Thing as a Fish is about finding strange and interesting facts, and then riffing on and finding other tangential things to add to the discussion. Each host picks one fact, then they spend 15 minutes discussing, joking about and trying to wow each other with other strange and related facts.
It started in 2014 when Brits Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray (all working as researchers for the BBC TV panel show QI), found themselves overwhelmed with bizarre, strange and downright hilarious facts unearthed in the course of their quiz show production jobs.
After witnessing this recording, I’d now say I’ll give the podcast a regular download, and listen when I can to learn and to laugh. You should give it a try as well.
Andrew Hunter Murray’s fact:
You had to have at least 6 teeth to be in the US Military during World War I.
Anna Ptaszynski’s fact:
The Ronald Reagan Presidential library is protected from wildfires by the effort of goats.
Dan Schreiber’s fact:
The footage of the Apollo 12 moon landing shown on TV was faked because the camera malfunctioned and they couldn’t get live footage. (Don’t worry, the Apollo 11 moon landing footage is perfectly real.)
James Harkin’s fact:
The crop circles in Australian poppy fields are caused by wallaby’s jumping in circles after they get high on the poppies.
You will have to listen to the podcast to get all the details and all the jokes! I’ll update this post with a link once they release the specific podcast recorded at the Kennedy Center.
Check their website to stream their podcast, or get it from iTunes or Google Play.
There was a way for audience members to text/send in their own facts before the taping started, and they picked the ‘Best Fact of the Night’ to present at the end of the show. The winner received a copy of their new book, The Book of the Year 2019, which is available for purchase!
The fact was: There is a person that has volunteered at the Kennedy Center for 50 years. And the Kennedy Center has only been open 48 years.
A DC Journey 