BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME. The NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis and here's your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you Bill.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: So Bill and I are off on assignment doing important work in the field.
KURTIS: Or possible at the racetrack.
SAGAL: Wherever the story leads us, Bill.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So while we're out of the office, we're bringing you some fun interviews from the recent past. Back in April, we were joined by Misty Copeland, a leading dancer with the American Ballet Theater, who since then, has even become more well known thanks to a popular TV commercial.
KURTIS: But we think we gave her her real start. Peter began by asking her if she had been one of those little girls who just love the ballet.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVE BROADCAST)
MISTY COPELAND: Absolutely not. I had never heard classical music before. I was listening to Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey.
SAGAL: Really?
COPELAND: Yeah. I ended up training only for four years before I was accepted into American Ballet Theater in New York City.
SAGAL: That's crazy.
COPELAND: Yeah.
BRIAN BABYLON: She's like the Lebron James of...
(LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: ...Ballet a little bit.
SAGAL: Yeah. One of the things about ballet - classical ballet especially - is it's obviously so incredibly strenuous, except - and part of the aesthetic is you have to seem absolutely effortless. So whenever I see a ballet, I always imagine that the people dancing around on their toes are constantly thinking to themselves, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Is that true?
COPELAND: On some days.
SAGAL: Yeah.
COPELAND: We do talk on stage to each other and I think some people think, why did I choose this career? Why am I doing this?
SAGAL: Wait a minute. You said you talk to each other on stage?
COPELAND: We do.
SAGAL: What do you say?
COPELAND: The artistic director may not want to hear that, but we have full-on conversations, depending on, you know, how rigorous the part is.
SAGAL: Really? So like...
BABYLON: During the show?
COPELAND: What are you having tonight for dinner? What - you know...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Wait a minute.
COPELAND: You going out to the club?
SAGAL: So you're telling me, like, if I go see "The Nutcracker" and the corp de ballet is back there, and they're doing, like, the sugarplum fairies. They're dancing around on point, and they're saying to each other, so what are you doing tonight? Oh, nothing. What about you? Oh.
BABYLON: And do you have to, like, wait for the person to come back around before you get your answer?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Did - do you talk to them when you're, like - you're spinning around, and you just get one word out when you’re facing them? Hey. What. Are. You. Doing. After. The. Show? Depending on how fast you spin.
ROY BLOUNT: Now do you talk smack sometimes?
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT: Let's see you jump with my foot on your shoe. Ha.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT: I bet they do that. Oh, I'm going to go to the ballet tomorrow.
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: Yeah.
BLOUNT: Suddenly, it's come alive for me.
BABYLON: You know, Peter...
SAGAL: I don't mean to get personal, but looking around on the Internet, your legs are quite the thing.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I mean, it looks like - it looks like...
BLOUNT: You know how to talk pretty to women.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I do. I do.
(LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: I was on the Internet, and I was looking at you on the Internet.
SAGAL: No, I'm - seriously and if you...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I mean, there are like...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I'm just saying.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: What I was saying...
BABYLON: Quite the thing, both of them.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I'm saying that if you - you know, when your career in the ballet ends - which hopefully won't happen for many years - you can get a job for, like, the NYPD kicking down doors for them.
BLOUNT: Oh.
>>O’CONNOR: I don't think that's what you're - also what you're supposed to say to a woman.
(LAUGHTER)
(LAUGHTER)
(LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: Yeah, you could kick some doors down, babe. Yeah.
>>O’CONNOR: With those legs, man.
(LAUGHTER)
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So one thing I've always wondered about people like yourself - 'cause I am a terrible dancer - and so whenever I'm at a - you know, like, a party or whatever where there's dancing, I do not dance. I am on the side. You are one of the greatest dancers, well, in the world. So when you're at a party and, like, the dance music starts up, do you say to yourself, now is my time.
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: Absolutely not.
SAGAL: No?
COPELAND: No.
SAGAL: You're, like, a mutant with superpowers, and yet you won't show your powers.
COPELAND: (Laughing) Kind of.
SAGAL: But don't you...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Come on. Come on. I mean, you must see somebody out there who thinks they're special, who thinks they're, like, doing the moves. And you could say, I could blow these people's minds.
COPELAND: Yeah.
SAGAL: But today, no.
COPELAND: (Laughing).
BLOUNT: Can you twerk? I mean, you can twerk, right?
(LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: Hilarious.
SAGAL: Come on. Come on. You can twerk. Come on.
BLOUNT: Come on.
COPELAND: I get down. I listen to a lot of hip-hop and R&B and soul. I don't know if I've ever twerked.
(CROSSTALK)
SAGAL: I think someone would have noticed, Misty. I think...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...It would've been quite the YouTube sensation, had you done it. Well, Misty Copeland, we're delighted to talk to you. We've asked you here were to play game we're calling...
CARL KASELL, BYLINE: Hey Nonny Nonny!
COPELAND: Oh.
SAGAL: You are a classical ballerina, but classical ballet is a newfangled upstart compared to Morris dancing, which scholars believe originated one night in the Middle Ages when some guys got really, really drunk.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: We're going to ask you three questions about Morris dancing. Get two right, you'll win our prize.
COPELAND: OK.
SAGAL: Carl, who is Misty Copeland playing for?
KASELL: Misty is playing for Barbara Woods of Anacortes, Washington.
SAGAL: Now before we get started, let's establish what Morris dancing is. It is a very old kind of British folk dance. And they put on these costumes with bells, and they dance about in, like, county squares. And they...
BABYLON: Like "Game Of Thrones" stuff?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right. So now that we've established that, here's your first question. As we've said, Morris dancing is ancient. People do like to mix it up. Which of these is a new trend in Morris dancing? A ,Hip-hop Morris, in which dancers dance to rap hits from the likes of Jay-Z and Lil' Wayne; B, Goth Morris, in which dances are changed into weird satanic-like rituals; Or C, Morris the cat dancing, in which dancers incorporate licking themselves and coughing up hair balls.
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: (Laughter) Oh, wow. I feel like A seems the most normal.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Hip-hop Morris?
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: Yeah.
SAGAL: Actually, no. It's B. It's Goth Morris is the latest thing. Yeah.
COPELAND: I thought Goth went out in the '90s.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No, no, no. They're just getting around to it in England, apparently.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That's OK. You still have two more chances, Misty, so you're going to get this, I'm sure.
COPELAND: Oh, OK. OK.
SAGAL: Now, Morris dancing has spawned all kind of spinoff industries - 'cause it's popular - as in which of these? A, a personal injury lawyer specializing in Morris dancing injury claims, like being hit in the face with a Morris stick; B, No More-iss, an iPhone app that helps you avoid any Morris dancers in your area; Or C, Errol Morris dancing, a form of the dance when you merely stare at the audience and say very little.
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: (Laughing) I'm going to go with C.
SAGAL: You're going to go with Errol Morris dancing?
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: It's somebody doing performance art.
SAGAL: Errol - yes. It's like, and tonight, the Errol Morris dancers present "A Fog of War."
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The dancing Robert McNamara. So you're going to pick that? You're going to go for - I admire your boldness, Misty Copeland. But I'm just going to ask you to confirm, are you going to pick Errol Morris dancing?
COPELAND: Oh, you’re - I feel that you're telling me not to.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I see you have the sensitivity and soul of an artist.
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: (Laughing) A?
SAGAL: A. Yes, it's A.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Apparently...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Apparently, if you're in a Morris dance troupe and you injure yourself, like getting hit with a Morris stick, you could be able to sue your own Morris dance troupe. All right, if you get this last one right...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...You will win everything. Having been run for a very long time, Morris dancing has inspired a number of jokes. Which of these is a classic Morris dancing joke sure to get a laugh in Morris dancing circles? A, three Morris dancers walk into a bar and immediately get thrown out because everybody hates Morris dance.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: B, why did the Morris dancers cross the road? 'Cause they were being chased by a mob because everybody hates Morris dance.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Or C, why do Morris dancers wear bells? So they can annoy the blind as well.
(LAUGHTER)
COPELAND: Wow. C sounds perfect.
SAGAL: C is in fact the right answer.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: That is the classic Morris dance joke. Carl, how did Misty Copeland do on our quiz?
KASELL: Well, she had enough correct answers to win, Peter. So she is a winner.
SAGAL: Well done, Misty.
(APPLAUSE)
COPELAND: Thank you.
SAGAL: Bye, bye. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.