JET Placement News

A momentous day! I received my placement letter, informing me of the general region in which I will be placed in Japan.

SO, drumroll, please. Trumpets commence!

Dun dun dun, ba ba ba baaaaaaaaaaaa…

The Day We Nearly Didn't Watch QI

Tuesday was an exciting one. I know, I know – every day should be exciting, but Tuesday was extraordinarily so! I was lucky enough to procure tickets to a recording of QI! I had tickets for two seatings, 3.45, and 6.30, on the 30^th April. I was actually slated to watch a dance show at the Warwick Arts Center, which I’m sad I missed, but the opportunity to watch QI was too good to be true. Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are two of my all-time favourite comedians, and of course Laurie is an amazing Gregory House, too.

So, come Thursday morning, I headed down to London after doing a bit of work. I had to pack a Pikachu onesie, of all things, so anyone searching my bag would think I was absolutely mad! I wasn’t carrying it as a random “oh, I may need this!” - I’m a Student Progression Ambassador for my university, which means I teach once a week in a local school. I have eight students, and essentially, what I do is to give them tips and tricks on getting into Higher Education. This isn’t to say that I force university dreams on them – I don’t think that university is necessarily the right choice for everyone, although I certainly think it’s a worthy pathway for many reasons – but that I teach them about the different options that they have, and what they need to do to achieve each one. It somehow slipped out during one of these lessons that I own, and have worn around the university, a Pikachu onesie. I have in fact, worn it to the Birmingham Christmas market, joined by one of my best friends as a panda. That, however, is a different story.

My head looks slightly detached from the rest of my body

Anyway, having discovered my secret Pokemon identity, they wrangled a promise out of me to wear it on our last lesson together. I hadn’t the time to go back to the university and pick up my outfit, so I took it down to London with me, a huge yellow and brown bundle that occupied half of my bag. Luckily, I wasn’t security checked. I’m really not sure how I would have explained it.

My brother James was supposed to accompany us, but he pulled out at the last minute due to an exam. Pfft. Exams. Who does those things? Instead, I put out a call on Facebook to ask if any friends wanted to take up his place, and an old classmate from a Japanese course stepped up, Jon. After a delicious lunch at Borough Market, we met him at London Bridge, and made our way towards the London Studio. Jon pointed out that QI is a BBC program, yet the studio was staffed with ITV people! Odd, that. Jon’s an actor, a Tae Kwon Do teacher, and freelance promotional. He was my next choice for the World Book Night Book:

"Can I use the book to hide my face?" -"No."

We weren’t quite sure of our directions, so we took a few detours on the way. By the time we got there, it was about three. As we approached, my heart sank. The line stretched along the studio wall, did a U-turn all the way towards the Thames, and then some. We marched ourselves to the end of this snaking queue, and tried to calculate our chances of getting in. Soon, a runner came along to explain it all to us. She had already been along the line, giving stamps to those who were first. Anyone without stamps, such as ourselves, were on standby. We waited hopefully in line, and gradually inched our way forwards for three-quarters of an hour. At 4pm, with a mere ten people in front of us… we were turned away.

As you can see, the line stretched all the way down the road, and then back again

Gutting. We walked away, disappointed. Strolled along Thames and saw this:

Unusual beach art

I threw in about five coins, missing every time. Clembeans’s father tossed one casually, and got it in, first shot! His explanation was:

“I’m an accountant. I’m used to throwing money away.” Best explanation I've ever heard!

Unfortunately, Jon had to leave to teach the next generation how to defend themselves, so the magic tickets I had for the next screening at 6.30 were useless to him. But not to me! Yes, indeed, I had tickets to two filmings on the 30^th, both afternoon and evening. You can’t stop me! And for this second one, I was in there, two hours early. We were very definitely in this time, stamps on our hands, raring to go.

So, the series that’s being filmed at the moment is ‘K’. Our audience word (kibitka) can be found on Fry’s Twitter account. Photography and filming is forbidden, so I’m using stock photos. Usually, I’d risk something sneaky on my phone, but there was no way I was going to jeopardize my chances to watch QI.

(image credit)

I’ve seen Alan Davies during one of his live performances – Life is Pain, near on half a year ago. He seems much more comfortable on QI – he works well with Stephen Fry, of course, and as a regular panelist, he knows the kind of pace they want to set. There were two ‘newcomers’ – two very lovely jokers, whose humour I have enjoyed via iPlayer recordings of Mock the Week. They were Katherine Ryan and Josh Widdicombe. The final panelist was the fantastic Phil Jupitus.

Alan Davies at the Warwick Arts Center during his Life is Pain tour, signing autographs

Even QI XL is judiciously edited – the whole recording was nearly three hours! It was really fascinating to see the ins and outs of it all. The audience really does laugh that much – no laugh tracks required, and the studio fits nearly 600 people! Before the show started, QI elves kept us entertained with random facts and tidbits, displayed on TV screens by the side of the set. The most memorable ones for me were “did you know over 50% of koalas have chlamydia?” alongside “Ostriches can be trained to herd sheep. [next slide] Sheep cannot be trained to herd ostriches.” The elves also put up shoutouts to the audience, obviously people who were friends with various members of the production team.

It was the first time I’ve ever been at the live recording of a TV series (although I have been in front of the camera for a game show, but that’s something that I hope never gets put up on YouTube!), and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I’m probably shooting myself in the foot here, but the tickets are absolutely free, and you can sign yourself up on the mailing list here. They give out tickets for other shows, too; if Mock the Week or Graham Norton gets filmed any time soon, I’ll be applying. For every. Single. One.

(and then I got food poisoning. Also another story. Bleurgh.)