QI Series F, Episode 8 Recording Review

Yet another guest reviewer today. Hello! I'm Kate -- long-suffering friend of MinervaMoon's, and watcher of QI. I will be reviewing the recording of May 29th, or at least, what I can remember of it. Memory like a sieve, me!

This recording's warm up comedian was Tom Price. Lovely chap, and definitely NOT a paedophile (this is a joke based on his skit, not a standard disclaimer).†

On to the show itself, where I will try not to ramble too much:

It was the Christmas episode, the title of which was "Fire and Freezing", so the set was decorated with snowflakes, two trees and some fake snow (or cocaine as Stephen dubbed it). The guests, Dom Joly, Clive Anderson, and Rob Brydon (and, of course, Alan and Stephen) came out in assorted winter hats and stripy scarves looking lovely, as Stephen managed to point out at least three times (plus commenting on Rob's "chocolatey wells of love")! The buzzers were songs on the theme of fire, and Alan's was a specially made recording of Alan Sugar telling Alan he was disgrace.

Dom made a very good debut and I'd be glad to see him make some more appearances. Clive was, if I remember rightly, also very good, and Rob was on fire (not literally, although it would fit with the theme). There were some jokes about the fact that the show will be aired many months in the future: Gosh, remember when it rained on the 100m at the Olympics? Gosh, remember when it rained on the 200m? Gosh, remember when it rained on the shotput? Etc. . . .

The guests all had fans, and were following rules of fan-etiquette or something to flirt and send each other coded signals. There was also lengthy discussion of smoke signals, firemen and smoke. I should stop now though because this runs the risk of being really rather long as more things come back to me.

† Sarah notes: He didn't introduce himself with "Hello. You may remember me from such roles as P.C. Andy from Torchwood." But he should have.

The Museum of Curiosity 2nd Series

The Museum of Curiosity has been commissioned for a second series. The radio 4 comedy is loosely based on QI and stars John Lloyd (QI's creator) as the professor and Bill Bailey (a frequent guest) as its curator. Guests are asked to contribute an item to the museum. Items already added to the museum have included silence and the Battle of Waterloo.

QI Series F, Episode 7 Recording Review

This recording was the first outing of the Quite Interesting Society at the University of York, so whilst I was writing this review I also had the minor concern of getting 10 students to the recording on time. After what turned out to be a 6 hour drive from York to London (due to traffic on the M1 and central London) our two cars arrived outside the studio at 7:18, and we walked into the studio as the floor manager was giving the safety briefing. We ended up seated all over the place, I myself was sat on a chair in front of the curtain at the back of the studio. It was by far the worst seating I had ever had in that studio but it was still better than sitting on the far side of one of the wings.

Before I could get the notepad out, Ben Norris strolled on to warm-up the audience. It was a competent skit but if I'm to be honest the adrenaline was only just wearing off from having been minutes from turning round and heading straight back to York; I wasn't precisely concentrating at the time.

Stephen Fry walked on and I was rather pleased that my request for him to shout out the society was successful. There was a quick wave from our scattered members and Stephen told us to "get a life" (fair comment) and told the audience about York's claim to fame - the largest plastic-bottomed lake in Europe.

After Stephen had introduced the guests there was some quick banter about how he was stalked by Courtney Love and a rendition of "Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable" it was soon time to start the tape rolling for the recording. Thus here begin the spoilers:

The guests for this recording were Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell and Rich Hall. This episode will be one of a minority this series formed only from regular guests. The topic of the episode was Food. The topics of oysters and fruit machines introduced a running joke into the show about oral sex and this was probably how this episode will have become one of the funniest of the series (not that one is in a position to judge having seen only two of them).

Other topics discussed included; tongues, yakult, tape worms, crabs, Scottish drinks, oysters, melons, Russian service, chips, muscle, teeth, snakes, cheese, cake and the Internet. David Mitchell was given two Teacher's Pet awards throughout the recording.

After the recording we all headed into the green room where we were all introduced to Stephen Fry and Alan Davies plus a number of the elves. After enjoying the free bar (except for the drivers) it was then time to head back home. The dawn had come before we were in our beds.

QI Series F, Episode 6 Recording Review

Hello, I'm Erin. MinervaMoon, through whose awesomeness I was able to go to two QI recordings during the week I was in London,[1] asked me to do this review so she doesn't completely die from exams. I, being done with that sort of thing for the time being, agreed.

This is the review for the Tuesday, May 20 recording. As at the May 12 recording, Rufus Hound did the warmup. This was my second time at a QI recording, my first time having been the day before. I had a brilliant time both nights, and am already going through withdrawal and fantasizing[2] about moving to the UK.

[Footnote 1: All right, the main reason I went was to go to QI.]

[Footnote 2: Sorry for the spelling -- I'm an American.]

Now for the spoilery bits:

The guests for this episode were Jimmy Carr, Jo Brand, and John Sergeant, whose surname I hope I am finally spelling correctly. It was John's first time on the show, and yes, Stephen did bring up his resemblance to Jo.

The theme was "Flora and Fauna," and the center of the set was decorated with grass, flowers, and two garden gnomes.

The show began with a question about camellias (Stephen was wearing one). The answer involved a really precious line from Stephen (for which Jo made fun of him) that I hope makes the edit. Other subjects included flea circuses, tree-dwelling fish, flamingos (repeating some information from series B episode 2), naïve rhinoceroses, frogs and toads, fairy rings, more frogs, lice and the animals they live on, ferrets helping to build aircraft (segueing into ferrets and trousers), the fastest thing in nature, slugs, peacocks, albatrosses (Alan told the "albatross burger" riddle), and mushrooms. So it was mostly fauna rather than flora, but there were a few good plant questions.


Thanks again to MinervaMoon for giving me the opportunity to see QI and for entrusting me with the writing of this review.


[Erin, you're brilliant. Thank you and you're welcome. Sarah]

The QI Annual 2009

The next QI Annual 2009 has now been placed on amazon for pre-order here. Following on from the success of the first QI annual which covered a range of subjects beginning with “E”, this annual will cover “F” topics. The synopsis given by amazon claims that topics covered in the Annual will include ferrets, Fiji, Finland, fish, flags, flamingos, fleas, floods, flowers, fog, food, football, forests, fossils, Freemasons, fungi, fur and furniture.

It is not yet known who will contribute to the guide, but chances are it will be come from a range of QI guests, panelists and crew who wrote for the Annual last year with some extra contributions from those newly arrived to the QI world.

The QI Annual for 2009 is to be released on the 6 November 2008, and is to be 96 pages long (because 96% of the universe is missing). Currently priced at £12.99.

P.S. QIfanatic gives his apologies to the delays in posting the QI reviews this year. A busy exam schedule for a number of the reviewers is making life difficult.