Questions & Answers

Hi all,

A mate of mine rang up for some tickets for Q&A 'for the laugh'.
Anyhow, he's talked me into going along and tonight's the night.
Some laugh alright, we haven't a clue where to go or what time to go at...

Anyway, anyone been?
What's the story?

Have a terrible fear that the camera is going to pan to me as I'm asked a question about 'the connection between the Rural one-off housing laws and the colour of Pat Kenny's trousers'....

paulocon said:

Have a terrible fear that the camera is going to pan to me as I'm asked a question about 'the connection between the Rural one-off housing laws and the colour of Pat Kenny's trousers'....

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You mean you're on the panel?

I'd say if the camera was to 'pan to me' then s/he would be an audience member and I also assume the questions are screened/assigned before it starts?

Me on the panel?
Funniest thing I've heard in a long time.

Nope, we'll be the ones cowering somewhere in the middle of the crowd. I'll probably be the one that gets all excited when the camera comes anywhere near us!

He got tickets to be in the audience, just having panic attacks that they might 'change the format' of the show as an experiment and ask the audience some questions instead.

Just wondering what the setup is, I think we have to be there for 8:45 even though the show doesn't go out till 10:45. That's two hours to 'do something' to us...... Perhaps they are going to use us as a test audience for the pilot of Pat Kenny's new comedy show, or maybe we'll get to see Marty Whelan starring in RTE's take on 'ER' or Brendan O' Carroll hosting a family gameshow where you have to throw ping-pong balls into Jam-jars to win the top prize of a weekend away in Skibereen?

Just to add...

I don't get out much these days.
Fatherhood has an awful lot to answer for.

stobear said:

I'd say if the camera was to 'pan to me' then s/he would be an audience member and I also assume the questions are screened/assigned before it starts?

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Just wondering why an audience member would be asked a question?

Based on experience about 15 years ago :
They provide a warm-up drinks/sandwiches reception before hand. Researchers go around and ask you to write up questions. They take them all away and come back a while later and say the following questions will be asked . . .
Then they film the show and it goes out an hour or so later.

clubman - you might be asked a question as an audience member if you were part of a pre-declared interest group, or if you asked the question to the panel in the first place.

z

cheers zag....

I assume the person whose question is chosen gets to ask that question.
Thought the show went out live though?

Anyway, off now to think up a question so bad that there's no chance of being picked to ask it.....


'The clock on the thosel in Drogheda is slow by two minutes, have you or your party colleagues any plans to rectify this situation?'

or...

'When it rains, the water from the road comes down onto my driveway, when are you going to sort this out?'

That should do the trick.....

zag said:

clubman - you might be asked a question as an audience member if you were part of a pre-declared interest group, or if you asked the question to the panel in the first place.

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I've never seen an audience member unilaterally being asked a question other than as a follow up to one that they have posed.

clubman - well maybe it is an unfounded fear on the part of paulocon, maybe he made a mistake, maybe you haven't been watching properly, maybe I'm mixing up my current affairs programmes, or maybe it didn't warrant two follow up queries.

If you have "never seen an audience member unilaterally being asked a question other than as a follow up to one that they have posed" why did you ask "Just wondering why an audience member would be asked a question" ?

z

zag,

very much an unfounded fear on my part...
still real to me though!

Like I said, I don't get out much

Well PaulOCon ...

Did you feature? What was it like? Did you ask a question?

I hope you had a good experience one way or the other.

Marion

The researchers pretty much dictate the topics on which questions should be asked by giving strong recommendations for the 4 topics on which questions are welcome. I was selected to ask a question on the last Q&A before the 2002 election (my 15 minutes of fame!). I had my witty riposte all ready for Mr Bowman, but he went to a commercial break instead.

Marion,

Very enjoyable experience.

As rainyday said, the researchers do dictate the topics to be covered by the show. Being the world's worst public speaker (literally), I decided not to submit any questions to the researchers.

Upon entering the studio we made a beeline for the 'hidden' back seats only to be asked by the director to sit at the front because there were a number of empty seats there. Just my luck that the first person to ask a question was just behind me. Managed to stave off a mild panic attack as the camera was stuck right in my face (at least felt like that) for a short while. Relaxed as the show went on and quite enjoyed it. Mastered my 'studious' look for part II.

Didn't pluck up the courage to ask any questions but I'd say that only about 8 out of 40/50 people there did speak.

On the whole, a very enjoyable and interesting experience. I have a lot of respect for anyone in the audience that asks a question and airs their views as it did seem pretty un-nerving. Also could not believe how professional Mr. Bowman was from start to finish.

Last thing is that the producers were extremely pleasant and appeared delighted that we were there to make up the numbers. They seem to have tickets (free) for all shows.