Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - It's an 'Everyone & Their Mom' family reunion!

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

Emma throws a family reunion! Uncle Dennis sings Elvis, her mom shares all her tips for avoiding bad luck, and Emma embarrasses her dad and little brother. Grab a plate, it's a party!Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

So we're all traveling again and people are dreaming, visiting cities like Paris or Tokyo or Rio. And all those places are fine, I suppose. But do any of them have Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Live at the Studebaker Theater? Mais non, as they say in one of those places. Come to Chicago, see Wait, Wait Live, and then with the rest of your time, well, I'm told the Cubs are rebuilding. That sounds exciting. More information at NPRPresents.org.ubs are rebuilding. That sounds exciting. More information at nprpresents.org. Hey everyone, Bill Curtis here. If you're like me and you love the panelists on Wait, Wait,

Don't Tell Me, then check out the Wait, Wait stand-up tour. This fall, we're doing two shows in Michigan, October 21st in Ann Arbor and the 22nd in Kalamazoo. Both shows feature some of our funniest comedians. Alonzo Bowden is the host, along with Maz Jobrani, Helen Hong, and Nagin Farsad. See them live, uncensored, and uninterrupted by Peter Sagal. For tickets and information, go to nprpresents.org. Hello, my friends. Welcome to Everyone and Their Mom, a weekly show from Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

I'm Emma Choi, and this week we're throwing a family reunion. If you've visited us before, you know we love hanging out with family. So come on in. Make yourself at home. We have a ton of food. My grandma made eggnog and some bad kimchi. And there's the karaoke machine. Here's a tip, though.

Do not let Uncle Dennis get startled on that thing. He will keep singing for hours. Actually, speaking of Uncle Dennis, he came by to talk to us about officiating weddings, Elvis, and what it's like to be the fun uncle. In some cases, too much fun, you know? Let's listen to it again. Hi, Uncle Dennis. Hello. Hello, Emma.

Uncle Dennis, I feel like, would you describe yourself as the life of the party? Well, you know, I'm kind of a has-been. No. It's been a while. But you know who the life of the party? Well, you know, I'm kind of a has-been. It's been a while. But you know who the life of the party is? You guys now. It's funny because when I think of our family gatherings, like, I always think of, like, you as the life of the party. Remember at Jason's wedding?

Like, you're in every single one of the wedding photos, and Jason's not even your son. You know? And, like, you made my dad take shots with you. And I remember you busting some serious moves on the dance floor. I will neither admit nor deny. But, you know, we have fun. And we got a big family, too.

There's like, what, like 100 of us just on my dad's side? I think it's about like 60 people, 50, if we all get together. What do you think is one of our best Chin family get-togethers? Several years ago, we got together in Las Vegas. Do you remember the yardstick? Well, you weren't old enough to. Oh, my God. I do remember that.

Yeah, it's like a three, four-foot bottle. Dear God. Filled with cocktails and walking around. Yeah. Having competition with each family. And then we ended up at, I think, one of the casino buffet. And, you know, there's a a big it's like a midnight buffet and there was a big long line yeah and you know like 50 of us were standing in line with a bunch of people right yeah and uh we're speaking konglish yeah you speak konglish

right it's a yeah it's a mix of korean and english and we were talking really loud because you know we have to hear each other, all 50 of us. Yeah. So we're talking, we're loud, we're obnoxious. And, you know, people in the line, they're kind of looking at us funny. Oh, what are these Asians, bunch of Asians? They're so loud.

And so we looked at each other, we stopped. And then we started speaking British accent, all of us. And everybody there, they just hushed down and they're all watching us. They got so confused. That was fun. Yeah, that is so fun. You know what we should do next time when we get together?

We have enough people that we could do a flash mob. What do you think? I feel like the harmonies would break a hip. I don't want to endanger them like that. Well, Uncle Dennis, I know that you officiated your daughter Emily's wedding, right? I watched it on Zoom. I did. like the harmonies would break a hip i don't want to endanger them like that well uncle dennis i know that you officiated your daughter emily's wedding right i watched it on zoom i did and you were so great and you're a deacon do you like officiating weddings well i i've only done a few uh i i was i was very honored to uh to do my own daughter's wedding um yeah that was that was a

cool experience well i mean we wanted to talk to you because you're my fun uncle, but also because there's this news that pretty soon you won't be able to be married by an Elvis impersonator in Vegas. Is that right? Yeah, which is crazy. Oh my God.

I know. And my friend thinks that you should take over that role as an iconic Vegas wedding officiant. Yes, yes. Yo, yeah. I think you'd be great at it. I actually did a show for my church on a fundraiser. Did a whole surprise Elvis sack.

No way. Are you serious? An Elvis thing? The whole getup, you know, the white suit with the scarf. I was going around giving the scarf to the ladies and, you know, the sweat. Was there a moment where you had an out-of-body Elvis moment? When I was doing the arm twist, you know. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, my Uncle Dennis. He's one of the funnest uncles in the game. But you know what's even more fun? Superstitions. I feel like every family has at least one unreasonably superstitious person. In my family, it's my mom. Here's a clip of my mom talking about some of her many superstitions. Spoiler alert, there's a lot of them.

Hi, Eunju. Hi, Oma. Oma, do you want to introduce yourself? Okay, I'm Eunji's mom. Okay, so I wanted to talk to you because we're talking about superstitions this week, and you are the most superstitious person I know. I don't think I am, but okay. Yes, you are.

Why don't you walk us through some of your superstitions, Oma? You know, the common ones are passed down from being Korean. There's one where on exam days, you don't eat seaweed soup, miyeokguk, right? Because it's very slippery. You don't want all that knowledge to slip away. Like that makes sense. That one. And then, you know, when people move into a new house, we always bring soap and candles because we want their happiness to, you know, like the flame, like the bubbles expand and grow.

Isn't there a broom one or is that for the New Year's? The broom one is New Year's where you don't want to clean the house or do laundry on New Year's Day because you don't want to sweep the good luck away. Wasn't your grandmother really superstitious? Yes. I had a pink eye and she told me the only way to get rid of it is I need to pluck out one eyelash from that eye, go find an intersection, you know, where they meet, right? Go in the middle of that intersection and put that eyelash in between two rocks and then run home and don't look back.

Because if you look at it, then it's not going to work. That's so many steps. She was so convinced it would work that like, okay, so I tried it. When you had pink eye, I think I suggested that. But I ended up getting double pink eye, remember? See, and you should have done it because you didn't do it. Nathan has a couple. Nathan's my 16-year-old brother.

He won't wash his socks, right? At one point, he didn't wash his baseball pants. But I think in sports in general, they have a lot of superstition, you know? Yeah. Welcome back to the family reunion. And look out, because we're about to take that one weird family photo that everyone will frame and display

for the next 20 years. But first... Oh, do you hear that? That must be my brother Nathan on the piano. And legally, I have to do every big sister's job and embarrass him for the rest of his life on the piano. And legally, I have to do every big sister's job and embarrass him for the rest of his life on public radio. Sorry, Nathan. And sorry about that one time I talked about your crush on our podcast and then asked a producer Jennifer to ask you if it was

okay for us to publish it because I was too scared. You know what? Let's just listen and embarrass you all over again. Nathan, so you're Emma's brother. We've heard about you before. Yeah. And tell me where you are right now. I'm in like a, I think it's a Spanish room somewhere in my school. Okay. And you're in high school? Yeah, I'm in high school.

Oh my gosh. Well, we got the whole Choi family in on this. Thank you so much for talking to me. I have learned recently that you are an incredible jazz pianist. Oh, no, I'm an okay jazz pianist. Okay. So Nathan, I want to talk to you about something that happened with the jazz piano. And I'm talking to you to protect Emma in case you get mad. And you can tell me or you can decide not to tell me. Did you write a girl a song on TikTok on the piano? Okay. Yeah.

I saw this TikTok a while ago where a guy assigned a different key, a different letter, an alphabet. And I just spelled out her name on the keyboard and then made a song out of that melody that's so beautiful so every key had a had a letter so i started on middle c and that was a and going up chromatically each step it was like a b c d e f g all the way to z and then like afterwards i just kind of like made harmonies and stuff oh my gosh is that is that a tiktok thing like a like love letters on tiktok or is that something i haven't seen it in a while i saw it once before but i haven't seen it yeah come up since then nathan are you mad that emma told us and are you mad that i'm talking

about it i didn't expect that was the direction you'd be taking it but sure yeah i'm not mad i'm not mad at you okay well i have another secret to tell you that she shared the video with me. And the song is incredible. It's beautiful, Nathan. Wait, which? I made a couple for like one for my dog, too. Which one was her name? I don't think it wasn't for your dog. The name was Ruby.

Oh, that was my dog. That's for your dog? Yeah, yeah, that's the second one I did. I misunderstood. I thought it was for the girl. Ruby's my dog. That's for your dog? Yeah, yeah, that's the second one I did. I misunderstood. I thought it was for the girl. Ruby's my dog, yeah. Okay, well, you can write a love letter to your dog, too. Yeah, yeah.

Have you seen the video? Like, the actual one? No, can I see it right now? Yeah, sure. Do you have TikTok? Uh, no. Or I can probably try to, I can get it for you. Did you text it to me?

It just delivered. Okay, okay, I can get it for you. Did you text it to me? It just delivered. Okay. Okay. I'm watching it right now. Hold on. Nathan, this is beautiful. Oh my God. Can I ask, how did it go?

No. No, she liked it. She liked it. She liked the song. Okay. But she's like, nah, later on it did not work out. You know what, Nathan? She liked the song, and I did too.

I think that's a win. Yeah, that's the victory in itself. That's the victory for sure. Oh, sweet, sweet Nathan. I love his music, but when I was home during the pandemic, he played the Wii theme song for an hour straight every day, and I almost smashed his piano with my bare hands. Ooh, what's that smell?

Oh, it's my dad at the grill. My dad is so good at so many things. Being a doctor, smoking brisket, planning our vacations with color-coded spreadsheets. But like dads everywhere, he is terrible at remembering my friends' names. Don't believe me? I have proof. And this is exciting. No one has ever heard this game before. Not even you, Appa. Do you want to introduce yourself to our audience? Hello, everyone. My name is Elmer Choi. I'm Emma's dad. And I'm very happy to be on the show with you today.

Okay, Appa. You're here because I want to try an internet challenge that people are doing with their dads, okay? It's easy. I'm going to show you some pictures of my friends who you should definitely know, and you're going to tell me their names, okay? Oh, good lord. Okay, sound good? Okay, sounds good. Okay, just relax. I might need to get some coffee.

Okay, ready? We're starting off really easy. Okay. Who is this person, and you should really know this person. Uh, Katie. Yes, this is Katie. She's my best friend, and you've known her for many, many years. Many, many years. And you've met her many times. Okay, good. Okay, next person. You should really know this person. I say this for every person. Who is this?

No idea. I'm going to give you a hint. I'm going to say that they're my friend. Nope, there's nothing there. This is my roommate, Appa. This is Olivia. Olivia, okay, yeah. You've met Olivia. Well, she is wearing sunglasses.

They're very small sunglasses. They are small. You know what? It's okay. All right, who are we looking at here? Oh, I know him. Yes. Jack.

Yes. Jack. You know him because I've known him since middle school. Great kid. Who's this? Oh, that's David, of course. You want to stick by that? Pardon me?

Okay, this is Pete Davidson. I've never met him, but statistically, I will probably date him one day. He dates many women, many out of his league. Okay. But that's a different conversation. Okay, who's this? That is me. That's you, Papa.

You're my beloved father. Oh my gosh, I was carrying you in my backpack. I know, that's us together. Oh lord. Yay. That's it, Papa. Oh, okay. I was carrying you in my backpack. I know, that's us together. Oh lord. Yay. That's it, Papa. Oh, okay.

I think I did pretty well. You did really well. You did an okay job. Oh, well, thank you very much for that opportunity. Okay, go downstairs. Love you. I think he did pretty okay. Although right after we stopped recording, he did call me by my sister's name.

So half credit. Well, let's go mingle, guys. I think it's almost on Cecilia's turn at risk, and you do not want to miss that. All right, this week for my favorite part of the podcast, I have my favorite person, my sister Maddie. Say hi. Hello. Okay, go ahead. This show is brought to you by Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. This episode was produced by Haley Fager, Zola Ray, and Nancy Seichow. With help from Oja Lopez, Blythe Robertson, Lillian King, Sylvia Hernandez-Semignoni-Des, and the Young Family for always hiring us to babysit. Thanks, guys. Our supervising producer is Jennifer Mills, and our adoptive step-uncle is Mike Danforth.

Yes. Once again, Lorna White, thank you for helping us with our sound. Thanks to our Uncle Dennis for always keeping our reunions fresh. Yeah. And thank you to our mom, Julie, for letting us steal your clothes. You have cute clothes. Thanks, Julie. Thanks to our brother, Nathan, for letting us dress you up as a princess that one time.

And to our dad, Dr. Elmer Choi, MD, PhD, MBA. Thanks for fixing our computers and our shelves and our cars and our scooters and our furniture and our AC units and I don't know, what else? Stretching out our jeans after we wash them. And stretching out our jeans after we wash them out of the dryer. You're the best. I'm Maddie Choi.

And I'm Emma Choi. And you can find us at WaitWaitNPR and standing in matching dresses at the end of a dark hallway staring at you with black eyes all the way into your soul. Okay, we're done. This is NPR.