BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME, the NPR News quiz.
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KURTIS: I'm Bill Kurtis, and we're playing this week with Paula Poundstone, Roxanne Roberts and Adam Felber. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
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PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. Thank you so much. It's good to be back again.
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SAGAL: Right now, it's time for the WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-Wait-Wait to play our game on the air. Hi, you're on WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME.
DAVID DOERSCH: Hi, this is David from Sarasota.
SAGAL: Hey, David. I know Sarasota. Beautiful place there by the water. What do you do there?
DOERSCH: Well, I train in superheroes.
SAGAL: You train superheroes.
DOERSCH: I'm the casting and stunt-training specialist for a internationally touring stunt show featuring superheroes.
SAGAL: So you are out there, like, finding superheroes and training them to be superheroes.
DOERSCH: I travel all over the country finding the right person to be Spider-Man or Captain America.
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PAULA POUNDSTONE: We had a birthday party for my son when he turned 4 I think it was, and we had a Spider-Man that was so portly.
SAGAL: Yeah.
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SAGAL: It's nice to have you with us, David. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill what is his topic?
KURTIS: Enough moonlighting. How about super-moon lighting.
SAGAL: We all like to make a little money on the side. It's why Hillary Clinton gives speeches or Steve Inskeep dances at Chippendales.
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SAGAL: This week we read a story of someone moonlighting in an unexpected way. Our panelists are going to tell you about it. Pick the real one, you'll win our prize, Carl Kasell voice on your voicemail. Are you ready to play David?
DOERSCH: I am ready.
DOERSCH: All right. Let's hear first from Paula Poundstone.
POUNDSTONE: Russia's Aleksandr Karelin (ph) is known as the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of the 20th century. He is 6 feet 3 inches tall and 282 pounds. He went undefeated in international competition for 13 years. And, six years without even giving up a point. He was - he is also a husband and a loving father of three children. So when his daughter Vasalisa (ph) couldn't find clothes for her skipper doll the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of the 20th century made them by hand. He started with a bright party dress with matching tights and evening wrap. Vasalisa was delighted. She didn't even notice the crooking hem laughs Karelin. No, known for his reverse body lift which no one but him had ever even executed in the heavyweight class, Karelin when found he liked the delicate detail work that doll clothes creation required. Plus, the work went quickly because he was so used to pain he could actually stab himself with a needle two inches deep and not even notice.
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POUNDSTONE: Soon when he was making a killing on the Etsy online craft site and even tailoring outfits for the doll of the daughters of some of his chief rivals. In 1989, Karelin defeated Russian champion, Igor Rostorosky. (Imitating Russian accent) I thought I would hold a grudge for many more years than I have. But Aleksandr made for my daughter Olga's (ph) curvy Barbie a warm snow pant that does not make her look big.
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POUNDSTONE: (Imitating Russian accent) It's hard to dislike a guy who can do that even if he did once rip your chest muscle from your rib cage.
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SAGAL: A famous Russian Greco-Roman wrestler...
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SAGAL: ...Making doll clothes to sell on Etsy. Your next story of someone other than Cybill Shepherd moonlighting comes from Roxanne Roberts.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: So your country is going to hell and your people protesting - what to do? The answer for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is to become a radio DJ. Faced with a collapsing economy and food shortages, he thinks the solution is a four hour, twice weekly show on 1970s salsa, quote "It's time for salsa," he tells his listeners. "Pay attention this is the force of happiness." Maduro, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of 1970s dance music, spins his favorite tunes and likes to show off his dance moves on a video feed. Seems the president, who won a third term in what critics call a rigged election, is trying to recapture the magic of Hugo Chavez who hosted a popular Sunday TV show. But Chavez had charisma power and trillions of oil dollars. Maduro has a 25 percent approval rating, no charisma and no trillions. Quote, "this is the orchestra of the Titanic," wrote one commentator.
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ROBERTS: But Maduro is unfazed quote, "our people surely have the right to have some fun."
SAGAL: President Maduro of Venezuela DJing a couple hours, couple of days a week because it's fun. And your last story of a second job comes from Adam Felber.
ADAM FELBER: If you grab an uber in Cambridgeshire, England these days, you might notice a few things like the turning of the leaves or the Tweetie University populists and their winter wear. And you might just notice that your uber driver is Dr. Stephen Hawking.
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FELBER: It all started as a commercial for Uber's new self-driving car service which is being tested around Cambridge University beginning last month. The ad featured the famously brilliant and famously paralyzed Hawking picking up a fair but during the course of filming the renowned astrophysicist made an important breakthrough discovery. He loved driving an Uber. And so, for the past month the world's most brilliant mind has been devoting itself to selecting radio stations and serving up chit chat while his car self-pilots about the countryside. Dr. Hawking says he loves meeting people, seeing the sights. And he even has a few prepared witticisms to entertain his bewildered passengers. Lines like, look, no hands.
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FELBER: And angular momentum is totally a thing so please buckle up.
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FELBER: And maybe driving is undignified. But I get a big bang out of it.
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FELBER: Hawking does have one complaint though. He says anybody who thinks orbital dynamics are complex has never tried to negotiate a roundabout.
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SAGAL: All right. So one of these people has an unusual sideline. Is it from Paula Poundstone, how Russia's greatest living wrestler likes to make doll clothes to sell on Etsy? From Roxanne Roberts how President Maduro of Venezuela relieves his tension in the nations by spinning a few salsa platters in the middle of the day? Or from Adam Felber how Stephen Hawkings the great physicist himself is driving an uber around Cambridgeshire? Which of these is the real story of a person moonlighting in the news?
DOERSCH: Well I think I'm going to have to go with the wrestler given that I have several wrestlers in my show. I think I'm going to go with that.
SAGAL: Just sort of a loyalty to the wrestling profession?
DOERSCH: That's what it is.
SAGAL: I understand. You're picking Paula's story of the Greco-Roman wrestler who makes doll clothes. Well, let us bring you a journalist who explored this story.
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STEPHEN GIBBS: A lot of what goes on in Venezuelan politics is surreal, and this is a particularly good example of that.
SAGAL: That was the Guardian's Stephen Gibbs. He was talking about the Venezuelan president's new radio show La Hora De La Salsa.
DOERSCH: (Laughter) Oh, no.
FELBER: Salsa.
SAGAL: Which doesn't bring much food or relief to the people of Venezuela. But apparently, he thinks cheers them up. So obviously you have figured out by now that in fact it was Roxanne with the real story. You were, however, duly fooled by Paula's story. And you won a point for her. So even though you didn't win, we thank you so much.
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DOERSCH: Thank you. Bye-bye.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.