One Letter Away From Fame

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's say hello to our next contestants Ken Rossen and Cara Dolan.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Ken, you have a very odd tendency which - you have a compulsion to need to figure out what celebrity people look like.

KEN ROSSEN: I don't know if - it's an annoying tendency and it's one these things that comes to me.

EISENBERG: OK.

ROSSEN: And it's a challenge to keep my mouth shut.

EISENBERG: All right. Jonathan Coulton.

ROSSEN: Oh, the Cowardly Lion.

(APPLAUSE)

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: I guess that counts as a celebrity, yeah.

EISENBERG: Cara, do people tell you anyone specific?

CARA DOLAN: Well I - it changed through the ages. When I was a - when I was younger, I was Pippi Longstocking.

EISENBERG: Oh, because you have long braids.

ROSSEN: Oh, I don't see that though. No.

(LAUGHTER)

DOLAN: But in high school I graduated to Janis Joplin.

EISENBERG: Janis Joplin is awesome. That's a good one.

ROSSEN: Janis Joplin would be good. You need the glasses, yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: This round is called One Letter Away From Fame. Every celebrity knows that one little thing can change her or his career drastically. Like a little forgotten sex tape - it's all different. No, it turns out if you take even a single letter away from a celebrity's name they become something completely different. So lets go to our puzzle guru, Art Chung, for an example.

ART CHUNG, BYLINE: So, Ophira, If I said the star of "World War Z" lost a letter in his first name, he'd become a piece of lingerie because his name would be Bra Pitt.

EISENBERG: Mmhm. Yep.

COULTON: All right. Here we go.

EISENBERG: If this "Shawshank Redemption" actor lost a letter in his first name, he'd turn into a musical instrument.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Ken.

ROSSEN: Organ Freeman.

EISENBERG: Yes.

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COULTON: If this "Iron Lady" actress lost a letter in her last name, she would become a bacterium that causes a scratchy throat. Scratchy throat.

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COULTON: Ken.

ROSSEN: Meryl Strep.

COULTON: That's right.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: Her full name is actually Meryl Streptococcus B.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: If the creator of "Gray's Anatomy" and "Scandal" lost a letter in her first name, she'd become a Japanese carmaker.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Ken.

ROSSEN: Honda Rhimes.

COULTON: That's right.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Shonda Rimes.

COULTON: Shonda Rimes, that's right.

EISENBERG: If the star of "Gravity" and "Up in the Air" lost a letter in his last name, he'd just sound crazy.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Cara.

DOLAN: George Looney.

EISENBERG: George Looney.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: If the Prince of Bel Air lost a letter in his last name, he'd sound like someone who's gone over to the dark side of the force.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Cara

DOLAN: Will Sith.

COULTON: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

DOLAN: Oh, I've got my geek.

ROSSEN: I've got to get my geek on.

EISENBERG: That's funny.

ROSSEN: You don't sound very convincing when you say that.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Art Chung, what is going on? What happened in that game?

CHUNG: Wow. I don't know. The guy who looks a lot like Gene Hackman won. So congratulations.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Coming up, we'll put fantasy author Neil Gaiman in the puzzle hotseat for a game he would've aced when he was nine years old. So stay tuned. This is ASK ME ANOTHER from NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.