ONE MINUTE —PLEASE!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 768, 9 April 1954, Page 9

ONE MINUTE —PLEASE!

.~ VERY Saturday night for the past ’ few weeks audiences at the Regal Theatre in-Karori, Wellington, have been laughing their heads off at a new kind of variety show put on by the NZBS and recorded on the spot for broadcast ‘Jater in the week to radio listeners. One Minute, Please! is a comical test of the mental and vocal ingenuity of six selected citizens who have to speak for one minute without stopping on a variety of surprising topics. And with a microphone before you and an audience of your friends and acquaintances listening, one minute of continuous talking can seem a very long time indeed. Questions are prepared by the show’s producer (Jack Dobson) and compére (Ulric Williams) from suggestions sent in by listeners, and they range over every kind of subject from the controversial to the ridiculous. Contestants have been asked to open a meeting of the Pessimists’ Club, to decide whether women are really worse drivers than men, to hold one minute’s conversation with a woman at a party who is wearing a frock identical with the speaker’s, and to decide whether baby-sitters should receive danger money, bachelors should be taxed, or kilts are suitable to the New Zealand climate. Male contestants have been asked to demonstrate a new brand of lipstick, and women have had to explain themselves to an imaginary husband who has just caught them kissing the milkman. For this test of wits the contestants are divided into two teams of three men and three women. Each has to speak twice, in two successive rounds, and the subjects. are not disclosed to the contestants until his or her turn comes along. Each speaker starts with five points in hand, but if anyone gets off the subject a bulb horn held by the compére sounds a warning that one point has been lost. If anyone pauses for a second or two a. bleating klaxon announces the loss of another point. And if anyone tries to raise a laugh by a remark that the compére considers a

little too indiscreet or risque, a clanging fire-bell makes it clear that the Voice of the Censor has deducted a further two points. Scoring is on a team basis, but no prizes are awarded-apart from the satisfaction to the sexes, according to whether the men’s -team or the women’s team comes out the winner. Among contestants who have lready taken part are Reg. Hardy Boys, former president of the R.S.A.; the Fev. Harry Squires, Wellington City Missioner; Catherine Forde, a schoolteacher; Edna

Wiggs, housewile and -------- actress; and Dorothy Moses, housewife. Although the show takes place on the stage on Saturday nights, it is not broadcast until thé following Wednesday, when it is heard from 2YA at 8.30 p.m. The photographs on this page were taken at the performance which was broadcast on March 31. Those taking part then were Don Boyd, a Wellington business man; Charmian Peterson, a teacher at Wellington Girls’ College: Toby Easter-brook-Smith, an Adult Education tutor; Mrs. Joan McInnes, wife of a Canadian diplomat; Max Riske, a teacher at We'lington Technical College; and Mrs. Pat Lowe, a housewife and former teacher of drama. Some of the questions which aroused amusing answers from the contestants were, "Should it be compulsory for a husband to go shopping with his wife? "Is platonic friendship possible and worthwhile?" and "Which is the weaker sex?" |