Apparently, the key to success is being named Tony, because these various Tonys have all won awards. Try to guess which Tony won a Best Supporting Emmy on Veep.
Heard in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
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Transcript
OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:
You're listening to ASK ME ANOTHER from NPR and WNYC. I'm Ophira Eisenberg. And with me is our house musician, Jonathan Coulton. Let's say hello to our next contestants, Buddy Villani and Alex Strekel.
(APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: Buddy, you know entertainment. Alex, a performer. Give me your 10-second Tony Award-winning performance - can be comedic, a song or dramatic. Buddy, let's go.
BUDDY VILLANI: (Imitating Christopher Walken) I'm just a bill. Yeah, I'm only a bill.
(LAUGHTER)
VILLANI: (Imitating Christopher Walken) And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.
(APPLAUSE)
VILLANI: That's Christopher Walken doing "Schoolhouse Rock."
EISENBERG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, Alex, what do you got?
ALEX STREKEL: I know it's radio, but I just want to set a quick visual. It's from a musical that hasn't been written yet. It's called "Bat Out Of Hell, Back Into Hell." I am playing Meatloaf in this. I am in the castle.
(LAUGHTER)
STREKEL: And I'm just - the words say it all.
(Singing) And I would do anything for love. I'd run right into hell and back, bum bum.
(LAUGHTER)
STREKEL: Something like that.
(APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: I don't know how we're going to get your stagehands to get these set pieces out of here, but...
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: ...That was pretty amazing. All right, this is going to be great. So our VIP Tituss Burgess is a veteran of Broadway theater, where the greatest honor, of course, is to win a Tony Award, which is named after Antoinette Perry - actor, director, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing. So in this game, all of the answers will be people named Tony who have won prestigious awards.
JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: So just ring in when you know the answer. And here is a hint - not all of the Tonys are men; some of them are women.
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: One of them's a lizard.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: Are you ready?
VILLANI: Ready.
STREKEL: Let's do it.
COULTON: This crooner may have left his heart in San Francisco, but not his 18 Grammys.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Buddy.
VILLANI: Tony Bennett.
COULTON: You got it.
(APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: I feel bad that some people are going to just know him as that guy who sang with Lady Gaga. Is that kind of sad?
VILLANI: Very sad.
EISENBERG: And then, like, maybe - what? - forty years in the future we'll just be like - Lady Gaga will be him. We'll be like, oh, it's just that woman who sang with Tick-tock or whatever the recording artist is.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: Tick-tock?
EISENBERG: Future entertainer Tick-tock. He's a robot.
In 2009, this Tony's labors as the United Kingdom's prime minister earned him United States' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
EISENBERG: Alex.
STREKEL: Tony Blair.
EISENBERG: Tony Blair is absolutely correct.
(APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: Presidential Medal of Freedom sounds very cool, right?
STREKEL: Absolutely.
EISENBERG: Until you find out who has also won that, founder of Wendy's.
(LAUGHTER)
STREKEL: Dave Thomas.
EISENBERG: Yeah, Dave Thomas won that award.
COULTON: It's the freedom to get your hamburger however you want it, right?
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: Yeah, exactly.
COULTON: Because this is America, after all.
EISENBERG: The freedom. The freedom.
COULTON: This Toni has a sixth sense when it comes to acting, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing a multi-identitied mom in the "United States Of Tara."
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Buddy.
VILLANI: Toni Collette?
COULTON: Yeah, that's right.
(APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: This skateboarding Tony landed the first-ever 900 to win gold at the 1999 Summer X Games.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
EISENBERG: Buddy.
VILLANI: Tony Hawk.
EISENBERG: Tony Hawk.
(APPLAUSE)
COULTON: In 1997, this sultry singing Toni un-broke her heart to win her fourth Grammy.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Alex.
STREKEL: Toni Braxton.
COULTON: You got it.
(APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: (Singing) Un-cry those tears.
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: Never sing that song to an ex while dressed as a UPS delivery person in their office. I'm just saying.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: You might have to call story on that one.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: This Tony won the best supporting actor Emmy as the supportive personal aide to Vice President Selina Meyer in the HBO series "Veep."
Yeah, what's that guy's name? I could see his face.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Buddy.
VILLANI: Tony Baldwin?
COULTON: No. I'm sorry. It's not Baldwin. Alex, do you want to pick a random last name and say it?
(LAUGHTER)
STREKEL: It's not going to cost me any points, right?
COULTON: Nope.
EISENBERG: He had minus 10.
COULTON: It won't cost you anything. You've got a 1 in maybe 300 billion chance, go ahead.
STREKEL: Oh, it's killing me because I know it, too. Tony - it's not going to - Hale? Tony Hale.
COULTON: Tony Hale. Nice pull. You got it.
(APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: He beat the odds.
COULTON: He beat the odds.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: He just got lucky.
EISENBERG: This is your last question. Beloved by her readers, this Pulitzer Prize-winning Toni is also the first black woman Nobel Prize-winner for literature.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
STREKEL: Toni Morrison.
EISENBERG: Alex, you are correct. Questions like that is how we keep our funders. Puzzle guru Art Chung.
ART CHUNG, BYLINE: And the award for best contestant goes to Alex. Congratulations, you're moving on to the final round.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRAZY")
GNARLES BARKLEY: (Singing) I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind. There was something so pleasant about that place. Even your emotions had an echo in so much space. Does that make me crazy? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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