PROLOGUE.

Ira and the movie Fast, Cheap and Out of Control. Advertised as wacky, it is anything but.

Act One. Negative.

David Sedaris tells true stories of photographers who try to take pictures of him which will make him seem more "wacky" than in fact he is, interlaced with a fictional depiction of what one of these photographers is like.

Act Two. The Good, The Bad, and The Wacky.

Ira talks with Josh Glenn, editor of Hermenaut, who explains the difference between Good Wacky and Bad Wacky.

Act Three. The Politics of Wacky.

Ira with Michael Lewis, author of Campaign Fever and Liar's Poker, who says that in the '96 Presidential Election all the candidates with new ideas, all the candidates capable of talking the way real people act in their real lives, were shunned by the media as "wacky."

Act Eleven. Self-Made Wacky.

Ira talks with Maria, who took out a personals ad in the Chicago Reader advertising herself as "wacky and warm."

Act Twelve. Evading Wacky and Serious.

Robert Krulwich's stories, on NPR, CBS and ABC, are neither wacky nor pompously serious. He explains though that if you try to occupy the territory between wacky and serious, there are dangers.

Act Thirteen. Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Wacky.

Sarah Vowell with Jim Nayder, host of Magnificent Obsession and

SELECTED CONTRIBUTORS: Robert Krulwich, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell