“How do you pronounce the name of the upcoming Italian opera?”

“On a scale from Voldemort to Pepe le Pew, how romantic are you?”

If you’ve heard these questions, or questions like them, chances are you’ve been watching the Dave Schaedel Show, BJU’s very own, student-produced take on a late-night TV show.

Chelsea Moss, a senior JMC student and director and TV manager of WBJU, created the show last semester.

“I wanted to do something that students would really relate with,” Moss said. “So I thought; ‘what if we had our own version of a late-night show?’”

The show is based on the format of popular shows with many different segments. But what is a good variety show without a host?

Though they had never met, Moss said she heard about junior communication student Dave Schaedel through friends, and contacted him over the summer.

Schaedel said he accepted Moss’ request because wanted to do more extracurricular projects, and the idea of hosting a late-night-style show sounded fun.

Cameron Smith, a senior journalism and mass communication major, is floor manager and a writer for the show.

Smith said he wanted to get involved with WBJU and originally signed on to work with media relations for the show, but Moss wanted him to be a writer as well.

“I’ve known Chelsea since freshman year, and she thought I would be good in that position,” Smith said.

In addition to Moss, Schaedel and Smith, three other students help with the show. Nathan Pittack, a junior communication major is another writer, Rocco Stuhl, a junior JMC major, controls the audio and is a camera operator, and Melissa Rainer, a senior JMC major, is the technical director and editor for the show.

Schaedel said he’s able to fit his work on the show around his other responsibilities pretty easily.

“We put in anywhere from two to four hours a week,” Schaedel said.

He said shooting on location and in-studio each take  about an hour, meeting with the staff to talk about the next episode will take 30 minutes to an hour, and filming for segments like “Driving Mr. Dave” usually takes an hour as well.

Rainer said it takes 30 to 40 minutes to edit an episode. After it’s edited, Rainer sends the product off to Moss and Mrs. Kathryn Gamet, the WBJU faculty adviser, for approval and uploading.

Although Smith and Pittack are the primary writers, Schaedel usually pitches in with his own humor.

“We write an initial joke [and] give it backbone, and if David wants to flourish that or do a little improv here or there, we let him,” Smith said.

“At the beginning of the show’s run, we used to be very script heavy,” Schaedel said. “But now we just find out what we need to talk about, and I just get up and talk.”

Moss said the names for the segments such as “Dave and Busted,” a man-on-the-street interview designed to stump  people with tough or trick questions, and “Scha-do’s and Scha-don’ts,” a funny list of campus life tips, were inspired by segments of late-night shows.

Schaedel and Smith’s favorite segment is “Driving Mr. Dave” in which Schaedel, Smith and sometimes a guest drive to a restaurant while they discuss the topic of the episode.

“I think that’s the most fun segment to do,” Schaedel said. “Just because we take an hour, and just go and laugh our heads off.”

For Schaedel, the most difficult part of the show is keeping content fresh.

“If we use the four same segments every week, they can get milked pretty dry,” Schaedel said.

Schaedel’s favorite episode so far was the Christmas episode. In the episode, Schaedel went to a nearby dollar store and bought random toys to give out to people.

They recorded their reactions during the “Dave and Busted” segment.

“We were giving out dolls and ninja turtles to college students,” Schaedel said. “It was super fun.”

Both Moss and Smith are graduating seniors while Schaedel is a junior.

He said the show’s continuation depends on staffing for WBJU next year and if they want to continue doing a similar type of  show.

Stephanie Suryana, a junior cell biology student, said she likes Schaedel’s charisma on the show.

“The intro song is cute,” Suryana said. “And the names for the [segments] are clever.”

Episodes of The Dave Schaedel Show can be watched on YouTube and Facebook. The show also appears on TVs around campus every Tuesday.