Every day, dozens of Taiwanese variety shows air in countries around the world – in every place where there are speakers of Mandarin Chinese. Local entertainers dress up in wacky outfits, act out charades, talk about embarrassing moments, sing karaoke, and compete in silly games that are enough to keep any bored couch potato interested. The best part of these programs, is the sound effects, which are played live during the taping of the show.

I’m Andrew Ryan and in today’s Ear to the Ground, we head to a local television studio to find out who is behind those amazing sounds.