As part of our 2016 season of events, we invited four of our favourite professional talkers - John Campbell, Carol Hirschfeld, Wallace Chapman and Noelle McCarthy - to share the moments that have left them speechless, for better and for worse.

Their stories were wild, strange, uncensored and beautiful. There were youthful fuck-ups and clumsy cover-ups. There were stubborn silences that stretched years until they became warped beyond recognition, and there were devastating, difficult encounters where words felt feeble and insufficient.

Thanks to everyone who came along to Dead Air - all profit from this event went towards paying our amazing writers - and thanks to our partner RNZ who'll be broadcasting these stories over the summer, albeit with a little censoring.

Recorded live at Q Theatre on 18 October 2016.

John Campbell on earthquakes, gatecrashing and playing dress up

Noelle McCarthy on not talking to her mother

Wallace Chapman on student radio and drug runs

Carol Hirschfeld on shyness and forgetting her own name