Clash update: Video promo!

All right, start getting used to it: For the next several weeks, this blog is going to be heavy heavy on info about the NYC Clash of the Trivia Champions (September 27, Highline Ballroom, blah blah). Starting with this video promo. Good stuff from EDP; spread it around:

Recap: Smart, and smart-ass

Hello, friends. August is almost gone, dontcha know, but this 8 billion degree weather wouldn't make you think so. Thank you for spending one of the final evening's of summer with the Big Quiz Thing, last night at (Le) Poisson Rouge. It's important to savor the good times.

Now then: You all once again proved your intelligence, with a whopping four teams posting a perfect score on both the video round (Pop Music Thesaurus) and the audio round (the Apatovian Canon). You also proved your humor, since while we didn't have an inordinate number of Smart-Ass points last night (Brett "Farv" being a loser and a crybaby was good, and IDing Sir Mix-a-Lot as "Sir Lancelot" was perhaps the best), we had a lot of clever banter among the audience and those of us on the stage. And that's certainly what I come to the Big Quiz Thing for. (And hey, guess what? Turns out I was right—manila paper is brown! Or, uh, "brownish.")

I mentioned last night that the Pop Music Thesaurus is probably my favorite of the BQT signature games, and last night enforced that belief, especially since you people seemed to enjoy it so much. (Especially "Should feminine difficulties plague you, I bear sympathy, male progeny. I am plagued by the maximum two-digit number of difficulties, yet the she-canine fails to be among them.") Not only are they fun to make, they're pretty easy, too, at least for me. I should start working on that book.

Finale time: Fat Kids, somewhat improbably, did it again, three wins in a row, this time triumphing over Jefferson Davis Starship and, represented by Elsie the Token Female, Gerard Depardouche. Fat Kid Dave won on "Tom Bosley -- best known for playing Mr. C on Happy Days -- won a Tony in 1960 for portraying what politician?" And that's what tri-peating looks like:
The standings:

1. Fat Kids Draw Apple Pie Charts: Third straight win, first time that's happened since we instituted the Three-Way Finale. Perhaps it was the voodoo fetish doll they brought with them.
2. Gerard Depardouche
3. Jefferson Davis Starship
4. Incontinental Congress/Strippers for Stephen Hawking (tie)
6. Fantastic Fournicators
7. Oh Noah You Didn't
8. Rosemary's Baby Got Back
9. Sugah Titz
10. Squirrels on Film

Next: Back at Crash Mansion September 13. Then…

The New York City Clash of the Trivia Champions is coming!
The New York City Clash of the Trivia Champions is coming! Register today, and please, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell people you're indifferent to.

Trivia casino, Saturday night

Sorry, I've been slow with the blogging and all. More to come very soon, including—yes—the Not-So-Secret Secret Clue tomorrow.

But a quick note, since I just booked this: This Saturday night, September 4, I'll be appearing solo at a Sunset Park warehouse party organized by mega-excellent underground promoters Winkel & Balktick. It's called Stranded, and it apparently has a Chinese Imperial theme, but that will be almost completely irrelevant to what I'll be doing: I'm part of a group setting up a full Monopoly-money casino, and I'll be specifically manning a trivia table. Yes, you read that right: a trivia table at a casino. The wave of the future, my friends.

Details here. Tix are $15 ($20 at the door), but these parties are unquestionably worth it, with cheap/free food and drink, and completely unique NYC experience.

Tonight's NOT-SO-SECRET SECRET CLUE

Ready? Okay, here…all right, someone in Queens isn't ready yet. [Pause] All set? Good. Here's tonight's Not-So-Secret Secret Clue…

She thought his face was too thin.

A-HA! Good luck with that. Tonight, 7:30pm, back at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Try the grilled cheese.

Introducing…the Google-Proof Question of the Day!

The more dedicated fans of the Big Quiz Thing have long been following me, Quizmaster Noah, on that miracle of 21st-century technology, Twitter. Like most personalities (read: egomaniacs) on the Web, I use my Twitter stream to recount my day-to-day, sometimes moment-to-moment, thoughts on the world around me, albeit keeping it within the realm of general, trivia-related interest.

But previously, I'd tweet old trivia questions. It was fun, and it got a response, but it ultimately seemed pointless, since there was nothing to win. No more.

Introducing the Google-Proof Question of the Day! Every day, or thereabouts, I will post one of the BQT's trademark above-average trivia questions, cunningly crafted so that it'll take a little bit of Internet digging to come up with the answer (like, you'll have to go beyond the first page of search results). The first person to respond correctly wins one of these:
Yes! One million BQT Bucks! Introduced at July's Summer Fun Spectacular, the BQT Bucks are given out for various and sundry accomplishments in the BQT-iverse, and this qualifies. Each bill is 1 million bucks, 10 million wins you free admission to a BQT event. And yes, I deal in paper money, though I'll keep track electronically too, since I'm modern like that.

Got it? Be the first to answer correctly on Twitter, you're one tenth of the way to a free pass to a brand-new edition of the world's greatest live trivia game show. Let's go!

UPDATE: Yes, yes, I changed the name, from the Somewhat-Ungoogleable Question to the Google-Proof Question. Twitter character limits and all that.

Recap: Mysteries being solved

First of all, I think I'm getting closer to cracking the case on TMZ's post today featuring Steven Slater's head on my body. That photo of me is available via iStockphoto. I'm getting in touch with the photographer to learn what's what, but it's probably his call.

Now then, tonight's Big Quiz Thing: our long-awaited return, the first (public, NYC) BQT since July 7. Obviously, there was much news between now and then, so plenty to recap from a trivia angle: the disgusting fate that befell Kings of Leon at a concert, the operation that made Dick Cheney even creepier, the horrible pun of Sting's new album title. I didn't have room for Wyclef running for president of Haiti.

The video round, "Who the Hell Were Those People?," was fun, and I don't blame you for confusing Deng Xiaoping with Jiang Zemin. Though really, you shouldn't confuse Ken Starr for Penn Jillette. Just saying. And to the person who thought the audio-round "Time's Up!!!" gimmick was unfair, it wasn't, and besides, my trivia philosophy has always been that it's better to be creative than to be unfair. (Not really, don't get upset.)

Speaking of which, that round featured a clip from the song "Closing Time," by Semisonic (Three Doors Down? Jeez…), and I promised to tell a story about how I was responsible for its success. (Not really, but more than you'd think.) It was 1998, I was working as a peon at Rolling Stone magazine, desperately trying to get the rockist powers-that-be to let me write record reviews. I had become a Semisonic fan back in college in Minnesota, the band's home turf (they played an awesome outdoor show in our arboretum), and I got the sense that the band's record label would get behind this new album, Feeling Strangely Fine. It took some arm-twisting, but I was able to convince my bosses to run my piddling positive review in the magazine (this was pre—they ran reviews online), and it was shoved to the back of the magazine, sans illustration. But it ran, and a few months later, there was "Closing Time" coming out of every radio in the civilized world, back when that meant something. The record went platinum, and I was gone and forgotten by Rolling Stone within a year. The music biz, ladies and gents.

Back to the BQT: The Three-Way Finale pitted returning champs Fat Kids vs. Gerard Depardouche vs. Incontinental Congress (under the guise of Genghis In-Khan-tinental). No one knew about the iconic shampoo ads starring Cybill Shepherd, Cheryl Tiegs, Kim Basinger, and Brooke Shields, but the Fat Kids successfully defended their title, winning on "In 1995, what city of many millions of people officially changed its name?" Well done.
The standings:
1. Fat Kids Are Mostly Water Weight
2. Gerard Depardouche
3. Genghis In-Khan-tinental
4. Strippers for Stephen Hawking
5. Fantastic Fournicators/Hulk Hogan's Cunning Stunts

We're back at (Le) Poisson Rouge in two weeks, August 30. And register now for the NYC Clash of the Trivia Champions! $1,000, a trophy, and fucking glory, people!

I am Steven Slater's body double

Seriously.

TMZ, that paragon of soul-enriching journalism, has reported on the extremely unsurprising news that JetBlue employee/temper tantrumer Steven Slater has been offered a reality-show TV deal. And to illustrate said piece, they have done this:

Yes, sir. That is my jacket, my shirt, my fake microphone, my body!!!

The original photo here, taken by the great Clint Hild.
Jacket, of course, designed by BQT door girl Sherry.

What I really want to know is, how did they stumble upon that picture of me? Was the photo-composite artist already familiar with me and thought I'd be a good go-to body double? Or did they google a specific phrase and there I was? Interesting, since Slater is not in line to host a game show. Really, my body is pretty irrelevant in the context.

And for the record, I have no interest in watching such a show. Nor will I ever sell that fabulous jacket to the show's costume department. So there.

UPDATE: The world is on my side on this. Or at least The Awl is.