November 29, 2008

Super Mega Ultra Hard Trivia Question of the Week

Yes! Holidays don't stop me! (This is why buying a laptop was a good investment.)

November 26, 2008

More AMC quizzes! Yay!


Yes, two more. Couples who met on set and some of the worst movies of all time (i.e., turkeys; the Thanksgiving tie-in). The relevance of the photo is that it's from the country of Turkey, and some guy on the Internet has called it the worst movie poster ever.

While we're on the subject, here's the worst-movies-ever video round from last year:



FYI, I've been writing these AMC quizzes way long and letting the editor pick whichever five questions he likes best, so I find myself with a lot of extraneous trivia (is there any other kind?). Yes, there is the possibility that some of these themes will be incorporated into BQT live events. Forewarned is fore-somethinged…

November 25, 2008

Breakin' up


Last night's BQT's ended with a touch of controversy. I'll get to that in a moment, with some relevant news. First…

This was an all-around satisfying quiz, in my humble opinion. Thank you for indulging my autocratic impulse to censor books for our video round. I was surprised to see that no one in this crowd knew who wrote The Day of the Triffids, but to be fair, I would've had no idea who it was if it weren't written on the magic clipboard right in front of me. (I've never read most of the classics; currently, I'm busy with this story about Jesus running for President and this overlong autobiography by the greatest pro wrestler of the '90s. Make of that what you will.)

Also, I just discovered that in the Lightning Round, question No. 3 was problematic: Q: What fictional product featured in the movie Office Space was later manufactured in real life? Turns out, the most popular wrong answer was technically correct.

Slow night for Smart-Ass Points, but I don't care what anyone says, I like "Diaphragm" as the answer to Q: Fill in the blank in the title of this 1965 beach party movie: How to Stuff a Wild BLANK.

Now, the standings:
1. Fantastic Fournicators
2. Birds of Ill Omen
3. Incontinental Congress
4. Butter Balls
5. Strippers for Stephen Hawking

Yes, Fantastic Fournicators won again. And while the core members of this team are certainly trivia masters not to be trifled with (and quite generous, having given me a very thoughtful birthday present several years ago), some of their perpetual success must be attributed to the consistently high number of people on their team (I believe 97% of the crowd last night was on this one squad).

So I trotted out my long-considered plan to limit the BQT team sizes. Lots of loud, circular debate followed, but here's the deal… Next show: Maximum team size 8. Break yourselves up however you see fit.

And this is a trial measure; we'll see what happens and take it from there. And really, unless you're one of those teams that obnoxiously insists on continually paying me money, participating enthusiastically, and succeeding at the task I lay out for people, it probably won't be enforced very stringently.

December 8, folks, it will all happen…

November 24, 2008

I'm growing like weeds!


Something new to get ridiculously excited about…

I've begun writing multiple-choice movie quizzes for AMC's website. They are not BQT-branded (yet at least), but yes, I am being paid. And as a contracted employee of AMC, I believe I'm guaranteed at least three martini lunches with the cast of Mad Men.

The first one is a twist on an old BQT favorite, the "Retranslated" gimmick: I've used a free Internet translation program to convert movie quotes into a foreign language, then back into English. Thrill with delight here.

More of these to come. Look here for updates, of course.

(The photo above has no relevance, other than the fact that it's from a movie—an American movie classic, in fact—and it rocks.)

November 22, 2008

Super Mega Ultra Hard Trivia Question of the Week: 11/22/08

I'm starting to think that the best thing about these posts is the weirdo frozen look on my face below.

Anyway, some musical trivia for y'all, my somewhat specialty…

November 16, 2008

Super Mega Ultra Hard Trivia Question of the Week: 11/16/08

Once more into the breech, my good people. Bonne chance

November 12, 2008

Trivia geeks are legion


Greetings. Sorry for the delayed show-recap blog post, but life does what it does. You know what else it does? It brings a positively tremendous crowd to Crash Mansion for last Monday's Hitchcockesque BQT. (Apparently, the shitty economy does nothing to dampen the prospect of a $7 night out.) Thanks for making it one of the biggest shows ever and, if I may say, one of the best. (This despite the absence of EDP, who will be back next time. The hilarious Claudia Cogan was a more-than-worthy substitute.)

Here's what you missed, only three trivia geeks in the city who weren't there…

—Yes, Alfred Hitchcock was the semitheme (since we were giving away tix to the very good Broadway production of The 39 Steps). A little behind-the-scenes science: DJ GB and I spent a couple hours fretting on Saturday that the Hitchcock-movie audio round would be just impossible, thinking all sorts of clues and fillips we could throw in to put it within the abilities of the mere mortal. But we forgot: You, my fans, are not mere mortals! Besides, some of the added crowd might have been Hitch nuts who arrived expressly for these questions (judging by new team names Hitch Cock and Balls, My Hitchcock Is Bigger than Yours, and the 39 Schleps). To the few who did have trouble…well, sorry, those attacking birds really did sound like cats being electrocuted.

Yay! Based on this, I asked two pretty fun political questions: Q: Name either one of the two states that went blue for the first time since 1964? And Q: As of January, seven-year-old Sasha Obama will be the youngest resident of the White House since whom?

—It was not a good night for Smart-Ass Points, but we did eventually grant one (more a pity point) to 23rd-place finishers My Hitchcock Is Bigger than Yours for adorning their answer sheet with a very amusing pencil drawing of Hitch's silhouette with a massive erection. Gotta love maturity. I did like "a 2002 calendar" as the answer to "Q: What did 300 million people begin using on January 1, 2002?," but at least four different teams came up with it. Uniqueness is key.

The Album Cover Mash-Up was hard, but awesome. Three teams got 19 out of 20; they were the top three finishers at the end of the night, of course.

–I asked this question: Q: On a standard bingo board, what’s the greatest number of spaces one can get without having bingo (not including the free space)? I said 15. That is wrong. Let us not speak of this again. And while I didn't know which finger Rahm Emanuel is missing, Jean-Marie of Solid, Solid as Barack (a.k.a. the team that never uses the same name twice) helpfully informed me, along with many other tidbits about the love of her life.

Before I get to the standings, let me just inform you that last night I met a woman who got very excited when I told her I am a quizmaster. She insisted I give her some questions, which happens to me pretty frequently, but unfortunately, I'm usually not well prepared when people put me on the spot like this. Luckily, though, in this case I had my magic trivia clipboard on me, so I was able to regale her with a couple dozen queries, and this lady aced them. (Well, mostly. She didn't know Q: What punk band took its name from a fake last name Paul McCartney used to use when he checked into hotels?) She lives in my old home of Montreal, so she won't be coming to the BQT any time soon, but be warned: None of you are safe.

The standings…

1. Fantastic Fournicators (Returning to victory. Good: It's apropos that they, of anyone, scored in the night when the winners got more than ever: $200 and the 39 Steps tix. Bad: They've actually started writing on each of their answer sheets: "The winningest team in Big Quiz Thing history."
2. Strippers for Stephen Hawking (returning champs)/Birds of Ill Omen
4. Gerard Depardouche
5. Hitchcock and Balls

We're back in two weeks, in full force. In the meantime, you need entertainment for your holiday party. HIRE US! (10% discount for you folks). E-mail booking@bigquizthing.com.

November 8, 2008

Super Mega Ultra Hard Trivia Question of the Week: 11/8/08

Something new here: The Big Quiz Thing's Super Mega Ultra Hard Trivia Question of the Week. E-mail the correct answer for FREE admission, cheapskate…



Great look on my face, by the way…

November 3, 2008

Quizzing it, Shaolin-style


Definitely my favorite picture of, oh, the last few decades.

This is appearing in the forthcoming (out tomorrow) issues of Time Out New York, along with a little Staten Island–themed quiz I wrote. Click here to see my synergy in action.

(I've recently realized how my success (as it were) as a quizmaster is almost entirely dependent on the invention of Photoshop…)

November 1, 2008

Stepping it up—39 times, in fact

As mentioned at the last show, this next edition of the Big Quiz Thing—November 10, of course—is going to be an impressive instance of multimedia synergy (I like buzzwords): We've partnered with the folks behind the Broadway comedy The 39 Steps, and the winning team will get themselves tickets to the show (yes, in addition to the $200 grand prize). Sweet.

As such, we're rebranding the show ever so slightly. As you experts are no doubt aware, The 39 Steps is based on the Alfred Hitchcock film from 1935 (which itself was based on the 1915 novel by John Buchan, who—trivially—was later Governor General of Canada), which just might be my favorite of Hitch's oeuvre. (If you're immediately curious, some idiot has posted the whole thing in sections onto YouTube) Check out that cool transition from the landlady's scream to the train whistle.

So as part of the synergy, we're Hitchcocking it up on 11/10. The audio round, "Hitchcock in da House," will test your knowledge of dialogue from variou Sir Alfred's works, and I'm throwing in a couple other apropos questions here and there. There's also plenty of trivia on completely unrelated subjects (our video round is the new "Album Cover Mash-Up"), and nearly everything is figure-out-able. Hey, I sympathize; despite being a Media Studies concentrator, even I couldn't get into that "Films of Alfred Hitchcock" seminar senior year.

I'll be seeing the show tomorrow, a little matinee ('cause, you know, I don't care about helping Obama win), so I'll have my minireview later. But for now, a little bit o' video…



And you can get it for free! Good lord, do I provide value…

UPDATE: Saw 39 Steps today. Much, much fun, and I'd be saying that even if I weren't engaged in a promotional arrangement with them. It's a four-person cast, yet the show features approx. 6,876 characters, and those folks work themselves crazy. Very clever, very innovative, very impressive. And very free, if you win next show.