Recap: BQT goes to grad school

Yes, indeed: Thursday night marked the Big Quiz Thing's Boston-area debut, in Harvard Square's lovely Oberon, and the hit was of the tremendous variety. Hurray for the 130-plus trivia geeks who came out to see why trivia is worth paying a cover charge for; you nerds know your shit. (Though I still can't believe only one squad got this: What happened on TV in the following years: 1966, 1987, 1993, 1995, 2001?)

Since this was our debut in this new market, we whipped out some of the BQT's marquee games—Bipolar Movie Challenge was a delight as always, and Slooow Songs is especially gratifying; seeing the teams gradually come to a realization for each track fills me with a warm sensation. And yes, we did the big Three-Way Finale, though a tie for third-place necessitated a brief runoff. Thanks to everyone for not being fucking crybabies.

As for this specific venue, Oberon's an interesting place; more of a theater than Crash Mansion or (Le) Poisson Rouge, but still ideally suited for the BQT. In DJ role, EDP was way up in the booth on the balcony, on the mike as the voice of God, while I was on stage with our guest B-Cutie, the legendary Katie Vagnino. The stage had a ridiculously massive screen directly behind me. It all looked awesome. Extra props to Oberon's staff, who played the game as "Staff Infection"—yes, pretty much the same name as the staff team at Crash Mansion, though the Oberon people did considerably better (perfect score on the audio round!). And the standings; hopefully we'll see some of these people again:

1. Up in Your Grill: Harvard, reprezent! They won it on two during the finale with Who is the namesake of two state capitals, a country in South America, a Canadian province, and a major American university? and What 1989 hit romantic comedy film—along with its two sequels—starred two confirmed Scientologists?
2. Howard Zinn Kicks Ass!/All Your Junk Hanging Out (tie)
4. Dorkasm
5. Fire Walk with Me
6. Admiral Snackbar/Monstrous Humanoids (who vow, via Twitter, to come down to NYC and win the game on the BQT's home turf) (tie)
8. Ass to Ass
9. Unusual Suspects/Jersey Unshore (tie)

Stay tuned for when we return to MA…

In Cambridge!

New York’s premier team-trivia event heads to Boston, MA, with a big show at Oberon, Thurs, Jan 28, with a $200 cash prize.

Buy tickets here

“It might save us from the hell that is karaoke,” declared MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. He was talking about The Big Quiz Thing, New York’s No. 1 live game show and the ultimate trivia event, packing in 100-plus hipster-nerd acolytes twice a month for geeky-good multimedia competition. After seven years of delighting New Yorkers and private clients nationwide, the BQT now brings its multimedia game-show spectacular to Oberon in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a big $200 grand prize.

Quizmaster Noah Tarnow, joined by sidekick-DJ EDP, plus The B-Cuties, presents the complete, high-tech, video-based test of meaningless information, for the glory of knowing that you possess more useless knowledge than your peers. Highlights include the BQT’s beloved signature games (this edition featuring The Bipolar Movie Challenge and Really, Really, Really Slow Songs), along with the famed Lightning Round, the Three-Way Finale, clever banter, audience smack-talking, and so much more. Plus, fabulous prizes, including $200 in cash, books, DVDs, show tickets, Big Quiz Thing T-shirts and more. And even when players can’t hazard a guess, there’s hope: If a wrong answer makes the crowd laugh, it’s marked correct and earns a Smart-Ass Point. Everyone plays, everyone laughs.

Since 2002, the Big Quiz Thing has established itself as New York's premier source of trivia entertainment. It's entertained in special events and corporate retreats throughout the country, and Quizmaster Noah has hosted stand-up comedy, variety, and burlesque shows all along the East Coast.

Trivial times call for trivial trivia, and in a culture ruled by bite-size information and prepackaged wisdom, nothing is nobler than a live quiz show. Come see the event that NYC’s The Village Voice declared “The Best Place to Get in Touch with Your Inner Nerd.”

The Big Quiz Thing comes to Oberon, 2 Arrow Street in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Thursday, January 28 at 8pm Admission is a mere $10, and there is a $200 cash grand prize. For more info, visit bigquizthing.com, or contact quizmaster Noah Tarnow at noah@bigquizthing.com. Buy tickets here.

Quiz me this…
Q: What product has 20 answers: ten affirmative, five negative, and five noncommittal?

Q: What Hollywood star’s name is the inverse of a casino game?
Q: Though unavailable in stores, what's the third bestselling cookie brand in the U.S.?
Q: Who were the two U.S. vice presidents who shot a man while in office?

More questions at twitter.com/bigquizthing
Video at youtube.com/bigquizthing
Other general goodness at bigquizthing.com

Calendar: Schuyler Colfax and monkeys

Check out the beard. That guy used to be one of the most powerful men in all the land: Schuyler Colfax, 29th Speaker of the House of Representatives and 17th Vice President of the United States. I've been reading up on ol' S. Col in preparation for my lecture, "Hail to the Obscure: Forgotten Vice Presidents of the United States," as part of the monthly, very fun lecture series Nerd Nite. What are the two shocking secrets about our 13th VP, William Rufus DeVane King? I will tell you. It's at the lovely Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo, Brooklyn, February 12 at 9pm. And hey, if you arrive at 7, they're doing some kind of weird preshow event, something called a "quiz game." I have no idea what that can possibly entail, but I might give it a whirl. Buy tickets here.
Then, a week later, I return to 92YTribeca for the next edition of Kevin Geeks Out, the monthly multimedia event hosted by Kevin Maher. I did the Holiday Grab Bag edition in December, and it was stupid fun; this time, the theme is Monkeys, and I'm hoping there'll be at least a couple of screeching howlers in the room. I'll be challenging a few audience members with monkey—and yes, okay, apes too—trivia (I'm thinking about slowing "Shock the Monkey" to half speed). Plus, the café at the venue serves excellent food. Friday, February 19 at 8pm; tickets are going fast, so click here. February's going to be interesting.

More video: Ice in Us (That's "Cuisine" Anagramized)

I was wondering why I hadn't put this on YouTube, so I made it happen. How 'bout that?!?

ID each culinary dish, whose name is anagramized, and accompanied by images of three key ingredients. Tasty!

A (personal) theatrical recommendation

Get excited, because I might get a little personal here…

The other night, I saw a very good play: Smudge by Rachel Axler, currently playing Off Broadway at The Women's Project on West 55th Street (is it me, or is "the Women's Project" an ominous-sounding name? Regardless, the show is very male-audience-member friendly). It's a strange but wholly relatable story about a couple whose newborn baby is more than a little messed up—deformed, but the particulars of it shift and slide, as does the plot itself, resulting in something that occupies a weird territory between realistic and fantastical. It was impressively acted and rather well written—I could see the compositional seams a little more than I would've liked, but it's full of refreshingly original ideas, and the dialogue is simply outstanding.

But the reason I saw this play—showed up at 7:30 and managed to score a $20 rush ticket, which is really the smartest way to do it in this town—was because I'm acquainted with the playwright. Rachel Axler is also a TV writer; she won an Emmy several years ago for The Daily Show and is currently working on Parks and Recreation (which I have yet to see, actually). Ten years ago this summer, we met at a Bryant Park screening of the answer to a question in last Monday's Lighting Round (What 1933 film told the story of the war between Freedonia and Sylvania?). We hit it off and went on a few dates; she's the one who introduced me to the concept of googling, and asked me if I'd ever written a book about scurvy (the answer: no, but that is me). These days we talk a few times a year, and have gotten a drink once or twice.

Despite the brevity of our nascent relationship, I recall that we really hit it off; we had a lot in common. The problem, as I remember it, was that Rachel simply Wasn't That Into Me, on a romantic level; she gave me the "just be friends" line, and I think she meant it (I've heard it enough to be able to tell, trust me). I, on the other hand, was not interested in being friends with someone whose pants I wanted to get into, so that was that.

But now, I find myself feeling regret. I'm not a fame whore, but I am a talent whore, and if I had known how far Rachel Axler would go—The Daily Show is brilliant, Smudge is brilliant, Parks and Recreation might be pretty good—I would've sucked up my wounded-guy pride and perhaps nurtured that friendship. Remember that, fellows.

Smudge plays through February 7; make an effort to go if you're at all a theater person. I thought about trying to swing free tickets to give away at the next quiz, but it won't work schedule-wise. Maybe when it makes it to Broadway.

Video: A Court of Kings

Hey! The fun, only-tangentially—MLK Day—related video round from last Monday's quiz: Here it is: Name the person/group/object that has the word king (or those letters in that order) in its name (or nickname). Experience enjoyment.

Get the door: It's a Domino's blog post.

As you may have noticed at the Big Quiz Thing, I don't shy away from trivia from the culinary field (that anagram-food game we played last summer was kind of awesome; I really should post that to YouTube sometime). Food is central to so many people's lives, so naturally there's tons of ridiculously useless information clinging to it.

Yet personally, I am not exactly a foodie. In fact, I have pretty pedestrian (some would say shitty) taste in food, owning a great deal of metaphorical stock in such companies as Bumble Bee tuna and Nestle Quik. I am a culinary tool. And as such, I love Domino's Pizza. I am what I am, but I really enjoy puffy crust and extremely thick mozzarella cheese. Yeah, yeah, what kind of New Yorker am I, but whatever. Besides, I love real NYC pizza too.

Memories of Domino's…

-- When the company had its big cultural moment in the early '80s, everyone was crazy excited about the "you get it in 30 minutes or it's free" guarantee. This was a bad idea: Inevitably, the occasional pizza took more than a half hour to arrive, and the cost came out of the delivery guy's pocket, so the drivers would speed like maniacs, which was a problem for everyone. The policy was changed; you got only $3 off, and I got in trouble in college for telling a joke about speeding Domino's drivers. Sorry.

-- Speaking of college, I ate a ton of Domino's over those four years. Oh, sure, we had "real" pizza places in my college town (ask any Carleton College alum about the legend of feuding pizza brothers Bill and Basil), but invariably, no matter whom I lived with, it was Domino's we called when I got home from play practice and wanted to put off reading another bullshit essay about reception theory. Others—not me, I was a coward—would steal the Domino's trucks when the driver would leave the motor running and go joyriding down the sledding hill.

-- Once, at the quiz, I asked how many dots are on the domino in the Domino's logo. Almost no one got it.

-- I should stipulate: I love Domino's Pizza. I'm not a fan of Domino's other food, but really, who is? Those baked sandwiches look unholy awful, and I actually tried the bread bowl pasta and felt an urge to sacrifice a goat to our dark lord when I was done.

And now, it's all changed. Have you seen this "Pizza Turnaround" video?



Ask Draper and Olson, but there has to be some textbook advertising rule that states "Never make a commercial that includes a customer saying your food tastes like cardboard." So you have to admire Domino's courage, willing to expose itself fully in an attempt to convince us that it deserves reconsideration from the millions of cardboard eaters. (On Slate.com, Seth Stevenson has an interesting essay about this, worth reading.)

So yes, I was intrigued. And last Monday, immediately after the most recent Big Quiz Thing, I tried the new pizza, a medium with mushrooms and spinach (I also had fun using the company's website to order; you get to build your own pizza, and it's a lot less aggravating than when I tried that in a second-grade after-school program). It was thoroughly delicious; I inhaled four slices in quick succession, polishing off the rest cold in the next two days.

However, I'm not sure it's a whole lot different from the old Domino's formula. The spices around the crust were new, that's for sure, but the rest could have easily been the old recipe; chalk my excessive consumption up to the fact that I'm typically ravenous following a successful BQT (remember, I always thought this shit was delicious).

Here's the problem: Now I have a big, greasy box made of seemingly bulletproof cardboard in the tiny foyer of my apartment, and 64 Domino's coupon flyers crammed into my kitchen drawer. Plus, the hankering to eat this artery-clogging, corporate-sellout pizza every day for the next six months, and next time getting that absolutely malevolent-looking chocolate lava cake too. Life is a challenge.

Recap: See, there are two arms

That's Jim Abbott, former New York Yankees pitcher. Clearly, he has two arms. So last night, when I asked "What was physiologically unusual about Jim Abbott, a pitcher who threw a no-hitter for the Yankees in 1993?," I really shouldn't have given a half point for "He was missing an arm." But hey, I'm a charitable guy. Nonetheless, a visit to Abbott's official website confirms: He was missing a hand. Don't say I never do nothing nice for you.

What did we learn at last night's fabulous Martin Luther King Day edition of the Big Quiz Thing at Crash Mansion? A lot:

— There are a lot of names/titles that have the word king in them, everything from the Sacramento Kings to Peking duck to Rodney King (both too soon and too late), all seen in the "Court of Kings" video round. Smart-Ass Point to the team that couldn't ID John King beyond "The fucking guy on CNN."

— Six Feet Under is not a sitcom. But if Quizmaster Noah writes a four-part question about sitcom finales and puts Six Feet Under in there and then forgets to rename the category, it should count as a sitcom.

— This is a good question: "What’s the common description? Mark Twain’s hometown, an Oscar-winning role from 1991, and a man who was famous for riding an elephant." I know that it's good, because an audience member told me so. And then told me he's a professional crossword-puzzle designer, so you know you can trust him.

— The Not-So-Secret Secret Clue is a hit. Make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get a fresh clue the day of each new Big Quiz Thing.

— What's "the Greatest Love of All" according to Whitney Houston? It's not cocaine, though if you answer that, you get a great, big Smart-Ass Point, which will help compensate for your team coming in last place (thanks, Pictorograham Punks!).

—The BQT's Boston-area debut is next week! Tell your Boston-area friends that they're in for an experience they will never, ever forget, at least for a couple months or so.

— The Three-Way Finale keeps going strong. And the standings are (now with a top ten)…

1. Fat Kids Eat the Profits: Their first victory after four years of contention. Their superstar representative took the crown with "In 1986, what became the first rap album to hit No. 1 in the U.S.?" Definitely figureoutable, so if you like, chalk it up to being quick on the buzzer. Still, a well-earned victory.
2. Gerard Depardouche/Incontinental Congress: They both kept it tense till the final question, which is what we thrive on.
4. Strippers for Stephen Hawking: Only team to completely ace the "Maximum Elvis" audio round.
5. The Fantastic Fourincators/Jefferson Davis Starship
7. Cash Cab for Cutie
8. Big Green Cabbage: Making their long-awaited return.
9. Oh Noah You Didn't/Sugah Titz

Who will win next time? You never can tell with all this Three-Way excitement. Be there on February 1 to find out (and to witness the return of "Movie + Movie + Movie = TV Show").

Tonight's NOT-SO-SECRET SECRET CLUE

Yes! Jebus, do I love this thing. Use this clue tonight, when I say the word…

Satan's vacation spot?

That is all. No, wait—first let's watch the video again.

Prizes: Venus in Fur

So, just 'cause all you quiz fans are spicy like that, we have a delightful last-minute prize at tomorrow's quiz: two tix to Venus in Fur, a play currently running Off Broadway at Classic Stage Company. Get this:

"Inspired by the infamous erotic novel of the same name, Venus in Fur takes us behind the scenes at an audition, where a man and a woman blur the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, love and sex. A crackling exploration of sexual control and desire, the play is captive to David Ives' famous combination of classic rigor and contemporary wit."

Actually, the erotic novel is not of the same name; strictly speaking, the book is Venus in Furs (mind that final s). It was written by Austrian nutcase Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose name gave us the word masochism (but you perverts knew that), and it also inspired this beautifully weird song by the Velvet Underground:



Also, David Ives is an excellent playwright; I directed a production of All in the Timing when I was in college that was one of the true high points of my theatrical career (we got to embed a fake pickax into my roommate's head).

See you tomorrow, pervs.

Audio Round: The Big Ending

Finally, as promised, the audio round from the last quiz, here, to play in the comfort of your home again and again. (Thanks to Lala, which is a fairly awesome service, I'm discovering.)

Name the artist and title behind each song clip—the big, exciting, climactic endings of celebrated pop songs from present and past. Need help? Hit the comments like a good Webgoer.

And hey, don't miss this Monday, back at Crash Mansion, where we celebrate the two Kings—Martin Luther (with the video round, "A Court of Kings"), and EP, honoring his would-be 75th birthday with "Maximum Elvis."

UPDATE: I've discovered that to listen to this, you must be logged in to Lala (of course). Don't panic: It's very easy, it's very free, and your computer can stay logged in forever. Hit up lala.com.

BQT 1-4-10 Audio Round

Jay Reatard, 1980–2010

As you fans are aware, I use the BQT as a forum to briefly (and trivially) remember departed celebrities, routinely throwing in a question or two about a recent deceased person's career. (Even if I'm not a particular fan, though I honored the great Rodney Dangerfield with a four-parter.) But sadly, Jay Reatard—who was found dead yesterday at the age of 29 (drugs, it seems)—is a little too obscure for our quiz purposes. So this is what he gets:

I came to NYC to be a music writer, having been a serious music geek in high school and college, but in recent years I've almost completely lost touch with new music. So it's very rare when a contemporary artist excites me beyond a buzzy single or two. Jay Reatard's 2006 release, Blood Visions—a loose concept album about a stalker—was an exception, and almost certainly my favorite release of the past decade. Reatard (Jimmy Lee Lindsey—it makes more sense when you know that he was once in a band called the Reatards) was a true garage rock dirtball, a high-school dropout loser from Memphis who began recording thousands of songs, and playing in dozens of sleazebag bands, at the age of 15, mainly because he was bored. But Reatard had a real gift, an incredible knack for writing bull's-eye melodies and framing them in potently cutting guitar-rock noise. I found this so rare in the '00s, as I found myself disappointed again and again by the noodly, self-involved obscurists who passed for innovative rock & roll through the decade (sorry, I can dig Animal Collective as artists, but whoever calls that "rock" needs to listen to another Chuck Berry record).

Reatard played live in NYC a lot—his shows were legendarily nuts—and I always put off seeing him, figuring there'd always be a next time; there's a lot on YouTube, but it's hardly the same.

Some music: The unrelentingly brilliant "My Shadow":



Here's a proper video he filmed last year, "It Ain't Gonna Save Me"—if you think the title is depressingly prophetic, just listen to the lyrics of the ending refrain:



You can hear more on his MySpace page; try "Oh, It's Such a Shame." It's also worth reading this article, to discover what a poetically fucked-up, yet totally unexceptional, life this man lived. Sorry, Mr. Reatard.

The best tool shed in Boston

In promoting the Big Quiz Thing's first Boston event (January 28!), I've run into a thorny predicament. The press seems receptive (we have a shot at some love from The Boston Phoenix), but as I try to use the newfangled Facespaces and Twittups to reach out to Beantown trivia hounds, I've been getting a particular brand of push-back, to the effect of, "Why would I pay to play trivia?"

Trivia is a somewhat bigger deal in Boston than here. Actually, scratch that—it's defiantly not a big deal there, it's just a more familiar presence in the hum of city life. There's a company called Stump Trivia that presents quiz events at many bars in the metropolitan Boston area, one of which I attended once, and it kind of sucked. Regardless, more than in NYC, everyone seems to know about "bar trivia," and everyone seems to assume Stump is the basic model: some guy on a microphone reading moderately interesting questions in a boilerplate Irish bar. No video, very little audio, no shiny jacket. And no cover charge.

All well and good. The city, I figured, is primed to experience something on a higher level. But habits are tough to break, especially when you're asking for a little money. Someone on Yelp, in referring to my show, said, "He's charging for trivia? What a tool shed." Which confuses me—is a "tool shed" the same as a "tool" (i.e., one who is used by others)? Aren't I the opposite of a tool if, according to this guy, I'm getting people to pay me for something that is usually given away for free? Or maybe being a tool shed means that my event is the ideal venue for tools, which I guess is more logically consistent with his apparent opinion. (Either way, I later discovered this guy is himself a Stump host. Ha ha.)

I've run into this quandary before. My usual reply is, you get what you pay for. You probably wouldn't hesitate to pay, say, $15 to see a great rock band at a good club, even though some guy is playing guitar at the bar down the street from you for nothing (and the rock band doesn't even give you a chance to win back your cover charge). Standard bar trivia nights can be great fun—one of the best nights of my life involved winning a quiz at an Irish pub, followed by making out with a teammate—but I think we provide a lot more. Besides, we've proved it for years in New York, where we consistently outdraw the various free quiz events.

So here's my task for you, BQT fans: Think of your pals/associates/Facebook friends in the Boston area. No doubt, some of them have the trivia bug, or at least an appreciation for quality live entertainment. Forward them this link, and let them know it's worth every penny. Once we've conquered the globe, you can have a warm feeling knowing it was partially—and vitally—thanks to you.

Kids, as a business entity

Remember this?



Wow, that is just unbelievably cheesy. Pretty much the most '80s thing you can imagine, apart from Tron or a pack of Pac-Man scratch-off cards. I was reminded of Kids Incorporated recently when I was searching Songza for Foreigner songs (seriously), and I was confronted by a Kids Inc. version rather than the magic of Lou Gramm. For the uninformed: Kids Incorporated was essentially a sitcom about a teenage band in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; intermittent musical numbers featured the colorfully wholesome, leg-warmered and MJ-jacketed band rocking out to mostly contemporary hit songs. K! I! D! S!

This show is perhaps best remembered today as the teenage proving ground for several current celebrities of various import. Fergie--Stacy Ferguson, at the time--was in fact the longest-serving cast member. Here, she does an extremely unconvincing impression of both Elvis Presley and a prison inmate:



(And no, this rendition will not be included in the next BQT audio round, "Maximum Elvis.")

Perhaps the second most celebrated KI alum is Jennifer Love Hewitt, who was merely "Love Hewitt" in those days (cool!). Here, she majorly fucks with my psyche by covering the theme song of my age-13 black-wearing depression phase, Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up":



There are a few other honored alumni, People magazine minor-leaguers, not worth discussing here (try Wikipedia if you're curious). These clips are kind of embarrassing, but I find it hard to hate on KI. Those kids are giving a couple thousand percent out there, and the performances have a kind of guileless charm that's easy to admire, if not to tolerate. True, it viciously sands down any and all edges of the source material, but Kids Incorporated was merely one of many, many culprits in that regard in the 1980s. Besides, you cannot tell me that the music is any less insipid than most of American Idol (and it doesn't have the overpowering, rancid stink of desperation).
Also, if I am to be honest, a few of my prepubescent fantasies were about actually being on the show myself. My mom and dad were a couple million miles away from showbiz parents, but as the dork who sang along to American Top 40, I dreamed about doing so on TV, for the supposed admiration of millions of fellow kids. In hindsight, I would've been a better fit for You Can't Do That on Television, since I was a smart-ass who couldn't dance and wasn't cute. But I can thank Kids Incorporated for my current love of karaoke. And yes, that is worth offering thanks for.

Rebus in Peace 2009

And here you go, last Monday's video round, "Rebus in Peace 2009." E-mail info@bigquizthing.com for answers.

And hey, I'm going to try to upload the audio round here soon; stay tuned.

Recap: Viva '10!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the ridiculously large turnout at last night's Big Quiz Thing: 33 teams. The newly redesigned answer pads save paper, so Al Gore owes me one. I credit some of the impressive crowd to the Gray Lady, who gave us a little cyberlove yesterday.

First, venue notes: We were back at (Le) Poisson Rouge last night, of course. Many of you might remember the big 200th Episode show last August, a roaring success; scheduling difficulties delayed our return, but after a second big show there, we're looking to come back more often
(Cash Cab for Cutie has given their blanket vote for returning, for one). News will be here ASAP.

Yes, the Fantastic Fournicators won, their premiere victory in the era of our big Three-Way Finale: FF up against the long-suffering Jefferson Davis Starship and the Fat Kids, and lordy, was it a nail-biter. The final question—"54th Street between Eighth Avenue and Broadway is honorarily named after what ventriloquist who frequently appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show?"—was won on a steal: Not Edgar Bergen, but this guy.

Otherwise, I was wildly impressed with how many teams aced "Rebus in Peace", and yes, "According to the old Chiquita Banana commercial jingle, where should you never put bananas?" prompts some extremely obvious Smart-Ass Point answers ("up the wazoo" was my favorite). Finally, why is "Sarah Jessica Parker" a funnier answer than "Alanis Morissette" when I ask you who won last year's Kentucky Derby? I will never understand you people.

Slightly personal note: I asked, "There’s a sign in the typical MTA subway car that says 'Please,' above three pictures, each in a circle with a line through it. What are the pictures of?" No one got all three correct: cigarette, person littering, boom box. But in the face of so many "wrong" answers (food and drink?), I began doubting that I had the correct answers on my magic clipboard. I questioned the clipboard, my rigorous fact-checking system, and my own memory. But a trip on the 2 train this morning brought me blessed confirmation.


Always trust yourself, friends.

The standings…

1. Fantastic Fourincators — well earned this time
2. Fat Kids Dream Big/Jefferson Davis Starship (tie)
4. Sugah Titz/Cash Cab for Cutie (tie)

NEXT SHOW: MLK Day back at Crash Mansion. We're sticking with the theme, featuring "A Court of Kings" and the audio round: "Maximum Elvis" (he would've been 75 next week, no lie).

PLUS: We head up to the Boston area, January 28. Tell all your friends who copped out and left NYC to go to grad school.

Tonight's NOT-SO-SECRET SECRET CLUE

All right, get excited. Tonight's Not-So-Secret Secret Clue is…

First half French, second half German

Got it? Good. Use it at tonight's quiz when I give the word (and we play the clever new video intro). And don't forget that we're at (Le) Poisson Rouge tonight, 7:30pm. May luck be yours.