L.A. prize sponsor: Two Boots pizza!

This fills me with all kinds of joy: Joining the killer prize lineup at Sunday's spectacular Los Angeles Big Quiz Thing, the L.A. branches of the legendary Two Boots pizzeria.

Two Boots has been a favorite of mine since I first discovered it, literally the week I moved to NYC too many moons ago. For the uninitiated, the name is a clue to the cuisine: The two "boots" of Italy and Louisiana result in pizza and other Italian standards with a Cajun twist. So you get thin-crust pies with goodies like crayfish and andouille sausage; nice, right? (I'm especially a fan of the Mr. Pink pie: chicken, fresh tomatoes and garlic. I lived off that thing during many an East Village night in my stand-up open-mike days.)

Two Boots always reminds me of one of the very first Big Quiz Things, when I asked the following question…

"What do the following fictional characters have in common: Newman from Seinfeld, the Dude from The Big Lebowski, Mrs. Peel from The Avengers, and Tony Clifton?"

The answer, of course, is that they all have pies named for them at Two Boots. I clearly remember that one team protested: The question, they said, was unfair, since if you hadn't visited Two Boots, you wouldn't know the answer. It occurred to me that a similar argument could be made for just about every trivia question ever asked. ("How am I supposed to know who the fourth President of the United States was? I never learned that fact!")

Thus it is a huge honor to have Two Boots sponsoring—and kicking in a $25 gift certificate for—this Sunday's L.A. show. Yummy. Two Boots has two L.A. locations: downtown, at 826 Broadway between 8th and 9th Streets, and in Echo Park, at 1818 West Sunset Boulevard; both deliver. While we're at it, check out the multitude of NYC locations and pick up a kids' Pizza Face in my honor.