NYC quiz recap: Tuesday, Mar 12

Oh, it seems so long ago…last night, our monthly edition of our flagship NYC show, at our regular hang of The Cutting Room. First of all, props to our fantastic comedian opener, the great Ophira Eisenberg. Yes, I'll be with Ophira onstage again on April 29, taping another episode of NPR's Ask Me Another. Grab tickets and complete your perfect trivia life.

A solid night all around, despite a brief, and easily corrected, scoring snafu. But hey, thank God for the nerds who noticed the problem and brought it to my attention before things spiraled out of control,

Speaking of mistakes—man, I'm really leading with the strong point, aren't I?—we got a message of Facebook today correcting me on a point regarding this question…

"What was the occupation of Paul, a New Yorker who was famously murdered outside an East 46th Street restaurant in 1985?"

As most of you knew, the answer was "mob boss"…or "gangster"…or "crime boss"…or "Mafia boss"…or, and props for this, "Legitimate businessman (wink, wink)." But when I revealed the answer, I also attempted to reveal Paul's clue-giving last name: Gambino, I said. Wrong, the FBer reminded me, it was Castellano. Some genius of NYC trivia I am!


The video puzzle, "So, What's Missing?," was on the tough end, no doubt—no one beat 16 out of 20. But even the bastard-hard No. 10 (an image of Africa with one country eliminated, name the country) garnered a handful of right answers. You people never let me down.

Although, tough crowd when it came to Smart-Ass Points! Lots of withheld laughs, you cutthroat contestants, you. During the video puzzle, when we showed you the SNL original cast, I thought the reference to this…

Saturday Night Live _ Point Counterpoint: Lee... by hulu

…was classic, but alas, insufficient guffaws. At least you New York Jews (and honorary Jews) got what's funny about the idea of Thanksgiving and Yom Kippur overlapping this year. (Not true, thank Allah.)

Now, the finale—we had a three-way tie for third place, which brought in a new team, Chavez Shalom (repped by Jeff, who hadn't been to the BQT since our long-ago Duplex days). But alas, the real finale boiled down to three familiar squads: returning champs Gerard Depardouche, the Fantastic Fournicators, and Cash Cab for Cutie. Some fast-paced questions and answers, resulting in a time game, which was broken when I forced Fornicator Steve to give me way more info than necessary about the common link among Rocky, Swingers, and Good Will Hunting.

The standings:
1. The Fantastic Fournicators
2. Gerard Depardouche
3. Cash Cab for Cutie
4. Chavez Shalom/Incontinental Papabili (tie)
6. Things Are Nice
7. Oh Noah You Didn't
8. TSC: Best new team, took home a couple of free passes!
9. Quizzery Loves Company
10. One and a Half Women

Big ups to our fantastic prize sponsors: Brooklyn Museum (more from them next month), and some of Off Broadway's best shows: Totally Tubular Time Machine, The Accidental Pervert, Newsical the Musical, F#%ing Up Everything, Detroit '67, and Nobody Loves You.

NEXT: We're sticking with the monthly schedule at the Cutting Room, though for April and May, it'll be Mondays, not Tuesdays: April 15, then May 20. More special events are in the pipeline (Big '90s Quiz Thing, perhaps?), and the TV show debuts in July. Excitement non-personified.