Sponsor spotlight: The best of Off Broadway

So far, I've told you about a handful of the many prizes on tap for the NYC Clash of the Trivia Champions (nine days away!)—the Gutter, Babeland, UCB Theatre. Lest we forget one of the BQT's standby prizes: theater tickets.

You've heard me talk ad infinitum about The 39 Steps, but (a) it's that good and (b) they keep offering us tickets. So I'll keep taking them and giving them to you. We got a pair in the haul for the Clash. Plus…

— Stomp. Oh, yes, It's been playing at the Orpheum Theater in the East Village for what seems like forever (though I did see the original production of Little Shop of Horrors in that space in the '80s; first musical I really loved), a seemingly impossible feat, considering the energy those performers expend. Nonstop choreographed dance and percussion. If this show doesn't excite you, you have no pulse. Video preview:

— The Gazillion Bubble Show. This I have not seen, so maybe I'll steal these tickets. "The first and only multimillion dollar stage production created by using bubble media," it's billed as. I mean, come on! It's fucking bubbles! How can you resist that? Sure, the website prominently features a quote from Regis Philbin, but otherwise, this is amazing! Here's head bubblemaster, Fan Yang, in action:

That and so much more. But you can't win unless you play. Register, register, register!

Special offer: 39 Steps tickets CHEAP!

Worth repeating again: If you're a BQT regular, you've heard me shill for the The 39 Steps (the stage comedy-thriller adapted from the Hitchcock film, formerly on Broadway, now at one of the best venues Off), both because I thought it was really, really good, but also because its marketing team very generously keeps providing us with prize tix.

I'll have yet more at the next public Big Quiz Thing (a ways away, August 16), but in the meantime, they're extending to the BQT faithful a special offer: tickets as low as $39 (usually $69.50–$89.50), now through September. Plus, the theater has that newfangled air-conditioning all the kids are crazy about.

The breakdown: $39 for all seats on Wednesdays (3pm matinee or 8pm show), through 9/1; $55 for rear mezzanine seats at any show, through 9/5; or $65 for orchestra/front mezzanine at any show, also through 9/5. It so happens I'm listening to Pandora right now, and it just dialed up the Pixies' "Gouge Away," and that pretty much defines the general attitude of theater producers in NYC these days, so this is an excellent offer.

Click here to take your unfair advantage. Or, go to BroadwayOffers and enter
code TNLS510. Or, call 212-947-8844 and mention code TNLS510. Or, or or!…print out this offer and bring it to the New World Stages box office at 340 West 50th Street (between Eighth and Ninth). OR! if you're a big shot, click here for premium tix.

Performances happen at 8pm Monday and Wednesday–Saturday, with 3pm matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Go to 
39stepsny.com for more pertinent info, and more professionally polished praise than I can offer here.

Monday: The 39 Steps is back!

The briefest of notes to let you know about Monday's prize haul: The return of one of my favorite theatrical sponsors, The 39 Steps. The show's moved from Broadway to Off, playing at New World Stages, which has long been one of my favorite venues (that's where The Toxic Avenger played, and I remember when it was a sorely needed discount movie theater). The show is extremely well done, and a stupid amount of fun, and we got passes for this show and the next. A little video here:

Monday night, (Le) Poisson Rouge. Bring your brain.

A rant, part II

Two days ago, I complained about The New Yorker's "famous" cartoons, about how most of them drive me insane with disgust. A rant, if you will. Today, part II: Why am I so pissed off?

(1) They're lazy. One of the primary philosophies of my life is that hard work is itself a good thing: Even if the result is disappointing, I like to give an A for effort. This is one of the reasons I loved The 39 Steps; not only was it a good time, those guys worked their asses off. It's also part of the reason I admire Jimmy Carter; the dude was a flat-out lousy President, but dammit, he really tried, and for that I respect him. (That's not to say I hate anything that doesn't involve hard work; let's trade Jerky Boys quotes sometime.)

But too many New Yorker cartoons foist clichéd, tossed-off concepts accompanied by poorly drawn pictures onto readers and call it art. Not a lot of effort here.And what's most galling is that most of the journalism in The New Yorker is excellent, full of outstanding reporters and writers putting in a herculean degree of effort. I mean, really: Does a napkin scribble and a banal observation about waiting in line really deserve to sit side-by-side with a rigorously reported, 3,000-word essay about the modernization of rural China? The answer is no, and I wish The New Yorker's editors realized that.

(2) They're elitist. As you may be aware, for most of my life, I was big comic-book fan. Mainly mainstream, superheroey stuff—I was a DC fanatic, I wrote my thesis about Batman, although I have an appreciation of the tentpoles of the underground and alternative scenes. And the underdog in me always bristled at how, until recently, comics were basically dismissed by the mainstream. (With age, I've learned just how much of the comics canon is utter shit, but isn't that true of all art forms?)

The New Yorker's cartoons never had that problem. They're routinely hailed as paragons of humor and cartoon artistry. I think it's because for decades, the very medium of comics was debased; so standards were lower, and anything with a shred of an adult viewpoint was regarded as an exceptional example of the form (deserving work has benefited from this as well, of course). And the imprimatur of being in The New Yorker granted these cartoons that dignified shred. But the truth is, most of these cartoons are lousy, and a lot of "juvenile" comics are much better. You want to talk about humor? Try Ambush Bug, or even this:

This ties in with the laziness: New Yorker cartoonists seem to think, "Hey, it's just a cartoon! No one's expecting genius, so a poorly thought-out trifle should get the job done." Wrong: Open your eyes, Mr. Cultural Commentator. There is good comics work, even if it's outnumbered by the crap. Besides, comics is a medium, not a specific genre, marketing strategy or philosophy. Scott McCloud has made this point well: A medium can't in itself be good or bad (though the advent of Twitter has me reconsidering that).

Next post: I lay off the vitriol and show you some examples of New Yorker cartoons that I actually like.

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.