Quizmaster Noah: The life and times

Well, how about this: I am the subject of a rather in-depth profile at the fascinating journalism website Narratively. Written by the severely talented Helaina Hovitz and photographed by Courtney Dudley (she was at our humdinger of an Oscars quiz), this article represents a unique experience for me: I get to see my mind and story laid bare as if I were an actual, real, honest-to-God celebrity (it does focus on the incipient BQT TV show, so hey, that's not completely off-base).

I can't say that I'm 100 percent happy with everything here—I hope Zach Braff never reads it, for example—but that's the media for you. And hey, I'm nit-picking: It's fair, and paints a reasonably impressive portrait of who I am and what I've accomplished. (My mom hates it, but I think she may be slightly biased.)

Judge for yourself right here. Now you know.

Photo essay: Shooting the BQT on TV

Deep breath…

This week, we completed shooting of the Big Quiz Thing: The TV Show, and man, was it an adventure. Seven episodes of a New York City–themed game show, effectively (in my opinion) adapting the BQT format for the small screen. It airs starting this summer (exact date TBA) on the NYC Life network (channel 25 of Time Warner Cable or Fios). Of course, we'll be plastering clips all over the Internet, fear not.

Some photos from the shooting are below. All pictures by me, except where noted; you won't get the full experience, partly because I was so busy with everything else, but I think it gives a good taste of how awesome this was…

Rehearsal, which took place at the NYC Media studio in Downtown Brooklyn. The modified logo was great—still recognizable as the BQT, but spiffed up nicely . At right is NYC Media producer Liisa Lunden, along with Bill Hamilton of our house band, Nipsey, which just completely kicked ass, and were super fun guys to boot. Two of the many, many quality people we worked with during this process.

EdP's show intro on the teleprompter in rehearsal. That's when I knew it was for real.

I love that logo, even with an EdP photo-bomb.

At Kaufman Astoria studios, where we borrowed Broadway costuming, a different outfit for each of the seven episodes. (Shirtless EdP alert!) Wardrobe expertise was courtesy Felix Mercado, an outstanding celebrity stylist. (Photo by Diane Petzke, the head producer and the woman who "discovered" the BQT.)

A BQT gobo! It was ultimately projected onto for the floor in the shooting space. Also visible are the old BQT buzzers, repaired and glitzed up for the show's Buzzertastic Finale (I really need to trademark the word Buzzertastic).

 

I quickly learned that there's a lot of waiting around while making TV, something I'm not used to in the live-entertainment world. As long as it works in the end. (Photo by EdP.)

Cue cards for the audience, when they help me shout our familiar slogan "Trivial Times Demand Trivial Trivia." (This is my Facebook cover photo now.) EdP and I remained in the driver's seat creatively throughout this whole process. (Photo by Liisa Lunden.)

  The ad in Time Out New York soliciting contestants. We got a good mix of people, within the trivia-geek demographic, which is what I hoped for. I remained  front and center throughout; the BQT has been my life for more than ten years now, and I'm not ready to let someone else become its primary personality.

 

The door to Element Nightclub, letting contestants and audience know they've found the right place.

 

BQT-branded napkins at the green-room snack table! That's the real dream come true.

Some NYC Media gear, part of the gift bag given to all contestants. Yes, that's Mayor Bloomberg teaming up with Spider-Man.

The nerve center. Visible is Polo Langomas, who effectively custom-made an app so that teams could answer via iPad.

 

The lapel of what may have been my finest suit. That exact Made in NY button was formerly owned by Mayor Bloomberg; I ended up taking it home (alas, not the suits, though).

Crew badges. Dozens of professionals running around to in service of the BQT—a pretty good feeling.

My microphone pack. (Mine!)

Getting miked up. (Photo by Liisa Lunden.)

The stage preshow. The palm trees were part of Element's usual decor, but they worked for us.

 

Shooting a promo. Coming soon to an annoying video screen in the back of a cab you'll be riding home in late at night. (Photo by Liisa Lunden.)

In the dressing room. (Photo by BQT assistant Liv Swenson, who served as ace makeup and hair stylist for this show, since that's her real job.)

I had to sequester myself on the upper level preshow. When you're a star…

 

 A team table, this one featuring a regular BQT team, the Fat Kids. We had a few live-show frequenters taking the TV challenge, though not all could keep their familiar names (e.g., no dice on "the Fantastic Fournicators").

 

Moments before I leaped out onto the stage. It doesn't get more exciting than that.

 The view from my podium onstage. Three teams of three people—I think this was ultimately the most faithful way to adapt the traditional team-trivia format to TV.

Nipsey in action. The drummer, Frankie Dave Maggio, and I managed to annoy everyone else with a long, rock-nerdy chat about the Who.

EdP at his perch next to the scoreboard. We worked out a pretty good on-air dynamic: Me as quizmaster, he as intro guy/score guru/team liaison.

A question during the Lightning Round. Won't tell you more than that, but yes, that is an NYC-based query. Really pleased with how the content turned out.

Loading out on the last day. Element was the perfect space for this show (we're even chatting with them about doing a live event there).

There will be much, much more hyping in the months ahead, don't you fret. Get ready.

Quiz recap: Boston 11/12/12

Before we go any further, last night there was an odd confluence among the team names at the Big Quiz Thing's beloved Harvard Square home of Oberon: three squads whose names referenced the grand lord of statistics, Nate Silver. Sure, the guy had a great week, accurately predicting that a likeably cool-headed American success story would be elected over a desperate plutocratic buffoon. But still, odd coincidence. (Clearly Silver isn't yet old news. Neither is the Willardtron 3000, judging by the frequency with which we all used Mitt Romney as a piñata last night.) My noticing of this led me to ask the audience something I've been wondering: What if we did a special BQT event with Sir Silver, nothing but politics and baseball? Interested? I definitely am (I hate baseball), and the crowd tonight definitely seemed to think so. Stay tuned.

 

He probably has a little more free time these days.

Now then… You know what I love? Smart-Ass Points.

The newish Smart-Ass Points stickers. Arrival in L.A. and Chicago TBD.

For the uninitiated, Smart-Ass Points are credit for wrong but funny answers, one of the many things that makes the Big Quiz Thing so double-plus awesome. And last evening, we had lots of excellent Smart-Ass Points. But here's the problem: We're in NYC tonight, with much of the same fabulous BQT content (yeah, you heard me), so I'm loath to share with you some of yesterday's better SAPs, for fear of giving away. So I will tread carefully (then again, I do like rewarding people for reading this blog)…

—The book that included a murderer's analysis of the music of Genesis, Whitney Houston, and Huey Lewis and the News (really? I can't make fun of Huey, booing fans?) was Mein Kampf.

—The old smoking dude from the '50s clog-dancing in Appalachia was crumping.

— Whose did Mike Tyson bite off in '97? Vincent Van Gogh.

Et cetera. The audio round, "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions," was particular fertile Smart-Ass territory, as anytime a team didn't know the answer, they were tempted to use the Snappy Answer clue to come up with something clever. The best of the bunch won't make sense here without question-killing context, so allow me to be mysterious: "Are You Proficient in Word?" got the biggest laugh of the night.

As predicted, the video puzzle, "Movies and TV: Untranslated," was tricky…somewhat. IDing the movies and TV shows was fairly simple, but puzzling out the foreign languages was rather brutal. Tip for folks in NYC (and L.A., and Chicago): Bring a linguistics major to join your team, you won't regret it (and they won't, of course).

A quick thank-you to our serious prize sponsor lineup for the evening: Our old friends at the Modern Homebrew Emporium and the Harvard Museum of Natural History, plus newcomers the Grafton Street Pub and the MIT Museum. Beats remainder DVDs any day of the week, doesn't it? And also a thank-you to my returning warm-up comedian/sidekick, Mr. Wes Hazard. The man, the legend.

And the finale: Quick and easy, returning champs the Monstrous Humanoids mopped it up over perennial contenders Loose Lips Sink Quips and Nate Silver = Is Relevant (it's an anagram! neeeeerds!). Two questions, and Humanoidette Esther claimed the top prize, the first time in their long BQT history that the Humanoids had a repeat victory. Done, and done well.

The standings:
1. The Monstrous Humanoids
2. Loose Lips Sink Quips
3. Nate Silver = Is Relevant
4. Flairway to Heaven
5. Sir Rex Hunt Kicks Ass!!
6. Tip Us Maybe (Oberon staff team!)/Ice Cream Antisocial (tie)
8. David Petraeus: The Spy Who Shagged Me
9. Nate Silver Gives Us a 91% Chance of Losing
10. Salvador Dali Parton/DARA the Explaras (tie)

Next: I repeated ad nauseam at last night's show, but it bore repeating: We are less than three weeks away from el grande enchilada, the Boston edition of our Tenth Anniversary Quiz Show Marathon Spectacular! Sunday, December 2, noon to 10pm; one cheap ticket and you can come and go all day. Nonstop quiz excitement, music, short films, comedy from Improv Boston, food, and ridiculously fantabulous prizes, including a grand $500 jackpot. Get your tickets now, now, now, now, now, and plan your strategy. We love you.

Video: Live from New York Comic Con!

Now for something completely different on Election Day…

Courtesy the BQT's ever-indefatigable videographer, William K. Scurry Jr., check out the BQT in action at last month's nerd-mungous New York Comic Con! It was our second straight year of delighting the fanboy and -girl masses, and much fun was had all around (especially by BQT superfans the Fantastic Fournicators, who won yet again).

Hoping to be back next year. In the meantime, now that the BQT has conquered Chicago, we might bring the Comic Con quiz to the Midwest's own edition of the geek summit, the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, in April. The wheels are in motion, as they say.

Video: Tenth Anniversary Quiz Show Marathon training montage!

Since yes, we're doing it one more time—now in Boston—I'm back in training. Check out Quizmaster Noah preparing once again for ten solid hours of live quizmastering!

Details on the Marathon right here: ten solid hours, amazing prizes, live comedy from Improv Boston, so much more. And cheap advance tickets right here. Don't you dare to even briefly consider missing it, friends.

It's back! The BQT's Tenth Anniversary Quiz Show Marathon!

Really? No, seriously? Yes—we’re doing it again. After last June’s earth-shaking Ten Hour Quiz Show Marathon in NYC, to celebrate a decade of BQT action, we are just insane enough to be doing it again. Our ever-supreme Boston-area home, Harvard Square’s Oberon, is hosting the second performance of our Tenth Anniversary Marathon (this one closer to the actual ten-year mark), with another full day of scintillating live game show action, and another ten hours of Quizmaster Noah (that’s me) doing the nonstop-quizmastering thing at the expense of his health and sanity (now accepting 5-hour Energy donations). It's Sunday, December 2, noon–10pm, a little more than a month till I tempt fate once again.

First, the basics: It’s ten hours of the familiar BQT team-quiz formula, 25 rounds total of the game. The greatest hits from the BQT's decade of video and audio puzzles, naturally, plus the world’s greatest trivia questions, a passel of Lightning Rounds, a handful of Text Message Challenges, Smart-Ass Points galore. And no, you don't have to stay all day: For one low ticket price, guests can come and go as they please—as long as someone from your team submits an answer sheet for a given round, your team will receive points for that round. (Last May’s blog post about BQT Marathon strategy ought to come in handy.) Backing us up all the way will be the return of our erstwhile Boston music-meister, DJ Xdon RicklesX.

Plus, more fun, courtesy one of the show’s many premier sponsors: Improv Boston. New England's premier home for comedy will be making the scene throughout the day, presenting their top improv, sketch and stand-up acts for your multivalent entertainment. (Including an appearance from new Boston BQT sidekick, stand-up Wes Hazard.) The folks at Improv Boston are experts at "showcasing today’s best performers and training tomorrow’s stars," and we're thrilled to have them on board.

 And now, your most eager question: prizes. The winning team takes home more than double the haul of a typical BQT: a cool $500. Plus we’ll have tons more goodies from a rafter of Boston’s greatest stores and experiences: So far, we've got regular Boston prize sponsors The Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Modern Homebrew Emporium, and Follow the Honey, plus Harvard Square's lovably old-school Million Year Picnic comic-book store, Kendall Square's inspirationally wired Voltage Coffee and Art, the film nerd paradise of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, the wacky-gift wonderland that is Joie de Vivre, and more. Even Improv Boston will be tossing in prizes, and there are plenty more on the way.

It’s Sunday, December 2, noon to 10pm, and the ridiculously cheap advance tickets are already on sale right here. Form your team, organize your strategy, and do not sleep on this one…I certainly won’t.

The BQT: Straight outta Times Square!

The super-exclusive crowd at last Friday's NYC History Spectacular at the New-York Historical Society got a dose of this, but here's our latest video project: Quizmaster Noah (to use the third-person) finding some of NYC's most charactery characters and asking them some of New York's finest New York–specific quiz questions. Enjoy.

BTW, missing from this is that guy you always see in Times Square dressed in a Statue of Liberty costume and posing for photos. I actually asked him the Statue of Liberty question, gave him clues galore, and he still missed it. The irony was fun, but it turned out more sad than anything else—I don't think the dude's grasp of English was all it could be. It's the center of the universe, after all.