The final four contestants in the Be the Next JGT Contest have to perform standup tonight at Finn McCool’s at 12th and Sansom. The show begins at 10:15 p.m.

A lot of people seem to think that because they didn’t participate in the first week of the Doc Watson’s Big $$$ Bonanza, they are no longer eligible to win. Not true. I will only be counting the top five scores, and the contest lasts eight weeks, so the more you play, the better your odds. But I don’t imagine too many teams will be playing all eight weeks, so missing the first week is not that big of a deal. The winner of the contest gets $300, 2nd place gets $150, and 3rd gets $50.

Here’s how the judging worked. In addition to myself, I had two unbiased judges (above) who have asked to remain anonymous in order to protect their families. We watched the videos from both weeks, then listed our favorites in order from 1-7, the lower the score, the better. Each person’s vote counted 30%. The remaining 10% was determined by the voting on the website. Positions 1 and 2 were fairly unanimous, but positions 3-7 were hotly debated. I’ll be perfectly honest. I truly liked everyone who competed, and I think the caliber of contestant definitely went up in the second year of the contest. Here are the final results, in no particular order.

Continue reading “We’re down to The Final Four” →

Last night was one that will undoubtedly live in Quizzo infamy. Just wanna take a quick second to send shout outs to the staff at Locust Rendezvous, and to all the people who played gorilla quizzo last night. For those that don’t know, here’s what happened: I got to the Bards at about 10:15 p.m., only to be greeted by about 300 drunken Penn kids in the midst of their pub crawl oozing out of the bar. “Oh my God,” I thought to myself, “Did I get hit by a bus on the way to the Bards and land in hell?” I walked in, saw that my contestants for the BTNJGTC were there, as were a few teams. Everybody wanted to play, but it was obvious it wasn’t gonna happen there. So I called the ‘Vous, and they came through in the clutch. The Lost Tribe of Times then made a pilgrimage to 15th and Locust. I guess word got out at Bards, and the next thing you know, we had 40 people playing quizzo at the ‘Vous. What a night! And both contestants for the contest did a great job under strange circumstances. If you don’t know, the ‘Vous is just as cheap as McGrinchey’s, but the food is better, and the owner is actually a really nice guy, not a psycho who accuses people of drawing on his door. The staff there really came through last night. Good lookin’ out! I’ll have results and stuff up later. I gotta work on my taxes. In the meantime, check out this pretty kool Star Wars parody for organic food. Really creative.

There will be three contestants going on tonight, possibly for the last time. First cuts are coming this weekend. Here’s what those they learned in their first week behind the mic.

Good Dog-Jam Master Sean
I learned several kind of useful things the other
night in my first time as super quizmaster. I showed
up 15 minutes early and Johnny Goodtimes himself was
there. So I learned that I shouldn’t always show up
10 minutes late for playing quizzo without a worry of
missing anything. I learned that people seem to give
respect to the man with the microphone instead of
making them earn it. I was expecting a bit more
heckling from the crowd but all I got was “You’re no
Johnny Goodtimes”, which is kind of weak. But they’re
right. I’m not…yet. I found out that people say
“how is anyone suppossed to know that”. But then most
of them get the answers right. I found out that if
you’re only doing one round, you should pay attention
to team names before you have to try and decipher
them. This may be the most important lesson I learned
that night. And after it was all over, I found out
that O’Neal’s makes a mean margarita, the Kid is the
nicest guy around (way nicer than me) and someone else
in this city knows to ask, at certain times, “what
prime are we using”. And that’s why I like this City.

Bards-Edge and Moose
1. How to Rock tha MIC, like a quizzo master!
2. Something I already knew, but nevertheless, the Black Sheep Burger
makes your toes curl.
3. Not everyone share the same passion for Macgyver as my circle of
friend(s).
4. The main thing I leaned, seriously was how to compose a good quizzo question. Really working off of the answer rather than the question, making sure that the answer is first something that would likely come into peoples minds (especially after a few drinks)!
5. More importantly, for those who haven’t read the recent “Tales of
Bobby Badtimes” I have learned that Edge, Johnny, and myself are
targets at “McGrinchy’s” and guilt by association runs deep!

What I learned was
that people are really good but sometimes they are
not. When they call out and make fun of you, you are
not suppose to take it seriously or cry. This was not
too much of a problem for me at the Locust Rendezvous,
all the people were very nice and kind.
But there were mean and loud people at the Bard’s on
Thursday, but they were only trying to be funny.
Also, it’s not easy writing questions because you
probably want people to like you. But the questions
can’t be too easy because then the game won’t be any
fun.

The Holy Pontiffs and Six Other Guys came from behind in Round Four to take Week One of the Big $$$ Bonanza and develop an early lead. Even if you did not play in week one, you are definitely eligible to play, as I will only be taking the top five scores in the eight week tournament (which means you really only have to play five times to have a shot of winning). The winner walks with $300, in addition to the normal gift certificate prizes. Second Place gets $150, and third walks with $50. Here are the standings after Week 1.
1st Place-5 points-Holy Pontiffs
2nd Place-4 points-Johnny Makes Me Wanna Lala
3rd Place-3 points-Where’s Johnny
4th Place-2 points-The Wanderers
5th place-1 point-Bastard Children of C. Huxtable

Here’s what tonight’s contestants learned in their first time as Johnny Goodtimes.

I was surprised to discover how many people don’t yet know what Quizzo is. My boss asked if it was “that game they play in Harry Potter.” I also learned that the owner of Doc Watson’s likes his Quizzo hosts good and drunk, and that once a Quizzo host is good and drunk on a Monday night, the rest of the week moves slower than a three-toed sloth. Something else I learned is that, should I win the job, it would behoove me to bring a calculator to add up the score sheets. That Johnny Goodtimes is smarter than he looks. No, really. And his cat is an astonishingly good Quizzo host, at least according to the polls. One practical piece of advice I received is this: Multiple-choice questions make you popular. Finally, I learned on my first week on the job that you can take the Ern out of the ‘Vous, but you can’t take the ‘Vous out of the Ern.

Admittedly, I “misunderestimated” the level of serial killer interest in this town, completely wasting my psychological well-being doing countless hours of research on a certain unmentionable website’s “serial killer” section. In addition, everyone who has even a casual rooting interest in the Phillies and knows the significance of the name Joe Carter should also know who Chico Ruiz is. I also learned that if I ever own a bar it would probably be better to go with the Mexican theme rather than the Irish theme. Clearly, the whole Irish thing doesn’t pack in the crowds on “Cinco de Mayo.” If only there was a similar day that Irish bars could have on which
everyone could pretend that they were Irish and we could pretend that the Irish people have some kind of predisposition toward alcohol. Oh well, if anyone comes up with anything let me know. Finally, it is important to remember that no one likes the smartest kid in the room and that while “droids don’t go around tearing people’s arms off when they lose,” wookies (and the Black Sheep Puntang) have been known to do that.

A bunch of us tried out for that gameshow at the casting agency? Well, I finally read about it today in Dan Gross’s column. I guess this means we didn’t make the cut.
Sixers dancer Krystal Tini is one of the beauties in the pilot episode of “Beauty and the Geek.”
Ashton Kutcher and Cherry Hill native J.D. Roth are among producers of the show, which pairs brains and beauties to tutor each other in their strong suits all while competing for prizes.
Tini, 21, a four-year dance-team member, didn’t meet Kutcher, but does agree that the actor resembles Sixer Kyle Korver.
Tini will hold a viewing party at her house. She works at a South Philly children’s-clothing store.
A few local guys will also appear as geeks on the WB program, which premiers June 1.