Month: September 2013

Prepare to Get Hoffed at Tonight’s Quiz

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Action starts at Industry at 6:30 p.m. $3 craft beers, $8 fries, and a GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR A WIN if you’re looking to climb in the JGT Power Rankings. Still no dominant team. Much more casual quiz than some of the more intense venues. Plus we’ve got French Fry Faceoff and Name That Tune for Candy. It’s a really fun quiz.

On to Bards at 9 p.m., which is your chance to knock off the Jesters of Tortuga, who are currently #1 ranked (but facing sanctions for adding Jam Master Phil to their team on Tuesday night at the Tap House.) If you’ve got a serious squad, it’s time to get them in gear and take the quizzo world by storm.

Oh, and there will be a Hasselhoff round. Just sayin’.

I’m Making My Fringe Festival Debut This Saturday; I Hope You Can Make It Out

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In 1984, I played on the worst Little League team ever. EVER. We went 0-15, and I don’t recall us ever losing by less than 15 runs. In fact, in one game that I clearly remember, the opposing team (The JCs) scored 39 runs in the top of the first inning. We scored 1 run in the bottom of the first. And then the umpires called the game off. Not for slaughter rule. For darkness. The JCs had batted for over two hours and it was dark by the time the first inning was over.

That inspired the Fringe Show, High Cheese, that I am putting on with Chip Chantry (who was just named Philly’s Funniest at Helium last week) and Carl Boccuti this Saturday at the Adobe Cafe at 8 p.m. (there will be a second show on September 20th at the Adobe as well) We decided to make the show about baseball, but extremely loosely (one of our primary objectives with baseball was to get Fastball Pitcher Bob Gutierrez on the show, if that tells you how loosely we’re taking the topic.) So don’t worry if you’re not a baseball fan; neither is Chip, and he wrote a bunch of this stuff. We’ll cover that terrible Little League team, the trials and tribulations of Steve Bartman, and of course our obligatory take on “Who’s On First?”

I’ve wanted to do a Fringe Show since I moved here 12 years ago, just always found an excuse not to do it. No more excuses. This is it. My wife and I are having a child in December. There are no guarantees that I’ll ever again have a chance to do this. And if this is my only one, I want it to be good. Really good. We’ve written some funny stuff. We still have more to write, more to edit, more to block, and a hell of a lot more to memorize. I have no idea if we can pull it off. And that’s the excitement of doing a Fringe Show. Trying to pull of something you honestly don’t know if you can. This could be a really great show. Or it could be a total train wreck. Either way you’ll get your $10 worth. I really hope you’ll come. More details can be found here.

Sincerely,

JGT

P.S. Oh, and there’s karaoke after the show. If we get 50 people there, I’ll perform “Flashdance” at karaoke.

JGT Power Rankings, Week of September 9th

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1. Jesters of Tortuga (City Tap) At least they blew a lead and lost the Lebowski quiz on Sunday. Last week: #1

2. Sharktoberfest (Industry) How does a team launch from out of the rankings to the #2 spot in just a week? Well, when the Underground Bard, Duane’s World, Savage Ear, and the Jams all lose, and you pull off a come from behind win at Industry and then come from behind to beat the Jesters at the Lebowski quiz, anything can happen. Last week: NR

3. Blazing Sea Nuggets (Black Sheep) What a way to go out, with two wins in Woody’s last three weeks, to end up with the highest ranking in team history! Last week: #18

4. Hooter and Chuff (O’Neals) An explosive 15 point win over the Savage Ear for their 2nd win in 3 weeks vaults Hooter and Chuff up 9 spots. Dames still needs a haircut. Last week: #13

5. Synchronized Trampoline (Locust Rendezvous) Two wins in the past three weeks at the Vous, this one in OT. Since Magnus ver Magnusson’s retirement, there hasn’t been a team to consistently push the Jams. We may have just found one. Last week: #10

6. Inkspot (North Star) Cruise to an easy win at North Star to jet up the rankings. Will Careless Fister make a return to the Star soon, or will Inkspot have the top of the mountain all to themselves? Last week: #9

7. Duane’s World (Black Sheep) Have lost the last three weeks by a combined total of 11 points. THe last time Duane’s World lost in 4 straight weeks? March, 2012. Gotta think they get back on top this week. Last week: #4

8. Underground Bard (City Tap House) Once you hit a 130, as they did two weeks ago, there is only one way to go. A 107? Pssshaw. Last week: #3

9. Sidecardigans (Sidecar) Finally! Last week: NR

10. Savage Ear (O’Neals) Might a Savage Ear-Hooter and Chuff rivalry be heating up at O’Neals? Last week: #2

11. Jitney Spears.

12. Popesack.

13. Twerkin for the Weekend. 

14. The Jams.

15. Missing Heads. 

16. Mysterious Mr. Mapother.

17. Cat’s Pajamas.

18. Always Finish 4th. 

19. 300,000 Twerks.

20. The Missing Heads. 

The Other Guys in the Seattle 7 Knock Off A Stranger in the Alps at Lebowski quiz

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The Other 6 Guys in the Seattle 7 (nee Sharktoberfest) knocked off A Stranger in the Alps (nee Jesters of Tortuga) at the Big Lebowski quiz on Sunday night at the City Tap House. A pretty interesting quiz, with a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous. In the end, The Oher Guys recored a perfect round 5 (including knowing how many times The Dude said “Man” in the movie to knock off Stranger in the Alps 155-152. My favorite team name:  Shut the F*** Up Johnny. 

More importantly, we were able to raise $422 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Great cause, great film (we watched it afterwards), and as always the City Tap House took really great care of everybody.

If you want to take part in the big Dude Hates Cancer Bowling Event on September 21st, here is everything you need to know to get involved. Should be a lot of fun.

Lebowski Quiz and Viewing on Sunday!

Screen shot 2013-08-22 at 11.32.13 AMWe’re gonna play Lebowski quizzo and watch the movie outdoors on Sunday at 5 p.m.! Hope you can join us! All of the money goes to a great cause. Please help spread the word to any of your friends that are Lebowski fans. We’d like to get a good turnout for this and raise some money for the Dude Hates Cancer. Here’s the invite page on facebook.

 

Week in Review

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With Labor Day on Monday and then Jewish Labor Day on Wednesday, we were a bit slow this week. But though the crowds weren’t out of control, the results were. Switching back to the 4-round quiz for the latter half of the week really made for some thrilling quizzo, as we had not one but two 15 point comebacks in the final round this week. We’ve never had two comebacks that big in one week ever in JGT quizzo history. The Synchronized Trampoline, who seem to establishing themselves as the hot new team on the block, made a spectacular comeback at the Vous, while Sharktoberfest made their mark at Industry.

The week started with our only real blowout, an easy Inkspot win at North Star. It was nice to have Always Finish 4th back in the building after a summer off.

Also nice to see was the Sidecardigans getting back on their game with a win at the Sidecar.

When Hooter and Chuff brings their A-game, they really come to play, scoring an impressive 117 at O’Neals and leaving the mighty Savage Ear in their wake.

Screw the Jesters of Tortuga.

A happy send off for Woody at the Black Sheep, as the Blazing Sea Nuggets won in Double OT over Jitney Spears, and Duane’s World learned that they needed to start adding bacon to their Elvis sandwiches.

Gonna be interesting to see how the JGT Power Rankings look after a week in which the Jams, Savage Ear, and Duane’s World all went down.