Wordpress ahoy!

These are good blogs, these, don't get us wrong, but we wanted lots of pages. And lots of pages super fast means wordpress. So please join us over there soon.

http://nowandvenn.wordpress.com

Cheers,
The Venns

A View from the Quizmasters - Part 1

We didn't know when we wrote the zine that our quest for the perfect pub quiz team might also help us become quiz masters. But then we got invited to host the quiz at the newly-reopened Greystones (formerly the Highcliffe) pub on Greystones Road. The landlord-to-be approached us with a copy our zine in hand and said, 'You know you've also reverse engineered the guide to the perfect pub quiz? Turns out that reading between the lines, you can pick up some good tips.'

We suppose we should pretend we planned it like that, but we were actually really surprised and delighted and only mildly terrified. Since we'd both lived round there at different points in our collective history, we already felt pretty fond of that neighbourhood, and were really looking forward to it. The week over a foot of snow dropped on Sheffield was kinda tricky, but except for that week (when we wrote the quiz and emailed it and have been verbally abused by Team Renderson's Hellish ever since...) we've presented five quizzes and had a great time doing it.

We're going to keep going, because we've also managed to collect some awesome data from the quiz teams, who've been very willing to help us test Quint's Venn Subject Theory and Jow's Player/Points Ratio Theory. We want to eventually present our findings to the quizgoers. Why? Maybe to give everybody some insight into their hidden awesomeness. Maybe to justify the amount of time spent at the pub. We don't have the answers yet - but we've got lots of questions.

See you at the Christmas quiz, next Tuesday at 9.

The Venns

The Banner Cross Quiz, Sheffield

We ask our friends to review quizzes they attend in order to provide useful guidance to others. They usually oblige and we are very, very grateful. However, sometimes they come back with a review of such epic proportions, thank you just is not enough. The following is a review of the quiz from The Banner Cross, written for us by our friend Liz:

I struggled up the hill on a very wet, cold and windy night, to the Banner Cross pub on Ecclesall Road South, Sheffield. Possibly looking for glory again, I met the group, hoods up, tired and with that same feeling.

The footy was on and loads of Real Madrid (apparently) fans were in, shouting and swearing, enjoying the cheese sandwiches for sale at £1.50 per pack, with no other filling choices left. Bar-maid Jennie, ventures over about 9.30, “Anybodiee wont t' dut quiz? Quid a sheet “, we scurry for our purses before they sell out.

Real fans clear the pub, quite a big quiz audience has appeared around the velour seats in the big, bright living room. Excited, nervous, iPhone fully charged and waiting. Most of the pub nip out for a quick smoke, in the freezing tornado-ridden smoking area, some of the outdoor rope lights have gone and the lavender bush and geraniums are dead. The outdoor TV doors are hanging on the hinges.

Quiz started 10.00 pm on the dot, tellies off as only 'go compare' advert and pre-lim for Saturdays XFactor was playing to itself.

This is a bingo-style quiz with prizes for all four corners, line, full house – I'm sure you get the gist. The questions were quite good and varied, which kicks out the group of 19, average age 25, students studying higher Rumanian Economics. 30 questions in total, but answers given at the end when the numbers on the bingo card were called.. .you still with me? Lots of trivia, TV, old/new music, geography, history and my favourite - the anagram question! On this occasion it was something like anlerio laltmlcih erplninsantt - and it was a 'big place to go when you go on holidays?' No free food. The prize was £11 for first line, 4 free pints (taken within a week) for full house and 2 pints for best quiz team name. The quiz it quite a late finisher at 11.00. Cue lots of arguing, then lights went up.

Rating 3.5/5 - Great, entertaining quiz for a wet night, which makes the brain cells kick in - but finishes a bit late for a school night.

Liz, we thank you for your clear dedication to the quiz cause.

Quiz to the Future!

Please join us at the Showroom Film Lovers' Quiz a week on Tuesday, where we test out that quiz for ourselves and see if we can push their Venns Quiz Rating even higher (friends of Cara Corden, one of our top field reporters, rated it 3/5). We'll also be hanging out with Quizmaster Simon and learning the ways of the Film Quiz. (At this point we should mention that Quint studied film at university, and Jow watches so much telly he has an abundance of metaphorical medical conditions as a result.) We'll report our findings.

- Quint

The Kids are Alright

Bert and Ernie help spread the word through the Sesame Street website and organising a bottle-cap collection.

We like a good portmanteau word.

It's like a verbal Venn.

We bring you...

Charticles.

Boss, Genius, Atheist, Soap Star