We saw this and quite liked it.
-The Venns
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Review x2
The new quiz at the Uni Arms: 4/5 for definite. It'd be 5/5 if it had either more than twenty questions, or a few Seinfeldian feats of strength. The quizmaster is both equally likeable and completely different to Tophat Tim of yore, but it still somehow works. Please go along next time, as there are prizes to be had - we won book tokens in the random draw.
Our friend and frequent Venns teammate, John, (circles of knowledge: horror, Americana, rockabilly music, British stand-up comedy) had a recent unexpected quiz experience, and he's gonna guest blog it for us.
-Quint
Andy Nyman's Quiz From Hell!!!
Frightfest is a film festival that has been held in London every year for over a decade. It has been described, over the years, both as 'The Woodstock of Horror' and 'A Bunch of Geeks.' Since I started going six years ago, Charlie Brooker, Rob Zombie, John Landis, Guillermo del Toro and George A Romero among others, have all shown up - either to screen their latest film or to show a highlight of something in the works. It is held every August Bank Holiday in London's Empire Leicester Square cinema and comprises of 26 films (plus shorts) on the main screen and some more on the second screen.
Frightfest had a quiz several years ago, which people complained was too easy, so, in response, they made it more difficult. The winner that year got 13 out of 20 and, needless to say, the quiz was dropped the following year, not to return for a number of years.
This year saw the glorified pub quiz return in the form of ‘Andy Nyman's Quiz From Hell!!!’, scheduled on Sunday morning between a French film in which a crazy lady kidnapped travellers to feed to her zombie miner offspring, and a Mexican film detailing the exploits of juvenile gay cannibals.
Making full use of the massive Empire 1 screen behind him, screening video clips and photographs in a high quality presentation to the 900 participants, Nyman ran through forty questions in categories ranging from 'What happens next?' to 'Movie Monsters' over about half an hour. Between questions, Nyman was quipping and joking while people quickly wrote their answers.
The one round which had everyone talking was the soundtracks round: in all twenty questions, it was a basic “name that tune” set up, but for question twenty, they played twenty seconds of a horror film theme, Question twenty-one was nineteen seconds of another piece of music, and so on until the end, when he played just one second!
The familiar strains of Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street were placed between more obscure titles from films like Dusk Till Dawn and American Werewolf In London. As each one played, whispers of, 'Fucking hell, I know this...' and, 'That’s on my iPod, but I don’t know it,' could be heard. From about fourteen onwards, it started getting difficult. Then we hit the last one: a single blast of strings which could only be one movie, the unmistakable Psycho.
After the following the short film showcase, Nyman blasted through the answers to some expected cursing and groaning, and finished the quiz with the trailer for his West End show Ghost Stores. Due to the showcase overrunning, we had just ten minutes to run outside for daylight / food / fluid extraction and return for the next movie, The Mexican cannibal film We Are What We Are. Which was really good.
The one quiz question which bugged me through the showcase: Frankenstein, the Mummy and Dracula have all been played by Lon Cheney Jr. and which other actor?
Answer: Christopher Lee.
In case it comes up on a quiz, Andy Nyman is an actor in films and television shows including Dead Set and Severance. He is also the main guy behind Derren Brown’s magic shows, and the co-writer and director of West End show Ghost Stories, which is playing until February 2011, and which I intend to see.
-John
Our friend and frequent Venns teammate, John, (circles of knowledge: horror, Americana, rockabilly music, British stand-up comedy) had a recent unexpected quiz experience, and he's gonna guest blog it for us.
-Quint
Andy Nyman's Quiz From Hell!!!
Frightfest is a film festival that has been held in London every year for over a decade. It has been described, over the years, both as 'The Woodstock of Horror' and 'A Bunch of Geeks.' Since I started going six years ago, Charlie Brooker, Rob Zombie, John Landis, Guillermo del Toro and George A Romero among others, have all shown up - either to screen their latest film or to show a highlight of something in the works. It is held every August Bank Holiday in London's Empire Leicester Square cinema and comprises of 26 films (plus shorts) on the main screen and some more on the second screen.
Frightfest had a quiz several years ago, which people complained was too easy, so, in response, they made it more difficult. The winner that year got 13 out of 20 and, needless to say, the quiz was dropped the following year, not to return for a number of years.
This year saw the glorified pub quiz return in the form of ‘Andy Nyman's Quiz From Hell!!!’, scheduled on Sunday morning between a French film in which a crazy lady kidnapped travellers to feed to her zombie miner offspring, and a Mexican film detailing the exploits of juvenile gay cannibals.
Making full use of the massive Empire 1 screen behind him, screening video clips and photographs in a high quality presentation to the 900 participants, Nyman ran through forty questions in categories ranging from 'What happens next?' to 'Movie Monsters' over about half an hour. Between questions, Nyman was quipping and joking while people quickly wrote their answers.
The one round which had everyone talking was the soundtracks round: in all twenty questions, it was a basic “name that tune” set up, but for question twenty, they played twenty seconds of a horror film theme, Question twenty-one was nineteen seconds of another piece of music, and so on until the end, when he played just one second!
The familiar strains of Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street were placed between more obscure titles from films like Dusk Till Dawn and American Werewolf In London. As each one played, whispers of, 'Fucking hell, I know this...' and, 'That’s on my iPod, but I don’t know it,' could be heard. From about fourteen onwards, it started getting difficult. Then we hit the last one: a single blast of strings which could only be one movie, the unmistakable Psycho.
After the following the short film showcase, Nyman blasted through the answers to some expected cursing and groaning, and finished the quiz with the trailer for his West End show Ghost Stores. Due to the showcase overrunning, we had just ten minutes to run outside for daylight / food / fluid extraction and return for the next movie, The Mexican cannibal film We Are What We Are. Which was really good.
The one quiz question which bugged me through the showcase: Frankenstein, the Mummy and Dracula have all been played by Lon Cheney Jr. and which other actor?
Answer: Christopher Lee.
In case it comes up on a quiz, Andy Nyman is an actor in films and television shows including Dead Set and Severance. He is also the main guy behind Derren Brown’s magic shows, and the co-writer and director of West End show Ghost Stories, which is playing until February 2011, and which I intend to see.
-John
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The Venns @ The University Arms
Well, we didn't win the Union quiz prize money last week, but we're looking forward to the return of the University Arms quiz at long last!
Here's our review of the old one, which had a special mention in the zine:
Hope to see some of you there tonight. It starts at nine, and we'll have some zines.
The Venns
Here's our review of the old one, which had a special mention in the zine:
The University Arms (retired)
We kicked the asses of the 'Saved By The Bell' team (our name for them) twice, including a rematch in the last quiz ever. This quiz was awesome because it had games rounds in between quiz rounds, with a prize for each of those as well. One week we won every single games round but then came second in the quiz. More brawn than brains, I guess. The quiz-master graduated and moved south, but not before giving us his lucky top hat. 5/5. -Quint
Hope to see some of you there tonight. It starts at nine, and we'll have some zines.
The Venns
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