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

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:

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

Tonight at the Union

Tonight, after several hours of much-needed sleep, Quint will be at the Union quiz in Nether Edge with some more zines, hoping to win the raffle so we can print some more. Jow will be fielding your requests and emails. Wish us luck.

From The Venns zine:

"The Union, Nether Edge (weekly): 50p entry. Excellent ambiance, very difficult but in a good way. Thirty questions including a picture round, winning team gets a gallon of beer but there's also a one-in-six chance of winning a prize draw fora pot of cash from the entry-fee takings. Rollovers mean the quiz gets more and more crowded each week until someone wins the sometimes hundred-quid pot. Lovely quiz-master wtih excellent floral shirts, lots of free food for most tastes. Get there super early to get a seat, or you'll be standing looking awkward near the gents by the time the quiz starts at 9:30."

Late to the Table, Our Misspent Youth, and Dinah Shore

Our research now includes a fully tested hypothesis about 'meeting friends at the pub' swiftly becoming 'turning up late and unintentionally to a pub quiz, sleep deprived, while nursing hangovers'.

It wasn't pretty.

It was also rather humbling receiving the dregs of a quiz sheet, proffered by undergrads (and their prof, to be fair, who was one of the people we'd actually come to see) who'd done all they could and were hoping we'd know the answers they'd missed. With a bit too much hubris, Quint grabbed the quiz sheet.

After a few minutes of perusing their sheet, we both realised that for all of our eclectic knowledge, we could only be sure about answers involving films of the '80s. (Non-specific undergrad, "We have no memories of the '80s at all, and few of the '90s.")

The highlights:

• We got two wrong because we broke our own rule 3, several further answers wrong because we seem to have forgotten everything we ever knew about pop music, and were complete no-hopers for the rest. But we followed rule 8, and that's the important thing.
• There was a meaningless debate with someone unfamiliar with the quirks of American first names about how Dinah actually was a name, and was spelled D-I-N-A-H, and that there could be more than one person with that name, because it was, after all, just a name, a common name, if you were from America.
• The answer was not Dinah Shore, but Dusty Springfield.

Through our haze, however, we were easily able to discern that the quizmaster was completely lovely, though, and we will go back on purpose next time, and bring zines, and do it a proper review, perhaps while drinking orange juice.

The Venns

The Venns at The Showroom

The Venns will be at The Showroom tonight for Friday Night Live (http://www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/fridaynightlive).

Come along if you want to chat, throw around ideas or just throw questions at us.

Printed and Available.

So the zines are printed, which means we have an actual THING to show for going to the pub so much, other than just the occasional feeling of general malaise.

This is the front cover:

Some inside bits and bobs:

And a close-up of that pie chart comparison:

We're gonna take some copies to the Rutland Arms quiz tonight at 9 in town and leave one on each table, if you wanna come down. Spares will be available for a pint, or the price of a pint for those who want their own. If you can't make it this evening, stay tuned or 'like' us on Facebook to get more updates.

Cheers,

Quint and Jow

Welcome to The Venns.

The Venns is a zine, comedy show (coming soon) and research project about finding the perfect pub quiz team. (We'll let you know when we've found it.)

If you would like more information, or to sign up for updates, email us at nowandvenn@gmail.com or become a fan of The Venns on Facebook.

Cheers,
Quint and Jow