…whilst Big Brother launch night twists are usually uncomfortably mean-spirited or a bit rubbish, having Cheryl Ferguson and Julie Goodyear secretly and gamely improvise a soap opera style catfight was genuinely funny, especially as Julian Clary and Martin Kemp cottoned on to it quite quickly and some Americans looked bemused.
It is almost time for someone to do a format which is just two hours of mystery celebrities going through a door and walking down some stairs. To dance music.
I managed to miss a few American things off the Board of Excitement. Stars Earn Stripes has already begun, Oh Sit! begins tomorrow.
We will get round them soon.
I’ve been doing this for a looooong time. I don’t do it for the money (I’m well down after train fares and Big Cash Prizes). I do it for the love.
And what I love most is being surprised. I like to champion things that would otherwise go unnoticed (see Accumulate!) because their reach is small but has a certain quality and they do it for the love.
Which brings us to a show someone highlighted the other day: 31 Questions.
I quite like 31 Questions.
It’s a very low budget local community channel show in Melbourne (Channel 31) hosted by comics David M Green, Anthony McCormack and Sophie Loughran. It has two people playing a general knowledge quiz who are never able to recognize film quotes. And mostly it has jokes in it. The jokes are fast and furious in fact, and whilst they tend to over-reach a bit (less is sometimes more especially with the ad-libs, and the final clue gag in the “when is it?” round gets a bit old), Green’s got quite a Tim Vine-esque quality about him so you just roll with it. They’ve also somehow managed to rope in proper celebrities for the sketches – Andrew O Keefe in the opener for this episode has been hosting Deal or No Deal since 2003.
Mainly it reminds me tonally of Remote Control with Anthony H Wilson. There are ten episodes on Youtube so far and new episodes go out on Saturday nights – I watched about six of them yesterday. Mmm.
Alright, the Olympics are practically over and we have to get back to normality (until the Paralympics start). In the meantime you ought to know that my e-mail is currently buggered, so if you need to get me then try and catch me on Twitter or something.
Here’s what’s interesting on this week:
Olympic Games? WHAT Olympic Games?
In other news, it looks like another episode of Bother’s Bar favourite quiz-with-deathtraps Japanese show Escape Game DERO! has been translated into English. And here it is! Only three rooms this time though.
Friend of the Bar VierkanteO explains that the new series of De Slimste has been doing very well in the Netherlands, yet there’s still no sign of a UK version. FOR SHAME.
Finally US host Bill Rafferty passed away at 68 over the weekend. Here’s a video of him hosting the original US version of Every Second Counts:
Yes I know everybody is at it these days and yes I know we almost did a podcast about five years ago but we (I keep saying “we”, I mean “I”) have had an idea and I don’t think Buzzerblog should have all the fun. It will be a quiz tentatively called The Line Up. Look out for more details soon.
In other “community” news, the next Bother’s Bar Poker tourney is this Tuesday:
It’s THE OLYMPBRIG BOXING!
* Heads-up shootout, $10 + $1 entry, Tuesday 14th August 8:30pm UK time
* Three minute levels, 2000 chips.
* Seems to pay top four if four or more people turn up. You could make the money without even playing a card if fewer than eight turn up and the draw goes your way.
Good luck!
To make it more exciting, if 8 or more people turn up on Tuesday I’ll add $20 to the champion’s prize, if 16 or more turn up I’ll make it $40. You will need to be a member of Bother’s Poker Club to play.
Amazing.
Unfortunately, not much remains of The Games on Youtube. We may never find out if Harvey is still the fastest man in pop.