Get Ready to Match the Stars... Again!

[kevin_standlee]

According to discussions I had at BASFA tonight, and subject to being able to work out the staging and technical aspects, we appear to be booked to do Match Game SF at BayCon as the Masquerade Half-Time show. This may turn out to be the most challenging venue in which we've ever done the show, on account of having to quickly turn the stage after the end of the run-through without losing the audience and then get the game going. And there are plenty of details, like getting people's names into the drawing to be contestants.

My biggest concern right now is getting new questions. We've run through the deck too many times, so the show is stale if we re-use many questions. I'm okay for tie-breaker and bonus-round matches -- we have lots of them -- but main game questions are all used up.

I would expect to be able to play at most four games during the time we have allowed (and I suppose we could to a "rerun" by using old questions if we somehow needed to fill time), so we need sixteen new questions. I could use you folks' help. Either send them to me in e-mail or as comments here.

Comments

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

I am *so* freaking excited! I'll send questions as I think of them, and have set ewhac on the task, as he's well-versed in both ends of the equation.

Also, I have my minions I can call upon to help us -- two and possibly three of them. Beck, call, all that.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

2 ideas

First, put a mike in the hands of someone who can "carny-bark" the room -- talking, getting them excited about the show, getting them involved. If I'm there, I'd do it in a heartbeat -- but I bet you can find someone who can handle it better (Roche comes to mind :>). That keeps the audience there while you're setting up.

Second, use carny tickets -- 2 parters with matching numbers. Either pass them out as people come into the masque (unless they're doing that for a people's choice awards) or have 3 or 4 gophers run 'em down aisles as your "mike guy/gal" is doing his/her thing on the room. Have your "mike guy/gal" tell 'em to write their names on 'em and pass collection baskets (protestant style) back to the center aisle where a couple of gophers can be collecting them.

It's a start anyway :>

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

You're quite right about that need; in a mundane game show, it's the person who "warms up" the audience. This would be happening while they load the room where the Masquerade will be happening.

Alas, while Kevin Roche would be very good at doing this, and Kevin and Andy together are both great panelists, they're both going to be busy running the Masquerade which makes them unavailable as panelists.

Chris Garcia, on the other hand,... Hmm.

[kshandra]

Well, I guess this means the party gridlore and I are running doesn't start until after the Masquerade on Saturday.... ;-) (Hmm. Must talk to Doug about possibly offering one of our limited edition badge extenders as a prize.)

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Don't mess with tickets or signups; this'll be a venue where people are *not* there to see Match Game, so any extra procedure will just make things more complicated and less attractive. Instead, either pre-select contestants as well as panelists or get an advance look at the seating layout and devise a way of *quickly* randomly selecting (i.e. there are 10 rows of 20 seats. Have two boxes, one with slips of paper numbered 1-10, the other with slips numbered 1-20. Pick a slip from each, whoever's in that seat can be a contestant if they want. If not, or if the seat's empty, pull out two more numbers).

Suggested question: "Dr. Who's new companion is really strange. It's the first time it's been a BLANK."

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I thought maybe numbered raffle tickets, a la a door prize drawing, might be fast enough to work, especially if we have multiple people circulating through the audience. We _don't_ want something that slows load-in. But you're right that a way of randomly segregating the audience would work. And for that matter, pre-recruiting contestants is a pretty good idea, too, if we advertise in the newsletter from the start and then tell protential contestants to be at a certain place and time pre-show in order to make selection. We only need a maximum of eight contestants, after all, and if by some ill chance we have fewer than that, we can have "winner continues," which would reduce the number of contestants needed to five.

Thank you!

[howeird]

Yes, I've seen your Match Game, but am not sure what kind of questions you need. I can come up with lots if I know the guidelines.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

What we need are questions with an SF/F bent that meet the Match Game formula: a fill-in-the-blank question, preferably with multiple likely responses, and it's always better if it's funny.

[howeird]

Thanks, that should be easy enough. I'll bring some to the next BASFA meeting.

Speaking of BASFA, here is the book I mentioned as a possible Hugo nomination:

Wings of the Kingdom
Cherie Priest
Link link link

It's part of a trilogy, the first book came out in 2005, the third is due out next month.