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Anita’s Underground Game Show
Held on the second Thursday of every month, striptease queen Anita Cookie’s downtown spin on The Price Is Right challenges players to appraise cheap booze in the hopes of winning baked goods, carriage rides and handmade gifts from Cookie’s vaudevillian chums. The bosomy beauty is joined by her backing band, the Kindergarteners, as well as a surprise “drinking buddy” who demonstrates some special talent (past visitors have included burlesquers Gigi La Femme and Jonny Porkpie). Ironically, while Cookie’s merch is bargain-basement, participants often aim too high. (At a recent show, a $3 bottle of vodka was priced at eight bucks.) But, Cookie says, hitting the jackpot isn’t really the point. “If you come onstage and just have a good time, everybody wins.” UNDER St. Mark’s (212-868-4444, horsetrade.info) Apr 10 at 10:30pm. $15.
The Gong Show
A monthly fund-raiser for Black Door Theatre, this talent showcase gives performers 45 seconds in the spotlight before judges or audience members can sound their displeasure. “We haven’t had anyone from the audience do it yet, and there have only been two performers that warranted a resounding gong from the judges,” says host Brandon McCluskey. That doesn’t mean the performances aren’t oddball—February saw a dramatic reading of a newspaper article and a Parker Posey monologue taken from Best in Show. Grand-prize winners, who have included a Russian ninja and a Gwen Stefani drag queen, get whatever tips are collected throughout the night—plus random donated goodies like candy, condoms, a subway map, and bizzarely, the wheel from an office chair. Is McCluskey intimidated by stepping into the shoes of original Gong Show host/alleged CIA hit man Chuck Barris? “I just saw Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” he says. “I don’t know if it’ll affect my MC skills, but I’m gonna try my best to harbor some deep, dark secrets.” UNDER St. Marks (212-868-4444, horsetrade.info). Thu 20 at 10:30pm. $10.
Match Game ’08
Dick Swizzle, the curly-haired alter ego of Magnetic Field owner William Crane, has hosted his Sudden Death Game Show (what he calls a “drunken version of Jeopardy!”) for three years. But he recently introduced this guessing game—where panelists and contestants try to match responses to ribald fill-in-the-blank statements—as a vehicle for local personalities like Brooklyn Heights Blog scribe Homer Fink and comic Lynn Rosenberg. Just like its Me Decade inspiration, the three-round challenge is heavy on shtick: “It’s half trying to make a match and half trying to make a joke,” says Swizzle, who rewards winners with 80 percent of the door, and second-placers with the remaining 20 percent (also-rans get free Budweiser). Though Magnetic Field closes at the end of March, neither Match Game nor Sudden Death are being canceled: Swizzle plans to take both to Union Hall after a brief hiatus.Magnetic Field (718-834-0069, magneticbrooklyn.com). Sun 23 at 8pm. $5 to play, spectators free.
What’s My Line? Live in NYC!
For a series that’s been off the air since 1975, What’s My Line? is doing amazingly well: New York now has two revivals of the classic game show. A high-production-value theatrical version that started in L.A. in 2004 makes its New York debut at the Barrow Street Theatre Monday 24 (for details, see Comedy, page 117). Meanwhile, Brett Rollins (in the guise of wacky MC Neil O’Fortune) has hosted this bawdy East Village edition since 2006. There have been some changes of late: Originated at Parkside Lounge, the show just moved to Lucky Cheng’s and will be renamed Game Show Speakeasy! in April. But the lineup is still solid, with Rollins’s burlesque-queen wife, Jen McClelland (a.k.a. Clams Casino), Pinchbottom regular Jonny Porkpie and playwright Garth Wingfield (Are We There Yet?) staying on as panelists, who try to guess contestants’ occupations. Three contenders are booked each month—including celebrity guests like Zach Galifianakis, Martha Plimpton and Mo Rocca—but it’s the fourth player, randomly chosen from the audience, who often has the most unusual gig. “We’ve had a lactation consultant, a sleep-lab worker and an organ harvester,” says Rollins. At least they’re not playing The Dating Game, right?Lucky Cheng’s (whatsmylinenyc.com). Thu 20 at 8pm. $5.
Win, Lose or Draw
After 18 months emceeing The $50 Queeramid at West Village gay watering hole Pieces, drag diva Vodka Stinger decided to mix things up. “Whoever was playing the game played—everybody else had to be quiet,” she recalls. “We wanted to do something that would involve the entire bar.” At this weekly Pictionary-style sketchfest, players are given two minutes to illustrate ten words and the entire audience shouts guesses. (Contestants are rewarded depending on how many correct answers their drawings garner.) “I’m a consummate game player, so I think everybody’s going to be really good. It’s funny to watch how people struggle,” says Stinger. “We had the word bellboy, and the contestant drew a guy with a cap and suitcases and everything. I would’ve just drawn a bell and a boy.”Pieces (212-929-9291, piecesbar.com). Mar 26, 2008, at 10pm. Free.
