The 1st Question

I had a NEW experience in SL last night. *grin* Just when you think you’ve tried all the genres, you realize how little you’ve tried. A friend of mine was a panelist on The 1st Question. This is a SL game show hosted on Sunday evenings by Pooky Amsterdam and Hydra Shaftoe. I heard about the friend’s appearance just a short time before the show was to start. I was playing with Emerald, and trying to get into a full sim for some wonderful freebies (no, I NEVER made it to that sim, not in two days of trying, and I am dropping that group. pffft). Oura and I decided to go check out the show.

Pooky – forgive me – I’m going to be honest here. I heard them doing the sound check – everything was indeed fine. But just as the show began, Pooky crashed. For MINUTES nothing happened, just some idle chatter. Oura and I had nearly decided to leave. I mean, how often can you listen to people stall and hope someone can get back inworld? Oh wait – we all do that all the time. *laugh* Anyway, just as we were about to leave, Pooky returned!

I was still a little disgruntled, so when Pooky launched into game show-mode I was not sure I was going to enjoy this at all. But then I listened and realized she was funny. *grin* The panelists were also good sports and articulate. That makes such a difference. They were asked to say what element of the periodic table they would be. The first panelist played it straight – picked a real element, a good explanation. The 2nd panelist mostly played it straight – a real element, a very silly, funny explanation. The 3rd panelist took off and set the tone for the rest of the night – a totally made-up element with correspondingly ridiculous explanation.

The questions on this show are HARD!!!! The first round is a yay/nay round. The panelist is given a question and must decide yay or nay. The audience is texting out answers too. I got nearly all of the questions wrong. *grin* Not a big surprise to me. The questions range all over the board from finance to science to whether there is fish oil in lipstick or Chanukah cards made of uncooked bacon. *grin* Okay – i KNEW that one. But that definitely set the panelists soaring into nonsensical hilarious answers.

There is a round where the panelists attempt to stump Pooky and Hydra and a round where the panelists are playing against each other on a timer/buzzer setup. There is a round where the audience votes on words that the panelists have created. (Have you heard of sniglets? They are creating sniglets.) Choosing just one word for which to vote was INCREDIBLY difficult. First of all, I was already laughing out loud at the local chat as well as the repartee going on between panelists and hosts. Secondly – the words were GREAT! This is the disadvantage of voice: I can’t remember the words. I was laughing and IM’ing with Oura and reading local chat and listening to voice, and forgot to actually write the words down so I could remember. I DO remember mommytasking and chatatonic. Mommytasking is what I do all the time. Chatatonic describes a very common SL condition. One of the others was misreading headlines but basically your mis-read was more accurate than what the headline said. People are so darn clever!!! I am always so envious of such creativity and quick wit!!!

Anyway, although the game started inauspiciously, it turned into a truly funny, clever, enjoyable night’s entertainment. Pooky and Hydra keep the show moving at a quick pace. If all the panelists are as quick-witted and funny as the four I saw, the answers will always be creative if not accurate. It was a wonderful evening. I will CERTAINLY be back for more “1st Question”.