Have you ever hosted a game in a public/live setting?

[wdm1219inpenna]

At my current place of employment, I had the privilege of hosting an informal holiday trivia type game.  No prizes were awarded, it was just for fun, but I had a blast standing up in front of my co-workers, asking questions and getting various responses.  One of the names in one of the questions I butchered big time, so when someone yelled jokingly to me the correct pronunciation of the name, I replied "Well then I guess the answer to this question would be none of the above.", which got a good laugh from the crowd.  

Currently I host a very informal version of "Match Game" with 25 of my co-workers.  I come up with 5 questions per week, 1 per day, and I write down the first 3 answers that occur to me.  I award 1 point per match on Monday, 2 points on Tuesday, all the way to 5 points on Friday, for a possibility to get 45 points total.  Twice, the weekly winner won with 41 points.  I enjoy getting all the answers, and even came up with a designation for worst answer of the week.  I print out the scoresheet at the end of the week for all to see, and it's rather fun, even though it isn't for any prizes of any kind.

My only other public performances came with me in disguise, wearing a Santa Claus suit.  I've done children's parties and a few times I went to a home for the aged to perform with my cousin and some of his musician friends.  I'd love to find an opportunity to host a "live" game elsewhere sometime, maybe even with prizes somehow.  The closest I've come other than these situations is hosting netgames online.  They are fun, but all the cash & prizes are fictional.  

Whenever I train someone on a new project in my office, I kind of take a Bob Barker approach to explaining it slowly & clearly (at least in his earlier years when he was less prone to having senior moments and was allowed more than 12 seconds to explain rules of games).  Having grown up on game shows during the 70s & 80s I believe has helped groom me to be able to emulate how a classic emcee performs, and has defintely helped me when training others on projects at work.

Have any of you ever had a chance to do any kind of live game hosting?  I'd be curious to hear about it.

Regards,
Bill

[Jeremy Nelson]

At my university, we do a Family Feud production once a week. We usually get a great turnout, since it's usually student organizations playing against one another. Next week, however, we are actually going to have a Family Feud, since a couple of my classmates have parents and siblings who came here as well.

We don't play for prizes during the "regular season", but for a trophy that changes hands, similar to a belt in pro wrestling. The winners usually tout the trophy at lunch the next day, so it's fun to watch the friendly rivalries that come about.

At the end, the 4 teams with the most points play in our Tournament of Champions. The overall winners get gift cards, so outside of the trophy, that's the only real expense over the course of the schoolyear.

I have hosted since we started last school year, and I have had a blast so far. Since I'm a junior this year, I'll have to start looking for my replacement pretty soon.

[chad1m]

Once in a while, I "co-host" PlayCafe. I also had the chance a couple of months back to remotely host a full episode of the live game show. It was a pretty cool experience, and it definitely just continues to help me strive to do more with game shows in my professional life.

[Matt Ottinger]

Yes.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Matt, I think this is one of those times where your sig actually works with your post

[mmb5]

I hosted probably the first ever North American playing of Numberwang! last week.


--Mike

[davidhammett]

Yes, if you count hosting games that my students play.  We do a weekly "Deal or No Deal" game, as well as versions of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Greed."  Also, in the summers I return to Georgia's Governor's Honors Program to host and/or produce a variety of games for the math students to play, including "Identity," "The Gong Show," "1 vs 100," "Pyramid," and "Family Feud," among others.  (We're tentatively planning "Duel" for this summer as well.)

[davidhammett]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'183874\' date=\'Apr 12 2008, 03:13 PM\']
I hosted probably the first ever North American playing of Numberwang! last week.
[/quote]
We should consider that one for the GHP tournament... yeah...

[hines2000]

I have hosted games for Bible Study at Church, including versions of the Feud, Whew!, Hit Man, Weakest Link, and Win Lose or Draw.  We used to have game night once every 2 months when I ran these games (and others) using my computer and a big-screen tv!

Eric

[tpirfan28]

I did J! with a very (at least to me) well done Powerpoint and Flash game controls for several classes in high school.  Even incorporated PYL too.  Password was going to be one other one, but time just ran out.

/would have done Numberwang in a hearbeat
//the math teacher would have approved

[chad1m]

I also forgot to mention that when I was in second grade, my teacher knew of my game show interests, so she would allow me every once in a while to make Jeopardy! games based on the material we were learning. I borrowed a Jeopardy-like board that had pockets labeled with point values were one could put index cards with the "answers". She'd then let me host the game with classmates as players, and I'd even take the game sometimes to other classrooms. Good times.

[MTCesquire]

A few years back for my great-grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary celebration, I hosted a quick game of TPIR's "Bonus Game" using grocery items instead of small prizes and $100 being the bonus.  It wasn't anything fancy.  My mom played the role of Rod and my brother was the SFX guy.  He used my laptop to cue dings, buzzes, music cues and the like.  I cut a piece of notebook paper into 4 pieces and wrote Higher/Lower $(actual price) on them, then folded the pieces in half and wrote the fake price on the outside.  About as technologically primitive as you can get, but the entire room was into it, screaming "HIGHER!" "LOWER!" like the crowd on the actual show.  It was a thrilling experience.

My first year in college I decided it would be a great idea to try out one of my old netgames in real life for my Mass Comm 101 class.  How do you spell disaster?  N-U-M-B-E-R-P-L-E-A-S-E-L-I-V-E, that's how.

[MikeK]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'183874\' date=\'Apr 12 2008, 03:13 PM\']I hosted probably the first ever North American playing of Numberwang! last week.[/quote]
Oooh, sorry.  I hosted a game with one of my classes within a week of Numberwang first being introduced here.  The students gave me strange looks, even weirder than usual.

/still enjoys throwing out the occasional "That's Numberwang!" when a student gives an answer
//still enjoys getting the stranger than usual looks from the students
///I've done Deal or No Deal, Jeopardy!, Password, and emceed a schoolwide battle of the math classes for each of the last two years.
////Unsurprisingly, my team has won both times.

[mrmatchgame]

I hosted two times for school, Once around 2000 doing Jeopardy, and again around 2003 dubbed "Othello Blockbusters." I did ok, I'm just always scared to mess up the questions.

Around a few months ago some of my friends who are Broadcasting majors (Myself included) wanted to put on a game show, I gave them some DVD's to look at, Then I get dragged to create the format and host the show. Since then the idea is good as dead.

[Mike Tennant]

For three years at work I hosted a quarterly game show that I created, a panel show with the emphasis on humor.  It had absolutely nothing to do with the business (aside from a couple questions I stuck in the first two shows to convince the powers-that-were that it was slightly germane to our work) and was exceptionally popular.  I had never intended to have a continuing champion on the show, but the guy who won the first game was the kind the audience loved to hate (in a friendly sort of way--he's still there and we jovially boo him every time he wins an award), so I knew I had to bring him back.  He ended up winning seven games.  People who experienced the show still talk about it almost nine years later.

A few years ago there was a special event during which the company was putting on versions of Family Feud and Hollywood Squares.  I hosted two games of FF and appeared as a celebrity (doing my best Paul Lynde impression) on HS.  I also took the liberty of writing joke responses to the rather dry, business-related questions they were using, which all the other squares appreciated.  (I kind of wish I'd offered to host that one, even though it would have denied me the opportunity to be Paul Lynde, because the host we got had very little control over the proceedings and just let one of the contestants run away with the show, the result being we only got through one or two games.)

At church for several years now I've been hosting a Bible quiz in two different formats, both of which I invented.  I didn't want it to be just a straight quizzer, so I mixed it up a little and came up with ways to involve the audience.  We're doing another one in two weeks.  We also have board game nights from time to time, and I always bring several of my home versions and am never at a loss for contestants, who know I will run the game smoothly and with an abundance of humor.