The format was something of a combination of popular gameshows, including 'Who Wants to be a Millionnaire', 'Jeopardy', and of course the old school favorite, 'Name that Tune.' Set for three rounds, the first was a 20 song series where everyone at the party listened and wrote down their answers for a chance to make it to round 2, where three contestants would battle it out. The hope was that the birthday boy and his friend M* would go head to head, but neither of them recognized enough songs to move on. That was not really a problem as I had built-in a way to involve the audience and keep everyone's interest by providing each contestant two (which later became three) lifelines. Using these, the participant could call on an audience member to help them out.
This second round covered 5 different categories (Female Performers, The 80s, Hard Rock, Country, and 'B' Bop - all groups beginning with the letter 'B') and included 30 song clips, personally handpicked and digitally re-recorded. My goal with this round was to keep things pretty even, be generous where I could, and make sure everyone was having a good time. Different from the first round in which the players could name anything (i.e. performer, name of song, or album), the second round gave bonus points for knowing the song title as well as the performer. When the dust had cleared, two gentlemen contestants were tied for the lead with 1700 points, and the lone female contestant, BG, was a close second with 1600.
For final jeopardy, each player was asked to write down a wager, knowing the category was 'puzzle'. With that complete, I began to play a series of four 30-second song clips, telling contestants that one of the bands was different from the rest. I played clips from the Monkeys, the Eagles, the Doors, and the Beatles. The simple difference was that a door is not an animal. Of the three contestants, only BG correctly wrote down and kept the winning answer (at least one other contestant tried to outthink the puzzle). I congratulated the audience, the three contestants and especially our winner, BG, and thanked K* and A* for holding the party at their house. I was given an ovation from the audience for my first and apparently successful performance as a game show host. Regis and Alex: look out - there's a new kid on the block!
I think one of the things I liked most was that people debated and critiqued the rules, the songs (and their categorization), each other, etc. My housemate later gave me the comment about 98% of it was excellent, and people were finding the 2% to pick apart. I didn't mind at all, and my response was that it showed that people genuinely cared about the game. I feel proud to have been able to foster a supportive environment where everyone was given the ability to do their best, to take guesses (as there were no penalties), and still feel the presence of the competition. Another is that I am happy to have put something together that may very well be a memorable event for years to come.
I am grateful to have the friends I do, and to know such wonderful, positive, and intelligent people. I am personally thankful for my housemate's girlfriend, S*, for giving me the opportunity to create something wonderful. And cheers to my housemate and my friend, who is now one year older.