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Press > Sky Movies • Film4 Frightfest • Londonist • High Life
Time Out • Frommer's • Londonist
Evening Standard • Islington Gazette
We were hired to develop and run a film quiz event in conjunction with Sky Movies HD that saw teams from some of the top movie magazines in the UK compete against one another in a quickfire fingers-on-buzzers gameshow-style panel show. In front of a live audience, and presented by the affable Mark Dolan, host of Sky's own 35mm film show, the four teams and their celebrity captains - Carl Weathers, Paul McGann, Marshall Bell and Alice Krige - went head-to-head to see who would come out on top.
| More pictures from the event - click to enlarge | |
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Here are some snippets from some of the write-ups of the event:
SFX Magazine (Full article is available here)
The format was University Challenge-based, with starter questions and bonuses, and it was introduced by Mark Dolan, presenter of Sky’s 35mm show (if you don’t have Sky, he’s probably more familiar from Balls Of Steel), who introduced Russell as Jordan Farley, the ninny. (He clearly doesn’t read the mag, but we won’t hold that against him; we might hold against him the fact that he kept giving HeyUGuys clues, but they did have Weathers on their side and had minus pints for a while because of the penalties he incurred, so we’ll let that slide). In the first half SFX got off to a roaring lead thanks to Richard’s intimate knowledge of Wayne’s World, and Russell’s love of Hitchcock. We came a bit of a cropper on the music round (hell, would anybody recognise the theme from Born On The Fourth Of July except John Williams?) but were in a commanding lead by the break.
But it was a game of two halves, and Empire fought back valiantly (the blighters), until at the final whistle it was 110 all. It was a tie-break situation… And we were just slightly slower on the button on a question about The Odd Couple. Bugger. So near, and yet so far. But we feel we failed with honour. And we did talk Penge with Doctor Who.
Hey U Guys (Full article is available here)
Sky Movies man Mark Dolan led the charge through the questions which took us on a merry jaunt through Hitchcock cameos, tall tales from the Wizard of Oz and obscure taglines. We got off to a great start and plunged instantly into minus figures when we felt the burn of being buzzer happy. Cementing our position as underdogs we watched the opposing teams stretch out long leads while we eventually emerged into positive figures before falling foul of the almost prescient abilities our our knowledgeable opponents, but we still got a question on Backdraft right – and that made us happy.
Total Sci-Fi Online (Full article is available here)
Given the collective movie buffery of the competing teams, what could have been a rather one-sided viewing experience for the audience actually turned out to be a very engaging 90 minutes. The questions varied markedly in difficulty, allowing the spectators to silently participate while occasionally giving the competitors pause. The mix of clips, stills and soundtracks livened up the atmosphere, as did the personalised buzzers allocated to teams.
Now in its twelfth year, Film4 FrightFest is billed as the UK's premiere fantasy and horror film festival. They have previously put together their own quizzes but this year decided to go for something a little more slick and brought us in to create for them a horror-themed audiovisual quiz, or, as the FrightFest organisers put it "a mind-bending test of horror knowledge"
We had the pleasure of teaming up with actor, writer, producer, magician and all-round gentleman Andy Nyman to develop and stage Andy Nyman's Quiz From Hell. Shown in all its gory glory on the massive Screen 1 in Leicester Square's iconic Empire Cinema, it was certainly the biggest ever quiz for the You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat team!
Images copyright Julie Edwards 2010: www.julieedwardsphotography.co.uk
Here are some snippets from some of the write-ups of the event:
Total Film
"Next up was Andy Nyman’s Quiz From Hell – it’s always good to see the expert FrightFest crowd pushed to the limits of their immense knowledge."
Horror Channel
"a smart, funny and brain scratching segment that caused many discussions in the cinema foyer. Seriously did anyone get them all correct?"
Dread Central
"Andy took some time away from the stage of Ghost Stories to pop over and treat us all to an excellent live-action horror quiz projected onto the Empire’s massive screen"
Outpost Skaro
"Andy Nyman took to the stage next to host the Quiz From Hell, made by Simon Williams and Lee-Jay Bannister who are behind genius pub film quiz You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat. This was well made and presented, with a good balance both for the casual viewer as well as the horror addict, and rounds like "What Happened Next?" incorporating clips added to the variety. My personal favourite section was the Soundtracks segment - 20 clips from 20 films, the first playing for 20 seconds, the next for 19, then 18... all the way down to the last for a single second!"
The Londonist kindly gave us a special mention prior to our Fifth Birthday Quiz in which they called us "an all-singing, all-dancing, part-exploding, often stirring car chase of an event" which, as big Jerry Bruckheimer fans, we are happy to accept as the ultimate compliment!
British Airways High Life Magazine • 2009
You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat went truly international with this nice little mention in BA's in-flight magazine High Life: "London's coolest bars have reinvented the great British pub quiz. If you though the good old British pub quiz was about warm ale and the Battle of Hastings, think again. Some of the capital's hippest drinking dens have their own quirky take on the theme ... movie buffs can show off at The Boogaloo."
Time Out London were gracious enough to include us in their list of the best film quizzes in London, in which they described us as "a very high-tech (and often tough) quiz".
We were lucky enough to get a namecheck in renowned American guidebook Pauline Frommer's London (thus explaining the noticeable influx of American-speaking Bigger Boat fans in recent months!). In the chapter titled "How Londoners Amuse Themselves", the author attempts to explain the British obsession with quiz nights, and provides advice to American visitors hoping to join in:
Foreigners who win should expect to receive some good-natured ribbing from the regulars, which depending on your charms can easily be parlayed into some free pints... Should you need to recruit extra players on the spot for your team (which I recommend, since it will round out your knowledge base), you'll make some new English friends - after all, nothing bonds strangers together like useless trivia.
Londonist have been big supporters of You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat from the beginning and have written many very nice things about us. In this article, part of their regular "Londonist Loves..." series, they published this great write-up of a typical quiz night:
"Last night Londonist put together another team for You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat in Highgate. By 11pm we had confirmed two things. 1. We are not as smart as we thought we were, and 2. This is the best pub quiz we’ve ever been to.
This was our second outing and while again we managed to finish respectably enough in the top ten, this is without a doubt the toughest quiz we’ve ever been to. It’s also a lot of fun. The setting is great. The Boogaloo on Archway Road is a very special venue – check out their mission statement: 'To encourage and promote, to entertain and educate our audience in real music, to return to it’s golden era, a time when boogaloo was hip, Elvis was King, Jack Kennedy was a poster boy and vinyl was all the rage. To develop and promote this through the ideal surroundings of a ‘Juke Joint’…' Nice.
The whole thing is run very professionally by Simon and Lee-Jay, but they have a special circle of hell reserved after coming up with questions like: 'What was Dalton’s third rule in the 1989 Patrick Swayze movie Road House? Clue: Rule 1 – never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Rule 2 – take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it’s absolutely necessary.'
That one cropped up the last time we were there and we’re still in awe of people who have that kind of thing filed away along with trivia about Dolph Lundgren. The same punters also seem to have no problem recognising the theme from Rain Man remixed as a techno track and can spot and name King Acrisius fromClash of the Titans without breaking a sweat. The quiz itself is broken up into several rounds covering trivia (which actor was the highest ranking officer in WW2?), soundtracks (Pearl Harbor and a trance remix of Planet of the Apes for Christ’s sake!), trailers, a guest star round (Dustin Hoffman last night) and a photo section that will give you a headache. Damn good fun though.
The whole thing runs from around 8.30pm until 10.30pm depending on how many times they have to replay the cut up trailers or soundbites for idiots like us. The half way mark features a run down of the scores so far and perhaps the best bit is finding out the answers (Little Orphan Annie’s second name anyone?) and shaking your head miserably into your beer as you realise the team next to you really do take Sean Bean’s career very seriously indeed. Prizes range from big *ck-off top of the line toys (Robocop / Kill Bill) to DVDs and plonk!"
In their round-up of London's greatest pub quizzes, the Evening Standard kindly included us as the "Best [Pub Quiz] For Movie Buffs" (they even got our name right) and described us as "a glitzy two-hour film quiz recorded on DVD and projected on a big screen."
The Islington Gazette interviewed us for an article on the London pub quiz scene, and asked us to provide a collection of some of our favourite questions (it's just a shame they couldn't get the name right!). Here's a brief excerpt from the full-page article:
"Competing for the title of best pub quiz is The Boogaloo's "We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" [sic] film quiz. The monthly event has been put together by movie buffs Simon Williams, 27, and Lee-Jay Bannister, 28, since May last year and is a runaway success.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reportedly used the Boogaloo as their inspiration for the Winchester in Shaun Of The Dead and Jude Law has appeared on screen as a quiz master.
The quiz name comes from the unforgettable moment in Steven Spielberg's shark attack thriller Jaws when Roy Scheider first comes face to face with the mechanical monster.
Simon said: "A lot of the people who come to take part aren't movie buffs and so we make sure the questions aren't too obscure. And we try to mix it up a bit and add some chick flick questions which your typical movie buff may not be that good at!"
Gerry O'Boyle is the proud owner of The Boogaloo and responsible for its rich quiz history. "We have always had a quiz here because I think it's something there is a demand for. We have a great reputation and I think it's important that we uphold it... We are always packed on quiz nights."
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