The prizes on the table include but are not limited to Big Foot: The Giant Snow Monster Game, a dreamcatcher, a rubber-band gun, bath soap shaped like Mickey Mouse, a flirty cat collectible and Smath, the Game That Makes Math Fun.
On the shelves are a teddy bear dressed like a bouncer, a pastel drawing of fur-booted ravers, a floral sticker collage that spells out “I’m just a girl,” an aerobic workout series on VHS, a Simpsons CD, a Precious Moments embroidering of a Native American girl using a sewing machine, a golf hat with an Astroturf bill and a watercolor drawing of celery, a favorite of the artist’s. At one time a Mr. Mom video cassette occupied this space, but that was snagged by the game’s highest scorer so far, who also took home the Virgin Guadalupe glitter painting.
The prizes are labeled in dollar amounts, but are, of course, negotiable. Twelve-hundred dollars for the Yanni CD, $2,000 for the Where’s Elvis? jigsaw puzzle, $1,600 for Tom Selleck’s Ramblin’ Man. The framed poem called “You Can Never Go Back” is listed at $800, but the artist is willing to take $500.
Jesse Carson Smigel is the artist here, and also a trivia writer and host of many faces, namely Carson Johnny (a drunk), Randy “Macho Man” Savage and a swashbuckler who once worked as Jack Sparrow’s No. 4 body double in Pirates of the Caribbean. He’s developing others, like The Nillionaire and Crazy Ernie of Crazy Ernie’s used-car emporium, but they’re still baking.
Win, Lose, or Have Fun! at Cosmo’s P3Studio wrangles contestants to play Jeoparody, a punny homage to the TV game show, which quizzes contestants on categories like Hot Dog Condiments, Famous Toms and Things That Fall Out of Trees. There are no wrong answers in the latter category, but some are definitely more right.
“We have a lot of cheese-related questions,” says Chris Jones, who co-created the show. Case in point: Hot Dog Condiments, for $100, is, “What most people would consider other people’s cheese.” Answer: What is nacho cheese? There are non-dairy gems as well. Pirates, for $400: “One-handed pirates use this term to refer to casual sex.” Answer: What is hooking up?
Quick-witted Smigel shines as the host. His voice raw from too much Macho Man, he asks a boy from Canada to state his name for the scoreboard, and the kid mumbles his whole name. “What’s that?” Smigel squints. “Did you say Miles? Your name is miles and miles long, is what it is. But that’s okay, I like to have my middle name spoken, too.”
Win, Lose, or Have Fun! Through November 8; Wednesday & Thursday, 5-10 p.m.; Friday-Sunday, 6-11 p.m.; free. P3Studio, 702-698-7000.
