RC: What’s your favorite Last Call show to host? Feud? Tunes? Trivia?
Laura: TUNES, BABY. The format is so much fun and I learn a ton about music each week!! I play each show by myself before I host it and look up the artists I don’t know. (I totally have a life, okay?)
RC: What question types/categories do you love / always get right?
Laura: Well, there’s always a plethora of art history, X-Files, and “Who’s that Pokemon?” questions every single trivia night, so I’m basically an MVP wherever I’m playing.
RC: What gaps are in your trivia knowledge/questions you suck at?
Laura: One of my teams once made me a personal final question sheet as a joke. It said, “Name five basketball players.” From any era, from any team. It took me almost three minutes to complete and they wouldn’t let me put Michael Jordan twice.
RC: What’s the best *wrong* answer a team has given you? (Or even just a few funny ones, if you remember.)
Laura: This past week we had a question of what caused Don Quixote to become delusional. Of the PG-rated answers I can actually mention here, among them were “a very tightly closed jar of pickles,” “the ridiculously good-looking man in the mirror” and “lots and lots of mescaline.” One team out of twelve actually got it right.
RC: What are some of your favorite/funniest/filthiest team names?
Laura: Oh man!! “My Couch Pulls Out But I Don’t” is a classic. “P*** on the Cob” gets super creative with their name every week, they always change it to something different. “Chewbacca 2Pac Chupacabra” is REALLY fun to say over the mic. “Bourbon Butt Buddies” at Myrtle’s this week was pretty good. Oh, I once had a team who drew D***b*** on their answer sheet every single time. They never wrote it out, just drew it. That’s some serious commitment.
RC: Do you try to tailor your setlist to the questions? (Not exactly for clues, but even thematically?)
Laura: Ohhhh all the time. I have something like 30,000 songs on my iTunes, all of which were totally paid for and downloaded legally. I love tailoring my songs to the taste of my venues, and the question being asked! (Unless the theme round is Rihanna Songs. In situations like that, I flat out refuse.)
RC: Do you have favorite songs to include or theme music that you start with every week?
Laura: I used to play “She Blinded Me With Science” during every science question but then I got threatened with a revolt, so now I stick to the Thong Song. You know, for science.
RC: What are some ways a team can get on your bad side? / What do successful teams do well?
Laura: BRING YOUR PENS BACK TO ME AT THE END OF THE GAME. I’ve tried bribery, death threats, and collateral, nothing works. I always hemorrhage pens each week. Successful teams, on the other hand, bring their host baked goods and buy her a beer. This has been scientifically proven to be direct causation of consistent 101 and 102 scores. There are peer-reviewed studies, people.
RC: What is your favorite power-up in Super Mario Brothers? Fire-flower? Tanooki/Flying Raccoon suit? Star of invincibility?
Laura: You know in Super Mario Brothers 3 where Mario tucks into a giant green boot and stomps all the mother cluckers in his way? THAT Mario. Though Tanooki is a close second.
RC: Don’t you hate it when a team folds their answer sheets into something the size of an aspirin with a thousand folds in it, and it takes half a song to unfold it so you can see what their answer is?
Laura: Honestly one fold bugs me more. I have no idea why. It just does.
RC: Any favorite / funny stories from hosting? Mispronouncing a keyword in a question? Slamming down hecklers?
Laura: Here’s my top three, based on what comes to mind right now:
1. Apparently, Sinéad O’Connor is not pronounced “Sin-ee-ad.” So much time was wasted laughing at/heckling me after that one. (I swear, I’d never seen her name written before!!)
2. One of my teams once put “NY Day” as an answer and I counted it wrong because New York Day is not a federal holiday, obviously. It’s now an inside joke and they consistently guess “New York Day” as a theme round.
3. I think one of my favorite moments was a dance-off to “Now that We Found Love” by Heavy D & the Boyz. I didn’t officially win, but in my heart, I was the peoples’ choice. (Don’t ruin this for me.)
RC: Anything else?
Laura: I never thought, four years later, I’d still be doing this! My teams are definitely the reason I love hosting so much. And if you know anyone who’s engaged or just wants to see what I’m up to when I’m not hosting trivia, look me up at laura-fisher-photography.com! I travel to weddings all the time and I’m pretty good at photographing things. (ED: She seriously is amazing. Check her out!)
Also, if you get out to one of her shows, request a Phil Collins song. She loves that guy!