Well, if there was a night where myself and my ever delightful host Jen had more fun than Thursday you’d be hard pressed to find it.  Given the crowd and the night, it was almost the Jen and Matt morning show on KBee.  Like two true comedic hosts working the crowd, we definitely had a great night.

Anyway, after Tobin’s friends (including the “funniest man in the world”) bailed because, as Jen said: “They had no balls”, we got the night started with our favorite 4th grade words of weeks past.  Words like p-h-a-l-a-n-x and h-o-d-g-e-p-o-d-g-e got blown through in the first round.  But, after round two were already down to our final three.

Pam, our contestant from Winchestertonsfieldville, IA, was the first finalist to bite the dust. However, the school nurse/Santa stamp collector really had a great time.

That left us with our final two (who pledged a grudge match rematch next week)

Finishing second was our friend Dick (who really lived up to his name). Dick claimed to only wear underwear when it’s a fine mesh, but we decided to prevent him from proving that to us.

Finishing first by correctly spelling f-l-i-p-p-a-n-t and c-l-a-n-d-e-s-t-i-n-e in order was Richard (our Doogie Howser look alike)

Thanks to everyone who had balls.  We’ll see you each and every week at 7:30! Matt and Jen out.

With Vince in one corner, Fred in the other, and Vanessa in the middle, the Buzz Bee battle went on (and on, and on) last night!  We started a bit earlier in the evening (7:30) and despite most people just wanting to eat their dinner and be entertained, we found ten brave folks who took on the Spelling challenge.   

Fred had the largest, and loudest cheering section for the first half of the evening, as his office party fully stopped their cell phone ’show and tell’ each time he was up to spell.  With something like 20 guys, that can get loud!  But then Vince made it to the finals and his office party stepped it up, literally from the opposite side of the room.   Not to leave out Vanessa’s fans - they were very eager to help her out by asking for sentences and definitions even though she didn’t seem to need them.

Vanessa, Vince and Fred, in that order. 

After two solid rounds of double-elimination torture, we got down to our final five players: Dan, Jordan, Vanessa, Fred and Vince.

Despite starting a bit late, and swearing the he would be the winner of the Bee that night, Jordan didn’t make it to the final three.  Next time!  Dan, the dodgeball fanatic, also didn’t quite make the cut, but I’m sure it was that he had a tough word.  

Once we were down to three, my intrepid co-host Matt and I decided to go to the 4th grade words (the tough ones) and that made for quite a final round.  After 30 words, we managed to get one of our crazy contestants to spell two of them correctly in a row.  That lucky dog was Vince, the flamenco guitar player.  He asked to take his picture with me, and I was in a good mood so I obliged.

So there you have it!  Another successful night of the Buzz Bee at Blake Street Tavern.  Thanks also to Rhonda, Doug, Adam, Matt and Travis for playing!  Get out your dictionaries and study for the next one.

See you then!

Jen

The Buzz Bee was back with a vengeance last night at Blake Street Tavern!  My irreplaceable co-host Matt and I were thrilled to have a great crowd come back after a week off and the V-day holiday.  We had almost 20 brave (or possibly drunk) contestants.  Despite the claims of not being able to spell or not knowing what a word meant, we confirmed that many Denverites really can spell.  Seriously people, it’s ok to be smart.  We’re not in high school anymore!  

Many thanks to Jeff “crabass” Popiel and his lively group who all participated last night!   They made the evening much more entertaining.  See, we ask you to tell us something interesting about yourself that we can chat with you about when you get up to the mic, and Jeff offered up his love for the ballet, kegstands, and the tattoo of a crab on his ass.  While tempting, I didn’t let him prove that was true.

As for the spelling, it took four rounds to get down to our final five…

and one more to get down to our final two, Josh and Juan. 

It was a short final round, as Juan missed his first word and we went to Josh for two correct words in a row.  He didn’t let us down and with vitreous and littoral he was once again crowned Buzz Bee Champion!  Nicely done! (This will be Josh’s last appearance at the Bee, as he will likely scare away future spellers. Kidding, sort of.)

Leah and friends, we hope to see you guys again!  Brodie and Jason - great to see you guys back! And thanks to everyone for giving it a shot (or two)!  We will be back next week and every Thursday at Blake Street!!  The more people who play, the better the prizes will be, so tell your friends.  See you there!

Jen

Well, neither snow, nor dark, nor lack of a love life could stop your intrepid hosts Matt and Jen from hosting the BuzzBee tonight at Blake Street Tavern.  And while the crowd was expectedly small, an epic battle ensued.

Thanks to all the bar staff who kept the $3.50 Old Scratch pints flowing. The game came down to a final four: Crystal (with her spelling son Christian in tow) was the first of our finalists knocked out. She earned a free drink for her efforts.

Finishing in third was Parker.  Parker could spell pretty well but seems to have had difficulty in finding someone to cut his hair well. So, in absence of a proper stylist, he turned to the old stand-by: The Flowbee.  That’s right, cuts your hair and sucks it right into the vacuum.  Next time Parker, dial it up to a 3 or a 4 rather than your 50’s flat-top. Still, third place earned him a $5 bar tab.

The final two came down to a battle between the shortest tall man ever: Jared, and our resident walking pedestrian accident: Ben. We switched to the harder list and these two battled through 16 words! Jared prevailed in the end by correctly spelling pleonastic and parsimonious in order. Ben took home a $10 bar tab for his second place finish and Jared earned a $20 bar tab.  Nice work gentlemen.

 We’re expecting to be back next week, so bring all your friends down to Blake Street for the BuzzBee! 

So, all week I was quizzing my co-workers on the correct spelling (and meaning) of Sesquipedalian:

I can’t say that I knew either until after our first BuzzBee, but it made me look that much more to week #2.

Anyway, after a nearly flawless performance by yours truly and my delightful and delectable co-host Jen, week two presented some unique challenges.  After fighting with the sound for what seemed liked an eternity, we forged ahead with words like: Toady, Insidious and Revivalist in the first round, and words like: Auctorial, Laureate, and Isochronal.

17 players fought hard and dirty to the final three pictured below

 Anyway,  3rd place went to Brody from Nebraska, 2nd to Ana from Littleton, and 1st place went to Kendra from Denver (a self proclaimed can’t speller).

Thanks to the Denver Arts Museum for being our lead sponsor and all the girls on staff at Blake Street.  We’ll be back in two weeks (that’s right, it’s the anti-Valentines Day BuzzBee) right back at Blake Street.

Can you handle this!

Seriously!  We were down to the LAST WORD on our list trying to eliminate the super-smarties that came out for the first-ever Buzz Bee at Blake Street Tavern!  I feel stupid for underestimating how great you guys would do.   Lesson learned… harder words to come!

It all started out at 8pm with 25 players bravely being the guinea pigs for our first night.  With the double-elimination process everyone had a second chance since there was an element of luck as to what word you got stuck with.   Matt Cohen and I, your humble judge Jen, worked the Bee together and we had a blast!! 

It took several rounds but we finally came down to our top five super-smarties: Allison, Shelley, David, Josh and Paul.  Paul’s family was an entire group of spelling geniuses, but he couldn’t hang on when he was asked to spell sesquipedalian.  (Yeah, that word is ridiculous!)  Our final word of the night, to determine the winner was diphyodont and when Allison couldn’t quite get that one, we were left with Josh, genius supreme, as the winner of the first ever Buzz Bee.   Way to go Josh!  And a huge round of applause to our final five and the rest of the brave peeps who blew us away with their spelling abilities!  Thanks so much for making it a killer night!!

Here’s Shelley, who can say all of the United States in alphabetical order in less than 28 (ish) seconds!  She proved it tonight… (that was awesome!)

Our friend Paul…

David here was one of the bravest first two players!

And Allison, our second-place finisher.  We’ll see her next week with more teachers to increase the competition!

Last, but not at all the least, our winner Josh!

We’ll be back next week, Bee starts at 8pm but show up earlier to register at Blake Street Tavern.  Where else could you possibly want to BEE?

Kudos to Tobin for an excellent idea to get this going here in Denver.  Looking forward to it becoming a huge success!!  Also, to the Denver Art Museum and Tattered Cover who provided great prizes for the evening, it really completed a quality night.  You guys rock!

See y’all next week!

Jen