Host Gene Rayburn and celebrities have fun with double entendres in MATCH GAME
COMEDY BELOW CANAL
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Thursday, March 25, $12, 9:00
212-415-5500
www.92YTribeca.org
One of the most popular game shows of all time, MATCH GAME pitted two contestants against each other, having to guess how a half-dozen pseudocelebrities would fill in the blank of a sentence read by the host; for example: “The Irishman said, ‘I’ll never eat another mushroom. I just found out that leprechauns [blank] in the woods.’” The show experienced its heyday in the mid-1970s, when cerebral host Gene Rayburn built a wry, kinky, hysterical relationship with regular guests Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Richard Dawson, along with a changing roster of participants that included Bobby Van, Elaine Joyce, Avery Schreiber, Fannie Flagg, Jaye P. Morgan, Patti Deutsch, Nipsey Russell, Nancy Dussault, Bert Convy, Betty White, Scoey Mitchell, Joyce Bulifant, Jo Ann Pflug, and many others. Every once in a while somebody still tries to resurrect the show, but they can never find the magic of those fabulous 1970s/’80s episodes. Now 92YTribeca is giving it a shot, as part of their Comedy Below Canal series, staging its own version of MATCH GAME tonight, featuring a wacky cast of some of New York City’s strangest and funniest: Voice scribe Michael Musto, NY1 anchor Pat Kiernan, multidisciplinary artist Jessica Delfino, comedians Sara Schaefer and Judy Gold, and the always riotous Frank DeCaro, with musical comic Ben Lerman hosting. Expect some wild, crazy, and very rude antics.