Who Can It Be Now? -- Answers to Yesterday's Real Names of Rock Stars Quiz

I hope at least a few people enjoyed my Real Names of Rock Stars Quiz, which I posted here yesterday. From my traffic stats and Facebook likes, it seemed that a good number did.

So before you completely forget about it, I figure I should post the answers.

Please click here to see the answers, which I've posted as a PDF.

Those who want a clean PDF of the quiz itself should click this link.

So, how many did you know?

Who Are You, Who-Who, Who-Who? -- The Real Names of Rock Stars Quiz

Excited to see Elvis Costello in concert on Saturday night, it got me thinking about other rock stars who are better known by stage names or pseudonyms. So beyond the ones I’d already knew, I did a bit of research and came up with this Real Names of
Rock Stars Quiz.

See who you know from the list of real names, keeping in mind it includes both living and dead musicians and that I’ve expanded the “rock” genre to include blues, rap and more.

If you would like to print it out, click here for a PDF. Please do not cite the answers as Comments; I will post them as a PDF in a few days and call it out in a new blog post. (Update: I've now posted the answers, accessible through this post.)

1. Reginald Dwight
2. Gordon Sumner
3. Cheryl Sarkisian
4. Paul Hewson
5. Declan McManus
6. David Evans
7. Stefani Germanotta
8. Stuart Goddard
9. Patricia Andrejewski
10. Robert Zimmerman
11. John Deutschendorf
12. Elias Otha Bates
13. Calvin Broadus, Jr.
14. Michael Balzary
15. William Broad
16. Riley King
17. Gary Lee Weinrib
18. James Smith
19. Barry Pincus
20. Farrokh Bulsara
21. Roberta Anderson
22. Alecia Moore
23. James Osterberg, Jr.
24. Vincent Furnier
25. Jeffery Hyman
26. John Cummings
27. William Bailey
28. Curtis Jackson
29. Chaim Witz
30. Saul Hudson
31. Richard Starkey
32. John Mellor
33. Eileen Edwards
34. Steven Tallarico
35. John Ritchie
36. Edward Severson III
37. McKinley Morganfield
38. Steveland Morris
39. LaDonna Gaines
40. Steven Georgiou
41. Tracy Marrow
42. Franklin Feranna
43. Louis Firbank
44. Ingram Cecil Connor III
45. Hugh Cregg
46. Robert Van Winkle
47. Joan Larkin
48. Audrey Perry
49. David Jones
50. Marvin Lee Aday
51. Richard Melville Hall
52. Frances Gumm
53. Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong
54. George O’Dowd
55. Brian Warner
56. Enrique Morales
57. Charles Westover
58. Claude Bridges
59. Stanley Eisen
60. Sylvester Stewart

A Star is Born in 'Crisis'

Theater Review

Crisis: A Musical Game Show
Neo-Futurarium
Chicago
Through June 12
@@@

As incongruous as it sounds, last night I was on-stage--albeit without an actual stage--at one of Chicago's most famous theaters.

And even more shockingly--especially as I even did a bit of public singing--the audience gave me a nice hand when I was finished.

But alas, I still went home a loser.

You see, I went to see the Neo-Futurists current prime-time production, Crisis: A Musical Game Show (and also stuck around to see their longstanding late-night show Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, which I'll review separately when time permits).

Before every performance of Crisis, a 25-question, Scantron-scored trivia test is given to all audience members. Out of about 80 people, I was one of the 8 top scorers and was selected to be in the game show, and thus on-stage.

Taking place amidst original musical numbers and some cheeky "ads," the first-round of game-playing was basically a take-off on Family Feud. As part of a team of four, I led off the game by beating my opponent to the punch in naming one of the "Things People Fear Most,"--public speaking was my answer--and then proceeded to help my team crush the other in all three rounds of the initial game.

After that, it was every man and woman for him or herself, and the second round wasn't knowledge-based, but more about thinking and moving quickly on your feet. This included musical chairs, having to vote out one of our teammates, watching a short movie, answering questions about it and then writing & singing a jingle about it. The silly movie was ostensibly about a Nigerian dictator who loved McDonalds, the Atlanta Braves and Woody Allen, and who needed to sell off his belongings. So my written-on-the-spot song went:

I love Woody Allen/But he lost Mia Farrow/So won't you buy my items/And you can be my hero

Although the actors and audience laughed, I was voted out and sent back to the audience, dubbed "The Losers' Lounge." My shot at stardom, and the $300 the winner eventually earned, was over. But after seeing the next round, which involved running around the stage, I'm glad my participation ended when it did.

I had fun, but as I was either on-stage or backstage for about half the show, it was hard to truly gauge its merits as a performance, especially to those only in the audience. But @@@ seems about right, as Crisis was enjoyable, and even a bit insightful in satirizing game shows and commenting on the economic meltdown, but the musical numbers were slight and the humor was fleeting.

I wasn't quite the best thing about Crisis, but in my mind, it wouldn't have been quite as good without me in it. Although to be fair, the winner--a Chicago-actor-turned-lawyer named John--was a good guy, the high scorer on the test and much better than I would've been on-stage in the last two rounds. He deserved the $300.

Anyway, if you go, I'd suggest trying to be in Crisis rather than simply seeing it.