Games people play

On Friday night, another critic and I visited the charming Burbank Airport Hilton for the annual Game Show Congress, where a celebrated local live show was making its perhaps final appearance. It's called "What's My Line Live," and it's a lovingly accurate recreation of the 1950s game show by J. Keith van Straaten, who has been performing "What's My Line Live" at L.A.'s Acme Comedy Club for years. J. Keith (as everyone seems to call him) is moving to NYC and it's not clear if or when he'll stage WMLL again, so if I was going to see the show Mark Evanier and others have endorsed, this would be the time.

Everything I had seen about WMLL had led me to believe it would be clever and fun, but also slightly too worshipful and, well, geeky. After all, most people under 45 don't even remember "What's My Line?" unless they watch GSN really late at night.  What I hadn't counted on was ... it was a hoot! Check out my slide show at Flickr. Audio: David Weiss plays the "Final Jeopardy" tune on his saw