What is alektrophobia?

(A fear of chickens, worth 40 points)

What's wrong with the male marijuana plant?

(It won't get you high, worth another 40 points)

Who's beer glass is empty?

(Hold it up and you get a complimentary 10 points)

Sometimes it's difficult to succinctly describe Absolution, a gonzo-like live gameshow that has been growing in popularity among Bryan and College Station bars since it was unveiled in January.

It's sort of like Trivial Pursuit, sometimes. Other times it's more similar to the board game Taboo, The Gong Show or a dinner at Dick's Last Resort. It occasionally helps to be working toward a Ph.D. in physics, although during some rounds contestants whose minds are cleared of all intelligent thought have an obvious advantage. Buzzer prowess is a must.

"We try to find questions people can answer when they're a little bit inebriated," explained Jordan Neidinger, who writes a script for each show and mans the laptop that distributes points to teams. "We want people to be able to drink and still win."

His invention -- consisting of 10 wireless buzzers, a half-dozen gimmicks for earning points and an outgoing partner who hosts the event, cracking jokes and encouraging teams to trash talk each other -- already has seen expansion from once-a-week shows at Margarita Rocks, where it started. Weekly games also are taking place these days at The Lounge and P.O.E.T.S., and this weekend Halo is slated to begin hosting it as well.

Neidinger has been in the entertainment business since 2004, after his enlistment at a Coast Guard base in California ended and he moved to College Station to attend Texas A&M.

He became partners with a friend who was starting to book karaoke gigs and began collecting equipment of his own. Eventually, he started his own business --Absolute Entertainment -- which now has five employees and provides karaoke for multiple bars and private events.

But he was looking for a way to expand in a market that already is saturated with karaoke nights.

"The thing about karaoke we noticed is if you're not inclined to get onstage and sing, you just won't participate," he said. "We needed a way to have people participate without feeling put on the spot."

His solution came last September, when he found prototypes online for a buzzer system that would allow him to rig up matches similar to Jeopardy or the face-off round of Family Feud. Absolute entertainment was the first company to order a batch of the buzzers and while waiting months for the $2,500 shipment to arrive, Neidinger designed the software for a game to be used with them.

Game play

"What is 70 percent of 70 percent?" host Matthew Peters asked during a recent game, followed by an immediate buzz and a pause as a contestant -- who had been steadily working on a pitcher of margaritas -- realized with a mumbled obscenity he had no idea what the answer was.

"No, 'F

' is not a correct answer," Peters said with a smile, moving on to the next team to buzz.

"What is Arkansas known as?" Peters asked the crowd a short time later.

"The Razorback State," one team shouted incorrectly (turns out it's actually nicknamed The Natural State).

Almost, Peters said: "The answer I was actually looking for was The Incest State."

The games are free to bar-goers and winners of each round win prizes, such as an entree from Margarita Rocks or a Chipotle burrito. The overall winner at the end of the night gets an Absolution T-shirt worth an extra 10 points whenever worn to future games.

Neidinger, who turns 30 this month, works full-time from home putting shows together. It takes about three days to assemble a new episode.

Some rounds are easier to design than others.

The game's Name That Tune-inspired round is simple enough. So is the scramble round, in which phrases are formulated using a simple online generator. For instance, the letters FITCH TAG might be displayed on the screen accompanied by a photo clue consisting of two scantily-clad women pulling each others' hair.

The first contestant to buzz in with "cat fight" wins the points.

At another point in the game, the first team to sound the buzzer when a karaoke symbol displays on screen gets to sing a song for up to 80 points.

The catch: Neidinger and Peters pick it for you (the two displayed evil grins recently as a reporter trying out the game for the first time was assigned My Humps by The Black Eyed Peas). Points are added and subtracted for style, conviction or whatever other excuse the host can come up with.

Collecting new trivia questions, however, is always on Neidinger's mind.

"We want questions you have to think about," like what president is on the back of the dime (Franklin Roosevelt) or what is the second-to-last state alphabetically (Wisconsin), he said. "But they're not really brainiac questions. They're more like brain teasers."

That's what sets Absolution apart from other bar trivia games, such as the weekly pub quiz at O'Bannon's Tap House on Northgate and the online Buzztime game played on TV screens at Buffalo Wild Wings, Fox and Hound and The Tap.

Those definitely have entertainment value, but in a different way, said Neidinger, adding that they don't have the same sort of interaction. Part of the fun of Absolution, he explained, is watching teams jeer each other.

"Hey, O'Shay, you lost again," a member of a team that called itself Thanx4Nothing shouted last week at the conclusion of a round at The Lounge.

There was a moment of silence before team O'Shay collected itself and shot back a pretty decent response: "You didn't even win that round!"

At the same show, one member of Thanx4Nothing had to get her teammate to come up with the word "G-string" without using words such as "underwear" or "spot." Teams were then asked to define "fornicate" (hint: "sex" isn't a sufficient enough answer).

"We try to make the questions a little more racy so people can have an R-rated time with it," Neidinger explained. "We'd rather have an easy question that makes people laugh than a hard question that leaves people quiet."

Peters also helps prepare the show, sometimes coming up with bonus questions on the spot. Other times there are open-ended freestyle rounds, in which teams are awarded for coming up with their own answers to questions such as "What three shots should a guy should never order?" or "What are five words for sex that aren't dirty?"

"That was one of those you had to be there," Neidinger explained. "People inevitably say something dirty."

Neidinger initially envisioned someone with a theater background hosting the show, but Peters was already with the company as a karaoke host and his style caught on. The company recently added former Midnight Rodeo DJ Chase Linscomb to host another set of shows.

"We rehearse a little bit before, but for the most part I encourage [Peters] to do it on the spot," Neidinger said of the asides and bonus questions. "That's a central part of the show. People can tell it's more fluid."

Beyond B-CS

Using the wiring experience he obtained while an avionics technician in the military, Neidinger recently designed a second buzzer system to be used once the show expands to Halo.

Although not wireless, the new system should have fewer kinks in it and is considerably cheaper to build, he said.

Once that technology is in place, and once the Absolution shows are more established locally, Neidinger said he hopes to expand the idea -- making it a statewide trend, if possible.

Like karaoke, it seems to be a profitable idea for bars, who pay for the show as a way of attracting new customers, he said. And for bar-goers, who pay nothing to play, it provides no-risk entertainment.

The eventual idea, Neidinger said, is to sell his handmade equipment and then provide subscribers with weekly episode updates that can be used by entrepreneur hosts in other towns. He has confidence the franchise concept will work.

"It's something different," he said. "It's something nobody else is doing quite like this."

• Craig Kapitan's e-mail address is craig.kapitan@theeagle.com.

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