‘Name That Tune Live!’ offers full game-show experience

It took Jenna Hollenbeck less than three seconds to recognize Pantera's "Cemetery Gates." She probably wasn't supposed to.

After all, this was Thursday afternoon at the Imperial Palace. This game of "Name That Tune Live!" had stumped previous contestants with the opening strains of Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker," the Go-Go's' "We Got the Beat" and Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou," even though the title played in the chorus.

The metal anthem was sure to be the deal-breaker for Hollenbeck, who had only one song and three seconds standing in the way of $10,000, the top prize for this live spinoff of the game-show institution.

But she jammed her red-light buzzer as soon as DJ Jimmy Z (Zito) played the first notes, whooping and jumping around the stage while co-hosts Chris Phillips and Marley Taylor stood slack-jawed, trying to process.

"It's good that I'm a metalhead," Hollenbeck said later, after the excitement died down for the first $10,000 winner in the young show's two-week history.

Woody Allen has said he only watches sports on TV because he doesn't know the outcome, which is not the case for scripted shows with him. This argument can be made for live game shows on the Strip. It's a small niche that's been tested a few times in recent years, with only "The Price Is Right -- Live" digging in for five years now.

When "Price" opened, we decided not to rate game shows with a letter grade, as we do for traditional titles, because the experience is so variable and individual. If you go this weekend, you may not get the adrenaline rush of watching Hollenbeck nail 14 out of 15 songs in one minute (taking the one pass she was allowed on Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)").

And, unlike TV games, this is a ticketed, pay-to-(maybe) play proposition. Does the entertainment value equal that of the neighboring Mac King show if you walk away empty-handed? Your call. Does it help to know there are runner-up prizes, such as Mac King tickets and "Name That Tune" key chains?

I can say it offers the full game-show experience, from the flashy set to the cheesy banter and crooning of the self-caricature hosts, who perform elsewhere as Zowie Bowie. There's even a guy (Brad Schecter) warming up the "studio audience" before the official start of the show.

Phillips wears this new job like a second sharkskin. "You both have gorgeous nails, by the way," he tells two female contestants. And when another correctly identifies Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff," he replies, "Why thank you very much."

The game is structured in four parts. The first took half an hour on this particular day, but let 50 people play the game -- "pretty much all of you," as Phillips noted. If you're one of the 10 called to the stage for each of the first five rounds, I'm sure the time goes faster. If not, you still learn things, such as the fact that Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" and "Teddy Bear" start out very much alike.

The fastest-buzzing winners of these preliminaries are paired off in the strategy game Bid-a-Second, which allows you to shift the burden to the other player if you don't know the song from a clue read aloud.

Hollenbeck left the remaining four finalists behind in the third game, in which she had to write down the titles of 10 Beatles song snippets played in 30 seconds. The player who gets the most titles right goes for the big money in Conquer the Clock, the 15-songs-in-one-minute challenge.

The Rochester, N.Y., resident had played and made it to the final round earlier in her vacation week. She plays her own version of "Name That Tune" with songs on the radio. If this game catches on, expect more of her ilk to hone in on it, like pros to the poker room. (The rules may tighten up, too, no longer letting a player win a round by saying the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself" is called "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch.")

So get there ahead of the musicologists, bone up on your "Brick House" and your "Rockin' Robin," and most certainly, your thrash metal.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.