Why I am addicted to Braindex
Much like my Naked Montreal narrator, Francesca “Frankie” Parker, I am addicted to trivia. So it’s no surprise that I’ve come to love Braindex, a trivia game for the iPad that lets you square off against celebrities such as Mike Tyson. Yes, really:

The show has new episodes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so naturally I find myself hopping onto the app after work and seeing if I can beat the latest guest.
The host, Alex Blagg, is also a draw. He plays the sad-sack card, noting that they’re usually filming in the back of a van or in his producer Terry’s garage. (You will also meet Terry when he hits the streets for the “Idiot Question.”) None of the guests appear to feel sympathetic towards his plight, even during the Valentine’s Week episodes, where he announced repeatedly that his wife left him due to the game show’s schedule (not to mention blowing their life savings on producing it 3x a week). Poor Alex!
At any rate, the show is addictive mainly because you have to ring in quickly, just like on Jeopardy! You can also lose ALL of your points if you happen to answer the aforementioned Idiot Question wrong, which can be pretty darn humiliating.
Not that I’ve ever gotten the Idiot Question wrong…
On the plus side, many of the guests are either extremely slow on the draw or, well, not the brightest bulbs in the box, which makes for lots of winning on your end!
So far I haven’t seen any writers on the show, so I’ve been spinning scenarios in which I work my way up the celebrity ladder to become the first author that gets to play the audience at home. Barring that, it’d be awesome if Alex would invite some actual celebrity writers onto the show. I’m pretty sure I could take Amy Tan, or even Margaret Atwood. Jeanette Winterson, however, could prove a forbidable challenge, thanks to her copious knowledge of the Bible and Shakespeare. My other recommended authors include:
- Leonard Cohen – a double threat as author/musician
- Salman Rushdie – the whole fatwa thing surely gives him unique trivia insights
- Chuck Palahniuk – a cult favorite, and obviously a trivia aficionado
Which writer would YOU challenge on a celebrity trivia show like Braindex?