Funny games

LEADING THE BLIND Van Straaten’s hoodwinked contestans think hard.

J. Keith van Straaten is always hustling. While waiting for a table at a New York eatery, he slips the owner his business card, inviting him to be a guest on a game show. The restaurateur won’t actually be able to win prizes or see himself on the tube. Instead, he’d appear onstage in a live incarnation of the long-running TV staple What’s My Line?, in which four panelists attempt to guess a person’s profession by posing yes-or-no questions. Due to the unscripted nature of the show—and the guests’ often offbeat jobs—the results are wry, unexpected and hilarious.

Best known as the host of Comedy Central’s Beat the Geeks and a frequent pop-culture pundit on VH1 and E!, the 36-year-old comedian launched “the classic TV game show without the TV,” as he puts it, in 2004 in his native Los Angeles. “I’d been watching reruns on the Game Show Network,” Van Straaten says. “I kept thinking that somebody ought to be doing it again. Then I thought, Why not me?”

With the help of director-coproducer Jim Newman, Van Straaten booked a theater and started reaching out to potential panelists and guests. “Initially, some people were confused,” Van Straaten recalls. “They’d say things like, ‘So I have to do improv games like Wayne Brady?’ or ‘Is this the one where I tell a lie and someone else tells the truth?’ ” But other invitees remembered the show fondly and were thrilled that it was making a comeback, in any form. “There’s a real affection for What’s My Line?,” Van Straaten says. “I think its fans sense that we’re really good stewards of the brand.”

Although the stage version isn’t officially set in its namesake’s ’50s heyday, Van Straaten insists that his panelists and guests adhere to that era’s sense of style. “We’re trying to do the show as if it never went off the air,” he says. “Men wear suits and ties, women wear gowns. There’s no cursing, no controversy. The edgiest guest we’ve ever had was a mohel. The thing we love about the show is its sophistication. If anything naughty ever comes up, it’s because of innuendo.”

After producing 74 episodes in L.A., where typical guests included a saw player and a girdle tester, and mystery guests included Melvin Van Peebles, Larry King and Shirley Jones, Van Straaten is excited to bring his project to the city where the TV show originated. But while interests are piqued—the day the press release went out, he was inundated with e-mails from wanna-be guests and panelists—there has been some drama. Specifically, a competing stage version of What’s My Line?, which has been playing downtown since 2006.

“I found out about the other show because one of the producers e-mailed me to say he was doing one too,” Van Straaten says. “I admit I’m disappointed. We’ve worked very hard to make our show into what it is. But I don’t think their show will impact our success or failure.” (See Around Town for info on this and other live game shows in New York.)

Now that he’s in New York, Van Straaten’s feverishly tracking down original What’s My Line? guests, many of whom were locals, to invite them. “That’s one of our favorite things to do,” he says. “After their segment, we show a decades-old clip of them on the TV show. Some had never seen their appearances before.”

He’s also booking original panelists, including octogenarian actor Betsy Palmer, who also appeared in the L.A. version. “It’s a great excuse for me to throw on my Bob Mackie dress,” she says.

But as much as Van Straaten pays tribute to the original, his main objective is to present a fun night out, whether or not you’re familiar with the TV show. “The entire evening is real. It’s spontaneous, so you never know what’s going to happen,” he says. “I don’t want people to think it’s a trip to Grandma’s attic.”

What’s My Line? opens Mar 24, 2008, at the Barrow Street Theatre.