Some Fractured Fun Trivia Quiz

Answer: variety show

A variety show is made up of musical performances, comedy, and possibly magic, animal or juggling acts. They have existed in one form or another for hundreds of years.

Answer: karaoke

Karaoke is a form of entertainment found in bars, pubs or clubs, in which someone sings a song over a prerecorded instrumental track. Sometimes you will hear a superb singer, other times, well, you have to give the person credit for standing up in front of an audience.

Answer: comic strip

Before there were movies or television, the comic strip (and then the comic book) was a series of drawings to illustrate a humorous story. Under the general heading of 'comics' were added dramas, detective stories, historical chronicles and more.

Answer: magic show

Abracadabra, the rabbit appears! Or not; sometimes things go wrong in a magic show. Kids like to amaze and astound their friends with tricks and sleight of hand. To help them do so in mid-20th century America, the A.C. Gilbert Company marketed the "Mysto Magic Set" which contained props for coin tricks, disappearing handkerchiefs and...sorry, as a practitioner of that era myself, I'm sworn to the magician's code not to tell how how they're done!

Answer: puppet show

Puppet shows go back over 3,000 years. They can be seen at carnivals or fairs or in someone's backyard, as children enjoy producing them. They involve various story lines but often one of the characters gets beaten with a stick or club.

Answer: jousting tournament

Started in the Middle Ages, jousting tournaments pit men dressed as armored knights riding on horseback toward each other trying to unhorse the other with long lances. Sound dangerous? They have been, King Henry II was killed in a tournament in 1559.

Answer: television

Since its general introduction in the 1930s television has taken over as the principal performance medium; one could be entertained without dressing up to go out, it was free and offered several types of entertainment at once simply by turning a dial.

Answer: ventriloquist

Did you know that the Pythia, the Oracle at Delphi, was a ventriloquist? Ventriloquism originally meant the interpretation of noises in the stomach, thought to be the voices of the dead. The dummy and the practice of not moving the lips while speaking for the dummy came later.

As to the Pythias, researchers now think that they were on an ethylene high from fumes rising out of the floor of the Temple of Apollo. No wonder some of their pronouncements were mystifying!

Answer: motion picture

Motion pictures, or movies as we call them now, were a major event in the history of entertainment. Because of movies the most highly-paid entertainers could 'appear' in small towns, far-off places could be shown to people who didn't have the means to travel extensively, and whole stories could be conveyed in less time than reading a book.

Answer: pantomime

Early pantomime was a stage production with music and exaggerated dance but no dialogue; it originated in Roman times. Words, sight gags and slapstick comedy were added later. They are still popular, mostly in Great Britain at Christmas time.