Favorite Readers

No Sollositing On Premise · Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:02 am

OK, I've probably had more really bad readers than really good readers at tournaments, but I still have a few favorites over my quizbowl career.

My senior year in HS I had Raj Dhuwalia read three rounds for my team (TJ B) in the preliminary round robin of PACE that year. He was probably the best combination of speed, clarity, and monotone that I had ever heard, which is exactly how I like it.

Allen Bristow, Maggie Walker class of 04, is also an awesome reader. I have heard him several times at gov tournaments over the years and he is plenty fast with good clarity, notably awesome at pronouncing Italian words.

Not many people will have heard of her, but Lian Duan, TJ class of 06, is probably my favorite HS student reader ever. She was wicked fast and very clear for the most part with a slight Chinese accent, but once you got used to the accent you couldn't miss a word.

So those are mine. Does anyone else here have any favorites? Let's try and stay off a negative vibe, arright?

EDIT: some sentence structure things

solonqb · Post by **solonqb** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:08 am

Dwight Kidder. No contest. His speed and clarity are ridiculous.

UFeng · Post by **UFeng** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:21 am

Dwight Kidder is good, but I would have to include R. Hentzel and Eric Hilleman-who are simply awesome readers. I recall someone mentioning that in the 2004 ICT finals, R. got through 16 questions in the first half (or something like that). I do remember the pack finishing with about 2 minutes on the clock.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:38 am

I think that Raj is probably the best moderator, IMHO. I also like Tom Michael's enthusiasm on NAQT packets. If you power a tossup, he screams "POWER TOSSUP" like a really cheesy gameshow host. It sounds lame, but you can't help but crack a smile when he does it.

UTC always has a crew of good moderators. I can only ever remember having one bad moderator at UTC, but that was at a college tournament - I really can't recall ever having a bad moderator at a high school tournament at UTC.

Also, there are a handful of really good mods in Alabama. Corey Rosenbloom reads at a lot of tournaments around here, and is probably our favorite "local" moderator. I'm gonna try and get him to volunteer to read at NAQT this year, if they'll have him.

miamiqb · Post by **miamiqb** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:09 am

raj is tops....great "gameshow" type voice. He also pauses at exactly the right moments, too many readers (including myself) have not mastered that.
There was also this guy at UF, Joe Grimes, who was pretty good.

Matthew D · Post by **Matthew D** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:12 pm

I will give props to Lee Henry.. he isn't bad at all either..

Trevkeeper · Post by **Trevkeeper** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:13 pm

A lot of tournaments around here have coaches read, but I've always liked it when Mr. Egan reads for us.

Also, all the guys (espcially Sudheer and Sorice) at UIUC are really good.

STPickrell · Post by **STPickrell** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:58 pm

At VHSL states there is a gentleman named Clay Clements. I believe he moderated the Group AAA finals last year. John Harris is also very good and has read at VHSL states (Group AA) and some of the Spotswood tournaments I've been to.

insaneindian · Post by **insaneindian** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:00 am

Anybody remember the reader who was making a video/documentary at nationals? He also read at princeton last year and wore a pink shirt...
I have no clue what his name is, but he read fast and thats probably the best reader I've had so far. Jason from rutgers read at the rutgters tournament, and he was pretty good too.

Captain Sinico · Post by **Captain Sinico** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:47 am

insaneindian wrote:I have no clue what his name is...

His name's Greg Lindsay. He used to have an account here, I think.
My own favorite reader all time is probably Subash Maddipoti. I'm going to miss his mercilessly taunting me when I neg (which is, like, all the time.)

MaS

Tegan · Post by **Tegan** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:52 pm

There was a guy from San Francisco reading upstairs at NAQT, and its sad I forgot his name. Had total command of the match, read fast, but was completely understandable ..... excelent pronunciation.

Before I heard him read, I was going to ask if I could take a try reading in a later match between two teams with really poor records. I never did ask, because it would have been a crime, and presumptuous on my part to even ask to read when he was available.

To second TrevKeeper, the UIUC folks were very good!

I'll throw the following out as some of my favorites, in no partcular order:

Bob Brown
Rob Grierson
Coach Reinstein
Coach Riley

solonqb · Post by **solonqb** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:09 pm

Tegan wrote:There was a guy from San Francisco reading upstairs at NAQT, and its sad I forgot his name. Had total command of the match, read fast, but was completely understandable ..... excelent pronunciation.

Matt Bruce, Ross Ritterman, or Gaius Stern, perhaps?

LadyInBlack · Post by **LadyInBlack** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:18 pm

Mr. Tedrick from around the Sterling area, I believe, has always been a favorite with me, although I do support trevkeeper and Mr. Egan in their others mentioned above such as Mr. Egan, the UIUC guys, and so forth. And I'm not sucking up but: Mr. Laird has a rather good style himself.

radiantradon · Post by **radiantradon** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 11:38 pm

I cast my vote for Dr. Chuck. Most moderators around here take things at a leisurely pace and fumble over words, so the speed and clarity was rather refreshing (for the one match I've played where Dr. Chuck was the moderator).

steven-lamp · Post by **steven-lamp** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:34 am

There's this one fella at Vanderbilt every year that does an excellent job reading. He's a big guy with red hair and he is a great combination of good speed and near perfect pronunciation. At NAQT Nationals I think we had Dwight Kidder once, and he was really good.

The one thing that really separates a good moderator from a great one is speed. Going too slow is painful and prevents you from getting in a rhythm, however, some readers like to pretend they're Busta Rhymes, and as such, the tossups have about as much clarity as a Busta Rhymes song. Just to make the qualifications for "good reader" clear: Good readers have a command of the rules in the format, pronounce most difficult words well (no, "Hold on, I'm just gonna spell it out for ya'll real quick.." moments), and keep the inter-question banter to a minimum.

dtaylor4 · Post by **dtaylor4** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:14 am

steven-lamp wrote:There's this one fella at Vanderbilt every year that does an excellent job reading. He's a big guy with red hair and he is a great combination of good speed and near perfect pronunciation. At NAQT Nationals I think we had Dwight Kidder once, and he was really good.

The one thing that really separates a good moderator from a great one is speed. Going too slow is painful and prevents you from getting in a rhythm, however, some readers like to pretend they're Busta Rhymes, and as such, the tossups have about as much clarity as a Busta Rhymes song. Just to make the qualifications for "good reader" clear: Good readers have a command of the rules in the format, pronounce most difficult words well (no, "Hold on, I'm just gonna spell it out for ya'll real quick.." moments), and keep the inter-question banter to a minimum.

In some cases, with moderators who can't pronounce, sometimes it is better for them to spell something out (in one case, I've seen it written on the blackboard) or have someone else read the question. These moderators suck and shouldn't be reading anyway, but at least they are somewhat considerate.

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:47 pm

DaGeneral wrote:These moderators suck and shouldn't be reading anyway, but at least they are somewhat considerate.

This doesn't necessarily mean they suck if they just do it once in awhile, but you are correct in saying that excessive alternate representation of words is a leading cause of poor moderation.

Alpha and Omega Bowl never forget

fluffy4102 · Post by **fluffy4102** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:47 pm

R. Hentzel and Frank Thomas