LINCOLN PARK — What happens when you combine video game battles of Nick Arcade with an open bar and flying ping pong balls?
A new Chicago show that's rapidly becoming a popular Web series.
"Gaming Under the Influence" combines Nerf guns, video games, smoke machines and booze in front of an audience in a Lincoln Park warehouse. It's also streamed live, with the first episode airing in May and viewership growing every week.
The show is described by the creators as a cage-match competition where attendees from the crowd square off in arcade battles.
"We are trying to do something as you remember as a kid — Legends of the Hidden Temple and Nick Arcade," said Jared Hoffa, the founder and host of Gaming Under the Influence.
Paul Biasco says the online show is picking up steam:
Each Friday night pits three contestants in a video game battle while fending off Nerf gun attacks and their blurred senses as beers are chugged on set.
Hoffa's goal is to find a middle ground between hardcore professional-level gaming, which has blown up internationally, and a night out at the bar. In the latest episode, one contestant chugs vodka straight out of the bottle and profanities fly before a match of Wii air hockey.
"I wanted to put it to the next level," Hoffa said. "Make it that show where people are watching and thinking holy cow, that's insane."
Tickets are free via the website and include a night of free drinks during the show from 8-11 p.m.
The studio is located inside a Lincoln Park warehouse near the Chicago River that has been unoccupied for seven years. The Gaming Under the Influence team built their set from the ground up, including custom graphics by Chicago graffiti artists, chain link fences, professional-grade lighting, a custom bar and five cameras.
"It's our studio, our control," Hoffa said. "We refer to it as controlled chaos."
Each episode features co-hosts Hoffa, a 30-year-old Lakeview resident, and Sarah Giroux, with play-by-play commentary from Kevin Fair, whom Hoffa calls an encyclopedia of video games.
Fair, who quit his day job to run video game events full-time about seven years ago, grew up watching the Bulls and calling the games along with Johnny "Red" Kerr.
"I'm allowed to say what I feel," Fair, a 29-year-old who lives near UIC, said. "There's bias if I want to. As serious as I take it, I get to have fun."
The show is highly interactive and even takes input from viewers streaming the broadcast online.
For his day job, Hoffa works as producer and editor on Channel 7's "Windy City Live" — which explains the high production quality on the Web stream.
"When you see our stream you don't get a guy in his bedroom, a guy in front of his computer. You get me, Jared, Sarah and three contestants," Fair said. "We've got ping pong balls dropping from the ceiling, Nerf guns shooting and the crowd getting into it."
Hoffa took on investors about three months ago and started building out the studio. The show also has advertising sponsors.
"Our biggest challenge right now is, number one, no one believes that this exists," Hoffa said. "No one believes that there's a place where you can get free drinks and free gaming."
Hoffa grew up gaming and still loves to game, but admits that a night in watching a live matchup of League of Legends on video game streaming site Twitch is not for everyone.
He's shooting for more of the "Headquarters crowd," referencing the popular Lakeview and River North barcade spots that are known for gaming and good drinks.
The idea for Gaming Under the Influence came to Hoffa during a solo trip to South Korea a few years ago, when he learned of South Korean networks that broadcast pro gaming. He also discovered a live wacky improv show that another Korean network broadcast nightly with 500 people in the audience.
"I came back to the States and thought there has to be a way to combine the two together," Hoffa said.
Anyone who wants to attend a screening — and drink for free on a Friday night — can apply for one of 60-70 spots per week at theguishow.com.
"This is your new pregame ... whether you are home drinking and watching the show or you are at the show," Hoffa said.
Gaming Under the Influence airs every Friday night at www.theguishow.com from 9-11 p.m.
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