• Equality
  • Community
    • Health
    • Youth
    • Seniors
  • Voices
    • From the CEO
    • Take Five
    • Why I Give
  • About the Center
  • Galleries
  • Calendar
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • This Year’s AIDS/LifeCycle Participants on Why They Ride
  • Roxane Gay Celebrates Audre Lorde Health Program at WxW: ‘Care in the Truest Sense of the Word’
  • ‘Introspections’: The Los Angeles LGBT Center Celebrates Senior Artists in a Special Exhibition
  • Bridging Communities While Honoring the Diversity of AANHPI Month: Emiko Kenderes’ Journey at the Los Angeles LGBT Center
  • Mpox Resurgence: What You Should Know
  • Pamela Anderson Shares Words of Wisdom at Center Gala: ‘Love Relentlessly’
  • Keke Palmer Celebrates Her Queerness, the LGBTQ+ Community at Center Gala
  • An Unstoppable Force: Center CEO Joe Hollendoner Touts Successes in the Face of Adversity
Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube
LGBT News Now
Learn about career opportunities at the Center
  • Equality
  • Community
    • Health
    • Youth
    • Seniors
  • Voices
    • From the CEO
    • Take Five
    • Why I Give
  • About the Center
  • Galleries
  • Calendar
LGBT News Now
You are at:Home»Community»Before There Was Snatch Game, There Was MisMatch Game: Dennis Hensley Reflects on Two Decades of Filling in the Blanks
MisMatch Game Dennis Hensley

Before There Was Snatch Game, There Was MisMatch Game: Dennis Hensley Reflects on Two Decades of Filling in the Blanks

0
By on October 3, 2022 Community

By Reid Nakamura

The premise is simple and ripe for parody: A panel of celebrities answer fill-in-the-blank questions, and contestants try to match their answers. The Match Game, one of TV’s most enduring and iconic game show formats, first debuted on CBS 60 years ago and has held a place in pop culture consciousness ever since. The MisMatch Game, comedian Dennis Hensley’s uproarious spoof of Match Game, likewise has a storied history of its own.

Hensley put together the first edition of MisMatch Game more than 20 years ago as part of a “big, silly” birthday celebration, trading the original show’s panel of celebrities for comedian friends doing celebrity impersonations. The show retained the same format when it moved to the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre in 2004, where it has lived ever since.

“I always thought the Center would be done with it at some point. We were kind of like these unruly kids with our dirty answers and our cardboard set,” Hensley said. He describes the show’s style of comedy as “very smart and very stupid at the same time.”

MisMatch Game

MisMatch Game will return to the Renberg on Oct. 15 and 16 for a pair of Halloween-themed shows produced by the Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center. Proceeds from the show will go toward the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s programs and services.

Across its 18-year run, MisMatch Game has raised more than $200,000 for the Center. In addition to ticket sales, notecards with the cast’s dirty answers are auctioned off at the end of the show, sometimes going for hundreds of dollars.

“I’m gratified that we’ve been able to keep going and raise all the money that we have,” Hensley said. “People tell me they’ve got a wall full of these random cards saying really horrible, inappropriate things. Some of them are from, like, 12 years ago.”

But the true history of MisMatch Game goes back even further than that, as Hensley recently discovered when he returned to his hometown of Holbrook, Arizona for his 40-year high school reunion. While going through a closet at his mother’s house, Hensley came across an old Match Game board game from the ‘70s.

“I opened it up, and I found all these questions I had written myself,” he said. “They’re basically MisMatch Game questions I wrote when I was like 12 or 13.”

Twelve-year-old Hensley also wrote down the names of celebrities he wanted on the show, including Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Betty White, and Charles Nelson Reilly. (Reilly, at least, has made an appearance on MisMatch Game, played by comedian Tony Tripoli.)

“A few of the questions hold up,” Hensley said. “They’re there in my own handwriting. These are my own components that I literally added to the game. All these years later and this is still what I’m doing.”

Fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race may recognize similarities to Snatch Game, the VH1 competition’s own spoof of Match Game in which drag queens are tasked with impersonating iconic celebrities. Hensley declines to take credit for the idea, noting that Match Game itself dates back to the ‘60s—but MisMatch did come first. “We were doing it right in their backyard for five years,” he said.

In fact, Willam Belli, a fan-favorite contestant on the fourth season of Drag Race, had previously tried out a version of his Jessica Simpson impersonation for Snatch Game on stage at the Renberg. (It was a hit both times.)

MisMatch Game Willam

“I do think that, laugh for laugh, our panelists are funnier,” Hensley said. “And, if I may say this, I think my questions are better. This is maybe too granular, but I don’t think you should have blanks in the middle of a question. You should have the blank at the end! It sets up the panelists to land their jokes better that way.”

Regardless, Hensley counts himself a fan of both shows. “I think what they’ve done is phenomenal. What a profound impact that show and RuPaul have had on the world,” he said. “They’ve just changed the game for so many people out there that see themselves in that show. It’s remarkable.”

When MisMatch Game returns to the Renberg, it’ll be with a few upgrades following a run of virtual shows during the pandemic. The online version of MisMatch Game worked “surprisingly well,” according to Hensley, but he is looking forward to getting back to The Village, which he calls his “favorite place in the city.”

“MisMatch Game has never been anything but joy to work on,” Hensley said. “Like, sometimes I’m helpless with laughter. I remember at a show not long ago, I was hunched over laughing, and I was getting lightheaded. And I thought, I’m gonna pass out,” he said. Thankfully, he was able to finish the show without losing consciousness.

“But maybe that’s something to look forward to. People should buy a ticket so they can be there,” Hensley said, before filling in the blank: “When I pull a Marie Osmond on Dancing with the Stars.”

MisMatch Game Cast

The MisMatch Game returns to the Renberg Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m, and on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. For tickets and more information about the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, visit culturalarts.lalgbtcenter.org.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Related Posts

This Year’s AIDS/LifeCycle Participants on Why They Ride

Roxane Gay Celebrates Audre Lorde Health Program at WxW: ‘Care in the Truest Sense of the Word’

‘Introspections’: The Los Angeles LGBT Center Celebrates Senior Artists in a Special Exhibition

Comments are closed.

Upcoming Events

Apr 29
April 29 - June 24

A New Brain

May 13
May 13 - June 12

The Bottoming Process

Jun 16
4:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Trans Pride LA 2023: Trans Town Hall

Jun 17
12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Trans Pride LA 2023: Festival

View Calendar
About Us

LGBT News Now

LGBT News Now is a publication of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, the Center is the largest LGBT organization in the world, dedicated to building a world where LGBT thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society. Learn more at lalgbtcenter.org.

Follow Us on Instagram

lalgbtcenter

The Los Angeles LGBT Center is building a world where LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.

Los Angeles LGBT Center
Day One of #TransPrideLA officially kicks off with Day One of #TransPrideLA officially kicks off with the #TransTownHall, a forum with many of your faves—like @xosonique, @msisisking, @sharsaysso, @cecetelfer, @ladragnuns, and so many more. Join us on June 16th at 5PM right on our Hollywood campus to celebrate our community and hear more about the fight ahead. Admission is FREE, so RSVP now at lalgbcenter.org/transpride23 (or hit that #linkinbio). 

Special thanks to our partner, @weareangelcity. 

#ProtectTransKids #TransVisibility #NonBinary #TransIsBeautiful #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TransPrideLA #PrideMonth #AngelFC
Introducing: The #TransTownHall, a program curated Introducing: The #TransTownHall, a program curated and hosted by @raquel_willis that’s kicking off this year’s #TransPrideLA! On June 16th at 5PM on our campus in Hollywood, we’ll celebrate and center some incredible voices from the trans community—from @laith_ashley to @tracelysette, @thomaspagemcbee, @cecetelfer, @jordanilan, and many more. 

The Trans Town Hall is just Day One of our annual TPLA celebration, which continues on Saturday, June 17th with a festival, workshops, resource fair, vendors, and so much more. Come for the live entertainment and free goodies—stay for the community. RSVP today at the link in bio!

Special thanks to our partner, @weareangelcity. 

#ProtectTransKids #TransVisibility #NonBinary #TransIsBeautiful #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TransPrideLA #PrideMonth #AngelFC
#TransPrideLA is back, baby—but this year, we’ #TransPrideLA is back, baby—but this year, we’re doing things a little different. We’re kicking off TPLA weekend with the #TransTownHall—a stage program curated and hosted by @raquel_willis that celebrates and elevates trans voices at this crucial time in our movement.

On June 16th in Hollywood, join folks like @peppermint247, @thechrismosier, Montana state representative @zoandbehold, and more for an evening you won’t forget. And let’s take a stand against the anti-trans bullshit, loud and proud. RSVP today at the #linkinbio! 

Special thanks to our partner, @weareangelcity.  #ProtectTransKids #TransVisibility #NonBinary #TransIsBeautiful #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TransPrideLA #PrideMonth #AngelFC
Hello from #RedDressDay on @AIDSLifeCycle! That’ Hello from #RedDressDay on @AIDSLifeCycle! That’s right: On top of our riders making the 545-miles on bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles AND fundraising for HIV/AIDS—they also celebrate with the occasional dress code. (This is an LGBTQ fundraiser, after all.) Red Dress Day is a long beloved tradition in HIV/AIDS fundraising, but our #AIDSLifeCycle participants take it to a whole new level. Swipe to enjoy some of our favorite fashion moments from today…and a particularly compelling cameo from @joe.hollendoner.
They did it, Joe! Our @AIDSLifeCycle riders have o They did it, Joe! Our @AIDSLifeCycle riders have officially passed their halfway point to Los Angeles, biking over 200 miles from San Francisco. At the rest stop, we caught up with @colmacpro, otherwise known as Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2023. Colin is a #roadie on #AIDSLifeCycle, which means he’s volunteering for the week to keep our riders safe and motivated. “I’ve wanted to do ALC for 10 years,” he says. “When I got kicked out of my childhood home for being gay at the age of 15, the last thing my mom said to me was that I’d die of AIDS. I was terrified [of the virus] for most of my life—but now I’ve had partners who are positive. Growing up and seeing the evolution of HIV/AIDS treatment makes me want to help.” 

Colin is rocking his titleholder sash all week as a tribute to the way the Leather Community was impacted by HIV/AIDS. “We were hit so hard during the epidemic. That means the people still left are the ones who carry on the tradition. In fact, some people wear leather pieces from those we lost to the crisis. It’s our way of remembering them.”

Stay tuned for additional updates from the ride—and follow our friends at @aidslifecycle for more.
Last night, a school board meeting in #Glendale tu Last night, a school board meeting in #Glendale turned violent—with police having to issue a shelter-in-place order for participants. The reason? Glendale Unified was voting to recognize June as #LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Today, the Center issued the above statement. “It’s time we call out these attempts for what they are: Fascism. Pride, on the other hand, is about freedom.” Swipe to read it in full. #SafeSchools #LGBTQPride #OutForSafeSchools
The Los Angeles LGBTQties really turned it out for The Los Angeles LGBTQties really turned it out for #WeHoPride this weekend! Swipe to see some of our favorite highlights from the festivities—including one very good boy who believes in gay rights. (And by the way, thanks to any and all of you for rocking your #CenterYourPride swag. It looks good on you!)

📸 @mammothsprite
Mark your calendars for June 16-17 for the return Mark your calendars for June 16-17 for the return of #TransPrideLA, presented by @weareangelcity. This festival has been observed for more than a decade—making it one of the oldest, dedicated celebrations of Transgender Pride in the country. 

The iconic two-day event takes place at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Hollywood campus and features appearances by Montana state @zoandbehold, @raquel_willis, @laith_ashley, and many more! 

RSVP today at link in bio! 

Stay tuned for more details! 🏳️‍⚧️

#transisbeautiful #ProtectTransKids #TransVisibility #NonBinary #TransIsBeautiful #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TransPrideLA #PrideMonth #AngelFC
Happy #Pride to @trinoxadam, the LA-based gay coup Happy #Pride to @trinoxadam, the LA-based gay couple whose photo shoot went viral at the beginning of this month. “Pride, to us, is celebrating and screaming to the world about who you are, with no fucks given,” they told us. “We keep our love alive with honesty and by having different layers to our relationship. We’re homies, friends, family, lovers, husbands, dads, brothers, and besties.” Shoutout to photographer @henryjimenz for capturing their love so beautifully. Want to be featured? Use the #CenterYourPride and you might show up on our page 🥰
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Stay Connected
Subscribe
Copyright © 2022 Los Angeles LGBT Center
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.