The Cut · a Play Along round
The Cut is the whole room in a knockout. Every guest answers the same five questions on their phone, then the field is cut by rank: three hundred becomes two hundred, then a hundred and twenty-five, then fifty, and on down to one. Nobody goes out for a single wrong answer. You go out because the people around you were quicker and sharper, which is exactly what makes it so hard to take. Fast, brutal and brilliant after dinner.
Think The Weakest Link, for three hundred people at once and with no voting off.
How a round plays
The questions come from my thousand-question quiz bank across every category, so it plays as a proper quiz, only the scoring is a knockout.
Which river flows through Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade?
Twenty-five seconds. You type it; there are no options to guess from. Speed counts, because ties are split by how quickly you answered.
After each question everyone sees the answer and whether they got it. Five of these make a round, and your round score is what keeps you in or puts you out.
At the end of the round I rank everyone still in and cut to the next step of the funnel. Three hundred to two hundred. Two hundred to a hundred and twenty-five. The funnel on the big screen shows exactly where the night is.
Your phone tells you straight away. Being cut at fifty is respectable. Being cut at three is a story you will tell for years.
Ten. Five. Three. One. The last few rounds are played with the whole room watching a handful of phones, and the winner gets confetti on the big screen and a very smug walk back to their table.
On the big screen
The Cut runs on two screens at once: the big screen the whole room watches, and the phone in every guest’s hand. Both are my own software, built for live events and run from one control screen at the front.
Three ways to play
Every game I run can be played three ways, and I pick the way that suits the room, the timings and the layout on the night: as a show at the front, table against table, or with every single guest playing on their own phone. Mix them across an evening and nobody spends the night watching.
As a show
Ten guests take the chairs, answer on cards or phones, and after every round the lowest scores are cut in front of the room. No voting and no arguments: the scores decide. The last two go head to head and the room picks a side.
Best for: awards nights and dinners with a stageAt the tables
Every table answers together on one phone. At the end of each round the lowest-scoring tables are cut and become the audience for the rest, which they take with remarkably bad grace. The last table standing wins the night.
Best for: conference dinners and away daysOn the app
The native version. Everyone plays individually from the first question, the funnel shrinks on the big screen after every round, and the last few rounds are pure theatre. Tested with three hundred phones answering at once.
Best for: Christmas parties and whole-company nightsBuilt for the room
I customise every game for the audience in front of me: the questions, the answers, and the way I present them. The same format is a completely different show for a room of graduates in their twenties and a room of chief executives, and it should be. I write for the people who will actually be there, then I speak into the listening on the night: I read what the room is giving back and change gear to match it.
Send me the year’s stories, the in-jokes, the departments and the industry. The rounds are built from them, so the answers land in a way no off-the-shelf pack ever can.
The words on the screen are half of it. How I present them is the rest, and I pitch the pace, the teasing and the tone to the room that has turned up, not the one on the brief.
Eight hundred events across festivals, awards, conferences and dinners means I have hosted every kind of room. If the mood is not what anyone expected, I change the style on the spot, and often the questions too.
In the running order
After dinner, as the big competitive block, or as the closer if you want to end on a single winner and confetti.
Twenty to thirty minutes for the full funnel. I can shorten it by starting the ladder lower for a smaller room.
All sixteen games
Five rounds the whole room plays on their phones, nine big-screen games with teams at the board, and two that need no screen at all: a phone on a forehead, and a coin. The screen games are all my own software, run from one screen, so I can switch format the moment the room needs a lift. Tap any game to see exactly how it plays.
Vote with the room, score for matching it
How it plays →On your phone
Three stories, one true, the room decides
How it plays →On your phone
A knockout quiz down to the last few standing
How it plays →On your phone
Play money on what happens next on stage
How it plays →On your phoneThis page
Everyone answers, the lowest scores are cut
You are hereBig screen
Two teams, one survey board, three strikes
How it plays →Big screen
Categories, buzzers and picture rounds
How it plays →Big screen
Higher or lower on a row of giant cards
How it plays →Big screen
Fill the gap, match the room’s funniest answers
How it plays →Big screen
A hidden phrase, one letter at a time
How it plays →Big screen
Describe it without saying it, against the clock
How it plays →Big screen
The whole room up, hunting and mixing
How it plays →Big screen
The conveyor belt of prizes to remember
How it plays →Big screen
Rave bingo with dance breaks and forfeits
How it plays →No screen needed
Charades with a phone on your forehead, table against table
How it plays →No screen needed
One coin, the whole room on its feet, one winner
How it plays →Almost all of these can be played as a show, at the tables or on the app, and the questions are written around your company before the night. Not sure which mix suits your event? Tell me the room and I will suggest a running order.
For the venue and IT
What clients say
Kevin recently hosted a company corporate event and proved to be the consummate professional throughout the evening. He has the unique ability to read a room and keep everyone happy.
Kevin hosted our staff conference event this year which was fantastic. He brought an energy and enthusiasm with him and played a really important part in getting people engaged in the day.
Thank you Kevin for hosting our Christmas party in December 2025. The team had an amazing time. We really liked the intertwining of awards and the game. Everyone had a brilliant time and Kevin was fantastic.
Good to know
It has the same shape: a field that shrinks every round until one person is left. The difference is that the whole room plays at once rather than nine contestants, and there is no voting off. The lowest scores are cut, decided by the answers alone, so nobody can be ganged up on.
By your score across the five questions of the round, with the time you took to answer splitting any ties. The funnel goes three hundred, two hundred, a hundred and twenty-five, fifty, twenty-five, ten, five, three, one, and it adapts to however many are actually playing.
You type them. That is what makes it a real quiz rather than a guessing game, and it means speed matters. Answers are marked automatically, and I keep an eye on anything close.
My own bank of about a thousand quiz questions across every category, which is the same bank behind my big-screen Quiz Show. I pick the mix for your room, and I can drop in questions about your company.
The Cut is a knockout, so it starts with everyone who is in the room at the first question. Anyone arriving later watches this one and is straight into the next game.
It was built for big rooms and tested with three hundred phones answering at once. For a smaller room I start the funnel lower, or run it as a show at the front.
Fees are quoted individually for the date, the venue and the length of the show. Send the numbers and the running order and I will send a quote.
Enquiries
Tell me the date, the venue, rough numbers and the kind of crowd. I will confirm availability, suggest where The Cut fits in the night and send a quote.
