While working as a karaoke host at Maxie’s Food & Spirits in Flint, I came up with the idea to bring my favorite game show in to kick start the night, but with a twist! Instead of Family Feud questions, I decided to conduct my own surveys and go for a dirtier, adults-only spin. I proposed it to the General Manager, Ron Sabourn, who absolutely loved the idea. He gave me $1,000 to fix up my homemade board and wire the bar to make it happen. It was an instant success!

When I moved back to Evansville, Indiana on St. Patrick’s Day of 2003, the Maxie’s Feud came to an end, only to be rebooted in the Fall of 2009. While the original run used a 6-foot tall mechanical board that lit up with spring-loaded answers, it never was able to keep score. Basically, if you won the round, you got a point; the first team to three points won the game.

During my short-lived, second stay in Evansville, my good friend and I got to work on something sweet! We decided that I would eventually rebuild the board, and add computer monitors, or another form of a digital display where the score should be. His name is Chris Alcorn, and he helped me to write a kickass computer program that would keep track of the score! The program worked so well, that I never built a second board, we just used Chris’ program.

The current version of the Fenech Feud is by far the best version of my little bar game yet. I’ve learned the best way to line up teams, survey the crowd, and even the intricacies of lining up questions for each game.  I’ve also been able to take advantage of modern technology with online surveys, video archives, and even live streaming some games! But it sure is fun to look back and see where it all started!

We only have portions of the next couple of episodes. The third one [S2E29] used many of the same questions from the first one [S2E1]. I was privileged to work with local radio legends, and true friend of mine, Andre Peters and George McIntyre!

https://youtu.be/wFkDWVtQ_5M
https://youtu.be/BfGBTV71M9Y