A fast-paced game show where contestants face off to make the best arts and crafts? Finally!
Craft Corner Deathmatch is new game show airing Wednesdays on the Style Network. It has been called "Iron Chef meets Martha Stewart" — I wonder if that's what the producers said in the pitch meeting.
A few weeks ago, I caught a marathon of shows that aired on E!, which was an obvious ploy to lure the casual couch potato. I watched and got hooked. I got hooked on Craft CornerDeathmatch like a crochet needle in three-ply wool yarn.
I must admit that I am not a craft person. I have no desire to knit, and the only purls I know are the ones around people's neck. Craft Corner Deathmatch is not your mother's arts-and-crafts program or even your grandmother's quilting bee. This is for the DIY generation where people are doing it for themselves.
The pace of the show is fast and it's great for the ADD-challenged, multitasking, TiVo-enabled young professionals of America. Since there is no time for frilly curtains and gingham tablecloths, the set of the show is dark with a chain-link fence like something out of Wrestlemania. The host, Jason Jones, energetically makes faux karate moves; he has the voice of a boxing announcer. His assistant Amber is the anti-"Barker Beauty" who never smiles.
The competitors who appear on the show are really serious about their craft. The competitors' backgrounds vary: costume designers, students from the Fashion Institute of Technology, or avid knitters. The show has three 10-minute rounds with crafting challenges. In fact, the game show really reminds me of Double Dare because of the frantic pace, timed challenges, and the crowd cheering as if they were at a hockey game.
Some of the challenges include making a wedding cake out of Twinkies and Snowballs, and designing a pair of jeans with iron-on patches. The judges make their decisions based on beauty, creativity, and usability. The three judges usually have craft background like Jean Railla, author of the book Get Crafty. (But one of the judges is comedienne Judy Gold, whose crafting credentials are a mystery to me.) In the final round, one competitor goes up against Jocelyn Worrall, the Craft Lady of Steel. Worrall appears onstage to compete against the craft amateur who won the first two rounds. She looks sternly into the camera wearing a silver jacket and a tight bun in her hair like a librarian. The Craft Lady is tough and she lets her craftwork do the talking. Of the four shows I watched, the Craft Lady won all except one. A show is definitely more interesting when it has a villain, and all the contestants really want to beat the (pillow) stuffing out of her.
It's good to know that you don't have to be a professional crafter to pick up some cool tips that you can use. Don't you just love it when you are both entertained and educated in 30 minutes? Now I know how to make a mobile, design a wedding cake, or create a scarf with a teddy bear. Host Jason Jones closes every show with this line: "Remember, it's cheaper and easier just to buy stuff." I have to buy a glue gun first.
Diamond in the Rough is a weekly celebration of all those terrific entertainment possibilities being ignored by other media outlets.
