Master Roshambollah on Bank of Hollywood

[Master Roshambollah]

My appearance on Bank of Hollywood debuts tonight, Monday, at 9pm on E! Network.  Re-airings will be Tuesday at 9am, Wednesday at 10am, Friday at 11am and Saturday at noon.

The show doesn't look that great; basically a bunch of D-list celebs (including myself.)  But it was a lot of fun pranking the assorted panel members; it was quite demanding being a RPS Master pretending to be someone pretending to be a RPS Master.

Don't know how much of the segment we shot will air; they could edit it down to a few seconds, or they could let it run.  They could conceivably just edit together the worst bits; that's kind of what I'm hoping for, and in any case what I'm used to.

This appearance was especially meaningful for me, regardless of content, as it is my first national media appearance with no direct association to either World RPS or USARPS.  I did make sure to mention both organizations, however; I'm tired of pissing off just one camp.

Rest assured, a link to the video will be posted here as soon as it is available.

[Jef Hallestone]

You should have been asking for money to start your own league. Worldrps and the defunct USRPS could use the competition

[Master Roshambollah]

Jef, you're a genius.  I did indeed sneak in that request.  The panel pretty much ignored it, and focused on my requirements for coming out of retirement:  physical therapy, acupuncture, Alexander Technique, a visit to an astrologer, a session with a mentalist, and a manicure.

I think that my starting a third league is only natural, and would fulfill certain prophecies inherent in the Triple Tablets of the Sport "And behold, a third shall rise up from the first, and oppose the later two, those being they who invited the serpents to the ceremony."  Besides, having three major leagues would complete a certain tripartite intransitive (or is that intransitive tripartite?) relationship.  It remains to be seen who would be what; World RPS could easily be seen as the Rock, the primordial beginnings of the sport.  USARPS, given their history of making loot, could easily be seen as Paper.  The double blades of Scissors could be interpreted as Rosh's ability to "see both sides of the equation" or "to be a turncoat," depending on your point of view.  This analogy works well, if one considers the relations between the throws:  USARPS trumps WorldRPS, by virtue of making more money.  WorldRPS trumps Rosh, by virtue of his closest associations being there.  Rosh trumps USARPS, by virtue of his having mind control over them.  Why WorldRPS has yet to exploit the latter link is a mystery to me...

For those of you who missed it, here is an edited version of my appearance of Bank of Hollywood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWMz2OGUF5s

My bit starts around 4:07. They took out all mentions of the Philly City League, WorldRPS, USARPS or the RPS doc.  More importantly, they took out the gameplay in my match vs Poker Pro Vanessa Rousso, though to be fair, 90% of that match was in the setup.

There's also some bits from my casting tape here:

http://www.eonline.com/on/shows/bank_of_hollywood/videos/index.jsp

Click on "Casting Tapes, Ep 104" and advance to around 3:23.  Pretty rough, but Rosh completists (both of us) may want to check it out.

[Jef Hallestone]

Excellent going there Rosh. Very professional appearance. You have certainly come a long way from your debut on Fox.

- Liked how you handled the "How much can you make in RPS" by talking about that old tournament. Good dodge.
- I was impressed by Vanessa that she clearly had a level of respect for RPS. Fantastic set up on her. Taking off the sunglasses was one of your signature "master-moments" after that Paternson dude made such a big deal about trying to level the playing field. I wish I could have seen the full game as it looked to me that you were trying to telegraph scissors as you explained the rules to set her up for the first Rock takedown , but then the whole sunglasses interuption might have blown that set up. Good call though on using the "first to 3" as the extra game gives the advantage to the professional player. Did you speak to Vanessa after the show at all? Since she is supposed to be an expert on game theory, it may have made for a good conversation.

All in all, you did the sport proud.

Have to leave the 3rd league discussion for another time...must get back to work

[Master Roshambollah]

I appreciate your kind and thoughtful words, Jef.

- They edited my response to "how much can you make" pretty heavily; as you know, I can ramble on for a bit, plus there were clarifying questions from the panel.  In addition to talking about "that old tournament", I mentioned that RPS pros make most of their coin in shady backroom matches, and that for tax reasons I'd prefer not to answer that question personally.  I also talked about that old match featuring Sotheby's vs Christie's, in my opinion the highest staked RPS match in history.

- I was also impressed with Vanessa, much more so than with any other member of the panel.  They edited out a lot of questions and responses from her and the other judges, and it seems that her queries were focused on ascertaining the validity of RPS as a sport.  By comparison, the other judges seemed most interested in how much money could be made, whether or not my earring was "real", and my relative level of sanity. 

You've got a good eye, Jef; I was indeed attempting to subliminally persuade her to throw scissors (advanced players as well as any of my former students should be able to pick up on how I set that one up.)  To my surprise, Vanessa opened with paper!  I forget the twists and turns of the rest of the match, but it was focused primarily on game play more than gamesmanship.  I had to take a contrarian approach, and remember that my opponent was adept at the bluff and the double-bluff. I left with nothing but respect for Vanessa as a player and as a person.  In real life, she is an acquaintance of professional poker pro and llama farmer Phil Gordon, who is definitely a Master-level player and host of the annual World Series of RPS in Vegas.

You are also correct in that the "Sunglass Switch" was the key to winning the whole game.  I'm usually against "nuding up" (i.e., removing articles of clothing during a match); in my experience, I have never seen it work, and it is usually the last thing a player does before losing (e.g. Miggs "Bloody Knuckles" Bartula vs Marc "Fistful o' Sneer" Rigaux in 2004 (I think) or myself vs Christine Wong in 2003.)  In this case, the match had not begun, so it seems I was safe from the curse.  Primarily, I had already shown the opponent my ability to make her put on a pair of sunglasses; by comparison making her throw what I wanted her to throw would be simple.  "I feel like he's about to do a magick trick!" she even exclaimed.  You are also correct about the "race to 3" nature of the match; I felt that "2 of 3 sets" might be confusing for the average viewer, but that requiring a third win would give me more time to gather information.  I would have had her at two anyway, but that third win gave me an additional chance to showboat, and you know I'll never turn that down.

I have only seen the online version, and the televised segment included a bit more information.  I seem to remember the male panel member saying "I used to think I knew what crazy looks like; now I know for sure."  I did not get a chance to talk with Vanessa or any other panel member after the segment.  I went back to my trailer (well, it was a communal trailer) and called C. Urbanus.  I was then taken back to my hotel.

I was not at all let down to not get my requested amount of money to come out of retirement.  In the first place, I had already tentatively accepted the Midnight Rider's offer to proxy for him telepathically, and this would have no doubt affected his Final 16 appearance.  I did not expect the judges to understand the intricacies of high level RPS play. However, I felt it was good for the sport to provide a window into our world on the national televised stage.  More importantly, it afforded me a chance to provide commentary for the RPS documentary in-studio; since BoH was already flying me down and putting me up, it was a lovely sychronicity to get a call from Mike McKeown and Julian Cautherly inquiring as to my availability to come down and record the very same week that BoH was shooting.  I have seen this type of "coincidence" more than once, and one can almost feel the invisible hands of the Ascended RPS Masters manipulating situations behind the scenes.  I simply had BoH delay my return flight for a few days.  For a day or two I stayed at a cheap Hollywood hotel of which I am fond, visited the USARPS brass, went to the "Museum of Death" which was a hoot, and attended a Halloween party thrown by a close friend, which was still going strong when I left at 2 in the afternoon the next day.  All in all, a successful trip.

[Brad Fox]

Very nice piece, congratulations! Pity it was cut according to "shortest attention span denominator" (as so much TV is these days) as I'm sure there was even more gold there if the shows producers could have given it a little more room to breathe - but an admirable showing just the same.

It's also a good kick in the pants that I'm sitting on a PVR of the BT segments from this years world champs that I should digitize and upload as there's a very nice Urbanus/Roshambollah segment off the top that really needs to be saved for posterity.

[Franklint]

Great work indeed, Rosh. This segment showed our sport off in a good light. You represented us very honourably.

A couple of things:
- Did you end up getting any votes at all for receiving the money? What about Rousso?
- Although only the players with highly-tuned vision, such as myself, would have noticed it, Rosh actually adjusted his strategy to compensate for the sunglasses interruption. Fearing the subliminal Scissors may already have left her mind, he (whether consciously or sub-) flicked her a second pair to make sure it was properly cemented. However, because an actual Scissors would have been far too obvious, he instead substituted his thumb for his middle finger, creating only a crude outline of the throw.


(larger picture for you oldies with poor eyesight: http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3/Franklint/Sothosearetheglassesyourewearing.jpg)

There's a reason they call me the best new RPS player of all time.

A nice little coincidence that Mike wanted you to finish off some commentary work at the same time as you were shooting this. It's great how these things work out. I think Smallsoa was looking out for you from beyond the grave.

I say you keep up these TV appearances, until you've racked up enough screentime that a big television network gives you a reality show in a style similar to The Pickup Artist - where you take lucked-out basement-dwellers and turn them into pro-league RPS players. Like the VH1 show, you'll need a couple of off-siders. They'll be... Master Pete and Burley/Cohrs/Urbanus? The Walker brothers? I'll be in the credits as "additional RPS consultant".

Cheers,
Franklint "Eagle Eyes"

[martinburley]

Good stuff. It's just a shame that the combination of the electromagnetic fields and Master Roshambollah's innate levels of quantum flux meant that the effects of Rosh's appearing on Bank of Hollywood to beg for a loan rippled back through spacetime and actually caused the global financial crisis.

[Frannie Annie]

   Hi every-RPS'er, as you see it's Frannie Annie. Congratulations on your TV appearance- not the 1st or the last. Bank of Hollywood huh?!
   These D'list celebes are not sure or convinced. Please dont consider yourself one Rosh. Although one has to pretend, to be someone who is pretending to be something, as you have said. And to be convincing, one must necessarily pretend to be one of them. The scene is about making them feel good or at least graduate from D-list to B-grade. And Edit- schmedit. The good parts were edited not the worst. It was like "Oh no! Too much information!I'm only here to look good and indulge myself (and pretend)."
   I must qualify that comment by saying Vanessa was tres cool, and indulged herself in best possible way. Throwing- down! I would have liked to see you in a T-shirt that said "Midnight Rider lives here" or something like that. That will be third T-shirt design, after completing the Toronto 2009 design on location with consultation from the band of inaugurating masters around, Doug, Shawn, Clayton, etc.
 Retirement?, bring you out of it with BOH cash. Sure, but that whole point was edited down too. Truth is you cant retire. After all, you just competed in Toronto, & you went on TV in support of the sport, & you're addicted to RPS fun. But aren't we all. You were tough- & well, just how exclusive can exclusive be?!
 RPS.

[Game Masters 4u]

Rosh, Great piece of work in promotion.

A master move and a masterfull presentation.

Getting on the show was a master throw!

Master Roshambolah shows the way to go!!!


I feel an idea forming

Maxamillion

[Master Roshambollah]

I'm sitting on a PVR of the BT segments from this years world champs that I should digitize and upload as there's a very nice Urbanus/Roshambollah segment off the top that really needs to be saved for posterity.

Any movement on this? Trying to get a present together for Urbanus. He never checks this forum anyway, so I figured it was the safest place to ask.

[Maxamillion]

Rosh
I don't know anything about PVR or BT but wondered if are you planning a presentation at the 2011 world championships?

Max