Orderby Rand Question

Hi, I’m currently using the breaking news theme and I was wondering if someone could help me code the following so that the post will come up random:

<div class="featuredtoppost">

                  <?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=".get_theme_mod('featured_top_left')."&showposts=".get_theme_mod('featured_top_left_num')); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
                  <?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", true) ): ?>
                  <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><img class="thumb" src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/tools/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", $single = true); ?>&h=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_top_left_thumb_height'); ?>&w=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_top_left_thumb_width'); ?>&zc=1" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
                  <?php else: ?>
                  <?php endif; ?>

                  <div class="clear"></div>

                  <span class="date"><?php the_time('F j, Y'); ?> – <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>#respond"><?php comments_number(__('Leave a Comment'), __('1 Comment'), __('% Comments'
)); ?></a></span>

                  <div class="clear"></div>

                  <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to <?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
                  <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
                  <div class="clear"></div><br /><br />
                  <span class="readmore"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php _e("Read More", 'modthemes'); ?></a></span>

                  <br />

                  <?php endwhile; ?>

              </div>

I added query_posts(‘orderby=rand’); in several places and I can’t get it to work…

Thanks