Monday, January 28, 2013

LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF TRIVIA: One of our correspondents notes that he's thinking of starting a pub quiz night in his locality and has asked for tips.  As part of a team that is quite regular at The Big Quiz Thing in NYC and has done other trivia nights from time to time, I'll offer some advice:
  • Remember that not everyone who comes to the event is going to be good at trivia, so make sure the show is entertaining for them even if they're not getting a ton of questions right.  Have audio and visual elements to keep folks entertained (audio and video rounds or questions are a great thing as long as the venue is set up in a way that makes them work).  The BQT also awards "smart-ass points" for wrong but funny answers, which is another great way to keep people engaged in the show when they're not terribly good at the game.
  • Scoring between rounds always generates a lull.  Make sure to have enough folks "staffing" the game that it goes quickly and offer something between rounds to keep folks engaged--I've seen short films, had live comedy, had a good DJ, or had mini-games offered in those segments.  
  • Question difficulty is hard to gauge, and may have to be adjusted over time depending on the crowd.  Well written questions, I find, have both a front door way and a back door way in--with the back door way ultimately being easier, but requiring picking up on an internal clue or piece of wordplay.  Also, make sure that unless you're specifically promoted as a specialty area night, you've got a wide range of questions, so everyone's niche of knowledge gets to contribute.
  • Have fun--if you're not having fun up on the stage, the people in the room aren't going to be having fun either.
I'm sure other folks here have experience and thoughts, and to the comments we go.