...Thursday Night Pub Quiz Smackdown...

If you're like me, you hadn't heard of a Pub Quiz before Thursday. But, if you ARE like me, that would not be a surprise. Essentially, a “pub quiz” is literally a quiz that takes place in a pub. Go figure, huh? Suspicion leads me to believe that pub quizzes were created by pub owners looking to increase patronage in the middle of the week, instead of just on the weekends. Throw in a “Happy Hour” and you’ve got attendees drinking in the middle of the week!


It turns out that Pub Quizzes are all the rage (well, they were as of the mid 90s, according to Wikipedia…) in Britain. Several years later, the game has crossed the pond (a.k.a. the Atlantic Ocean), jumped over much of the entire United States, and landed at Loft Bar and Grill in downtown San Jose. Teams are formed among the pubs attendees, and several rounds are played where a host asks various teams a series of questions. The teams work together – while still getting served dinner and drinks – to submit their answers for each round. If you like trivia, this is the game for you! Questions are pulled from a broad spectrum of topics, and the more teams involved, the more competitive it can all get.


A Pub Quiz outing is the perfect social event because you can invite lots and lots of people to participate, and all you’re simply doing is spicing up the staid dinner and post-dinner chit-chat. This is great for those who fail at social conversation. (Looks around sheepishly…) It forces you to open lines of communication with someone with whom you may have not yet spoken. See? It’s GREAT for NSBE-AE-SVC.


Thursday’s Pub Quiz brought out a large number of NSBE-AE-SVC members and quite a few guests. Meals and drinks were ordered, and a team name was decided upon. (“The Lofty Travistas”…no, not my idea, and the host couldn’t pronounce it. We’d have been better off being called the “Square Losers”. Sigh.) Microphone in hand, the game-show-ready host introduced all the teams (four, in total) and presented a series of questions. Round 1 challenged our retention of random-yet-useful knowledge (“What’s the capital of New Hampshire?” Don’t judge; you don’t know the answer either.). Round 2 challenged our recollection of famous movie lines. Round 3 gauged how much educational and trash TV we watched. (Who memorizes a picture of John Wilkes Booth?! My sister.) Round 4 tested our auditory absorption of current events.


All in all, there was a question for every single person – all twelve of us – to answer. Clearly, the more people you have on your team, the higher the winning potential. But one thing we learned is that the larger your team, the more challenging it is to communicate. You can’t yell, “Hey guy-on-the-other-end-of-the-table, what’s the name of that country next to Venezuela?”


Next time around, development of strategy will be our focus. For despite having twelve people at our table, we STILL LOST THE GAME!! Yeah, you heard that (read that…) right. A bunch of really loud guys (maybe there was a girl in their midst, who knows) at the bar beat our table by 3 or 4 points. And they got to have $30 taken of their bill as a reward! We only got $20 off of ours. *tear*

So now you know what a Pub Quiz is. Next time you see it on the NSBE-AE-SVC calendar, be there! (Or be square.)