I’ve
been to many trivia parties over my years, some enjoyable. Unfortunately, most
of them were a let-down. Surprisingly, most people don’t know how to throw a
decent quiz night. But there’s always that one, beautiful exception of the lot;
the one that surpasses all the other experiences by far. I’ll recount – as best
as I can, the tale of what is probably the best quiz night I’ve ever been to.
Earlier in the week, a couple of friends had
informed a bunch of us that they were planning on treating us to a drink and a
great evening at a local bar; a real hot spot for the intellectuals at college.
This evening was promised to be worth staying up late and spending a great amount
of time, drinking our night away. Expectantly excited, I’d canceled plans I’d
had earlier and went home to get ready. Later that day, a friend of mine pulled
up on his motorcycle to pick me up for the little sortie. Expecting nothing
more than a night full of drinking and mindless antics, I’d just hopped on and
left my home without much more thought.
When
we pulled up in the parking lot outside the bar, we were all equally surprised.
The bar was much classier than we’d expected, I’d even go as far as call it an
establishment of comfort. The moment we’d gone in, we were at home. We’d
grabbed our seats and wasted no time in ordering our drinks; this was a first
for us all.
So,
by now, we’d been having a few drinks and a few laughs. Every now and then a
waiter would walk around, delivering envelopes to tables. We had no clue as to
what was going on, so we pulled a waiter aside and inquired as to what was
going on. Informingly, he told us that it was a little night event that they
had; every ten minutes or so, a set of questions would be delivered to a table
and they’d have ten minutes to solve the puzzles on that little piece of paper.
I, for one, loved this; being a fan of good bar trivia nights, I jumped at the
opportunity to ask him if we could join in and find out what the prize was.
Now
we were set. The rules were simple; each person participating would be assigned
to one of the other tables that were participating. Every time a table won a
round, that table would be given a free round of drinks! It was great, but the
competition was really stiff. For being a bunch of strangers, we as well as the
other teams were working really well together. Our table had won 3 rounds in
total that night, qualifying us for the final round. The final round had a bit
more risk to it; each member would need to place a fixed amount of money into a
pool to enter. This round was an ‘every person for themselves’ styled round.
The winner would walk away with half of the entire pool as well as 50% off
their next bill.
The
prize was extremely tempting and I’d already spent several hours in the
competition to back out now. I dropped my cash in, pulled up a chair and
signaled the host that I was ready. He’d brought out an unbelievably large
sheet and handed it to me, stating that I’d only have 5 minutes to complete the
whole thing. To my relief, it was a multiple choice quiz. Gearing down and
zoning into the quiz, I began to frantically tick away at the boxes as soon as
the timer bell chimed. The questions were challenging, although some seemed
rather easy. When I was fairly certain and confident that I’d not left anything
out, I stood up to turn my quiz in – just in time as well, the bell and gone
off.
A
few minutes later, the results were in. With my hopes set high, I listened
carefully to the host announcing the winner. After a few seconds of buildup
that seemed to last minutes, he announced the name. I hadn’t won! It was close,
with the winner getting a perfect score! Unfortunately, there were no prizes
for 3rd place. Alas, I didn’t win, but the night definitely did take
a turn for the better and I had a wonderful time along with it! My friends and
I have now made the spot a weekly regular and one day,
I might just win that
pool.
