I have to admit that there are few things I enjoy more than a good pub quiz. It is a great opportunity to socialise and have a few drinks with friends, enter into a friendly competition and with any luck learn something along the way. I believe a good quiz master should know their audience and should pitch their quiz so that there will be a good mix of questions which your group should know, those that make you think just that bit harder to debate amongst your team as to who is right, and those which frustrate you for that name just on the tip of your tongue!
I feel there are a few ways to judge how good a pub quiz is, one of the most important things is for the quiz master to have a good sense of humour. There will always be a bit of banter in a quiz and you have to be able to handle it, and of course throw in some humorous questions without going too far. A good quiz will also have a variety of rounds and topics. Everyone has their specialist subject, but nobody wants to do an entire quiz about Everton football club’s 1973 season. A good mix of rounds helps as well by introducing a variety of things to do or think about, but crucially not making it too complex. Don’t forget you are trying to lure well lubricated punters to the edge of their knowledge and entice them back next week for more. Not forgetting after the whole thing is over is to look at the spread of the scores, the closer the scores are the better the quiz is for the audience and the more competition and fun the teams will have had.
Over the years I have learned many absolutely useless facts at pub quizzes; for example did you know that Richard Gere’s middle name is Tiffany [1], that the well known seller of frozen fish Captain Birdseye also goes by the pseudonym Captain Iglo [2], or even that Jason Statham was once covered in oil as a Go-Go dancer in a 90s music video? [3] All of those facts are useless in real life, but in the world of the pub quiz they can be little golden nuggets of information which could see you winning. That is not to say that I have never learned anything useful, but these are the facts which come to mind after a few drinks. Maybe that’s State-dependent memory for you?
As well as taking part in a quiz, I love setting a pub quiz as well. I enjoy doing some research and going down rabbit holes to find a group of questions which can provide some entertainment, debate and maybe even some arguments. With any luck at the end of the day maybe someone might even learn something. Of course there’s always at least smart arse in a team as well, unlike some quiz masters who will take points away for being a smart arse, I’m always happy to have a debate about answers as I have been known to be wrong in the past. If you do like to have a debate about things, never forget that the quiz master is always right at the end of the day. (Even if they are wrong!)
Thanks to the lockdown we are now in, I have been building up rather a surplus of quiz rounds, so I thought I would post some on my blog here. With any luck they will be entertaining for anyone reading them and who knows, you may even learn something. So I will aim to post a new quiz or quiz round a couple of times a week to try and alleviate the fun of lockdown. I have tried to keep things simple with formatting and viewing the quiz on my blog should hide the answer until you hover over it, please let me know if you have any troubles. When I write my quizzes, I always like to make a note of my sources just in case someone wants to know more, so I will include some sources at the bottom of every post so like me, you can end up going down a rabbit hole if you have nothing better to do with your time!