Last night, Shannon and I decided to try something new by heading to Ginger Man for trivia night. Shannon had never been to this pub before, and she was treated to the wall of taps, which features about 50 different varieties of draught beers. All of the different types of microbrews makes choosing one quite difficult, but she eventually picked a Pyramid Apricot, since she was in the mood for something a little sweet. This beer turned out to be a perfect choice for her mood, as the fruity flavor was subtle and didn’t dominate the beer. Meanwhile, I opted for a New Belgium “Two Below,” which is a full-flavored beer that’s great for the winter season.
Affable, hipster Ginger Man employees serve as the gracious hosts on Trivia Night
We then headed to the patio, where the trivia night was being held. It consists of four rounds, with ten questions in each round. Players divide themselves into teams, which have a maximum of six people. Shannon and I quickly figured out that we were at a decided disadvantage by being a team of two, since our team’s knowledge was limited by what either of us remembered. Players write the answers to the questions on a sheet of paper, and then it’s turned in to the hosts at the end of each round. One of the hosts then tabulates the scores while another reads off the answers.
Each round had a theme, with the first two rounds commemorating the New Year’s holiday. For example, each question in the first round concerned a news item from 2010 (for example, the first question: What country was devastated by an earthquake in January? Answer: Haiti). Although the questions seemed easy at first, they steadily became more difficult, and we answered only three of the ten questions right.
Our answers from Round One
We did decidedly better in the second round, when the theme was a question about each year in the decade. (Question One: In 2001, what wizard made his big-screen debut? Answer: Harry Potter). The only question we missed in this round was a 2005 question: To whom did George Bush say, “You’re doing a heckuva job,” only for the public to later find out that he was not doing a good job at all? Answer: Michael Brown, the former Director of FEMA.
Round Two also turned out to be the “Twitter” round, meaning that we were supposed to write the answer to a question that had been asked via Twitter on the Ginger Man website prior to the start of the game. I had actually researched this beforehand, and I found that the question was: Which governor pulled a family from a burning van this week? Despite knowing that the answer was Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, I didn’t get any credit because I didn’t write down the answer on our sheet. I later found out that when the host says a round is the “Twitter Round,” you’re supposed to write down the answer you researched that day. Oh, well, at least we know for next time (and so do you!).
The third round featured pop culture questions without an apparent theme. Finally, the last round consisted of questions made by one of the servers at Ginger Man who was about to move to San Francisco. Since she was originally from California, she created questions that centered on movies taking place in California. My problem with the questions was that they consisted of some pretty esoteric information, and some of the answers were sequels. For example, I answered Halloween to the first question, but the correct answer was Halloween 3 (it’s the one where the masks are cursed). And when she mentioned “Axel Foley” in the second question, I was sure that Beverly Hills Cop was the answer. Instead, it was Beverly Hills Cop 2 (since we’re supposed to know that this one involved the Alphabet Killer).
Trivia lasted from about 8pm to 10pm, and I like how the hosts keep a running tabulation of the scores. (We scored 23 out of a possible 40 points). It’s also pretty low pressure, and the hosts occasionally have some comedic relief moments with unruly members of the audience. Shannon and I had a great time, and we’ll definitely go back again – but next time, with a group of six!
