Building a New Pub Quiz from Scratch

As described in an earlier post about my start in the trivia events world, by September of 2006 I had only been hosting my new trivia night at The Gael Pub for a month, and had already been rewarded with a loyal turnout of…well, strangers! Over 50 of them, coming out of nowhere. Who WERE these people, laughing at my dumb jokes and cheering when I changed their team names to make them more- err…”colorful?”

They were all around my age, late 20s-early 30s, mixed gender, and they all seemed well-educated and fun-loving. They were enthused and excited by the competitive atmosphere, drew amusing doodles on their answer sheets and even thought I was funny (sometimes). And more people kept coming!

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but clearly I was doing something right. By October the bar was filled to capacity on Tuesday nights, with every table and bar stool taken. I knew that there was momentum going, and wanted to capitalize on this incredibly strange, completely surprising- yet clearly successful- new thing I was doing.

My work experience prior to that point had been primarily in public relations, so I had a good sense of what was “newsworthy” and what would make it into print. There weren’t a lot of pub quiz nights in the city back then, and having one as successful as The Gael pop up overnight seemed like something worth writing about.

So I emailed Time Out New York.

The following week, there it was, in print:

“City Pick: The Gael Pub Trivia Night, Tuesdays 9pm. FREE

“Quizmaster David Jacobson offers teams the chance to win a $50 bar tab at this UES trivia night. Even if your trivia skills are subpar, you can dazzle the crowd with your brilliant team name. We’re keen on ‘Ironic Savants.'”

They printed MY NAME! And called me a “Quizmaster!” In TIME OUT NEW YORK!

After that, there was no going back. The following Tuesday, the bar was packed- completely packed. So packed that I couldn’t even elbow my way through the front door to get to my place behind the bar.

We had over 30 teams that night, and it took me FOREVER to keep up with the scoring with my primative pen and scratch paper- but I did. And people had fun.

And so did I…!

In an upcoming post, I will talk about my experience maintaining a popular pub quiz night in New York City.