Maintaining a Packed House on Pub Quiz Night

By November 2006, barely 2 months after starting my new gig as the volunteer “quizmaster” at Manhattan’s Gael Pub, the bar had to buy a new laptop so that I could score the 30+ teams each week on Excel, rather than by hand. I was still in shock with the overwhelming response I’d received in a short period of time. Over 100 people were coming out each week- each week!- on a TUESDAY NIGHT, to play trivia- and they said it was because of ME!

Really?

Who the heck am I??

I’m just some guy, a dude who lives around the corner and works as a junior event planner at The 92nd Street Y. What was I doing that made people come out like this?

I still don’t have a good answer to that question, and am both baffled and humbled when I think about it. My theory, however, is that people responded well to my basic premise, the one lens which I made sure to view my new role as “quizmaster” through every week when I picked up the microphone, and which  I still do:

It has to be fun.

I knew instinctively – as well as though my limited experience playing pub quiz –  that the host had to make the event enjoyable, or there was no point in being there. Sure, people like to feel smart; they revel in competition, and love a good mental challenge with quality trivia questions after a long day at the job. But if the experience isn’t fun, well- than they might as well stay at home and work on a crossword puzzle.

So, that became my thing. Make it fun! For me, this meant injecting humor wherever I could (but not forcing it); make a big thing out of funny team names, rip on the ridiculously wrong answers people give, even make fun of myself a bit (“I’m a quizmaster- and yet, surprisingly, single” went over well, back when it was true).

It worked. Not only did people keep coming back week after week, but they kept approaching me afterwards and telling me how much fun they were having, and that I was doing a great job- wow!

Do you have a similar experience starting up your own trivia night?