5 Fun Themes for Live Trivia Parties, and Why They Work
Perhaps one of the first things I’m asked when holding an initial conversation with clients is, “what kind of trivia do you guys do?” The answer brings both good news and bad: the good news is, you can have a trivia event about any topic you like! The bad news, of course: where on earth do you begin?
Having produced so many live trivia events over the past 5 years, I’ve had the opportunity to experiment a lot with trivia topics, throwing an awful lot of trivia spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. While this kind of event entertainment can be customized to fit the needs of any group, I have found that the below broad themes for trivia questions consistently go over well, especially for intelligent, fun-loving & competitive groups:
1) Pop Culture – People love pop culture, and consume it voraciously. TV, movies, music, celebrity gossip, fads, commercials – you name it, people follow it, with passion. We recently held a night of pop culture trivia to benefit VH1 Save The Music, and had to close sales in advance because it received such an enthusiastic response. When it comes to selecting trivia questions, pop culture is definitely a winner.
2) Nostalgic History – It’s important to know the age of the group, so that appropriate history questions can be asked which evoke an emotional response. None of us were here to witness the Mayflower landing, but LOTS of us remember where we were when OJ took his fateful ride in a white Bronco; tugging at the nostalgic heartstrings goes over extremely well at trivia events, and I use this as often as I can.
3) Geography – People go nuts over geography – who knew? Whether asking about cities, states, countries or oceans, people have atlases tucked into the dark recesses of their brains, and feel ridiculously satisfied when they pull out the correct answers.
4) Local Trivia – I mainly produce corporate trivia parties in New York City, and find that any NYC-centric questions really go over well – especially those which only “real” New Yorkers will get (I’m talking famous subway performers, bus stop billboards, flyers of guys who teach guitar etc.). However, regardless of where the event is being held, natives will always respond well to questions about that place.
5) Other Media – People love it when you toss another form of questioning at them, in order to mix up the flow of the event and skills needed. Music rounds are popular, whereby you play songs over the sound system and attendees need to guess the title and artist. Picture rounds are also great, where teams need to identify 10 obscure celebrity photos for points, as well as figure out what all of them have in common. I’ve also seen video rounds at some trivia nights – I don’t do these, because I feel the results don’t justify the time & labor needed to assemble, but still they are enjoyable.
Even though I’ve created so many events, I certainly don’t claim to be the final answer when it comes to ideas for trivia themes. Do you produce, host or attend trivia events? What themes do you find are consistent crowd pleasers? What new themes do you think would go over well? Please share your ideas below!
Almost every week I include a mix and match round. I feel these offer the idea of being easy even if they aren’t because all the answers are there, and it may just be a matter of elimination. As for music, most songs say the title so I also do that round but just have them guess the artist. Or once in a while I’ll use popular songs that are also tv themes (the who, nickleback) and have them guess artist and tv show they’re from (csi, WWE Raw)
I love the idea of guessing both the artist/TV show – one point for each?
Wholeheartedly agree on the pop culture/nostalgia aspects of a pub trivia night. When I played, I always enjoyed questions in those areas. I also encourage teams to come up with ideas for me to make special round for. If I can make ten good questions from their idea, I give them props when I use the round (also kinda takes the heat off me if the round goes south lol). Among their ideas for rounds that were well-received: Kids’ TV, Breakfast Cereal, and Fictional Weapons.
I try to avoid questions on local trivia, mainly because I get some teams who are just here for the night, or who just moved here from parts unknown, and not knowing an answer just because you’re not a local feels kind of alienating.
Audience involvement in the themes development is always great- though I do like asking local questions. Here in NYC, I always ask at least 1 “Native New Yorker” question for people, which is designed just for people from the city (ie- something that only “real” New Yorkers will know. But just 1 question, so as not to alienate everybody else