Good Live Trivia Vs. Bad Live Trivia: A Side-By-Side Analysis

Whether running a local pub quiz or using trivia as a corporate team building activity, the overall goal is the same: everyone in attendance should have an enjoyable, memorable experience. However, as those who have attended multiple trivia parties can attest, not all live quiz events are created equal. As a quizmaster in New York City, where there are plenty of events to choose from, I am often told about both great and not-so-great events, as well as why they succeeded- or didn’t.

Below is a brief analysis of good live trivia vs. bad live trivia:

GOOD Trivia Events:

  1. Provide a well-balanced mix of challenging questions, ranging from easy to difficult
  2. Offer a diverse range of themes and topics
  3. Include multiple forms of media (audio, video, pictures etc.)
  4. Are comfortable for attendees, with ample seating & tables
  5. Are in a venue well-suited for live trivia hosting, with professional-quality A/V and a stage
  6. Are in a space with ample room for everyone who wants to play
  7. Are hosted by someone with personality, who knows what he/she is doing
  8. Feature questions which are customized for the audience in attendance
  9. Start and end on time
  10. Aren’t ridiculously short, nor are they insanely long
  11. Include opportunities for participants to socialize
  12. Allow for audience interaction
  13. Are about the attendees, not the host
  14. Offer prizes to the winners
  15. Are high-energy, humorous and FUN!

BAD Trivia Events:

  1. Are flooded with questions which are way too easy, or impossibly hard
  2. Focus only on a handful of topics
  3. Consist entirely of the same question-answer format, with no mixed media
  4. Make attendees uncomfortable by forcing them stand the entire time
  5. Have terrible audio where people can’t hear anything, and the host can’t do their job
  6. Are cramped, crowded, poorly lit and way too hot/cold
  7. Have a bland host – or worse, a host who thinks he/she is hilarious, but isn’t
  8. Feature questions which are totally inappropriate for the age & demographic of attendees
  9. Start late, end late
  10. End after 3 rounds, or last so long people are staring at their watches
  11. Have people stuck in their seats, with no break in between questions/answers
  12. Don’t allow for audience participation other than turning in answer sheets
  13. Are all about the host, with the audience an afterthought
  14. Don’t even have prizes for the winning team
  15. Are monotonous, boring and make you want to slit your wrists

In fairness, it isn’t easy to run live trivia events well, and it’s flat-out impossible to please everybody. However, the organizers, venue and host should always strive to achieve an incredibly fun event which is dynamic, competitive and intellectually challenging.

What are some other characteristics of both good & bad trivia parties?

2 Comments

  1. Peter on August 26, 2011 at 5:50 am

    I like this list, eventhough the bad events seem like the opposite of the good events and thus could have been left out.

    Nevertheless, this is a checklist all trivia venue promotors & hotsts should read.

    Additionally, what is your opinion on items like entrance fees, number of prizes (1, 2 and 3 or more?), the maximum number of participating teams, the ideal number of members per team and whether current news questions and puzzles/estimating questions should occur?

    • david on August 26, 2011 at 8:02 am

      Good point re: left-out items. In my opinion, a good event is free to enter, offers at LEAST prizes for 1st place, and maybe 2nd & 3rd as well, limits team sizes, includes current events but focuses minimally on math, puzzles etc.

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