Nearly every night of the week at various bars and restaurants around Baton Rouge, patrons gather to rack their brains and answer questions on subjects ranging from “Anchorman” to moustaches.
Trivia nights have become hugely popular with students and non-students alike, and eateries like Walk-On’s, Mellow Mushroom, The Chimes and The Londoner are all cashing in on the trend.
Most trivia events allow patrons to form teams with unique names and compete for prizes usually consisting of gift certificates and alcohol.
Trivia nights appeal to students because they add a fun, competitive element to the typical night out.
Cody Leake, communication studies senior, has been hosting trivia night every Tuesday at Walk-On’s for nearly two years.
“It’s fun and a really good experience,” Leake said.
Trivia at Walk-On’s consists of two rounds of 10 questions with a short break in between. Teams can range from single players to 20 people competing for various prizes.
“First place gets a $100 gift card, second place gets a $50 dollar gift card and third place gets a $25 gift card,” Leake said. “Normally, we’ll throw in free pitchers of beer for fourth and fifth place just to get more winners in there and get more people involved.”
Leake and his trivia partner, Abby Theriot, choose both the themes and questions for trivia, and they often choose themes like “Name That Tune,” which will be next week’s theme at Walk-On’s.
Leake said his favorite theme of all time has been “The Sandlot” trivia.
“I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched that movie,” Leake said. “Old-school Nickelodeon is fun. We’ve also done Lil Wayne trivia, and if you’ve got a five-man team, there’s going to be somebody at that table who enjoys Lil Wayne’s music.”
Leake said the number of teams participating is consistently strong, though they notice a significant drop in participants when exam time rolls around.
“The number of players has consistently grown,” Leake said. “Sometimes we’ll have 40 teams, and sometimes we’ll have 15. [Tuesday] night we had over 20, which is a pretty good squad. In fact there was one team with about 20 people that actually ended up winning.”
Down the street at Mellow Mushroom, another weekly trivia night goes down every Wednesday.
Similar in setup to Walk-On’s, patrons are encouraged to form teams, and the competition consists of eight rounds of three questions.
At Mellow, prizes are awarded to first, second and third place. Free pitchers are awarded to teams with the most creative names, and “penalty shots” are given to teams whose names aren’t up to par.
Amanda Altazan, Mellow Mushroom manager, said the themes and questions for trivia are chosen by the host, but input is often given from both the Mellow staff and the crowd.
Altazan said first prize at Mellow’s trivia is a $35 Mellow Mushroom gift certificate, second place receives a $20 gift certificate and third place receives a $10 gift certificate.
Altazan said each team is also entered into a random drawing to win free pitchers of beer.
Team names are left to the teams themselves to create, and originality is encouraged across the board.
Altazan said the team names are often both off-color and humorous.
Leake said some of the more memorable names he has seen include “Touched by an Uncle” and “The closest Gary Coleman ever came to six feet was death.”
“Every week we get a new team name, but I really liked ‘It’s not rape if you yell “Surprise!”‘” Leake said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, somebody really just walked that line.”
Christopher Billiot, sociology sophomore, said he enjoys going to trivia night with his roommates each week.
“I like the fact that if you win, your food and drinks for the night are paid for,” Billiot said.
Hunter Hall, communication studies senior, said he enjoys participating in trivia nights at Walk-On’s as a way to pregame before going out.
“You see a lot of the same people there week in and week out,” Hall said. “Some people are really competitive about it, but I just enjoy playing before heading out to the bar.”
Ryan Waguespack, agricultural business senior, plays trivia at Walk-On’s frequently with his team, the “Three Finger Combo.”
“They do a good job getting everybody involved,” Waguespack said. “I think everybody enjoys it. It’s more of college crowd, so as long as you keep an open mind about the team names, you’re going to have fun.”
 
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Contact Andrew Price at [email protected]