Name the Three Musketeers. What is the capital of Finland? Approximately when was the Colosseum built?
For local trivia buffs, those are the types of questions that come up each week at any of Baton Rouge’s trivia nights, designed to test teams’ knowledge on a variety of subjects and offering rewards in return for correct answers.
Some trivia competitions — like the “Let’s Get Quizzical” series — take place at different locations throughout Baton Rouge on different nights of the week. The venues keep track of the teams’ standings throughout the semester and award even bigger prizes for those victories.
One of those places is The Chimes, located on Highland Road. Monday night trivia at The Chimes consists of two rounds of 10 questions. Each question ranges in point value, and teams are awarded points for a correct answer. The points from each round are totaled and prizes are awarded at the end of each round. Points are tallied throughout the semester and a grand prize of $500 is awarded to the winning team.
Many students make a conscious effort to go to trivia nights every week, increasing their chances of winning the grand prize and also creating an exciting evening.
Clay Tucker, geography senior, said he has been attending Monday night trivia at The Chimes with his team “Woody Allen’s Penis” for more than a year and a half.
The team’s strategy for winning is to accommodate as many area specialties in the group as possible. Tucker’s team members have tried to master the knowledge of art, history and sports, while Tucker said he is the team’s geography guy.
The events are competitive, but Tucker said his team usually places in the
respectable top 15. On nights when some of the more serious competitors, like University professors, choose not to show up, Tucker said “Woody Allen’s Penis” will make a run for the top spot.
But all trivia nights aren’t created equal.
Wednesday night trivia at the Mellow Mushroom consists of eight rounds of three questions each. Teams get to choose whether each question counts as three, two or one point, depending on their confidence level, but can only use these values once per round. At the end of the night, the top three teams are rewarded with gift cards to the restaurant.
Environmental engineering junior Philip Speeg said he likes this trivia because it involves a little bit of strategy and provides an opportunity to socialize with friends.
He said he’s attended trivia nights at the Mellow Mushroom regularly on Wednesday over the summer even though his team normally did “terribly.”
However, it’s not just students who participate at these events. University mathematics professor Richard Litherland has attended trivia at The Chimes for a number of years since the event began.
He started participating because he was at The Chimes anyway, he said, and the weekly contest sounded like fun.
Although he teaches math, Litherland said those types of questions don’t come up often in the weekly trivia nights. Instead, he aids his team with his vast knowledge of history.
“It’s a team thing so some people know certain things,” Litherland said.
His team, called “Left end of the bar” — the location the team was sitting in when they began doing trivia — usually does well, Litherland said, ranking in at least the top 10.
It all depends on the week, with some teams excelling some weeks and other days falling short. But for most teams competing at these weekly trivia nights, it’s more about having fun than the prizes that can be won.
“Me and my teammates, we like to do things on Monday nights,” Tucker said. “It’s a much better alternative than going south of campus [to Tigerland].”
