Pub quizzes offer mental floss that’s more social than sitting at home with the New York Times crossword puzzle. Anyone who thinks drinking beer is not an acceptable way to boost brainpower has never sat in on a pub quiz. Recent trips to two longstanding trivia events – at the Monopole and Geoffrey’s Pub – confirms that one can learn something while hoisting a few.

Here's a look at the two offerings

Geoffrey’s Pub
Every Tuesday for almost three years, Burlington-based Top Hat Entertainment has hosted two hours of rapid-fire rounds at the British-style pub. With seven themed rounds of 10 questions each, a recent night contained both presidential trivia as well as a series of “name that logo” from popular food brands.

Daren Cassani, who owns Top Hat with his wife, Jennifer, added trivia nights to the entertainment company’s roster a few years ago, starting with Nectar’s in Burlington. The Cassanis come up the majority of the questions, using online encyclopedias and drawing from suggestions from friends, employees and trivia night attendees.

“It’s definitely a team effort,” Daren Cassani said. To keep it entertaining for the bar crowd, the material tends to be heavy on the pop culture with history, food, math and science thrown in for good measure.

Most sessions include an audio round, predominantly “Name that Song,” but sometimes consisting of snippets of speeches or sound bites from TV shows. This portion also sticks to a theme, such as “famous guitar riffs,” or on a recent night, guessing from song clips played backwards. Movie clips and picture-based rounds add to the multimedia approach.

Emcee Jeremy Asarese uses Power Point and media players to broadcast the questions, answers, images and movie clips through various television screens scattered throughout the bar and restaurant and even outside, in nicer weather. His wife, Becca Asarese, helps out behind the scenes, tallying score cards.

The team names seem light-hearted (Ghostface Spillers, I Heart Beer), but the players take the trivia seriously. The 15-20 hours of preparation that go into each session pay off, with many regulars returning week after week, said Asarese.

Monopole
DJ Gary Peacock started doing what’s now the oldest trivia night in Plattsburgh in the late-’70s, when he had a regular gig four nights a week playing music at the Monopole’s front bar. In those days, prizes consisted of free drinks. “It was very popular then,” Peacock said.

After a two-decade hiatus, Peacock resumed the trivia two years ago, starting on Thursday night and later expanding it to include Fridays.

If Geoffrey’s trivia is considered formal, with teams and PowerPoint presentations, than the Monopole is informal. While bar patrons mill about, Peacock plays music and intermittently poses a question. Whoever shouts out the answer first and loudest wins a prize, such as a Monopole keychain or t-shirt donated from a local beer distributor.

Although the mood is laid-back, behind the scenes Peacock does his prep work creating questions. He scours trivia books and Web sites and writes down ideas while watching Jeopardy. “I try to get a cross reference of stuff,” he said, pairing local geography and sports with music and movies. On a few recent nights, questions ranged from “What’s the second-tallest mountain in the Adirondacks?” to “What is the band Steely Dan named for?”

While questions seem off-the-cuff, Peacock takes care to tailor the questions to each night’s audience. “The tricky part is gearing the questions to the crowd that’s there,” he said. On average, Peacock prepares 40 questions a night, though won’t use them all.

The goal at the Monopole is to make it more fun than challenging. “Each time is nerve-wracking hoping that people understand it’s a casual event,” he said. The “anything goes” approach pays off for participants. A few Friday happy hour regulars routinely walk out with 5-6 prizes, he said. Which presents a new challenge: try and come up questions that will stump the regulars, but include the people who aren’t winning.

Geoffrey’s Pub
5453 Peru St.
561-3091
8-10 p.m. Tuesdays.
Restaurant/bar offers buy 1, get one free appetizers from 4-7 p.m., so many trivia fans come early.

Monopole
7 Protection Ave.
563-2222
10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays
5-8 p.m. Fridays Happy Hour
Drink specials offered during both sessions.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites