Since 2010, I’ve hosted approximately 780 trivia nights. Through a decade and a half of trial, error, and "crowd work," I’ve refined a formula that keeps players engaged, bars profitable, and hosts sane. Whether you are a veteran or just starting out, here is the blueprint I use for every show.
My first experience hosting a trivia night was for a company called YesIAmShow.Biz back in 2010 on the north side of Chicago. My job was simple: read questions from a PowerPoint, riff on the content, and keep the energy up. I loved it so much that I eventually branched out to start my own nights. While I initially "borrowed" their format out of laziness, I’ve kept it for 16 years because it simply works.
It’s broken down in 5 themed rounds like this:
Round 1 Water Words (All Answers Contain “Water”)
Round 2 Famous Ad Slogans
Round 3 LEGO Celebrities Picture Round
Round 4 Where In The World? (guess the location from the clues)
Round 5 Confidence Round (10 totally random questions)
The first four rounds are always worth 12pts, with questions 1-10 being 1pt and the bonus question being 2pts. To add a layer of gamification, teams can choose one round (from Rounds 1-4) to “double.” If they get 8 points and double it, they earn 16. This forces teams to evaluate their strengths early on.
My answer sheets look like this:
I’ve used this same format for over a decade because it’s nice and balanced and keeps everything running smoothly for 2 hours on average. I never want players to be there longer than 2 hours (weeknight babysitters silently thank me for this) and I want everyone to be engaged in the themes round to round. It’s served me well; I get compliments on it weekly from new players, and they always seem to enjoy the variety, which brings me to my next point.
My trivia nights lean on pop culture. Movies, music, TV, video games, comics, current events, nostalgia, classic books, etc. Lots of people like these kinds of topics over stuffier, academic categories like 16th Century British Royalty. The rounds are designed to trigger the memories of players 21-61 or so, give-or-take a few years. Lots of other trivia nights focus on more academic categories and can be sports-heavy, two things I’m not super interested in (in general).
The main reason I made mine different was that I had been to other trivia nights and found that the more academic they were, the less fun I had. I’m not good at remembering stuff that matters (science, math, history) but I’m great at remembering absolutely pointless things (wrestling championship holders, horror movie taglines, discontinued candy of the 90s). When I started the business, I wanted the content to things I found interesting and unique which makes it fun for other like-minded players and made it fun for me as the content creator. And there have definitely been times where I’ve hosted all-sports nights or more academic and cultural themed events. But my week-to-week is usually based on the principles of pop culture.
When I make a round like Baking Bad (a combo round of baking and Breaking Bad related questions that this player hated), I stick to the rule of 3s.
3 Easy Questions: Everyone feels smart.
3 Medium Questions: Teams have to start debating.
3 Hard Questions: This separates the leaders from the pack.
1 Final “Stumper”: A 2-point bonus question to act as a tie-breaker.
Pro Tip: Always include a summary slide at the end of each round. It took me 14 years to realize how much players appreciate a quick recap of the questions before turning in their sheets! I only started doing in the last year, as suggested by a player at Brewport Tap House in El Segundo.
As you play through those, you can probably get 50% of them on your own no problem, and you might need some teammates to bounce ideas off of to get the rest. You can find the whole round and use it for whatever you’d like here.
I like a good mix of topics and styles of rounds weekly, and I listen to the crowd if they tend to hate something. Of course, you don’t always know if something is a slam dunk until after you’ve hosted it, but the players will always let you know if they hated a round (“Will It Float In Water” was WAY too subjective and definitely didn’t work as a good quiz). Here are some of the rounds I incorporate frequently:
What’s the Theme? (10 random questions, all answers have something in common, bonus is “guess the theme “for 2pts)
50/50 (picking between two options (Which One Came First, Who Said Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth, Metallica or Goosebumps Titles)
Buzz Words (all answers contain the same word like “Club”
Picture Rounds (something visual like Minimalist Movie Posters, TV Screenshots or Blurred Product Logos)
Rhyming Pairs (Always Sunny Short Guy Enjoying A Mexican Wrapped Meal=Danny DeVito Eating a Burrito)
Those are just a few examples. New ones will pop into my head at any time, or sometimes I’ll see something online that jumps out as a great category.
Straight from the YesIAmShow.Biz playbook, I close out all my weekly shows with something called the Confidence Round. In this quiz, there’s no theme, and it typically consists of the most random and difficult questions of the night. Players write down their answers and then rank them 10-1 with 10 being highest and 1 being lowest in little boxes next to the answer lines. They have to use each rank once, for up to 55pts. This is where I can slip in sponsored questions from local businesses (more on finding sponsors in a later article coming soon), super random facts I find online, and any topic that I feel was left out of the previous four rounds. Players usually dig this round because it feels different than the others, and it’s a fun way to ramp up the end of the night with the ranking gimmick. It also lets certain teams come from behind and possibly win the night.
By the end of the night, my hope is that all the teams had a great time competing in a variety of subjects that were fun, engaging, and embellished by the host. I want them to come back, I want the bar to make money so I make money, and I want players to come up and book private parties because they had such a great time. If I can make that happen in two hours, I win!
As a thanks for reading this, here’s a link to download an entire trivia night I used last week. Enjoy!
If you have any questions about the format above or starting your own trivia night, leave a comment below.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.