First Timers Club: What happens when a newbie joins a Trivia Down Tuesdays quiz night
In school, during those classes where you zone out, you may have found yourself thinking, "Will I get to use these lessons in real life?" Most of the time, you do—you never know how much math you do while driving—but on other occasions, you may wonder when you'll get to use that Shakespeare knowledge you learnt way back when.
There's a perfect place where you can use up those history tidbits, literature lore, and science know-how that you still keep in the back of your brain: a quiz bee. My last encounter with such an activity was in grade school, where I won a couple of times. But reaching college and entering the workforce, I never really thought of joining such a competition.
I fancy myself a bit of a nerd and have always been curious about trivia nights hosted in different parts of the metro, but the introvert in me held me back. Apart from that, I felt like my brain's a little rusty when it comes to pulling school lessons out of my cranial archive.
But I decided I wanted to do more than just watch my favorite sketch comedy channel, Smosh, play their own version of Jeopardy. I dreamed of pushing the hypothetical buzzer myself and shouting my own answer, so I joined one of Trivia Down Tuesdays' quiz nights, which are held every night across Metro Manila and beyond.
Something for everyone
Kito, the host of the General Trivia night we attended on Feb. 26, shared that Trivia Down Tuesdays was founded by a group of headhunters, who were already hosting FIFA nights and pub crawls, in 2019. Trivia Down Tuesdays was born after they wanted to maximize their time outside of typical daily activities.
The social club hosts two to five trivia events every night, ranging from general and common knowledge to more niche topics like Broadway musicals, Friends, Harry Potter, WWE, and more.
Embracing being a nerd
For this edition of PhilSTAR L!fe's First Timers Club, we're joined by theater actor and content creator Reb Atadero, who's actually not a stranger to quiz nights. He hosts his own theater quiz bee with the Sandbox Collective.
Thai Mookata, the venue for the General Trivia night, saw nearly 10 tables that separated attendees into teams of two, four, and even eight people. It was a chance for folks to go around and meet others.
The night began with Kito asking everybody to come up with their team names, with the most creative one earning a point. Reb came up with the witty "Hakuna Mookata," but another team had the same idea, so they had to tweak theirs.
And then the quiz commenced, with multiple-choice geography, science, literature, and history queries. All we had to do was write our answers down on our white board. I found the geography questions hard—some of the places mentioned were names I've never heard before! Reb crushed it with the history trivia, even sharing that he's done a video on the historical figures for his History You Should Know series on social media. Meanwhile, I notched points during pop culture rounds, which included a "guess who the celebrity is" portion.
"You lose what you don't use," Reb said as he lamented missing the first question about the capital of Eritrea. He said that he used to have the capitals of the countries memorized during high school.
There was a competitive yet friendly vibe in the air as teams racked up their points. Funky music played in the background, and the host kept the energy and atmosphere light. In some parts of the night, the host would encourage the crowd to jokingly boo and call the leaders "nerds," but it was all in good fun.
It ended with our team placing second, just two points behind the first-prize winners. (Congratulations, by the way!) Being so close to snagging the win makes me want to come back for more. After the competition, the host and attendees went around the venue, talking and getting to know their former rivals—it was a fun way to close it out.
The best part of joining the trivia night was that there was no pressure to get things right. What matters is having fun and flexing your brain muscles every once in a while. If you're looking for something stimulating to do after a day's work, I encourage testing your knowledge at a quiz night.
Watch the third episode of First Timers Club below.