I鈥檝e been to the Duke of York鈥檚 pub quiz dozens of times, but on a recent Monday evening I felt a new energy.
As I squeezed into a booth in the packed basement of , everyone laughed a little harder. Pint glasses clinked a little louder. Everywhere I looked I saw faces I鈥檇 only ever seen on screens. It was like being at an A-list TIFF party 鈥 except these were all trivia nerds like me.
This was the first time we gathered in person to play in three years, but for many of us it felt longer. 鈥淚鈥檝e aged about a decade,鈥 said quizmaster Luke Pettigrew during his introduction to the crowd of 90 or so players. I know the feeling.
Trivia has always been a fun thing to do on a weeknight, but it鈥檚 become much more meaningful since the pandemic. After many local games pivoted online, they鈥檝e now come roaring back to life, more ubiquitous than ever. They鈥檝e both specialized and diversified, and now there鈥檚 a pub quiz to fit virtually every personality or interest.
Pub quizzes spread to 海角社区官网from the UK, and at their core they鈥檙e all relatively similar: a host reads a series of questions (sometimes offering audio and visual clues), as teams write down answers to compete for a prize 鈥 say, a pitcher of beer, an appetizer or simply bragging rights.
Why trivia left the pub
Left, writer Richard Trapunski attended a recent Duke of York trivia night, the first time in three years he and his friends played in person.
Giovanni CapriottiIn March 2020, when bars closed and we all became intimately familiar with the term 鈥渟ocial distancing,鈥 pub trivia outgrew the pub. Pettigrew, suddenly furloughed from his day job serving at Duke of York, sent an email to the 鈥渟cattered nerds鈥 of his mailing list promising the 鈥渇irst (and maybe last) Zoom trivia.鈥
鈥淲e were expecting it to run one week, and it ended up running 100 weeks,鈥 Pettigrew told me over a recent lunch.
For me, and many other regulars, those nights on Zoom were a lifeline. With two different screens open 鈥 one where Pettigrew read the questions, and the other where I conferred with my Shut Up, Nerds! teammates 鈥 we played multiple rounds every week. Some of my teammates were already friends, some started out as friends of friends, but soon I knew their lives intimately and they knew mine. When one of us got engaged or pregnant, the team members were some of the first to know.
At a time of extreme isolation, seeing the same faces every Monday night, cracking jokes and identifying songs from three-second audio clips, was a much-needed shared experience. It was a sense of structure and community during a time when we were all longing for it.
There was no entrance fee, just pay-what-you-can donations through e-transfer. At first, Pettigrew kept some of it himself and gave the rest to laid-off bar staff. He later raised money for those in need, such as Black Lives Matter demonstrators who required bail funds after being arrested during George Floyd protests.
Weekly trivia helped many through a tough time, including Pettigrew, who underwent major surgery in October 2020. 鈥淭here was a period of about a month when everybody thought I was going to die,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t really helped to be working away at trivia rounds rather than ruminating about my health.鈥
Eventually, when the world started opening up again and people got Zoom fatigue, virtual trivia fizzled, leading Pettigrew to announce a hiatus in May 2022.
He told me he felt guilty he didn鈥檛 reunite us sooner and paid for this live iteration out of his own pocket. He likened the in-person version to 鈥渁 Scorsese 鈥楲ast Waltz.鈥欌
鈥淟ike, we鈥檝e been seeing each other for 100 weeks on Zoom,鈥 he said. 鈥淟et鈥檚 get the band back together one last time.鈥
The pub quiz returns
Host Luke Pettigrew’s game booklet was titled “Zoom Trivia Live!”
Giovanni CapriottiHe had trivia booklets printed with the title 鈥淶oom Trivia Live!鈥 and A/V rounds included Pettigrew鈥檚 pandemic-perfected before-and-after marker drawings, which the community loved enough to demand they get their own You can play along there, guessing answers like 鈥淛uno Country for Old Men鈥 and 鈥淏lade-y and the Tramp.鈥
Pettigrew鈥檚 Duke of York trivia is one of the longest-running pub quizzes in the city. I first stopped in as a UofT undergrad in 2006, after discovering the game in Oxford during a summer abroad. Back then, there were only a few pub quizzes in Toronto. At the time, the Duke of York鈥檚 questions were supplied by a company called Pub Stumpers, which also provided booklets to other pubs in the city, making it easy to put on quiz nights without much prep. Also included was a CD with song clips. But many of the songs were geared toward an older audience and, for veterans of the scene, the questions eventually started to repeat.
Over the years, Pettigrew replaced questions with ones he wrote himself, building elaborate recurring bits around 鈥渁ll-the-way homophones,鈥 old almanacs he found on the street and 鈥渟houty-outy鈥 bonuses for which he threw fun-sized candy bars as rewards. The game developed its own flavour to match Pettigrew鈥檚 self-deprecating humour and the collective knowledge set of the group, which includes scientists, journalists, film and TV workers, even other trivia hosts. He can鈥檛 make it too specialized 鈥 he wants everyone on a team to contribute 鈥 but he can鈥檛 make it too easy either, because the competition level is fierce.
鈥淪ometimes I find myself giving people pep talks, like, 鈥楴o, you guys are smart.鈥欌 he said. 鈥淭here are 鈥楯eopardy!鈥 winners (who play here) whose teams don鈥檛 finish in the top five.鈥
A new twist on trivia
Participants conferred over responses at the Duke of York. Luke Pettigrew’s trivia nights could return more regularly, possibly in a new format or location.
Giovanni CapriottiTwo members of one of the regular teams, 鈥 first at the Queen West queer hub the Beaver, which closed during the pandemic, and now at the Bloor West beer bar Tallboys every other Wednesday.
鈥淲hen we first started, there were two kinds of pub quizzes in Toronto,鈥 Lima said. 鈥淭here was Pub Stumpers style 鈥 pretty standard history, geography, music questions 鈥 or theme nights like 鈥楽impsons鈥 trivia. We wanted to do something a bit more weird or avant-garde.鈥
They began with quizzes based on 鈥淔riends鈥 or 鈥淭he Office鈥 or 鈥淩upaul鈥檚 Drag Race.鈥 Now, the games are a bit more performative and eclectic 鈥 for instance, there鈥檚 a round that involves guessing the HBO show based on its gratuitous sex scene.
鈥淲e always make it queer, always a little bit vulgar,鈥 Lima said. 鈥淲e like to put in as much nudity as possible.鈥
It鈥檚 a good strategy. At bars in the early days of 海角社区官网pub trivia, this was a low-key way to drum up business on an off night. Now, it seems as if every bar has its own dedicated game. Hemingway鈥檚 has rotating theme nights, including Taylor Swift, 鈥淪tar Wars鈥 and 鈥淕ilmore Girls.鈥 Brass Facts trivia (whose host, Kirk Heron, has popped up occasionally at Pettigrew鈥檚 trivia), even outlived its former home at the Ossington and now has a following of its own at the Skyline.
Though Pettigrew鈥檚 recent quiz at the Duke of York was a one-off, his trivia nights could return more regularly, possibly in a new format or location. After so long apart but still connected, the nerds will surely follow him wherever he goes.
鈥淩eally,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 just wanted to see everybody again.鈥
Richard Trapunski was a culture editor at a few loved and lost alt-magazines. Now, he writes about culture for a variety of publications.
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