“In 2005 I was pouring pots at the Limerick Hotel,” Doble remembers. “Someone asked me if I wanted to run a trivia night there. I’d never been to a trivia night before, so that’s where we started it all. We now have 35 venues in Melbourne. We’re in WA, Queensland, and Tassie. We’re also doing weekly shows over in the UK, so I guess we are doing something right. We just got a request for one in Baku, which is in Azerbaijan. One for a bar in the Philippines just came through. So it’s really spreading. We’re still looking for more venues and more hosts to come on board as well, so if you’re interested check out Funky Bunch online.”
By happenstance, I was a trivia host gigging around Sydney’s inner west back in the day, and the strongest memories I have of those days is just how strong a sense of community developed around those nights.
Week after week the same teams would return, happily jockeying to be at the top of the ladder, throwing themselves into ridiculous games with abandon. For regulars they were, simply, nice places to be.
“You really do get that sense,” Doble agrees. “That guy who sent the request in Azerbaijan, he used to be a regular at the Limerick back when we started all those years ago and wants to try and get it going there. People do go week in and week out. They’re very committed. What I wanted was to just make it really accessible and fun. I didn’t want to have questions about the longest rivers in the world, or any of that boring ‘What country has these colours on the flag? What’s the currency of Turkey?’ What we wanted was fun, and to make sure it was open to people. That people could come down and have a few beers, have a laugh and a chance of winning.”
And win they have. Namely, one lucky punter recently walked away with close to $5,000. Not a bad shout for answering some questions at the pub.
Technologically speaking, the trivia landscape has changed a lot over the years. Where once you had but an emcee and a stereo, there are now interactive games, karaoke challenges, questions displayed from screen to screen. At its heart though, trivia nights are geared towards a group of mates pondering over paper and pencil, and that’s something Doble is keen to maintain.
“Every question runs through the screen,” he says. “There’s video and there’s background music. We’ve found recently that we’ve had to consciously decide how much is too much. With the games, some people still do want a traditional trivia set, so there’s a lot that are fifty-fifty. We have one game which is watching sumo wrestling, and you need to pick which wrestler you think is going to win. So there’s not much skill in that, but the crowd gets to cheer on their sumo. But if you’re a sports buff, you’d be feeling ripped off if they were all questions like that, because you’re not getting to actually use your knowledge. So it’s all still evolving.
“Maybe answering questions on your phone, do away with the pen and paper. But we see that as really important, because that way, everyone can have a discussion about the answer. We want to make sure that people aren’t just passengers along for the ride, that everyone is in it, having fun.”
