Trivia Night

Dave’s Trivia Challenge keeps local brains working and bar stools full

Paige Richmond

of the Gateway

Last Tuesday, Dave Ralston asked a question of the patrons at the Hy-Iu-Hee-Hee, a bar and restaurant off Burnham Drive in Gig Harbor. He stood before a dozen crowded tables with a microphone in hand, as the crowd attentively waited for him to speak. Some people shushed their tablemates; other set down their drinks and turned to where Ralston was standing.

“All right,” Ralston said, preparing his listeners. “What is the name of Fred Flintstone’s boss?”

A collective gasp rose from the crowd at the Hy-Iu — as if everyone whispered, “Oh ... ” at the same time — and the room fell silent.

A few seconds later, bar-goers began to talk among themselves again, brainstorming the answer to the question.

Christine Lutschg and her friends began throwing out answers and recounting facts about the Flintstones, the animated television sitcom from the 1960s.

“Because we’re an older and a younger group,” Lutschg explained, “we tend to do well with most questions.”

They eventually settled on the correct answer: Mr. Slate, the owner of Slate Rock and Gravel Company, the quarry where Fred Flintstone worked as a bronto crane operator.

It’s these kinds of questions that will keep Lutschg’s team — which has nicknamed itself “Five O’Clock Somewhere” — coming back to the Hy-Iu every Tuesday night for Dave’s Trivia Challenge, a weekly trivia contest.

The contest is modeled after pub quiz, a trivia game held in a bar where players are divided into teams and asked a series of questions. Winners usually receive a cash prize, donated by the bar.

Pub quiz originated in Great Britain in the 1990s, when it became an immensely popular activity and spread to countries, including Australia, before hitting it big in the United States.

Ralston first learned about pub quiz when he was living in Australia about eight years ago. He found that the game “was really a cultural thing” for which people would plan their nightly activities around the bars that had pub quiz and the ones that didn’t.

Ralston and his friends often would compete as a team, hoping to win enough cash to pay their bar tabs.

“Going to the weekly pub quiz is a way of life there, and something I looked forward to every week,” he said.

Ralston was working as a retail executive at the time and traveled frequently for his job, moving to Germany before settling in Gig Harbor three years ago.

After leaving Australia, Ralston said he began to miss pub quiz, so he began hosting his own nights.

He started running trivia night at the Hy-Iu when he first moved here, but he stopped more than a year ago when he began traveling again for his day job.

But for the past two weeks, he’s been back at the Hy-Iu again, doing what he loves most.

“I built this (game) because I love doing it,” he said.

Calling the event Dave’s Trivia Challenge, Ralston modified the traditional question-and-answer game. Rather than just asking a series of questions — having contestants write down their answers, then awarding a prize based on who had the most correct responses — Ralston’s pub quiz is based partially on luck.

He uses a trademarked bingo card system, on which 25 questions are asked, and the correct answers are read back in random order.

The first team to get five adjacent answers wins the round, much like the way bingo works.

These changes, Ralston said, are what make his pub quiz better than other games.

“I like to say, ‘You don’t have to be the brightest light in the harbor to win,’ ” he said. “Even when you lose, you’ve got to feel like you played a good game.”

Being able to answer the questions — even the toughest ones — is what players like best about Dave’s game.

“That’s what makes it good,” said Dave Auburn, a pub quiz player. “(He) asks a lot of different questions.”

Auburn, who said he is best at geographical and nautical questions, attends every week with his friends. His team of two to eight members even tries to recruit new people, hoping different team members might be experts on different areas.

The Pink Flamingos, a team of six to 10 neighbors, used a similar strategy. Nancy Ellickson said each member of her team has a certain area of expertise — she is best at law, literature and history — giving them a better shot at answering all the questions correctly.

Last Tuesday, the team was missing their pop culture and music expert, who was vacationing in Arizona.

“We decided we must have slept through most of the ’80s,” joked John Ellickson, Nancy’s husband, about the team’s difficulty with some of the more music-focused questions.

Ralston said he attempts to mix up his questions as much as possible. Some of them are historical — “Who was the leader of Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis?” — and others are name-that-tune clips of popular songs, such as Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.”

Ralston’s goal is to evoke what he called a “why-didn’t-I-remember-that?” feeling in his players.

“I do sweat the questions,” he said. “I try to make them as fair as I can. A good quizmaster makes sure everybody will get at least one question.”

That sort of mentality is why teams like the Pink Flamingos and Five O’Clock Somewhere come back week after week.

Although there’s a cash prize — last week’s was up to $350 — and the game offers players a chance to show off their brain power, most players don’t come for the competition.

Some come to donate money, for example, since Ralston offers players the option to donate their winnings to charity. Last week, he was supporting the Gig Harbor Cat Rescue Fund.

And since the game combines both elements of skill and luck, it’s not only about proving who is the smartest player.

Instead, it’s simply about having fun.

“We don’t come (to answer) the questions,” explained Jeff Kidston, a member of Five O’Clock Somewhere. “We come for the camaraderie.”

Take the challenge

Dave’s Trivia Challenge runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. every Tuesday at the Hy-Iu-Hee-Hee, 4309 Burnham Drive in Gig Harbor. Teams start arriving about 5:30 p.m. to grab a seat. By next year, Dave Ralston hopes to expand his challenge to other bars in the area. Call 253-223-3363 for more information.

Test your trivia skills

Pub quiz might seem difficult, but Dave Ralston works hard to make his game attractive to players of all skill levels.

Here are a few sample questions:

What is the capital of North Carolina?

What is the birthstone for the month of November?

What was Sir Roger Bannister’s claim to fame?

Which city hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics?

(Raleigh) (Topaz) (Running 4-minute mile) (Torino, Italy)

Reach Lifestyles Coordinator Paige Richmond at 853-9243 or by e-mail at paige.richmond@gateline.com.