In the summer of 2006, I first stepped foot into a new bar that had just opened in my neighborhood on the Upper East Side. It was at this large Irish pub that I had my first experience with “real” Irish bartenders, played my very first trivia night and, not long thereafter, embarked on an exhilarating, highly unexpected journey as a “quizmaster.” Almost 5 years and over 200 Gael Pub trivia nights later, I can look back on many fond memories, a fantastic and unique experience, and the knowledge that I helped create one of the best, consistently well-attended trivia nights in New York City.

As a recently-married Brooklynite, however, I am now in a much different place than I was when I first started out. Much as I have enjoyed being the writer & host of one of the most popular trivia nights in town, TrivWorks has expanded significantly in the past year; in addition to servicing a rapidly-growing roster of corporate clients, we have also welcomed Pat Kiernan, NY1 morning news anchor and former host of VH1’s “World Series of Pop Culture” as our “Special Host.”

In order to continue providing our clients with the best possible trivia events, I will need to dedicate even greater time and attention to developing TrivWorks’ core business of corporate event entertainment and team building activities; as a necessary result, I am afraid that I can no longer devote my Tuesday nights to hosting pub quiz. Although it has been a truly incredible and unique life experience which I shall always cherish, I feel that the time has come for me to let go of my longtime UES trivia night, in order to take TrivWorks to the next level; as such, I am announcing today that I have resigned as the Gael Pub quizmaster.

I take great pride in having helped develop what is regarded as one of the best bar trivia nights in the entire city by New York Magazine, Time Out New York, CBS New York, Yelp and more, and am extremely grateful to the Gael’s owners, Gene Lennon & Billy Ferguson, for letting a little Jewish guy with zero alcohol tolerance work behind the bar. I wish the Gael the best of luck, and am confident that they will find a capable replacement to continue their Tuesday night trivia.

FYI I will be officially hanging up my microphone later this month, with my final night being Tuesday, April 12^th. I look forward to seeing you there, and can assure you that my last Gael trivia night will have some special surprises in store!

Please note that TrivWorks will still be hosting weekly Monday night trivia at Social Bar & Lounge in Manhattan, as well as monthly trivia nights at The Bell House in Brooklyn.

Thanks so much to the many, many trivia night enthusiasts who have attended Gael Pub quiz over the years, it’s been a great ride. As they say in Ireland, “Erin go Braugh” – which is Gaelic for, “L’Chiam!”

By November 2006, barely 2 months after starting my new gig as the volunteer “quizmaster” at Manhattan’s Gael Pub, the bar had to buy a new laptop so that I could score the 30+ teams each week on Excel, rather than by hand. I was still in shock with the overwhelming response I’d received in a short period of time. Over 100 people were coming out each week- each week!- on a TUESDAY NIGHT, to play trivia- and they said it was because of ME!

Really?

Who the heck am I??

I’m just some guy, a dude who lives around the corner and works as a junior event planner at The 92nd Street Y. What was I doing that made people come out like this?

I still don’t have a good answer to that question, and am both baffled and humbled when I think about it. My theory, however, is that people responded well to my basic premise, the one lens which I made sure to view my new role as “quizmaster” through every week when I picked up the microphone, and which  I still do:

It has to be fun.

I knew instinctively – as well as though my limited experience playing pub quiz –  that the host had to make the event enjoyable, or there was no point in being there. Sure, people like to feel smart; they revel in competition, and love a good mental challenge with quality trivia questions after a long day at the job. But if the experience isn’t fun, well- than they might as well stay at home and work on a crossword puzzle.

So, that became my thing. Make it fun! For me, this meant injecting humor wherever I could (but not forcing it); make a big thing out of funny team names, rip on the ridiculously wrong answers people give, even make fun of myself a bit (“I’m a quizmaster- and yet, surprisingly, single” went over well, back when it was true).

It worked. Not only did people keep coming back week after week, but they kept approaching me afterwards and telling me how much fun they were having, and that I was doing a great job- wow!

Do you have a similar experience starting up your own trivia night?

As described in an earlier post about my start in the trivia events world, by September of 2006 I had only been hosting my new trivia night at The Gael Pub for a month, and had already been rewarded with a loyal turnout of…well, strangers! Over 50 of them, coming out of nowhere. Who WERE these people, laughing at my dumb jokes and cheering when I changed their team names to make them more- err…”colorful?”

They were all around my age, late 20s-early 30s, mixed gender, and they all seemed well-educated and fun-loving. They were enthused and excited by the competitive atmosphere, drew amusing doodles on their answer sheets and even thought I was funny (sometimes). And more people kept coming!

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but clearly I was doing something right. By October the bar was filled to capacity on Tuesday nights, with every table and bar stool taken. I knew that there was momentum going, and wanted to capitalize on this incredibly strange, completely surprising- yet clearly successful- new thing I was doing.

My work experience prior to that point had been primarily in public relations, so I had a good sense of what was “newsworthy” and what would make it into print. There weren’t a lot of pub quiz nights in the city back then, and having one as successful as The Gael pop up overnight seemed like something worth writing about.

So I emailed Time Out New York.

The following week, there it was, in print:

“City Pick: The Gael Pub Trivia Night, Tuesdays 9pm. FREE

“Quizmaster David Jacobson offers teams the chance to win a $50 bar tab at this UES trivia night. Even if your trivia skills are subpar, you can dazzle the crowd with your brilliant team name. We’re keen on ‘Ironic Savants.’”

They printed MY NAME! And called me a “Quizmaster!” In TIME OUT NEW YORK!

After that, there was no going back. The following Tuesday, the bar was packed- completely packed. So packed that I couldn’t even elbow my way through the front door to get to my place behind the bar.

We had over 30 teams that night, and it took me FOREVER to keep up with the scoring with my primative pen and scratch paper- but I did. And people had fun.

And so did I…!

In an upcoming post, I will talk about my experience maintaining a popular pub quiz night in New York City.