It's the time of year when many University students start to feel the drudge of work and the insatiable desire to play. No doubt, some will choose to play a little too hard, amassing their sorrows in liquid form. Playtime, however, need not be work the morning after.
One group of fun-loving intelligentsia has discovered a way to ease the harried into the weekend, while still preserving the overwrought mind. Meet Geeks Who Drink, a Colorado-based "pub quiz" group which has recently spread its sagacious tentacles into the Charlottesville area.
Get ready - they have a few questions for you.
For about a month, the Geeks have hosted quizzes every Thursday night at Rapture at 8 p.m.
John Dicker and Joel Peach began the group in Denver, Colorado in 2006. Dicker played pub quizzes in New York and found ones elsewhere to "be sorely lacking in creativity." From this disappointment "blossomed" a movement toward scintillating and engaging pub-quizzing, Dicker said. Currently, the Geeks host 74 weekly pub events in five states: New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Colorado.
According to the group's Web site, Geeks Who Drink has a staff of more than 21 question writers and a team of research librarians who fact-check every quiz.
Geeks Who Drink brings people from all over the country to Denver for training as "quizmasters."
Through Facebook advertising and word-of-mouth, the Charlottesville pub quiz has attracted a number of regulars. Charlottesville's quizmistress is Khristina VanHall, who tried out for the position after finding the job in a Craigslist ad.
It is "not too much [of a] commitment," VanHall said.
Don't let her nonchalance fool you, though, as the quizmaster must truly be the chief of pub-test ceremonies: he must entertain, inform and keep potentially rowdy bar-goers in check.
During the Sept. 24 pub event, VanHall was accompanied by a quizmistress-in-training, Arts and Sciences Graduate student Caroline Varney, who took over some duties of the night in preparation for her own quizmaster initiation.
A costume design major at the University, Varney's effervescence lit up the noir-atmosphere of Rapture's bar - and brought in some more customers. Fellow graduate students huddled around a booth and hunched over their answer sheets, ready for the contest. Other contestants took their places around high-top tables, pitchers in hand, pens rolling across the floor, as the eight rounds of quizzing commenced.
The quiz's eight rounds include two audio rounds, one music round - think truncated random sound bytes of long-forsaken heavy metal - an occasional movie sound byte and five regular question-and-answer rounds. Each contestant works with a team of up to five other people to complete a collaborative answer sheet.
Two weeks ago, the evening's first round was "Eight questions about fast food." Before anyone could even scribble out "Chik-fil-A," Varney enumerated the three rules of the game: "Do not ... mess with the quizmaster. Do not shout out answers. The QUIZ is fixed." With this critical information in mind, contestants drank and contemplated and debated through eight rounds of high-brow trivia. The crowd grew as the game waxed - several large groups and a few scattered couples competed for the ultimate crown.
During the evening, University students and locals clutched with white knuckles to fading memories of Bruce Springsteen songs and literary devices. People ordered more beer while trying to define unreliable narrators and political homosexual relationships - turns out the "gayborhood" is in Philadelphia, not San Francisco.
Monica Dade, who works in audiology at the University's Medical Center, said she was surprised by the game's entertaining, yet tough, questions.
At the end of several rounds a bonus round may be enacted. To win bonus points, or rather bonus pints, a team must be the first to shove the answer on a piece of paper in the face of the quizmaster.
After all eight rounds, the quizmaster names that night's winner based simply on whomever has the most total points. Winners receive gift certificates to Rapture ranging from $10 to $25.
The group also maintains a weekly e-mail question, which hardcore pubbies can answer online. Winners of these e-mail questions can receive not-so-ordinary items such as flying nuns and rubber chickens. The Geeks, Dicker said, "tease five of the eight themes of each quiz so people on the [e-mail] list have a competitive advantage."
The pub quizzes, however, are not just for the over-21 crowd. Underage students are welcome and invited to play, only with coffee or soda as their stimulant. Geeks Who Drink pub quizzes are free and require no signup before the event.
Still think fun can only be found in a basement on Rugby? Next week, try combining study time with bar time, mixing a little work with play.
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