The Fernwood Inn Quiz (Victoria)

Yes, I know the name of blog. It very clearly states "Vancouver" Pub Quiz. But British Columbia's second (or third, or fourth, or...) city is a short bus and boat ride away, so I visit, and I'm lucky enough to have friends there. Sometimes these friends go to pub quizzes, as they once did in a past life in Vancouver. And sometimes, they even write me a review. What can I do but post it? The talented and lovely Rob Freeman, late of News1130 Radio, sent me this review of the monthly quiz at the Fernwood Inn in Victoria. From here on in, all words are his. Take it away, Rob!

When: First Tuesday of every month, starting around 8:00

Cost: $5 per player with all proceeds going to the Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group

Venue: The Fernwood Inn is a cozy, neighbourhood local with a pretty decent selection of local beers and a kitchen to match.

Format: The quiz is broken down into 8 mini-rounds of five questions each, and into two halves of four rounds. Marking is done at the mid-way and end of the quiz by passing sheets around the tables. The quiz moves quite quickly of which I am a fan! There was a tie-breaker to decide the night's champion and it was done by giving one person from each of the teams one minute and a sheet of paper to construct a plane. The plane which glided the farthest was the winner [ed. This is a pretty terrible way to break a tie, but I concede it is kind of fun].

Questions: This quiz bills itself as the not-so-serious pub quiz. Having said that, quite a few of the questions were noodle-scratchers.

Host: Benji is a tall, lanky, quirky, British chap who is quite charming and flamboyant. He keeps the quiz rolling along swiftly and is quick-witted [ed. Catch him in action in Vancouver at the Park @ English Bay!]. He also plays music beds which become the soundtracks to each mini-round.

Prize: The first place team received a $50 GC to The Fernwood, although from the host's comments, it seems the prize fluctuates from month to month.

Woo Hoo! Classic Simpsons Trivia

Where: SD Galleria + Sushi Lounge, 4316 Main Street

When: 7pm, one Monday a month. As with EXP Bar's video game trivia, I'm not entirely certain of the dates. See their website below for the up to date information.

Web Presence: The official website for the whole continent spanning operation is found here, but the Vancouver-specific twitter account will give you better information regarding upcoming events in town.

Team Info: 6 people per team, but they don't enforce this at all - if you can fit around a table, you're golden. Also, this is one of the rare quizzes that has a fee! the first week was $5 per team, but it has since been upped to $5 per player. Officially the steepest entry fee in town, but check out the prizes!

Format: Half quiz, half Simpsons love-in. 3 rounds of 10-20 questions each, with an intermission after each round where you watch an episode of a certain television show.

Who indeed?

Prizes: Check this out! There's a whole boat of prizes to be won here, mostly through raffles. You can win things such as: Simpsons comic books, autographed by the talented Nina Matsumoto! Simpsons guest star action figures! A one-third obsolete Simpsons day calendar! $25 Gift Certificates to SD Galleria! An impressive display of more or less interesting swag.

But... what about the team that wins the whole thing? What about the Gay Robots From Star Wars, as the kings of trivia mountain were so named? Well, they get a reserved table for next week (see below), a pitcher of beer, and their entire team immortalized in a drawing by Bongo comics illustrator James Lloyd. Best prize in town? Very probably. I guess the only question is, who gets to keep it?

Food and drink: The food is sushi and various other Japanese delicacies that you'll recognize if you've ever been out for sushi before. There is also a bonus menu with Simpson's themed dishes (Million Dollar Birthday Fries!A Galaxy of Prawns!). The drinks are ludicrously cheap, from their $3 Ryes to their $4.25 pints of White Bark. They aren't full pints, but that might help you out in the long run, especially at that price.


I've a friend, who shall remain nameless, even though he has a name. He lives in Toronto now, and has been frothing at every single orifice that one may politely froth over the fact that Toronto has a Classic Simpsons trivia night. It has been running there, and in cities throughout the United States for several years, and last month Vancouver was lucky enough to have Woo Hoo! Classic Simpsons Trivia open up a branch on the west coast. It is even polite enough to put on its show on a Monday, when there are relatively few quizzes to compete with.

The next order of business is an administrative warning. Even though it has only been around for 2 months, it is proving immensely popular. There were few seats remaining at 6:30, let alone 7. The place starts filling up around 6, so I suggest your team shows up early in order to guarantee seats for all. You can send someone down to hold a table, but you'll have a tough time reserving more than 5 chairs, and if you do manage to do so, you're probably an ass. But that's enough judgement for now.

The show goes along swimmingly with able hosts Simon and Leonard enthusiastically sharing MC duties before a captive audience. The enjoyment was widespread, although yr corrsp thinks that it was a little like shooting fish in a particularly crowded barrel, but he is a noted curmudgeon. A question I don't want to answer: Would people have less fun if everyone just gathered in a room and watched 3 episodes of the Simpsons without host or quiz? Somehow I doubt it.

That is not to slander the questions - they were fantastic. First off - it was all "Classic" trivia - i.e. seasons 1-9 i.e. the seasons you watched and loved. Also, the questions were all about on-episode content - gags, characters, plots, etc. Nothing about the creators or episodic ephemera, which means there will be no nasty surprises at their definition of trivia. There were few gimmies, and those were hilarious, so no one minded. A delightfully unique aspect to this evening was the post-question reactions. At most quizzes, a question is read, followed by (a) the muffled sounds of furtive discussions, or (b) stunned silence, based on whether or not a team knew what was up. Here the question would be met with either (a) howls of laughter or (b) the same stunned silence, which was excellent.

The difficulty ranged from easy-medium, to fiendishly hard. If you've only seen a few episodes and think you can remember who Homer's boss is, this is probably not for you, although you will still have a lot of laughs. But if you, like your humble author, grew up watching the Simpsons religiously at their 5:30 and 7:30 time slots, these questions will delight and challenge you. I can sense that you may want a brief taster, so I'll leave you with a sample of the fine work of Woo Hoo! Simpsons Trivia:
- True or False: Riding the monorail gives you mono?
- Name any 2 of Homer's lifelong dreams in the first 9 seasons.
- Troy McClure turned down the role of McBain's sidekick in McBain IV: Fatal Discharge to direct and star in what film?

Play "Taking Care Of Business!": Do you enjoy watching the Simpsons? Come on down.

Yours truly

There Is No Easy Mode @ EXP Restaurant + Bar

Where: EXP Restaurant + Bar, 309 W Pender Street

When: 7pm, one Wednesday a Month. I'm not entirely certain which Wednesday, but it usually appears to be the third or fourth. It usually is a full house, so getting here before 7 is a wise choice. 

Web Presence: West Coast Geeks Vs Nerds, the shadowy Wizard-figures behind this quiz, create Facebook events for each week's quiz

Team Info: 5 per team.

Format: There are two 20 question rounds - "Normal Mode" and "Hard Mode". You thought it was just a cute name? Each round is scored separately, with attendant prizes. The scoring operates on a unique combo system - a correct answer is worth 100 points. If you answer the next question correct, that is worth 200 points. The next question, if answered correctly, would then be worth 300 points for your team. It maxes out there, with 4th, 5th and so on being worth 300 points¹. There are bonus questions worth 50 points attached to some questions, and a Bonus Round at the end of each mode, which can be worth up to 600 points.

Prizes: They are legion, and awarded to the top 3 teams in each mode. They range from swag, to videogames, to XP (loyalty points at the restaurant). I'd tell you more, but I've never won one here.

Food and drink: Most of EXP's notoriety comes from the fact it is themed around videogames, not from its food. It is fairly average bar food, but with delightful themed names. The beers are standard downtown beer prices, with specials on such rare and exotic libations such as "Corona." While $3.75 is not a bad price for a bottle, it wasn't quite enough to entice me, and I stuck with a 6 dollar IPA. There is also an extensive mixed drink list, mostly neon concoctions with cute names

Two common gripes I have with pub quizzes in general are that the questions aren't difficult enough² and they rarely ask questions about video games. Aggravatingly enough, There Is No Easy Mode at EXP Restaurant + Bar solved both these problems at the same time. Hosted by an affable gentleman whose name I did not catch, There Is No Easy Mode is a slick presentation, making good use of the impressive multimedia system at EXP, all the while being the harbinger of doom as far as my video game knowledge ego is concerned.

The questions are great - very few gimmes, and almost no "soft" questions. Rounds are themed ("Zero to Hero", for example), and the questions pull from nearly the entire spectrum of electronic gaming - from Apple II and Jaguar to mobile games and the XBox One, they're all here. Also, they don't fool around. Normal Mode is some questions that a casual gamer may know a few, but Hard Mode is as advertised. You don't know the name of the Frog from Super Mario RPG? Or the theme song to Altered Beast? Well, you may not be extending your combos for very long. The competition is sharp. If you finish in the top 3, you deserve it, as there are some Omega-level teams out there - which I suppose you can expect from a quiz with such a relatively narrow scope.

Any complaints? They don't tend to ask much about sports games, which are totally also games too, right? And maybe they could add a third round, just because we're all having so much fun with the first two. But in general, I think they handle their content with skill and a keen knowledge of their audience. If you like video games, you should come out and enjoy the show, and try and win some swag. If you're reading this, wizened overlords who run WCGvN, keep up the good work. this night's a gem. But ask more questions about MVP Baseball 05, which is a masterpiece.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A: If you love video games, you should come to one of these. And then you should realise you like pub quizzes and use your brains at other ones. If you like pub quiz but not video games, then I think this could be a rough night for you.

Beware

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1 Although I will respectfully point out that most fighting games actually DECREASE the damage you do as the combo goes on, but I'm sure they know that, based on my performances at this quiz.
2 OK, let's see if I can avoid opening a can of worms that will make me sound narcissistic: I'm not saying I know all the answers or even most of them, but I would absolutely love it if more places asked tough questions, instead of (pardon the impending french) stupid shit like what a group of kittens (adorable) or narwhals (pointy) or crows (annoying) is called, or what X-phobia is or whether or not some completely absurd thing is true or false (if it sounds implausible, it is probably true). Surely there is a market for a quiz that will bust us down a notch, right? Okay, I'm done.

Cascade's What the #!*@? Quiz -- a mainstay of the Vancouver quizzing scene -- coming to an end

Sad tidings indeed from Main Street. Karen, the longtime quizmeister of the Cascade Room, has announced that effective next month, that establishment's venerable quiz will be no more--at least as a regularly-scheduled event. From their official facebook page:

Now for those of you who were not with us last night, an announcement! After more than 5 1/2 years, 165 quizzes and close to $30,000 raised for more than 70 charities, our What the #!*@? Quiz night is coming to an end. Our last quiz will be Monday, November 25th…please come and join us for a fond farewell…I've enjoyed almost every single second of it

I will continue with some special event Quiz Nights as well as Quiz Nights on request so keep in touch! This is not "goodbye"…it's "most likely see you soon". So I'll expect to see lots of familiar faces on the 25th xo k

For those who don't know, Cascade is one of Vancouver's longest-running and greatest pub quizzes. Many Vancouverites first caught the pub trivia bug there, including, I am sure, at least a few individuals who now run quizzes of their own. Yet none of them have ever duplicated the sheer quizzing pleasure of Cascade, which was probably best encapsulated in their famous "what's-in-the-shot" rounds, the likes of which we may never see again.

The continued success of Cascade owes everything to Karen's extraordinary commitment to her craft. Each week (and later, fortnightly, and eventually monthly) she would hammer out a full set of questions, the freshness of which was attested by the habitual inquisitions on the news of the day and other happenings of only a few days' vintage. Her annual Quiz of Champions, an invitational grand prix featuring only winning teams of the past year was yet another (hugely successful) expression of the same--for participants it was nothing less than the Wimbledon of Vancouver quizzery.

True to the progressive ethos of Mount Pleasant, 100 percent of proceeds from the quiz went to a local charity of the players' choosing, a fact which makes abundantly clear that the undertaking was, at bottom, a labour of love and not a mercenary ploy to pump up Tuesday night patronage (though that it certainly did).

After more than a half-decade of unflagging quality, the departure of What the #!*@? is to be sorely lamented. As mentioned above, Cascade's final regular quiz takes place November 25 and is sure to be a night to remember.

Friday Quiz at the Park at English Bay

Note: the usual blogger is holidaying in Europe. I'm filling in in his absence. So let's kick off with a review of a relative newcomer in the Vancouver quiz scene.

Where: The Park at English Bay, 1755 Davie Street

When: The last Friday of the month, 9:00pm start time, which works out well as it means you beat most of the Davie Street Friday night crowd, and need only pay for an hour at metered spots (of which there should be plenty).

Web presence: A facebook group with quiz info  

Registration fee: $3 per team member—though this is waived for repeat winners (see below)

Prizes: $100 gift certificate to Zulu Records, and a winner’s token (again, see below)

Format: Eight rounds of 5 questions with halftime break after round four

Food and drink: Usual pub fare. Note for vegetarians: the veggie burger is, nominally, the only veg entre on the menu. It’s juicy, plump, and literally oozing with flavor—in other words, a little too good to be vegetarian. Proceed at your own risk.

Downtown’s trendy Davie Village is the setting for one of Vancouver’s newest pub quizzes, the FRIDAY QUIZ at the Park at English Bay. Despite the name, the quiz is actually a once-monthly event (held the last Friday of the month) at the Best Western Sands’ in-house gastropub. The venue is spacious and nicely appointed, though the spatial layout leaves something to be desired, as some tables have no line-of-sight to the quizmaster.

On that note, the evening is expertly emceed by trans-Atlantic transplant Benji Duke. The sideburned Englander boasts over 600 quizzes worth of hosting experience, which is evident in his entertaining stage banter. The production also benefits from the use of a backing soundtrack of quiz-appropriate tunes such as the theme from Countdown and that BBC News music.

As to the quiz itself, the pacing is good and the questions are fun, original, and, like the Cayman Islands, not too taxing. This brings up the FRIDAY QUIZ’s only possible blemish, which one might characterize as the tendency towards “soft” questions. “Soft” here serves double duty, meaning, at various points, either dead easy or not-quite-factual-enough for quiz material.

Of the first kind, there are a few too many questions of the head-slapping, can’t-miss variety, as well as those that can be pretty effectively “meta-gamed” by canny teams. For example, one question asked “what would kill you first: no sleep or no food and water?” and the answer must be sleep because it’s totally counter-intuitive but just crazy enough to be true. The sleep question also illustrates the second type of “soft” question, as it calls upon chain email folk wisdom (see also: a duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why or you eat nine spiders in your sleep every year), rather than hard facts, which is probably best avoided when real prizes are on the line.

Paired with an abundance of multiple choice and true-false questions, the upshot of this pattern is a very easy quiz and not much opportunity for anyone to pull away from the pack. When I attended, only five points separated first from last at halftime in a field of a dozen or so teams, and no team scored lower than 15 out of a possible 20. Of course, this improves the chances that any team, from the half-interested barflies and sloshy cougars to the overeducated hipsters, can win any given night, which can hardly be a bad thing.

Speaking of the winning team, FRIDAY QUIZ’s $100 Zulu Records gift card is, on its own, a strong candidate for the richest prize in all of Vancouver quizdom. On top of that, the winning team also receives a nickel-sized pin as a token of their victory; trade in six of them, and your team is exempted from registration fees—for life.

The top and bottom of it: The FRIDAY QUIZ will make a fine addition to any Vancouver trivia fancier’s quiz calendar, thanks to its cool presentation and glittering cache of prizes. It skews a bit on the easy side, but all the better as a warm up for a Friday night out downtown.

Our Town

Where: Our Town Cafe. Located at 245 East Broadway.

When: The last Thursday of every month. The "official" start time is at 7 PM, but it doesn't usually get running until 8 or so. Some months get skipped, so check the facebook group before heading out.

Web Presence:  They've got a facebook group.

Registration Fee: $2 per player

Team Info: Up to 5 players per team.

Prizes: A pitcher of beer, which you should share with the band. Wait, a band?

Format: 3-6 rounds, depending how you divide thing up. There are two rounds of what we've always called "Phoenix-style" questions, some audio rounds, a matching round, and finally, a gigantic video/picture round. more on both later.

Food and Drink: The food is coffee shop food, and there are cheap beers to be had. Don't expect too much, and tip your server.

Meg runs this quiz, and does good job in a pretty informal atmosphere. You'll quickly find that this is not a restaurant, and therefor table space can be a little tight. I advise you to get there early, grab a muffin and a coffee, and be glad you have a seat when the rush hits. You may have been a little confused early when I mentioned a band. Well, there is a band - the unimpeachably named Def Jeppard. Usually a 3-piece, they provide live musical accompaniment to your cognitive activities. I was taken aback when I saw them setting up the first time I showed up, but that is because I was an idiot. It is even more fun to argue amongst yourselves over answers (all of which are incorrect) when a band is play "The Son Of Mr Green Genes" in the background. They work hard, buy them a drink sometime.

Now, to clear up what I meant when I said "Phoenix-style" earlier. One time I went to Phoenix, Arizona for a week. We did a pub quiz while we were there, and there were these 4 question long rounds. You are given 4 point values (here it is 2, 4, 6, and 8), and the categories of the forthcoming questions. For each question, you wager one of the point values.  Each question is marked immediately by the quizmistress, and you can't wager the same value twice in a round.  If you definitely know an answer, you wager 8. If you're guessing, you wager the lowest value you have left. It's a neat way to do it, and keeps the scores interesting. 2 Correct questions can be 14 points, or 6 points, depending on how you wagered. A neat way to do it.

The crowd is a neat mix of people who just want a coffee and got caught up in a quiz, hipsters from main street, and students trying to study. The questions are pretty good, and you can tell that Meg likes movies, as the movie related rounds are usually the hardest (comparatively). That could be because I'm not a film type person, so most of it ends up being Greek to me. The picture smorgasbord has some good questions, usually including flags, movie posters, and some dumb word puzzles. In general, it seems to me that this quiz is more geared towards the 25-35 crowd, just by virtue of the questions the quizmistress likes to write. It usually takes a while for the quiz to get started, and I have sympathy for Meg, since it seems like she's herding cats sometimes trying to get this to start. The cafe closes at 11, so everyone is usually out of there by then.


ANYWAYS, it's a fun, chaotic quiz, although the space can get a little cramped. don't expect to get out too fast, though.

ANZA Club

The Vancouver Quizmasters, Eric and Shaun, have vacated the ANZA club for greener, nerdier pastures. You can find them at the Storm Crow Tavern on Commercial Drive, the first and third Thursdays of the month. I don't think that the ANZA Club has filled the void, yet.

Where: The Anza Club. Located at 3 West 8th Avenue. This is run downstairs, enter off of Ontario street. Buzz yourself in at the door.

When: 8 PM on the first Friday of every month. You'll probably want to show up earlier to have a decent of getting a seat.

Web Presence:  They've got a facebook page.  It won't give you any hints, but it will let you confirm that you're going on the correct Friday.

Registration Fee: 10 bucks a team.

Team Info: 5 Player maximum. Any additional players will cost you 5 dollars each

Prizes: A non-transferable pitcher of beer, along with a wacky prize, which can range from amazing to absurd, for the top 3 teams.My personal favourite was a Bart Simpson "Thug Life" shirt, replete with glitter, spinners, and a grill.

Format: 4 Rounds, 10 questions each, written on a 3x5 card. One audio question per round, one video question.

Food and Drink: You can buy drinks at the bar, and Vegemite from the vending machine. Bring your own food to eat if you want.

Hosted by consummate showmen Eric Fell and Shaun Stewart, this is one of the more enjoyable quiz nights. It is hosted irregularly, but is always a lot of fun. Being on a Friday makes the atmosphere pretty great, as well. This quiz goes fast, much faster than any other one in town, and is usually done in about an hour and a half. The questions are good, and usually of decidedly nerdy slant. The questions here are usually great, with very little filler. The questions get harder as the rounds roll on, and by the end some of the questions are "deep knowledge" questions. I've seen this quiz won by a team with slightly under 50%. So yeah, sometimes it gets a little tough, which is for the best. Know your Lord of the Rings, internet, and hilariously bad movies. Also, prepare to be entertained, at the very least. Shaun and Eric are great.

The ambiance is great here. It feels like you're back in an uncle's basement, complete with pool table, darts, and a cat. After you've had your fill of quiz, and your share of beers, why not spend a few hours trying to complete a single game of darts? It's Friday! What else do you have to do? It is probably the only pub quiz that isn't held in a pub proper, which is nice, even though there's no food. If there's a Canucks game on, quiz usually takes precedence. Fortunately, they don't conflict very often.


Long story short, one of the best. A convenient night of the week, you really have no excuse not to go.