Trivia Night Packs a Punch at Clement Street Watering Hole

By Karen M. Kinney

It's 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night and the Bitter End Bar and Grill on Clement Street is buzzing with excitement. The night's assorted college students, eggheads and know-it-alls are pulling out their pencils in preparation for serious battle.

Over the next two hours, Tim Keane, a former player turned master of ceremonies, will put this gathering of Tuesday-night regulars through the wringer by asking them to answer a swarm of obscure questions about movie stars, athletes, events and songs.

Many of the questions will test the crowd's secret knowledge. Other questions will be appear to have common sense responses.

Welcome to trivia night in the Richmond. Questions range all over the map, including: Someone who suffers heliophobia suffers from what? (fear of sunlight); What band features Paul Cook as drummer? (Sex Pistols); and who wrote Wuthering Heights? (Emily Bronte). The crowd picks their own teams and huddle together after each question before blurting out answers or educated guesses.

Some teams will breeze through this test of knowledge looking like geniuses by scoring points for each question they correctly answer. Other teams will appear to be out of touch with pop culture.

Whatever the score, Paschael Smith, 39, the founder of trivia night, has devised the game to keep competition from getting out of hand. He just wants people to have a good time.

"Bars are very social and are basically extended living rooms," Smith said. "Trivia night creates conversations and people are doing other things besides drinking."

Pub quizzes are games in which various teams play against one another by answering trivia questions.

According to Smith, a native Irishman, trivia nights in Ireland were originally called Round Table Quizzes and have spurred many leagues throughout Europe. They are extremely competitive. According to Brainstormer Pub Quiz, a San Francisco based company that specializes in distributing pub-quiz questions to trivia night organizers since 1996, trivia night evolved in Britain and Ireland in the early days of television.

Bar owners saw increased business during trivia shows and decided to try "live" quiz shows as a regular feature. Smith started hosting trivia nights in 1989 and created Bitter End's Tuesday night gathering in 1995. Smith says more than half of the pub's Tuesday night business are loyal regulars and it's the busiest night of the week.

Smith and Keane believe what keeps a person coming back is not letting one team dominate the game. The questions are varied so everyone has a shot every week to win and the game is set up to invite everyone to play.

"People can go to any bar in the city to get drunk in a public setting, but here, you actually exercise your brain," says Keane. "It's all in the spirit of fun."

Although other pubs might have a different structure to their game, Bitter End sticks to a simple formula. Two rounds of 20 un-censored questions, a round of "identify the picture," and the crowd's favorite round - "name that tune."

Before the crowd is tested on their knowledge of tunes, Matt Swanson and Ben Flannigan of The Rangers gets the crowd fired up with a singalong to "The Killers" and a rock cover of an old Irish drinking song, "Wild Rover."

The prizes are relatively modest, but that does not stop wanna-be-virtuosos from trying to win.

Claude Luster, 33, has been coming to trivia night for more than a month, yet has never won. But it is the potential of winning that keeps people coming back.

"It's like the carrot effect. Yes, the questions are challenging, but it's a good Tuesday night activity and lots of fun," Luster said.

Keane, who is known for his politically incorrect humor, does not believe in censoring questions and feels there is no topic off limits.

"People came here for current event humor before 'The Daily Show' and blogs," Keane said. "This is the best place to meet an array of San Francisco people. This night is pure humor."

The array of people varies from college students to entrepreneurs to advertising executives. During Trivia Night everyone is treated equally and encouraged to relax and have fun.

"You can either feel really smart or really dumb," said Brenda Martin, 23, a University of California at Berkeley student.

Whether people get the answers right or wrong, Smith strives to promote a laid back yet competitive approach.

"People don't remember who won, but they do remember they had a good time," he said.

The Bitter End Bar and Grill is located at 441 Clement St., near Fifth Avenue. Trivia Night is held every Tuesday, starting at 9 p.m. For more information, call (415) 221-9538.