Playing Trivia at Professor M Barley’s and at Rev Hall

There were lots of things on my workplate last night, and by the time I finished taking care of all of them, I discovered that I had missed my opening questions at my usual Tuesday night trivia hangout, Pizzeria UNO.  So I checked the trivianightslive.com website to see if there was another game out there for me to work off my trivia jones.

9:00 Tuesday night, Professor M. Barley’s on the corner of Quail Street and Western Avenue.

Guess I know where I’m going.  I went down to Quail and Western, trying to find some on-street parking anywhere in that busy college neighborhood.

Years and years ago, Professor M. Barley’s was a bar that was once known as the Lamp Post, and it had a dance club in its basement on Friday and Saturday nights that drew a lot of people together for late-night hookups – sort of like Cahoots, the “meat market” in the old Albany Hilton.

Anyways, trivia at Professor M Barley’s was the standard 20 question, more points for more difficult questions format.  The host was a girl named Charlie, only the second time I had played trivia in the Capital Region with a female quizmaster – the first being the Trivial Pursuit snorefest at TGI Friday’s.

I walked in, got my answer slips and gave my team name – Street Academy – then went to the bar to order a diet cola and some finger foods.

The first question involved the location of the Tropic of Capricorn – was it above or below the Equator?

Dang it – couldn’t remember which of the two tropics were above the Equator, whether it was the Tropic of Capricorn or the Tropic of Cancer, so I decided to use my “double chance” option – in this game, you are allowed to put down two answers to a question, and if one of those answers was right, you would earn the requisite amount of points – but if both answers were wrong, you lost TWICE the amount of points.  But on a 50/50 question, it’s the equivalent of trading in your double chance option for a guaranteed correct answer.

I handed in my slip and told the host that I was using my double chance option.  A member of another trivia team, who was engaged in a spirited game of bar pool, overheard my plan and said to me, “Are you sure you want to waste that option?  You can use it later on – do you know how to play trivia here?”

I smiled and walked back to my seat at the bar.

Ten minutes later, the question involved knowing the year the TV show 24 premiered.  Too easy for me; I remembered that the premiere episode had to be re-edited because the plotline involved the in-air detonation of a plane – a scene that was removed after the immediate events of 9/11.  So the show premiered in 2001.  I found out later from the host that I was the only team that got that answer correct.  Guess that double chance option didn’t help the kids at the billiard table.  Hee.

I ended up leading wire to wire, and my comfortable lead at the end gave me the opportunity to safely wager only a few points on the final question.  My gambit paid off, and I walked out of Professor M Barley’s with a $25 gift certificate, adding yet another trivia location to my long list of competitive bar trivia victories, and another batch of questions from the host and the bartenders as to what that team name “Street Academy” means.

Or was it “Straight Academy” – that happened over at  Revolution Hall Monday night.

See, in the four+ years I’ve played competitive bar and tavern trivia, I’ve taken a lot of good-natured jabs from other teams.  I’ve had teams boo at the very mention of my team name, as if I was the mustache-twirling villain that tied Pearl White to the railroad tracks.  I’ve had teams rebrand themselves with digs at my own team name – “Street Sweepers,” “Road University,” “Gay Street Academy” (come on, guys, where are we, at the playground during 5th grade recess?), “Cheat Academy,” or, as what happened in Revolution Hall Monday night, “Straight Academy.”

Of course, the similarity in team names had Rev Hall trivia hosts Mark and Anthony getting a bit confused as to who was leading and who had won what round.  Street Academy would win one round, Straight Academy would win another.  Good thing there wasn’t a third team with an Academy Award winning actress at the place – I don’t think Mark and Anthony could have handled Street Academy, Straight Academy and Streep Academy.

Still, when it came to the final tiebreaker at Rev Hall, second place was tied between Street Academy and Straight Academy.

A representative from both teams approached the stage for the final tiebreaker question.

“How many reeds does an oboe have?”

Now here’s the thing.  In the tiebreaker at Rev Hall, as long as you say the correct answer first – even if you’ve shouted out seven wrong answers – you can win.  So I just rattled off “2 3 4 5 6” before the representative from Straight Academy could even say “2.”

Got the second place prize, making it the SIXTH straight week that Street Academy has taken either first or second at Rev Hall since the game had its Monday night premiere there.

In other words… it’s all fun.