(Written 11/30/2017 for 800 Words with Kevin Coyne)
This paragon of the New York bar trivia scene organizes weekly pub quizzes at 11 city bars, as the co-founder of “Trivial Dispute.” He hosts four of the trivia nights himself, but writes the questions for all of them. For one point, can you guess this 37-year-old graphic designer turned full-time bar trivia organizer?
Here’s a hint. This Wednesday, he’s playing to a full house at the Crocodile Lounge on 14th Street in Manhattan, packed even at 10 on a weeknight. In the back, scents of toasted crust, oregano and melted cheese waft from the pizza ovens where guests can trade small red tickets for an eight-inch pie, free with every drink. But all the action is in the front, where a young, mostly millennial crowd has gathered in small teams to hear and answer quiz questions.
Behind the bar stands our man, a red foam mic in hand, and if you guessed “Adam Kesner,” mark yourself a point, because you’re a hundred percent right.
Tonight, Kesner wears a red checkered shirt, a black vest and tie, and a sly grin. He’s just asked the crowd how to spell “veterinarian.”
Groups huddle, chins are scratched and heads rest pensively in hands. The four members of “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys,” who participate under a different team name each week, decide to each independently write the word. Unfortunately, each produces a different spelling.
Adrenaline is running high: the final round has just begun following an intense military-themed round.
“I told you there’d be no more veterans, but I didn’t say there wouldn’t be veterinarians,” Kesner quips in his booming voice.
Kesner has been organizing trivia nights for 10 years, ever since he attended his first one at the Crocodile Lounge. He instantly fell in love with the bar quiz, a concept first introduced in UK pubs in the 1970s, and now a mainstay of the New York bar – Yelp lists close to 500 bars with trivia nights in the city.
Kesner has since quit his day job as a graphic designer and never looked back, barring occasional freelance work. He now even makes a decent living off trivia – “No one’s starving, and it pays more than stand-up comedy,” he says. So by night, Kesner asks questions, and by day, he writes clues.
For Kesner, the perfect question is part riddle, part knowledge. On particularly tough questions, he likes to drop enough hints that people can get the answers through teamwork. For example, he once asked a bar to guess the funny common misspelling of “Potatoes,” an 1890s racehorse. By hinting something clever was at play, Kesner led a couple teams to correctly guess “Potoooooooo” – “pot” followed by eight o’s.
Another important feature of a good bar quiz is personalization.
“So much of this trivia stuff can be so impersonal,” laments Kesner. “I like being able to pinpoint what’s going on at each bar, and make sure the questions and rounds are appropriate.”
Finally, Kesner finds it important to strike the right balance between easy and difficult.
Alotta McGriddles, 32, a drag queen who hosts the trivia nights at the Metropolitan Bar in Williamsburg, agrees. “It’s finding a happy medium between a really easy question and a really hard question,” she says.
McGriddles cites tricky Disney-themed questions like “which hand is Hook’s hook on?” or “Which side of Scar’s face is his scar?” as examples, and of course some less PG ones, too.
Back at the Crocodile Lounge, many of the players state their appreciation for Kesner’s meandering, riddle-like questions.
“I like questions where you think you know where it’s going, but then it’s something out of leftfield,” says Aaron Keeth, 23, a game designer and a member of “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys.”
The “veterinarian” one is one such question. Kesner dropped just enough hints to lead one of the team members to the correct answer, but not quite enough to generate consensus. After debate, “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys” goes with “veterinarian.”
To the team’s satisfaction, they learn they got it right, as Kesner announces the answers at the end of the contest. And with that, the questions are over. Excited chatters rise to a clamor as hard rock music comes on. Many stay to hear the results, but some head home.
Team “Above and Beyoncé” leaves, which is too bad: they’d have won shots for best team name, Kesner later announces. The same goes for “Catacombover.” For those who stayed, suspense is mounting.
“Oh it’s super close, don’t go anywhere, if you’ve got five minutes, f--- it, stay, you’re here anyway,” says Kesner.
At long last, the results are here. Starting from last place, Kesner lists all 20 teams and their scores, and is greeted with cheers each time. Team “Like Jeff Sessions, We Don’t Recall” wins best name, inching out “Kevin Spacey’s Closet” and “Jackie Channing Tatum.”
Eventually, it’s time for the podium. The tension is palpable. The bar is at its most silent. “The Failing New York Times” wins third. “Sasha Grey Gardens” wins second. Only one team’s name has gone unmentioned, and it’s “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys.”
A look of joyful disbelief lights their faces. They raise their hands in victory, and whoop with joy – it’s been six months since they won a trivia night. They’ll be going to the “Tournament of Champions,” Kesner’s idea to pit the best-performing teams of all the “Trivial Dispute” bars against each other every year.
“You’ve got people who win on the Upper East Side, and you’ve got people who win on South Park Slope,” said Kesner. “They never get to play each other. This is a good way to pit everyone against each other. It’s good for the bars.”
Kesner’s experiment seems to have worked. “There’s kind of a collegiality between the top teams,” says Evan Murphy, 29, one of the winners.
Indeed, this slice of the trivia world means more to some than just the excitement of pairing games with alcohol.
“I met a ton of my friends through trivia,” says Keeth. “It brings nerds together.”
This paragon of the New York bar trivia scene organizes weekly pub quizzes at 11 city bars, as the co-founder of “Trivial Dispute.” He hosts four of the trivia nights himself, but writes the questions for all of them. For one point, can you guess this 37-year-old graphic designer turned full-time bar trivia organizer?
Here’s a hint. This Wednesday, he’s playing to a full house at the Crocodile Lounge on 14th Street in Manhattan, packed even at 10 on a weeknight. In the back, scents of toasted crust, oregano and melted cheese waft from the pizza ovens where guests can trade small red tickets for an eight-inch pie, free with every drink. But all the action is in the front, where a young, mostly millennial crowd has gathered in small teams to hear and answer quiz questions.
Behind the bar stands our man, a red foam mic in hand, and if you guessed “Adam Kesner,” mark yourself a point, because you’re a hundred percent right.
Tonight, Kesner wears a red checkered shirt, a black vest and tie, and a sly grin. He’s just asked the crowd how to spell “veterinarian.”
Groups huddle, chins are scratched and heads rest pensively in hands. The four members of “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys,” who participate under a different team name each week, decide to each independently write the word. Unfortunately, each produces a different spelling.
Adrenaline is running high: the final round has just begun following an intense military-themed round.
“I told you there’d be no more veterans, but I didn’t say there wouldn’t be veterinarians,” Kesner quips in his booming voice.
Kesner has been organizing trivia nights for 10 years, ever since he attended his first one at the Crocodile Lounge. He instantly fell in love with the bar quiz, a concept first introduced in UK pubs in the 1970s, and now a mainstay of the New York bar – Yelp lists close to 500 bars with trivia nights in the city.
Kesner has since quit his day job as a graphic designer and never looked back, barring occasional freelance work. He now even makes a decent living off trivia – “No one’s starving, and it pays more than stand-up comedy,” he says. So by night, Kesner asks questions, and by day, he writes clues.
For Kesner, the perfect question is part riddle, part knowledge. On particularly tough questions, he likes to drop enough hints that people can get the answers through teamwork. For example, he once asked a bar to guess the funny common misspelling of “Potatoes,” an 1890s racehorse. By hinting something clever was at play, Kesner led a couple teams to correctly guess “Potoooooooo” – “pot” followed by eight o’s.
Another important feature of a good bar quiz is personalization.
“So much of this trivia stuff can be so impersonal,” laments Kesner. “I like being able to pinpoint what’s going on at each bar, and make sure the questions and rounds are appropriate.”
Finally, Kesner finds it important to strike the right balance between easy and difficult.
Alotta McGriddles, 32, a drag queen who hosts the trivia nights at the Metropolitan Bar in Williamsburg, agrees. “It’s finding a happy medium between a really easy question and a really hard question,” she says.
McGriddles cites tricky Disney-themed questions like “which hand is Hook’s hook on?” or “Which side of Scar’s face is his scar?” as examples, and of course some less PG ones, too.
Back at the Crocodile Lounge, many of the players state their appreciation for Kesner’s meandering, riddle-like questions.
“I like questions where you think you know where it’s going, but then it’s something out of leftfield,” says Aaron Keeth, 23, a game designer and a member of “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys.”
The “veterinarian” one is one such question. Kesner dropped just enough hints to lead one of the team members to the correct answer, but not quite enough to generate consensus. After debate, “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys” goes with “veterinarian.”
To the team’s satisfaction, they learn they got it right, as Kesner announces the answers at the end of the contest. And with that, the questions are over. Excited chatters rise to a clamor as hard rock music comes on. Many stay to hear the results, but some head home.
Team “Above and Beyoncé” leaves, which is too bad: they’d have won shots for best team name, Kesner later announces. The same goes for “Catacombover.” For those who stayed, suspense is mounting.
“Oh it’s super close, don’t go anywhere, if you’ve got five minutes, f--- it, stay, you’re here anyway,” says Kesner.
At long last, the results are here. Starting from last place, Kesner lists all 20 teams and their scores, and is greeted with cheers each time. Team “Like Jeff Sessions, We Don’t Recall” wins best name, inching out “Kevin Spacey’s Closet” and “Jackie Channing Tatum.”
Eventually, it’s time for the podium. The tension is palpable. The bar is at its most silent. “The Failing New York Times” wins third. “Sasha Grey Gardens” wins second. Only one team’s name has gone unmentioned, and it’s “The Temptation Island of Lost Toys.”
A look of joyful disbelief lights their faces. They raise their hands in victory, and whoop with joy – it’s been six months since they won a trivia night. They’ll be going to the “Tournament of Champions,” Kesner’s idea to pit the best-performing teams of all the “Trivial Dispute” bars against each other every year.
“You’ve got people who win on the Upper East Side, and you’ve got people who win on South Park Slope,” said Kesner. “They never get to play each other. This is a good way to pit everyone against each other. It’s good for the bars.”
Kesner’s experiment seems to have worked. “There’s kind of a collegiality between the top teams,” says Evan Murphy, 29, one of the winners.
Indeed, this slice of the trivia world means more to some than just the excitement of pairing games with alcohol.
“I met a ton of my friends through trivia,” says Keeth. “It brings nerds together.”
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