team trivia nights keep brains busy at Seacoast bars

“If you’re caught using a cell phone you will be disqualified,” Phil Kliger announced during team trivia night at Brewery Lane Tavern in Portsmouth. “If you want to see how fast you can google, stay home and play with yourself.”

His words, though delivered with a touch of casual humor, were stern enough to make participants think twice about cheating. Technological advancements have made trivia rules more difficult to enforce, and Kliger has caught competitors accessing the Internet for quick answers.

Truth is, we all have a wealth of useless trivia at our fingertips. But in an age of fast information, how much of it do we actually retain? Do you know, for example, what country contains 90 percent of the world’s reported crop circles? Go ahead, think it over. If you happened to guess England, you would have been eligible for up to eight points in the BLT’s trivia competition on a recent Wednesday.

Kliger hosts trivia nights at the BLT every Wednesday from 9 to 11 p.m. He also hosts weekly games at the Coat of Arms on Sundays and the Blue Mermaid on Mondays, as well as at Mad River Tavern in Amesbury, Mass., on Tuesdays. Other Seacoast trivia nights take place in Dover at Biddy Mulligan’s on Mondays, Central Wave on Tuesdays and Kelley’s Row on Wednesdays; and in Rochester at Fat Tony’s Italian Grill on Tuesdays.

Most trivia nights around the Seacoast draw sizeable crowds. They take place on weeknights when there is no live music, offering an alternative form of entertainment for bar-goers. The Blue Mermaid was packed on a recent Monday night, and Kliger said it was only an average turnout.

Also an active musician in the area, Kliger began hosting trivia nights in his native state of Massachusetts. His services come through a Boston-based company called MCO Productions. Established in 1996 by DJ Michael O’Neill, the company offers trivia nights at more than 30 locations around New England. After moving to Portsmouth, Kliger started pitching the idea of trivia nights to various Seacoast bars. He got his first Portsmouth gig almost three years ago at Molly Malone’s (now McMenemy’s) and has since spread to three other spots. “I basically created a market for (O’Neill) up here,” Kliger said.

MCO provides Kliger with all the questions and answers, and Kliger DJs his own accompanying music. He said he tries to tailor each trivia soundtrack to the particular bar’s atmosphere, playing heavy metal at the Coat of Arms and more laidback music at the Blue Mermaid. Occasionally, the songs he plays provide clues to the answers. For example, Kliger asked guests at Brewery Lane Tavern to name the musician who sued Ray Parker Jr. for copyright infringements involving the “Ghostbusters” theme song. While participants pondered the answer, Kliger threw on “I Want a New Drug” by Huey Lewis and the News—the very song Lewis accused Parker of ripping off. 

Kliger’s style has earned him some loyal fans. Although he tends to get walk-in competitors at the Coat, most of the teams that participate at the Blue Mermaid and the BLT are regulars. Ruth and Jorge Larenas, members of team The Black Irish, have been following Kliger for close to three years and rarely miss nights at the Coat or the Blue Mermaid.

“We’re the only ones who have a sign,” said Jorge, referring to the red stamp the team uses on each answer slip.

The pair and their two teammates, Marc McElroy and Katya Burvikova, have trained themselves to memorize seemingly unimportant pieces of information. “In the beginning we used to win a lot, but it kind of went downhill after a while,” Jorge said.

“Mostly we don’t win, but it’s fun anyway,” Ruth added. “It’s something to do instead of just sitting around a bar.”

Kliger, too, has accrued vast reserves of trivia knowledge. “I’d say about 35 percent of it stays with me,” he said. Over several years of hosting contests four nights a week, that adds up to quite a bit of trivia.

But Jonelle Nordstrom, who hosts a weekly trivia night at Central Wave in Dover, said she remembers up to 80 percent of the answers. That’s largely because Nordstrom generates her own questions for each contest, watching shows on the History channel, scouring the Internet and reading books for ideas.

“It’s kind of hard doing all the research for all the questions,” Nordstrom said. “(But) I really like doing it.”

The 25-year-old Dover resident, who also tends bar at Central Wave, said some guests try to challenge her answers. “Everyone wants to be right,” she said. Demonstrating good sportsmanship, she promises $5 to anyone who provides printed evidence contradicting one of her answers.

Rivalries can develop between opposing trivia teams, Nordstrom said. Central Wave has only been hosting trivia nights for about six months, but she previously worked at Biddy Mulligan’s, where contests often got competitive.

Kliger’s participants can also be boisterous. After clarifying that the birthplace of both John Elway and Jimi Hendrix was Washington state, one skeptical guest at the BLT shouted “Horseshit!”

But trivia nights usually unfold peacefully and happily. Kliger sometimes even gives prizes like T-shirts to the last place teams. Winners take home better awards. The Corner Crüe, for example, recently won Red Sox tickets for accruing the most cumulative points for the month of April at the Blue Mermaid.

The five Crüe members exchanged high fives on a recent Monday after correctly naming the common household terms for four chemical compounds. Most of the players have been coming to the Blue Mermaid every week for more than a year. But Alyssa Arellano was competing for the first time. She summed up her first impression in three words: “I love it.”