Are you one of those people who can’t remember what you had for lunch yesterday but can easily call out the population of Guam or the capital of Sudan or the only other president (other than 45) to serve two non-consecutive terms without hesitation? Then you’d best get yourself signed up for Think Inc.’s first-ever Hamptons Summer Trivia Championship.
The brainiac battling officially started Monday, June 30, and teams will continue to compete for the next month and a half at myriad venues up and down the South Fork and Shelter Island, all culminating in the big daddy tournament at the Stephen Talkhouse (161 Main St., Amagansett, 631-267-3117) in August (date TBA).
“We have no idea why, but people seem to really like trivia nights,” says Paul A. Johnson, Think Inc. Trivia’s Quizmaster-In-Chief. “With the summer season about the really heat up, we figured we’d lean into it and celebrate our local venues, challenge the local talent, and enjoy some good old-fashioned summer fun.”
The notion of gathering local folks for a congenial evening of tippling and trivial pursuits was apparently a nod to school-days nostalgia that emboldened a bunch of college grads in the ’60s to start gathering to to quiz each other on pop culture of the past.
Meanwhile, as we wrote in this story on the rise of trivia nights on the East End, U.K. pub owners Sharon Burns and Tom Porter using quiz nights in the mid ’60s across the pond to attract more people to their local watering hole on quiet nights. Their company, Burns & Porter, eventually launched massive pub quiz leagues throughout the U.K., supplied questions for BBC game shows and published three books of quizzes for pubs to start their own games.
In late 1979, Canadian reporters Scott Abbott and Chris Haney invented Trivial Pursuit. Introduced into the United States in 1982, it was the board game that no one seemed to be without for a couple of decades and which made hundreds of millions in sales.
On the East End, trivia nights bubbled up in the barroom of Sagaponack’s Townline BBQ with weekly trivia night hosted by Johnson, and which launched a gazillion more of them and Johnson’s trivia company, Think Inc., which hosts trivia night all over the East End.
Over the next six weeks, the Hamptons Summer Trivia Championship will be held at the Hedges Inn, Doubles, 1901 Grill, Townline BBQ, Kidd Squid, One Trick Pony, the Ram’s Head Inn, Salt, Coopers Beach Shack and Union Burger. Each week, the high scores count toward a cumulative average, with the highest scoring teams getting invited to the final invitation-only championship throw-down at the Stephen Talkhouse.
Gather your fellow cultured, clever, cerebral nerds, create your team and enter by visiting Think Inc.’s website or by showing up in person on one of the trivia evenings. You must play a minimum of six different trivia nights (but playing more ups your average — although you probably knew that already because you’re a smarty pants). Entry is free, but you must make a purchase at one of the participating venues (because hey, those lights don’t stay on for free).
