The capital gets quizzical

By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-24 08:44

Quiz players think it out at Tim's Texas BBQ. [China Daily/ Todd Balazovic]

Question: Which British pub tradition has Beijingers wracking their brains to trump trivia rivals?

Answer: Quiz nights.

How the popular pass time made its way to Beijing is unclear, but several bar owners in the city agree that Frank Siegel, boss of Sequoia Cafe in Jianguomen, was one of the pioneers.

The started holding monthly quiz nights at the cafe, then known as John Bull Club, seven years ago after an Irish employee suggested them as a way of bringing in customers on slow nights.

"At first I was pretty skeptical because I'd never heard of a quiz night, but it soon proved so popular we began running it every two weeks and then weekly," said Siegel.

It's Tuesday night and Julian Fisher is the charismatic quizmaster at Tim's Texas BBQ, also in Jianguomen. Teams of up to seven are huddled around tables, all frantically scribbling on pieces of paper.

Round 1, and contestants must identify celebrities whose names contain either Jack or Jones in vintage pictures. When time is up, Fisher gets the teams to swap sheets and starts reading out the right answers, usually accompanied by cheers and groans as it becomes clear who the real brains are.

Contestants were expats from varying backgrounds and half the fun, they say, is selecting a name for the team, from the humorous Raider's of the Lost Chua'r to the poetically nonsensical Slithy Toves.

Round 2, it's business time and the questions come thick and fast.

"What organ of the buffalo did Native American's use to make yellow paint?" Fisher asks.

A member of the Horse Feathers immediately shouts: "Do you mean internal organ?"

"Yes," Fisher replied sternly over a chorus of juvenile chuckles. The answer was "gall bladder", by the way.

Quiz styles change from bar to bar and largely depend on the quizmaster.

"We get people from every country and every background, so you need to ask questions that are country neutral, ones that anyone from anywhere can have a guess at," Fisher said.

As well as keeping score and devising the questions, Fisher must also keep order - a job that can prove quite a challenge.

"At times, things get so out of hand I'll have a whole room of people shouting at me," he said, adding that at that point he asserts his "quizmaster authority" to quell the rowdy crowds.

Fisher, who has been running pub quizzes for more than five years, said: "You begin to look at life anecdotally. I'll see a sign or something in the street and begin instantly thinking of questions surrounding that object," he said.

When it comes to the geography round, Fisher starts with a zinger.

"Which country's name is an anagram of a synonym of a homophone of an even prime number?"

Sighs fill the room. "Is that really a question?" asks an exasperated participant.

The answer is Laos.

It's all over, and when the scores are totted up it's a tie for first place between Slithey Toves and Nesbsters.

In a voice laden with dramatic pauses, Fishes asks the tie-breaking question: "How many No 1 hits did the band Abba have in Germany?"

It's not the chance of winning that brings contestants back, said. Steve Ribet of Nebsters, the winning team who correctly answered "7 No 1s".

"We never expected to win tonight, that's not why we came. We go to quiz nights because we like the challenge, the atmosphere. Most importantly, we like the cheap beer," he said.