On Thursday night about forty participants tested their knowledge of “horrible people,” queer happenings, and millennial music hits at a new R-rated trivia show at Buddies and Bad Times Theatre in Toronto’s Church and Wellesley village.
Teams scribbled down their answers to clues like: “What name is given to the person in the middle position of a three-person threesome?,” “What does PrEP prevent?” and “Which dessert’s name translates to ‘lift me up?’”
(Answers: Lucky Pierre, HIV and tiramisu, respectively.)
The event, dubbed the Quiz Master Brian Show for its namesake host, was the first of five trivia nights to be held in Toronto this winter and spring.
Host Brian Daniel, one of Montreal’s most active trivia night game masters, DJ-ed top 80s and 90s hits including Will Smith’s “Welcome to Miami,” Indigo Girls’ “Closer to fine,” and NSYNC’s “Tearin’ up my heart.”
Daniel told TorontoToday he’ll be travelling from Montreal for each of the upcoming shows. There’s considerable opportunity hosting corporate trivia events, he said, which is prompting the trivia veteran to consider a move to Toronto.
Saving marriages through trivia?
Daniel said his decades-long love affair with trivia began in his tenth-grade science class.
“I was stoned … and they announced tryouts for Smart Ask! — a short-lived CBC trivia show,” he said.
Daniel tried out, “killed it,” and got to participate at the event’s national championship later that year in Toronto. After that, he was hooked.
In his late teens, Daniel participated in another national competition before subsequently beginning to host shows of his own at a local Irish pub.
During the early pandemic, the veteran game master switched to online competitions, helping “save a few marriages,” by providing couples a chance to drink and laugh amidst the isolation, he said.
All in, the Montreal native estimates he’s hosted more than 800 events.
Attending for the ‘raunchy’ humour
Some participants on Thursday night came for the trivia. Teammates Nam Nguyen, Zoe Grobman and Evan Dorey are quiz-game veterans, having each recently participated on the hit TV trivia show Jeopardy!
But others just came looking for a good time.
Participant Shaun Lambrou said he’d never attended a trivia night before, but came knowing Daniel’s “raunchy” sense of humour.
The show host appeared not to disappoint.
Between clues, Daniel occasionally chirped audience members — “I feel like the people who took the weed gummies are going to do better than people who didn’t” — soliciting laughs from the crowd.
He also playfully mocked teams for wrong answers: when two teams mistook a Chappell Roan song for a Charlie XCX hit, Daniel chastised them for being smug millennials with 11-year old nieces thinking they’d nailed the answer.
Other jokes were too racy to be printed by TorontoToday.
Top teams took home beer
Top teams in each of the event’s two hour-long halves got prizes — bottles of beer to be consumed off premises. This meant that even if a team had a bad first half, they still had a shot at victory in the game’s second hour.
Nguyen said he appreciated that teams could choose to “double up” their score from one of six rounds, adding a strategy factor to the game.
During the “terrible people” round Daniel flashed up images of notable public figures for participants to name. Clues included shots of grocery baron Galen Weston Jr., rapper Jay-Z, and federal conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
“A lot of your dads are going to vote for him,” Daniel quipped.
In addition to rounds of trivia, Thursday night’s event also featured a trivia-themed sing-a-long to the tune of Britney Spears’ “Hit me baby one more time,” and a short stand-up comedy set by performer Handsome Johnny.
Quiz Master Brian to host Fringe show
As the event wrapped up on Thursday night, participant Shaun Lambrou told TorontoToday he’d definitely be back again, despite his team not having come close to victory.
Participant Evan Dorey said he also enjoyed the event — the Jeopardy! participant’s three-person team was last in the first half but won the second set, securing three beers as a prize.
The next chance to catch the Quiz Master Brian Show is March 6, followed by April 3, May 1 and June 5. Tickets are $13.
In July, Daniel will host a trivia show at the Toronto Fringe Festival, during which he said he plans to yell trivia questions at the audience.
