Pub Quiz

[spin mobile disco]

Ok did my first pub quiz last night. As im a full timer and decided I was a bit short on the old money I decided to diversify a bit. And as a local venue had rang me to offer me a constant stream of quiz nights on a very quiet day of the week I figured why not.

Now as I am new to these pub quizes and I know there are some regulars on here that do them every week I was hoping for a little help or some hints to make the night go well.

First is pretty obvious how much would you charge for 2 hours for a pub quiz night about 7 miles from home with only sound gear and quiz material required.

And any idea of format for the evening.
My first went like this. 8 o'clock started advertising over the mic the pub quiz was starting and explained fee's prizes etc and would anyone like to try it.

8.30 started with 10 questions on tv and film. Gave them 1 minute to answer on there sheets. Repeated questions 3 times during time. Played music to a low level during the time they had to answer.
Went on to round 2 did 5 questions then announced a break and played music for 15 minutes while they had chance to run to bar or toilet etc. Restarted and finished 5 question on round 2. Then did last round and asked a tie breaker question just incase (nearest guess type question) . Then asked everyone to hand sheets back in and marked them while playing some more music. About 5 minutes later after marking them I announced the winner and asked him up to collect his prize. After that I said thank you and said how good the scores had been etc and then went on to play music for half an hour before finishing the night.
Bar manager said it had been a great night (got 8 teams playing in the end) and would I do it every week.

So any pointers or ideas for things I can do to make it different or better.
Thanks for any advice people can give.

[Boogie Boy]

Maybe too few questions there. Most quizzes aim to have the round 50 or (in most cases) 100 questions. 5 rounds of 20 questions and get them to mark their own, or swap if you want to make it less friendly. Always have a tie-breaker ready, just in case there's a draw.

No need for music in between IMO, most people happy to chat.

Flat fee usually around £50-£70 in this area, or share of entrance money with lower flat fee. Prizes etter than money for a friendly quiz, snowball (whereby prize money is roled over week after week until won) is possibly illegal except in private members' club, but I've seen quite a few pubs do it.

Actually, the pay is relatively poor compared to DJing, BUT you can earn some dosh on very dead nights of the week and it can be very regular money too.

[DazzyD]

I think 100 text-based questions may be a little too much for a couple of hours. I would start off with a famous faces picture round where teams have to identify pictures of famous people (makes sense). They each get a picture sheet and write the answers in the box under each pic. I usually go for 25 faces. This does add to the cost of the quiz as you have to get photocopies done (I've got a personal copier so no problems there).

Then, I'd pick 5 different subjects (including General knowledge) and put together 10 questions on each. I would also do the marking if there weren't many teams otherwise it's a case of swapping with other teams to do the marking.

But at the end of the day, Spin, you seem to done a good job any way and if that format works in your venue maybe it's best to stick to it (or build your future quizzes around it).

Anyway, good luck in whatever you try.

PS. We also have a large set of playing cards and a specially-built frame to incorporate Play Your Cards Right which is always popular. Maybe that's worth a try?

[Candybeatdiscos]

www.quiz-zone.co.uk, this site allows you to generate a quiz and answer sheets, if your doing a picture round and have a laptop to spare why not pop the pictures up on the pubs tv if they have one? I agree I usually go for 5 rounds, 10 questions per round, and have a selection of tie breaker questions available.

Another thing you could do is to perhaps get one member from each team to come up and answer 5 questions solo - no conferring etc

[rob1963]

Ok did my first pub quiz last night. As im a full timer and decided I was a bit short on the old money I decided to diversify a bit. And as a local venue had rang me to offer me a constant stream of quiz nights on a very quiet day of the week I figured why not.

Now as I am new to these pub quizes and I know there are some regulars on here that do them every week I was hoping for a little help or some hints to make the night go well.

First is pretty obvious how much would you charge for 2 hours for a pub quiz night about 7 miles from home with only sound gear and quiz material required.

And any idea of format for the evening.
My first went like this. 8 o'clock started advertising over the mic the pub quiz was starting and explained fee's prizes etc and would anyone like to try it.

8.30 started with 10 questions on tv and film. Gave them 1 minute to answer on there sheets. Repeated questions 3 times during time. Played music to a low level during the time they had to answer.
Went on to round 2 did 5 questions then announced a break and played music for 15 minutes while they had chance to run to bar or toilet etc. Restarted and finished 5 question on round 2. Then did last round and asked a tie breaker question just incase (nearest guess type question) . Then asked everyone to hand sheets back in and marked them while playing some more music. About 5 minutes later after marking them I announced the winner and asked him up to collect his prize. After that I said thank you and said how good the scores had been etc and then went on to play music for half an hour before finishing the night.
Bar manager said it had been a great night (got 8 teams playing in the end) and would I do it every week.

So any pointers or ideas for things I can do to make it different or better.
Thanks for any advice people can give.

Hiya Spin,

Great to hear you've started doing pub quiz nights, and I'm glad the first one went well for you.

I know a little about them, as I've done a few in my time :rolleyes:

From your description, the only thing that stands out for me is that you don't seem to have many questions. My quiz runs for a couple of hours and had 4 rounds. There is a picture round with 20 pictures, a music round which normally has about 20 questions, and a couple of shorter rounds with 5-10 questions each...so about 60 questions in total.

As for what you charge the pub, I'm guessing the prices will vary in different parts of the country like they do with mobile discos. I'm in South west London where prices are probably higher, but to give you a rough idea the agency I work for charges anywhere between £75 and £95.

I could post loads of stuff on here, although my fingers would ache & most people would get bored stupid, but if you would like to have a chat & get some advice, feel free to phone me or email me & I'll be more than happy to discuss it with you.

My details are on my website (link is on the banner below).

The site mentioned by lewnics also has lots of advice about running a quiz here: http://www.quiz-zone.co.uk/runningaquiz/format.html

:)

[LEENEWSOME]

i do a quiz every week, here is my format.

FIRST ROUND 20 QUESTIONS GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.
SECOND ROUND MUSIC ROUND. I PLAY 15 SONGS I LOOK FOR ARTIST AND TITLE.
ROUND 3 TV THEME ROUND, I PLAY 5 TV THEMES.
ROUND 4 FINAL 10 QUESTIONS GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OR ANAGRAM ROUND.
I ALSO HAVE A PICTURE ROUND WHICH IS GIVEN OUT AT THE START OF THE NIGHT.
THEN ITS PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT.

[rob1963]

Maybe too few questions there. Most quizzes aim to have the round 50 or (in most cases) 100 questions. 5 rounds of 20 questions

I think 100 questions is a bit over the top, and it will take longer to compile as well as the marking taking longer. I'd suggest around 50-60 questions overall - maybe something like 2 rounds of 20 questions & 2 more with 5-10 questions each.


get them to mark their own, or swap if you want to make it less friendly.

I disagree. I would suggest that you mark all papers yourself.

If they mark their own, how do you know whether they're being honest? and if they mark each others, you lose all consistency, as some people will mark more strictly than others, which is unfair.


Always have a tie-breaker ready, just in case there's a draw.

Excellent advice. I keep a sheet of about 30 handy, so I'm always ready.

It's a good idea to have tie-break questions where the answer is a year or a number. That way, the team which gets nearest to the correct answer wins.

As an alternative, you could carry around a small jar filled with smarties or something similar, and they have to guess how many are in the jar. I recently did this, and it worked well, as it was something a bit different.


No need for music in between IMO, most people happy to chat.

I have no strong opinions on this, and I don't think it matters too much whether you have music or not. If you do, it will only be background music...so people will still be able to chat if they want to. I know some people who play background music at quiz nights & others who don't.


Prizes better than money for a friendly quiz

I don't think cash prizes are any less friendly than actual prizes. The other advantage is that they can do what they like with a cash prize, but if it's something else, it might be something they are not interested in. Also, how can they split a non-cash prize between a team of say 4 people?


Actually, the pay is relatively poor compared to DJing, BUT you can earn some dosh on very dead nights of the week and it can be very regular money too.

I think the pay is excellent for what's involved. A quiz night involves 2 trips for me to carry in the gear & about 5-10 minutes to set it up - compared to 10 trips & an hour to set up a disco. Also, a quiz night is only a couple of hours, whereas a disco will usually be 4-6 hours. Apart from that, I spend most of my time going round chatting to people & giving them a few clues, so it's more like a social occasion...but I STILL get paid for it. I don't even feel like I'm going to work when I leave for a quiz night!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

That's how I used to feel Rob.
The way I did my pub quizzes was as follows :

40 Text questions split into 4 rounds:
General Knowledge / Sport / TV / Music

Every question was repeated and there was a 5 minute break after each round of 10 questions so that people could get to the bar, have a toilet break etc..

I would also do a 'Bits n' Pieces' type music round too where I would play either 10 tracks from a particular year or TV themes etc.. They would need to get the Artist AND Title correct to get the point for each answer.

I also played music in between to keep the night flowing nicely, mainly requests and I also advertised future events and shouted out any birthdays etc..

The way it worked was that it was £1.00 per person with a maximum of 6 people per team. I gave a drinks voucher for the craziest team name (usually a free pint to each of that team). At the end of the questions I would get all of the sheets in and mark them myself and what I had on my answer sheets was what counted. We used to have a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize which was always cash, generally the cash taken from the team money and topped up by the landlord/landlady if need be.

For example : £100.00 taken - 1st Prize - £60.00, 2nd Prize - £30.00, 3rd Prize - £10.00

Now, at a regular pub quiz I did for 3 years at a big country pub in hampshire, it was on a monday night and the turnout was fantastic. Sometimes there would be nearly £250 in the prize fund. I guess it's the same with most pub quizzes but one team in particular kept winning week in week out...Nothing wrong with that in my book, they can't help being clever and up on their TV, Sport, Music and General Knowledge but other players started to moan about it...like I said, I guess this happens everywhere at many pub quiz nights.

It got so bad at this particular venue that the landlord started to make up his own rules. He firstly said that the team that kept winning should be handicapped... I didn't agree with this at all and when I told them what the plan was they laughed at first...as it happens, the first week we tried it (the landlord wouldn't give in as he was worried that his fantastic monday night trade may suffer if they continued winning every week) and I announced it over the mic, the other teams cheered.... I felt really bad for the team as they were singled out and ridiculed just for being winners! I began to feel uncomfortable as it seemed like it was 15 teams against 1...anyway, that first week the team were handicapped by 3 answers and they still won. They won the following week too and then were handicapped 5 answers and came 3rd (when I shouted out the scores, everyone cheered and once again I felt bad for them).

In the end I decided to go into the pub one day and have a chat with the landlord about the quiz. I explained how I felt and made some suggestions for the future...he listened, we tried them and they worked well until the pub was taken over by someone else and the quiz ended.

What we did was this - For example: If we took £100.00 on the quiz overall we would split it between 3 boxes, so £60, £30, £10...BUT, there was a 4th box too!!! This would have a button in it or a paperclip or sometimes a voucher for 1 drink. Once I started the quiz the landlord would take the money and put it in the boxes. Each box was numbered either 1,2,3 or 4 and they were on show for everyone to see. What happened then was that when it came to the end of the quiz and I called out the prize winners, they would have to choose a box but they weren't allowed to touch any of them.

What this meant was that the winners of the quiz (whoever they were) could end up with £10.00 or a button and the runners up could actually end up with more money. Once the 3 boxes had been picked and the prizes given out, if there was any money in the remaining box, it would roll over to the following week and be split between the prizes again. On one occasion, the top prize didn't get picked and it was £150.00. The following week we put £50.00 in each of the 3 boxes which topped the money up. The teams seemed to like this idea better than before and it was a pity that the quiz ended altogeather in the end.

Just thought that maybe this idea could be used elsewhere? I know that if I decide to do another regular quiz night, I will do this again.

[rob1963]

Interesting ideas, Gary.

I must say I'm strongly against the handicap system for teams who always do well.

There are other ways to stop the same teams winning all the time, and usually involve something like a gamble option in the last round.

For example, my last round currently consists of 5 multiple choice questions which start easy & get harder, and each answer is worth 3 points. The teams MUST answer consecutive questions, but after each question they have the option to hand in their paper. If they don't hand in, they must answer the next question. The twist is that although they can hand in when they like, if they have any wrong answers, their score for the whole round is nil.

Therefore, a team which is doing well might play it safe & hand in afer the first couple of questions. However, the teams which are further behind have nothing to lose, so often go for all 5 questions. Bearing in mind the answers are multiple choice, they will sometimes get all 5 right, which gives them 15 points, and this can be enough to win them the quiz.

Another final round involves asking 5 questions where the answers are all numbers. They then have to add up the numbers & put the total on their sheet. The team which gets nearest to the correct total gets 20 points, the next nearest 18, then 16, 14, 12 etc.

The great thing here is that a team could be way over on some of their individual answers and way under on others by a similar amount - so their overall total could still end up as the nearest to the correct answer, winning them the 20 points & possibly the quiz.

I think this kind of thing is much better than a handicap system, as it gives ALL the teams which are lower down the chance to win, rather than just penalising the cleverest team.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Totally agree and that's why I put my case across strongly to the landlord. He was just worried that if the same team kept winning, which more often than not they did, then people would stop going to the quiz.

Honestly, some monday nights were busier than the weekends...I've never known anything like it since I started DJing etc... It was a lot of fun and like you said, I didn't feel like I was working at all. One thing that did annoy me though and this was probably because I DJ'd there on a friday too, was that on a number of occasions when I was playing music in between the rounds (most of the time it was a mix CD unless I knew that there were birthdays or had specific requests), a couple of people moaned and requested RnB and Garage stuff (this was a while back)... I would politely tell them that it was a quiz night not the Ministry of Sound and that it was a monday night not a friday night too. I didn't flatly say no to them and would play stuff if I could but sometimes I just didn't take many CD's with me as afterall, I was there to do a quiz!

[spin mobile disco]

Well thanks for all the ideas guys. Will be having a real think this week for something for the weekend. Was thinking of a quickfire round of 20 questions maybe true or false type questions to help bulk it out a bit.
They do have a set of tv's in the venue maybe I can get control for the guess the famous face type round.
Any more ideas feel free to put them forward. I think im getting some good ideas to think about.

[rob1963]

I think im getting some good ideas to think about.

You've also had some ideas from ME!

:Laugh: