We’ve all heard the phrase “put your money where your mouth is,” but with downtown’s growing trivia trend, putting your mouth to work could earn you some money.
Locations such as Harry’s Pig Shop, Your Pie and Alibi all offer patrons the chance to match wits in the name of rewards that range from gift certificates to the sweetest of bragging rights.
With prizes such as $30 gift certificates alongside complementary orders of sweet potato fries, students can put their trivia wit to the test at a variety of locations.
However, with so many different locations vying for attention, some stores have gone out of their way to step out of the crowd.
Alibi Bar’s entertainment manager Ken Mobley resorted to Visual Audio Trivia, propping up questions with music clips and movie stills, while Amici’s owner Ryan Myers hired trivia master and University alumnus Bobby Nettles.
Nettles is the founder and owner of FAM Productions, which juggles trivia nights and disc jockeying wedding receptions and corporate events, though Nettles estimated 85 percent of FAM’s revenue comes from trivia.
Nettles said he makes a living out of rewarding intelligence, saying if he isn’t writing smart trivia, he’s not doing a good job.
Alumnus Michael Santos, another trivia-maker who made the rounds in Athens until a few months ago, takes a similar stance to his material.
“If I got college students, it was usually the junior-senior crowd,” Santos said. “Trivia’s a little more stimulating than power hour at a bar.”
Santos has lead trivia at Doc Chey’s Noodle House, Your Pie and Harry’s Pig Shop, reputedly the most difficult trivia game in town.
Nettles hosts Full-Contact Trivia at Amici’s Italian Cafe on Sunday nights, although it’s not his only time or location.
The unique brand of trivia, which Nettles shares with his two employees, got its name from Nettles’ no-holds-barred attitude, cracking politically incorrect jokes left and right, reading aloud particularly bad answers and doing everything he can to rile up the audience as jocularly as possible.
“If you can hold up a mirror to the audience, and show them what’s funny, they’ll laugh,” he said. “I write the trivia to try and serve as a conduit for humor.”
Fortunately, Nettles takes as good as he gets. He said a game doesn’t really begin until a team has submitted an answer of “Your mother.”
With many places offering cash prizes, such as Harry’s Pig Shop offering gift certificates worth up to $30 for first through third place, the competition can grow fierce. However, Harry’s Pig Shop softens the blow by giving its worst competitors a consolatory order of sweet potato fries, according to sous chef William Smith.
“People usually like it because they actually won something,” he said. Smith said touches like these have turned Wednesday into the shop’s busiest week night.
Santos said the trick to avoiding the fries is balance.
“It’s more important to be able to talk things out than to be specialized in one area,” he said. “Trivia isn’t so much about information as the conversation at the table.”
Your Pie is unique in that the competition exists not only between teams, but stores. Its three locations — East Broad, Alps and Five Points — lock horns with each other by keeping tabs on each store’s scores, according to East Broad location general manager Ben Allen.
He said a winning team at one location may not win anything if three good teams are lighting up the scoreboard at another.
Barret Kirbo, a political science major from Bainbridge, and John Perkerson, an agricultural education major from Molena, have made Monday nights at Blind Pig a tradition.
“It’s something fun to do on a school night,” Perkerson said. “You always learn something new.”
Kirbo and Perkerson said the questions can be a lot of fun, pointing out a recurring Blind Pig question where the trivia master makes up the titles for three pornographic films and slips in an actual title as the right answer.
“We’ve never gotten that question before,” Kirbo said, proud of the accomplishment. “I think we’re zero for 15.”