Having promoted Nerd Trivia at The Phoenix I thought I should go along last night. I’m rather glad I did.
For background the last four Nerd Trivia nights (I’m told) have had around 6 teams entering.
But having been promoted here there were 18 teams entered. Those who know the Phoenix well will instantly spot the problem, there are not anything like 18 tables in the place. It was very cosy.
But who were these people? I was expecting the hipster end of the nerd spectrum, wearing it ironically.
But no this was the full spectrum of the nerd rainbow in all its awful glory.
Fat nerds, skinny nerds, unwashed nerds, hairy nerds, hot gothic nerds with Harry Potter tattoos, heavy metal nerds, cute chinese nerds, nerds with bowl haircuts obviously dressed by their mothers (mothers one imagines were sold more on “trivia night” than “phoenix”), sassy nerds in tight space invaders t-shirts with carabiners on their belts, nerds with pebble glasses.
And then when it kicked off things got intense.
What nerd wants to be outnerded? It’s a hard won sense of identity.
MC Joel Barcham had a good range of questions which at least in our team generally meant we only had one or two people with any idea what the hell the answer might be.
The questions traversed 80s science fiction movies, video games, science, books, and then we came to Pokemon.
Unprompted the Phoenix erupted in an a capella rendition of the pokemon theme.
Our team “Where are my dragons” got off to a rocky start when the first quarter bonus round was entirely devoted to the movie Labyrinth which turned out to be a blind spot for us.
But with grim nerdy determination we clawed our way to equal third when things concluded in a blazing row over whether Mario games had ever had a horse racing component.
The bar cleared out quickly afterwards. This was a nerd thing not a phoenix thing.
So well done everyone involved in creating one of the weirder and more wonderful things I’ve seen in Canberra.
Many thanks to “Where are my dragons” for letting me tag along.
If you feel that you’ve missed out on something it’s on again next month on the last tuesday, there’s a facebook page to stay in the loop.
And, while we’re here, once more with feeling:
[Photo by Adam Thomas]
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