Akila Raja, Kelsey Diamantis and Stephen Erdo debate an answer. Their team, Donald Trump’s Toupee,
is among many that gather on Wednesdays at Two Georges in Boynton Beach to compete for prizes.
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
A team of doctors from JFK Medical Center discusses the answer to a question
posed during Think and Drink Trivia at Two Georges.
Trivia Master Steve Steckroth provides the questions.
By Ron Hayes
By 7 p.m. the bar is packed. Music’s blasting. Beer’s flowing. Everybody’s here except Steve.
Team Sunshine is by the door. Team Ramrod’s snared a spot, and the Mixt Nuts and Conquistadors have tables in the dining area, not far from the Titsburg Feelers.
The far end of the bar has been occupied by Donald Trump’s Toupee.
For this crowd of loyal regulars, there is nothing trivial about Wednesday Night Trivia at Two Georges Waterfront Restaurant in Boynton Beach.
These are seriously trivial people.
Now, score pads and pens at hand, they are eagerly watching the door for Steve, the host.
“He’ll be here,” Bob Luckey of Team Sunshine announces reassuringly. “Steve always gets here a few minutes before we start.”
Luckey, of Hypoluxo, has been coming on Wednesday nights pretty much since the games began about five years ago.
“I’m good with history and business,” he says, “and my wife, Carol, is good with all literature. She’s an ex-schoolteacher.”
For his teammate, Georgina Leathers of Delray Beach, trivia’s the most trivial part of the evening.
“It’s just a great way to get together with friends,” she explains. “A great night out on a Wednesday.”
They’re certainly not here for the winnings. First place gets you a $20 gift certificate, second place $10, on down through free appetizers and desserts, all the way to a ninth-place keychain.
“We’ve won a lot of desserts and appetizers,” Luckey says, “and then some of the cheap stuff —Koozies and T-shirts.”
Finally, about 7:20, a young man in an Endless Summer shirt arrives, lugging a folding table, gym bag and miniature sound system.
Steve has entered the building.
“I got into hosting trivia because I was so bad at it,” he says, unfolding the table. “I wasn’t contributing anything to the team.”
Now Steve Steckroth is one of a dozen Trivia Masters at Think & Drink Trivia, a company that hosts weekly games at 25 sites, including Jack’s Grumpy Grouper in Lantana and the Dixie Grill & Bar in West Palm Beach.
“I make all the questions up, but don’t confuse that with knowing all the answers,” he confides. “I think of the question and then I Google the answer.”
On a good night, Two Georges can get as many as 21 teams, Steve says. Tonight’s a good night.
“But having a bigger team isn’t necessarily an advantage,” he explains. “When you have two people who are certain they know the capital of Kansas, who are you going to go with?”
Is it Topeka?
“I think.” The Trivia Master frowns. “I don’t know.”
(It’s Topeka.)
The rules are simple. Steve asks a question, then blasts a song for 3½ minutes while the players parade up to his table and drop their answers in a bucket. Wagers are two, four or six points.
Four questions and one bonus question to a round, four rounds a night, 20 questions to the game.
No cellphones, please.
“We’ll be out of here right at 9:30,” Steve promises.
First question: The highest scoring baseball game ever played was on Aug. 25, 1922, when the Cubs beat the Phillies by 3 runs. What was the total points, plus or minus 3 runs?
The music blasts, the answers arrive, Steve announces a 30-second warning, and the music stops.
(The Cubs scored 26 and the Phillies 23. Total points, 49.)
And so it goes.
Some of the questions are easy.
Who was Bob Denver?
(The actor who played Gilligan.)
And some are tough.
With more than 1,500 species of animals, what city is home to the largest zoo in the world?
(The Berlin Zoo, opened in 1944.)
Halfway through, Steve pulls out the 20-point countdown. The first clue is worth 20 points, the second clue 18 points, on down.
Now, for 20 points: I am a famous American who was born in 1928 and died in 2011.
No one rises to drop a guess in the bucket.
For 18 points: I was convicted of second-degree murder in 1989.
Frowns all around.
For 12 points: Even knowing that Al Pacino played him in the movie doesn’t spark a rush to the bucket.
Finally, My nickname was Dr. Death.
(Oh! It’s Jack Kevorkian, the assisted suicide guy.)
Round 3 begins with Wingmen & the Hotwings and the Conquistadors tied for first place.
“They win 90 percent of the time,” Steve says.
Team Sunshine has 50 points.
“Sometimes we pull it out in the end,” Bob Luckey says, bravely.
Three U.S. state capitals have only five letters. Name them.
(Boise, Idaho; Dover, Delaware; and Salem, Oregon.)
Down at the end of the bar, Donald Trump’s Toupee maintains an air of detached self-confidence.
“We’re formerly ‘Trump/Palin 2015,’” says Stephen Erdo of Boca Raton, a Syracuse law student home for the summer.
Erdo has a quick definition of trivia. “Trivia is knowledge that should be common but isn’t,” he says.
His teammate, Akila Raja of Lake Worth, is doing graduate work in medicine at Boston University.
“Science is my best category. Was that a dead giveaway?” she laughs. “My best win was knowing what a HEPA filter is.”
(An air filter used to maintain a sterile environment in operating rooms.)
Their other teammate, Kelsey Diamantis, a schoolteacher from Boca Raton, says her best category is “cheerleader.”
“I give my input here and there, but I’m here for the fun.”
In fact, most anyone you ask is here for the fun. Trivia’s just the excuse. No one seems to take the game all that seriously.
Almost no one.
“We haven’t had any fistfights,” Steckroth says, “but one guy from Canada came close.”
The question was: Other than Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, what are the most populous countries in North America?
“He was red in the face and never came back.”
(The angry Canadian insisted that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are the only countries in North America, but according to the geographers, North America is comprised of all countries north of the Panama Canal. The next most populous are Guatemala, Cuba and Haiti.)
By 9:15, they’ve arrived at the 20th and final question.
What California city has the honor of being the only city in the U.S. to have an element named for it?
The music plays, the answers flutter into the bucket.
(Berkelium, a rare earth element named after the University of California’s city of Berkeley.)
And minutes later Steve announces the evening’s winners.
Brace yourself.
In first place with 109 points is a team that calls itself “And in 1st Place With 144 Points.”
Turns out they’re a group of doctors from JFK Medical Center who gather here each week to unwind from the doctoring. But they take the game seriously enough to have had light-blue custom T-shirts designed with their team name on the front and nicknames on the back.
“My nickname is Magellan because I’m good at geography,” explains Taylor George, a resident in internal medicine specializing in infectious diseases.
“I was able to answer the most visited national park in Tanzania,” he says.
(Serengeti National Park.)
The team also has “The Beef,” who excels at food questions, and “Stratego,” the whiz at board games.
Donald Trump’s Toupee finished with 94 points, good for a free Two Georges T-shirt, and Team Sunshine trailed with 66 points.
The winners collect their winnings, the folding table and sound system are packed up and Wednesday Night Trivia is over for another week.
Steve has left the building.
Comments