I am still recovering after last night’s craziness at The Thirsty Lion… hell, I don’t even know where to start… I guess I’ll start where most do with a story to tell… at the beginning.

When I arrived at The Thirsty Lion last night everything seemed normal… there were the usual folks sitting around here and there, but there was no foreshadowing of the events to come. As I set up, I had my usual thoughts of ‘I wonder if anyone will come out tonight?’ and ‘Hopefully the numbers will be up.’ As I trekked my gear from two blocks away, (Yea, I don’t even want to talk about my $60 parking ticket from last week!!) the sweat started to bead on my brow… something was in the air… it was going to be one of those nights.

Around 6:30 little pockets of people in black started to show up… a couple here… a couple there… and then all of the sudden BAM! I look up and the place is PACKED!! And the line to sign in is back past the bar. ‘Holy Shit!’ I thought as more people kept pouring in…

How could I cut off all of those people who had been waiting there for such a long time? I just couldn’t. So I strapped on my big boy pants, took off my dress shirt so I could join in with the black clad crowd and made the decision that everyone would get to play! Which meant that at 120 people we had the biggest Pub Quiz I have ever done!

There was also something else in the humid air last night… something that brought out the crazys. And here I have to give props to my man Justin the bartender for kicking out the craziest of the crazys!! A guy that chose to come in, sit down right in front of me and scream BRETT FARVE!! over and over again. I thought I was going to have to come over the table and help Justin out for a second there when the guy jumped up and got in Justin’s face (Btw I also saw some of our Great Pub Quizzers standing up ready to do battle as well. It’s nice to know you folks got our back out there!!!) but Justin handled it with style and dignity and after a tense couple of minutes kicked the asshole out.

So let’s get to the quiz… the quiz that all 27 teams played to the finish, chasing the huge $360 pot. While I was grading the bingo rounds I knew I was getting into the weeds… 27 teams… what the hell was I thinking?? As we went into our second round which had some great video of Andy Warhol messing with a reporter, Elvis falling off a chair and… O yea… BRETT FARVE!!! I knew I would have to get some help if we were going to get out of there before midnight… And that’s where Denea (I hope I spelled that right! ) came to my rescue. She hopped right in and graded the handouts like a Pub Quiz veteran Quizmaster. THANK YOU!!!

Which brought us to the moment everyone had been waiting for… the final round. Six teams got in to battle for the HUGE F’in pot because we had a tie for fifth. ‘The Nosebleed Section’, ‘The Black and Not So Tan’ and ‘The Black Panther Unicycle team’ all made it into the final round but their hopes were dashed as they missed the final question and all ended up with 0. ‘T/X’ also missed the final question but with a cunning wagering strategy ended up with 4 points and a $71 third place pot. ‘Anxiety Attack’ was in the lead as we went into the final round but had to settle for the $108 dollar second place prize. (Is that really settling?)

Which brings us to the big money… and all of the sudden who is there? Our current ‘Fist of Knowledge’ Trophy holders, going under the name ‘Passengers 58-61′, who got into the final round on the fifth place tie and then devised a devious wagering strategy of ’0′ to take it all! Well, that’s why they’re the champs folks and why they walked away last night with $180!!! Well played!!

Cheers!!

Dave

P.S. Thanks again to everyone that came out and for all of your patience last night… You made it a Pub Quiz that I’ll never forget! I promise that if you guys keep coming we will find a way to accommodate all of you and finish before 9:30!! And thanks again for having our back!! BRETT FARVE!!!