Holding trivia contests to entice imbibers into local watering holes — a tradition that can trace its roots to 1970s England — has made a comeback of late in Alameda.
The reigning king of the Island’s trivia contests is Kirkland Melton III, who holds forth four nights a week throughout Alameda, where he may ask the assembled questions like “Which is the world’s hottest chili pepper?” (Why, it’s the Carolina Reaper, of course.)
Starting 10 years ago with three other rotating hosts at The Fireside Lounge on Alameda’s Webster Street, Melton has hosted solo every Tuesday night since the COVID-19 pandemic ended. An online version of the Fireside’s contest that looks like a Zoom conference call is also hosted by former Fireside host Sean Kealy from his new home in Texas.
For their efforts, winners — either in teams or playing as individuals — are awarded prizes from Melton’s stash box that consist mostly of swag from breweries such as beer cozies, a draft beer or other drinks. Each night features three to five rounds of questions with breaks in between each round.
Not only does Melton research and write his own questions, but he also recruits the players (“Would you like to play trivia? It’s free”), serves as the microphone-wielding master of ceremonies/quizmaster and interacts with the participants.
Melton, 61, who is also an artist specializing in portraits and illustrations and has lived in Alameda since 1999, shies away from “theme” nights with his contests.
“I’ll lose half the crowd. Two years ago, we did an all-Disney night, but a lot of people don’t like Disney, so half the crowd said ‘nope’ and they left. So that was the final night — no themes. I’ll do a couple of theme trivia rounds but not a theme night.
“We used to try to make it super-challenging. People come to really get the knockdown-drag-out battle of ‘Who’s the smartest?’ But now I make it sort of easy so that everybody can participate. And the last two rounds are the hardest ones. I think people dig just coming out to test their mettle to see what they know on pop culture or history or whatever.”
Answers to questions are written out on a piece paper by contestants who show it to Melton, who doesn’t reveal the correct answer until all have submitted their guesses. Voices carry, so Melton discourages calling out answers. And that looking up questions on a cell phone is a cardinal sin goes without saying.
On a recent Tuesday night at the Fireside, he conducted a hybrid game of bingo and trivia he likes to call “Primetriviabingo.” After passing out a bingo card, piece of paper and dauber to each player to mark the number called on the card, the game begins with Melton calling out any one of the letters that make up the word B-I-N-G-O and a prime number. Players with one of the letter-number combinations on their bingo cards mark them with the daubers and can each answer a trivia question. On that night, all 15 players were on their own, not in teams.
“We want more, but we’re happy with we get,” says Melton.
To get the crowd warmed up, Melton started with some softballs.
“This a five-letter word for a color that starts with wh and it’s not black,” says Melton. All three participants correctly wrote down “white” on their sheets and walked away with cozies. “We try to make it easy.”
Perhaps the toughest question of the night was about the emotional state that’s a tribute to the ancient Greek god Pan. Only one player got the right answer: “panic.” As Johnny Carson may have said, “I did not know that.”
Alamedan Melissa Grisby is a regular at the Fireside’s trivia night and sees it as the perfect Tuesday night activity.
“Tuesday night’s kind of a weird time of the week. Maybe you just want to go do something a little different, so you do a bit of trivia. I have won a round or two, so that feels incredible.”
Grisby’s specialty is pop culture.
“If it’s pop culture-related, I can usually get it. There was one round where he showed a photo of a character from a TV show and he was like, ‘Who’s this character?’ And it was Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory — that’s one of my comfort shows, and no one else in the bar knew who that was, so I won. That was fantastic.”
In addition to his Tuesday gig at the Fireside, Melton quizzes participants at either The Swell Bar or Park Social (a cannabis shop) on Monday nights, the Club House on Wednesday nights and The Preacher’s Daughter on Thursday nights, all in Alameda.
Paul Kilduff is a San Francisco-based writer who also draws cartoons. He can be reached at pkilduff350@gmail.com.