David McRae, interviewed by Jacob Melvin
1. What's your background in trivia as both a player and host?
In a sense, I’ve always been a trivia player. I watched Jeopardy religiously as a kid, loved Trivial Pursuit, and was even a finalist in my elementary school’s geography bee. As I got older, I played less, but was always filling my head with useless facts about pop culture, history, sports, and music. Admittedly, science was my weak spot. When I started graduate school, my friends and I would play trivia at local bars in Tuscaloosa and did very well. Our winnings often paid for that evening’s bar tab. One evening, our favorite trivia jockey, Elliott, announced that the company he worked for needed new trivia hosts. I’ve never been shy about getting in front of a microphone and I thought it would be really cool to get paid to do trivia, so I inquired. I went through a week of training and hosted my first show at the Houndstooth. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good either. After a few weeks hosting at the Houndstooth, though, I improved and soon built up a pretty loyal following of regulars. When a new show opened at another bar, the company I now work for offered me a second show. Within a year, I had 4 evening shows in Tuscaloosa. I became a local celebrity. It was not unusual to hear people on campus, or in a football gameday crowd yell “Hey trivia guy!” When I moved to Birmingham, I took a few shows here but quickly moved into the role of Regional manager. I started hosting less and became the guy that found, scheduled, and trained hosts. I did until I landed my full-time job at Jefferson State. Up until COVID I was still playing once a week with a large group of friends. Tuesday Trivia nights were my favorite night of the week.
2. What do you like most about being involved in trivia?
I play team trivia and, for me, the camaraderie is what makes it enjoyable. Sure, I’m competitive and I love to win, but spending two hours with my friends hanging out, answering questions, and laughing at our stupid incorrect answers is why I still play weekly. Creating funny team names, often that are inside jokes, is enjoyable as well.
3. Do you ever find that your extensive history background is helpful as a player, or is trivia more of a pop culture game these days?
The trivia I play is a general knowledge game, so it has all sorts of questions. Surprisingly, I’m much better at the pop culture questions than I am the history questions. General knowledge history tends to favor wars and military-themed questions. I’m an Army brat and one way I rebelled against my father, the Colonel, was to basically not care about military history. Anyone who has taken my classes will tell you I spend very little time on wars and basically no time talking about battleships and maneuvers. I know (and cover) the really significant ones. But the rest doesn’t matter. Other history questions are also insanely specific like “What first lady had a cat named Bananas?” I don’t know. When it comes to history, I don’t have room for useless information like that. I do, ironically, have room to tell you how many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired.
4. How do you feel about the notion of online or remote trivia? Can it be as successful as in-person trivia?
During COVID, I’ve played online trivia, both as an individual and on a team. Each have their positives and negatives. However, if everyone comes to the game with good intentions to play and not cheat, the competitive element can still make it fun. So can the intangible of just learning new random facts. Good trivia questions, I think, are what make an online game where the socialization aspect may be lessened. So, to answer the question, yes trivia can be as successful in an online environment.
5. Considering the restrictions in place due to Covid-19, do you feel that people need online interaction and friendly competition for their own mental health and well-being?
People absolutely need online interaction and friendly competition during times like these. Playing games with my friends online, having Zoom happy hours, and even just texting more than normal have helped keep me sane. Trivia, in particular, can be extremely positive for mental health and well-being because it not only creates interaction and competition, it helps keep the mind sharp.