The Vermont People

Last night I didn't have CSz rehearsal so I was able to go to the Hidden Shamrock for a pub quiz. An acquaintance of mine, JPG, runs the pub quiz. Instead of downloading or buying a regular pub quiz like some places do, he creates his own categories, themes, and questions for the quiz each week. There are 7 rounds and each round has its own theme. For example, last night round 1 was "summer" and round 2 was all about crude oil. He also has a matching round and a pictures round; the pictures round last night was a series of pictures of SNL actors and we had to write down their names. The matching round last night was authors and their characters. There was a "Kevin Bacon" round last night as well. In it, JPG gave us the name of two actors that were co-stars with Kevin Bacon and we had to write down the title of the movie. The last round is always worth double points and its answers and questions refer to the previous rounds. The pub quiz is $5 per person, teams cannot have more than 5 people, and the top three teams win some money back.

I was on a team with Bess, Manley, and The Ferg. We named ourselves "The Vermont People." This is a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, when the mom is yelling at Jeanie in the car "I was about to close the deal with the Vermont people." After two rounds we were in 5th or 4th place. After 4 rounds we were in 4th place. At the end of round 6, we were in 3rd place. We needed a good showing in the final round if we wanted to remain in the money. We were confident that we had 9 questions down right. But one question really threw us for a loop. "What was the name of the body of water that the Valdez has it's oil spill in Alaska? It took us around 10 minutes before we put down an answer. Our answer: Alaska Gulf. The real answer:

Anyone?

Anyone?

Prince William Sound.

I thought getting that question wrong was the difference between winning first and getting second. I was wrong. We came in first place and were ahead of second place by at least 6 points! We were all so amazed. It was really an awesome rush of excitement. The high of winning was great and we all stayed around for at least a half hour, basking in the remarkable sort-of come-from-behind victory.

The 2nd and 3rd place groups were fellow improviser groups, too. So all three improv groups swept the night, taking the money home.

My favorite bit of the night? Being able to say to Gilley: "All the groups that lost are going home and complaining to their significant others, 'I can't believe we lost that game to The Vermont People."