The Manhattan Times

by Adam Garrett-Clark

Forget about getting a table at Piper’s Kilt after 7 p.m. on Tuesdays. There’s a saying around the neighborhood, manager Mike Bowe says, “Nobody goes to the Kilt on Tuesdays, because it’s too crowded.”

Tuesday nights at Piper’s Kilt on Broadway just north of W. 207th Street is trivia night. In its second year, the competition has become a weekly pastime for many who live nearby, creating a sense of community for its devoted players as they slide down the Kilt’s self proclaimed “best hamburger in town” with a tall pint of ale and test their factual recall.

The event often mixes raffle give-aways and liquor promotions with a chance to win cash and gift certificates for the top scorers of the night.

Currently halfway through its 12-week season, teams will resume competition beginning Tue., Jan. 19.

On a Tuesday earlier in the season at around 6:30 p.m., there isn’t an open table in the dining area as teams have already arrived to stake their claims. Later arrivals fill in the bar side, jostling for a bit of flat surface to fill out the preliminary questions in their trivia booklets.

As players wait, Jeopardy! plays over the TV monitors. Eyes are locked on the screen as if it was the Super Bowl; the barstool coaching is equally as focused. 

“Theater is not six letters, you dumb ass,” one woman yells at the screen.

Over cheesy electronic music, Bowe, the M.C., kicks off the competition, reminding the audience that use of any personal gadgetry is cheating.

For the next three hours, in seven rounds, teams answer a succession of multiple choice and write-in questions and identify snippets of songs played over the sound system. During free moments while scores are checked, players try to recognize the faces in distorted pictures of people like Jerry Springer and Louis Farrakhan that are in their booklets.

After each round booklets are traded with other teams in the room to be scored. This feature of the event is what Bowe is most proud of, he said, because it forces his patrons to interact with each other. The dialogue created, Bowe said, moves from the restaurant out into the streets, into the laundromats and supermarkets, creating lasting bonds. “It has created a lot of friendship in the restaurant and out in the neighborhood,” he said. “So it’s been a tremendous success for me in that regard.”

Behind the beer taps, bartender Tommy Keating is getting an earful from customers. But rather than filling the bartender’s traditional role of playing psychiatrist to his patrons, Keating is used to confirm answers.

“The music, that’s what kills me,” John Doheney, 65, said struggling with a short clip from pop star Sheryl Crow. “I don’t know any of these songs.”

Further down at the bar, Mathew Rankin explains what it takes to create a good trivia team.

“You’ve got to be well rounded and you’ve got to be friendly,” Rankin advises. Often, his team’s answers come from one member’s gut feeling, but teammates must be diplomatic when two people feel strongly about two different answers, that’s when members need to tactfully talk it out, he explained.

Teams with names like the Dork Knights, Leonardo’s Formula and Is it Wagner? can be tracked on a Web site that records each score of the season.

Rankin’s team – the Urban Bovine Knevils, made up of a handful of 30-somethings – has impressed many of the other teams because of its varied knowledge and high scores.

“The three of us really complement each other well,” Rankin said of his team’s core members, which include a graphic designer and curators at an art center. Rankin also pointed out that one of the members, his girlfriend Amanda Donnelly, is Australian, which Rankin believes gives the team an edge on some of the pop culture references as the trivia company that produces the questions, Pubstumbers, is based in Britain.

The Knevils are currently in a three-way race for first place with Mar Mar Cnoc [pronounced “knock”] and the defending champion Rangers, who also won on this night. At Piper’s Kilt the Rangers are known as a trivia powerhouse. Their secret is a dynamic mix of ages and professions including a D.J., teachers, cops and a graduate from Duke University.

“We need the younger guys for the music and situation comedy questions,” said John Murphy, an older member of the Rangers. “The Babylonian War, we’re great on that.”

On Jan. 12, the Piper’s Kilt will have a special trivia night, separate from the season, with all questions themed to New York City. The questions and booklet were created by Mar Mar Cnoc player Matt O’Shea who will M.C. the night’s competition.

CUTLINES:

On Tuesdays manager Mike Bowe (left) plays host to the Piper’s Kilt’s trivia contest.