Trivia Can Be Serious Business

When you hear the sound of Hot Butter's 1970s one-hit wonder "Popcorn," emanating from The Black Sheep in Niantic, you know TriviAcademy is in the house. Inside, you'll find the place packed with groups of people known to all by names such as "The Horse Party," "Tequila Mockingbird," "Comfortably Dumb," and "Bound, Gagged, Beaten and Dragged." 

Trivia nights have become increasingly popular in recent years but chances are, if you're at a local pub playing trivia, you're playing TriviAcademy and Jennifer and Kevin Larrow are asking the questions.

This Waterford couple first got into the trivia business in 2010 working for Stump, a Boston-based company founded by a man with a winning format for a trivia game that grew to the point that he had 350 independent contractors playing his game in numerous states.

They liked working for Stump, Jen says, but when the guy who started the business sold it to a large company in California that demanded a lot more paperwork at the end of the night, they decided to go it alone. 

"We thought if we commit ourselves to writing our own questions, we knew we could do it ourselves," says Jen.

Kevin, who has worked in Waterford schools for the past 10 years and is currently getting his teaching certificate and teaching at Clark Lane Middle School, was inspired to come up with a format based on the education system.

"I said I want to create a game to challenge people to remember what they learned or give them the joy of recalling something they've long forgotten," says Kevin.

The game is divided into four rounds: Grade School, Middle School, High School, and College, with bonus rounds in between. Bonus rounds are often based on popular culture and are usually visual, naming movies or celebrities based on photographs.

"The content matures as the game goes on," says Kevin.  

TriviAcademy plays a song after asking each question to give contestants time to answer. Most people play in teams, typically creatively named, and many teams return week after week to play. People who walk in while a game is underway are also invited to participate.

"We call them 'transfer students,'" says Kevin. 

A Growing Business That Boosts Business

TriviAcademy started out with two venues, The Black Sheep in Niantic on Tuesdays and Margaritaville in Mystic on Thursday. They've since added three more venues, The Old Lyme Inn in Old Lyme, the Harp and Hound in Mystic and The Brazen Hen in Westerly, RI. 

Most places hold trivia nights on evenings when business is typically slow, such as a Tuesday. As Jen and Kevin obviously can't be in three places at the same time, they've hired other dynamic duos to host. 

"We've turned their quietest week night into their busiest week of the night," said Jen. 

Erin Johnston, a bartender at The Black Sheep in Niantic, can attest to that. "I've pretty much been there since they began and Tuesday nights have been blown out of the water," she says  "I've seen people come in for the first time for trivia who come back. I like the fact that it brings in everyone from 21- to 81-year-olds."

One of the things Kevin says he likes best about TriviAcademy is seeing families come in, grandparents and parents with children old enough to drink, to play. As the questions cover all eras, "The best team is multigenerational," he says.

What started out as a way to supplement their income is rapidly becoming a growing business venture. Kevin is working at Clark Lane Middle School as an unpaid intern to earn his teaching certificate which is something he says he would not have been able to do without the income from TriviAcademy. 

"It's replaced my full-time income," he says.

This year, Kevin was one of the featured speakers at Clark Lane Middle School's career day this year. His message to kids was "follow what you're good at and create a business around that," he says. "If it's something you do well, it's something you can do for a living." 

TriviAcademy is free to play and there are prizes for the winners, usually a gift certificate to encourage people to return to the venue. The venues pay TriviAcademy to host. The only time people pay to play is when TriviAcademy is working a fundraiser, as is the case today. 

As part of Waterford Week, TriviAcademy will be at Filomena's restaurant at the Utopia Plaza on Boston Post Road in Waterford on Sunday with a game starting at 6 p.m. to benefit Waterford Senior Services and Parks and Recreation. It's $25 per person to play and though people were encouraged to register, you can show up and pay at the door and match wits with your neighbors for a good cause.