It has been ten years since my last visit to Basement Burger Bar in Canton for a trivia night.

You can read about that Sporcle Events game here, which was a solo outing:

https://hebontheweb.blog/2017/01/02/trivia-recap-feb-7-2016-basement-burger-bar-canton/

That weekend, my husband was out of town for a Super Bowl slumber party with a bunch of guys. Which also involved board games. 

So I found a trivia game to entertain me for a couple of hours!

On this most recent visit to BBB, he joined me for the game, which was relatively uneventful. No prizes, no fanfare, though we did manage to get both final questions correct.

We decided we wanted to go “incognito” at this game rather than use our league name, so we drew inspiration from a vampire comedy series we’ve been rewatching when we chose our name (it was all Mike’s idea):

If you’ve watched “What We Do In the Shadows (the series),” you’ll get the reference!

But – if you haven’t watched the series, I’ll explain the reference briefly! In the episode, vampire Lazlo Cravensworth (pictured, played by actor Matt Berry) goes “on the lam” to escape a vampire named Jim, played hilariously by Mark Hamill, to escape having to pay a debt for a room he rented from Jim more than a century ago.

In doing so, he very poorly tries to assimilate into human culture by posing as a bartender in Pennsylvania named “Jackie Daytona.” One thing he does in the bar is immediately remove all of the mirrors so that the patrons won’t notice his lack of reflection!

Fitting that we used a “deep cut” pop culture referencing team name for a trivia game that had quite a few “deep cut” questions! 😃 More about those if you read on…

Overall, this was a decent trivia spot that we may (or may not) decide to visit (occasionally) again. The drink prices were good, the service was good, and they had more than one choice of NA beers available.

As for eating? Neither of us tend to be late night eaters (game time is 9 p.m.), so I can’t really comment on the food. It did look delicious, though! As the name of the restaurant implies, burgers are the stars of the menu, which can be customized with a variety of toppings and protein/vegetable choices and topped with house made sauces. They also have the requisite “bar foods” such as various deep-fried goodies you’d expect to find in places like this.

As for the game? You know those radio stations that play “deep cuts?” Trivia games have those too!

What do I mean? Those very, very specific knowledge nuggets that only the hardest core trivia nerds would know. Even if you’ve seen every episode of Seinfeld, you might still be stumped by one of the questions about the series that we had. I’ll have to put one of our teammates Brad to the test with that question (he really is a “Seinfeld nerd,” in addition to being just a garden variety nerd nerd).

A before and after mystery Round was particularly challenging too! Who knows the intimate details of Aaron Burr’s life besides the writers of Hamilton?

Not us, apparently! All I know about the guy is that he was a VP and was involved in a duel with Alexander Hamilton. Those bits of knowledge were not enough to help us in that mystery Round.

Here were our questions:

Round One

1 Board Games – “Career Choice,” “Get Married” and “Buy a House” are among the mandatory stopping points on the board in what game?

2 Journalism – What style of journalism closely associated with Hunter S. Thompson shares its name with a Muppet character?

NERD POINT: What group is the subject of a 1966 book by Thompson subtitled A Strange and Terrible Saga?

3 TV Dramas – Z: The Beginning of Everything is a period drama set in the 1920s that stars Christina Ricci as a socialite and writer with what first name?

Had I actually paid attention to the question, I would have at least known the first part of the answer. Rookie mistake! There I was trying not to overly use my phone to give the essence of cheating. Any teams trying to accuse of such in this game would have zero luck considering how poor our scores were! 🤔

NERD POINT: This series aired from 2015 to 2017 on what streaming service?

Missed this too.

4 Country Music – This was audio. I’m not recreating it. Apparently it was a song by Nicole Kidman’s husband or something.

Mystery Round One – Before and After

I didn’t get this written down so I am reverse engineering from the answers, so they may only be facsimiles of the questions we actually had.

M1 Conch Republic city and state whose capital is Charleston

M2 Southern State known for bayous and parishes and state where Bill Clinton was born

M3 City of birth of Aaron Burr and “Dust in the Wind” band sharing name with state where Pizza Hut originated

M4 Midwest City whose name is in a mail order steaks company name and state where Barack Obama was born unless you’re a “birther” smile😃

My recreations of this mystery Round are FAR easier than the ones we actually had!

Round Two

5 Commercials – What company has used an anthropomorphic elephant named Ernie in commercials for its pistachios, touting their health benefits?

Anyone know why they used to dye these nuts red? What was the point of doing that? Besides making a great sight gag in the 1988 comedy film The Naked Gun – From the Files of Police Squad?

6 Star Wars – In Star Wars, what swampy and forested planet is the place where Yoda spends his time in Exile?

NERD POINT: Who directed the last of the nine films in the Skywalker Saga?

7 World Leaders – Three former inmates at Robben Island have gone on to become president of what country?

8 Animals – What eight-letter “A” term describes members of the family Bovidae that are not cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison or goats, such as an impala or blackbuck?

NERD POINT: Who was the first of these three inmates to serve?

Mystery Round Two

We were in second to last going into the final with 39 points, just six points ahead of wRong. Ahead of us were Major Tryhards, 39; The Duo Trio, 40; M&M, 43; Trivia Busters, 45; MoneyMills’ Magnificent Mob, 47; and Keerok, 53.

Final Question Game One

Of the 20 songs by The Beatles that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, three are title tracks from non-compilation studio albums (i.e. the song title is the same as the name of the album on which it appears). Name one of these three title tracks, which were released as singles in 1964, 1965 and 1970.

We got this correct and moved up to third from last place. Which basically means most teams got this correct. Keerok finished first with 68, MoneyMills MM finished second with 62.

Game Two/Round Three

9 Food – What type of dumpling common in Chinese cuisine has a name that means “swallowing cloud” in Cantonese?

10 Musicals – The musical Phantom of the Opera is set in what city?

11 TV Jobs – What is the job of Bryan Cranston’s recurring character on Seinfeld?

NERD POINT: What is the first name of this character?

12 Museums – The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden is an outdoor courtyard located at what New York City museum that houses notable works by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet?

NERD POINT: This museum was established in the latter part of what decade?

Mystery Round Three – ARR

All correct answers will have the letters ARR in them in that order because of Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Round Four

13 MVPs – Since 2022, Paul Goldschmidt and Ronald Acuña Jr. Are the only players other than Aaron Judge to win MLB MVP Award. Name one of the two teams that both players were playing for when they won.

NERD POINT: Name both teams.

14 Animated Films – In the animated film Finding Nemo, what kind of animal is Nemo’s schoolteacher?

15 US States – Which of the following US states is closest in total area to the island of Ireland – Missouri, South Carolina, New Jersey or Ireland?

NERD POINT: What four-letter name that means “Ireland” was once among the 20 most popular names for baby girls in the US? 

16 Political Firsts – In 2016, Catherine Cortez Masto made history as the first Latina elected to serve in what political position?

Mystery Round Four –

This was an audio round I am not recreating it. The theme was songs by bands who all have the article “The” in their names.

We were in dead last in seventh with 30 points going into the final behind Trivia Busters, 33; Keerok, 35; The Duo Trio, 39; Major Tryhards, 40; MoneyMills’ Magnificent Mob, 41 and M&M, 42.

Final Question Game Two:

Category: Photographs

What word completes the title of a widely reproduced photograph taken by one of the astronauts aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon in December 1972 – The Blue (BLANK)?

We moved up to sixth after the final question but wound up finishing fourth overall with 99 total points.

Answers:

R1 Life, Gonzo/hell’s angels, Zelda/Amazon Prime, Keith Urban

R2 Wonderful Pistachios, Dagobah/JJ Abrams, South Africa/Mandela, Antelope

R3 wonton, paris, dentist/tim, MoMA/1920s

R4 cardinals/braves, manta ray, s.c., did not hear the answer or see on the screen

M1 key West Virginia, saintlouisiana, newarkansas, omahawaii

M2 2005, 1995, 2025, 1975

M3 married with children, arrythmia, barrette, bizarro world

M4 the who, the strokes, echo and the bunnymen, the doors

F1 hard days night, help, let it be

F2 blue