05/06/2022
Hey everyone, I’ve missed you! I’m here to announce the return of Thursday Night Trivia with Cloud Nine Productions!
After a number of talks and negotiations, I think I’ve found us the best possible home for our trivia night: JJ’s tavern in Florence. We get the whole top floor to ourselves, with a full bar & bartender, available food, and space for at least 125 trivia players in an attractive space. JJ’s also had something I didn’t know I was looking for untilI found it: an owner and management that’s fully invested in making this event run as smoothly as possible, and that wants to make sure everyone involved is happy with how everything works.
This will absolutely be considered a continuation of the longest-running trivia night in Western Massachusetts, and we are going to kick it off on the 16th anniversary of the first WW2 Club trivia, June 2nd 2022. The trivia format and team size restrictions will remain unchanged, but there are a couple of changes that are being made.
1: We’re moving the start time to 7PM. (So 7-10 instead of 8-11). A number of people have been asking for this for years and with the bar scene writ large moving to earlier times, this seems like the time to do it! Furthermore, my main reluctance to moving the time at the Deuce was the lack of food available… and that’s not a problem at JJ’s.
2: Entry fee is going up to $7, and for the outset at least, will be cash only. Cards are still fine for food and drink. $5 of each entry fee will go to the prize pool and $2 will go to me. The reasoning here is that the bar will pay me for the time spent actually hosting, and y’all will subsidize the hours I spend making the trivia so that hopefully I can make better than minimum wage this time around. After over $100k raised, we are for now discontinuing the nonprofit donations, but I do want to do occasional nights to raise money for worthy causes if y’all are interested.
3: Entry fee collection is going to be done by volunteers from the trivia teams after the first week. Jon, the owner, has agreed to pay the entry fee and 2 drink tokens for whomever helps me out with collection and correction each week. I figure you’ll be able to make it around the room by the end of question 3 or 5, and will be able to run back to your table with your inspired answers if need be.
4: For trophy purposes, this will be considered the 2020/2022 trivia season.
5: I know y’all are serious about having the same tables every week, but on busy nights we may need to shuffle teams of 3 or 4 to some of the corners and nooks where we can’t fit 5 players comfortably. We have a good room layout plan that we’re ready to revise if it doesn’t work out. Granted, this is going to be a bit tighter of a squeeze than the Deuce, but I expect it to be comfortable.
Obviously, all of this is contingent on JJ’s being happy with us, and us being happy with JJ’s Tavern, and all of the unknowns that come with living in the COVID era, but I think we truly have the best possible home which we can inhabit for (hopefully) years to come. On a personal note… getting this gig back up and running has been on my mind for the last two years, and getting it right has been in the forefront of my mind. It’ll be my first regular gig of any kind since March of 2020, and I’ve had a couple of years to sporadically write questions… so I’m planning on giving you some of my best material in the first few weeks! (Frankly… week 2 at JJ’s may be the better set, but I wanted week 1 to be more approachable to ease you and potential new players back in).
I’m happy to answer questions and concerns in the comment section! I can’t wait to get back to it.
