I am at the Idle Hour bar in North Hollywood eating loaded Tater Tots with an eight-person trivia team in a back patio hut shaped like a ceramic bulldog smoking a corncob pipe. The teammates consult with one another in hushed tones; they’re cool under pressure. They order food for the table that’s subsidized by an ample supply of $35 gift cards (trophies from past victories). The team’s name is Trivial Pursuit of Dat Ass.
This gang is the highest-ranking team in King Trivia, one of the country’s most popular pub-trivia leagues, with thousands of participating competitors on any given week. And I’m here to learn the ingredients of an all-star team.
Before they were trivia champions, the members of TPODA, mostly television writers and actors, were teammates in another arena: organizers during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA union strikes. Andra Whipple met future teammate and fellow writer Myles Warden while both were deputized as their union’s lot coordinators at Radford Studio Center. “The strike was a moment when I realized how important consistent community was in my life and how much I needed it,” says Whipple. Through Warden, Whipple met and befriended other strikers. A network assembled.
On a warm August night after another long day of striking, they celebrated Whipple’s birthday on the back patio at Idle Hour. Whipple’s birthday also happened to be a Tuesday—trivia night. After a few drinks, the group decided to join. They came in a respectable third place and, perhaps more important, caught the bug. Over the next several weeks, the friends returned for trivia and deliberated over their official team name. They tried out Union Barbie and Strike Barbie, a nod to the Barbie movie then dominating the box office. Production designer Jonathan Werden landed on Trivial Pursuit of Dat Ass. After 10 nights of trivia, TPODA finally won its first game.
“I think we were over 100 days into the strike at that point,” says Whipple. “We were exhausted, and frankly, we needed a diversion, a way to win when morale was low. And also we needed something fun to do that wasn’t superexpensive because we were all broke. That’s why we kept coming back.”
Each of the team members has their areas of expertise. Actor Andrew Loviska knows about literature and science. Sarah McLean, also an actor, specializes in baseball and SNL history. Bob Hopkinson, a WGA employee, knows his U.S. geography. Also, the team members’ ages range from 32 to 45, a span just wide enough to offer diversified knowledge of cultural references.
In the King Trivia league, there are seven rounds of questions, each structured in a different format (e.g., picture round, guess who?). At the end of each round, if a team feels confident enough in its answers, it can opt to risk its points—double or nothing. TPODA goes for it nearly every round. “It’s rare for us to guess the answers,” says Franki Butler, a writer. “We win so often that if we double down and lose, it’s better for the morale of the other teams.”
The TPODA members are aware that their standing in the league attracts a certain degree of attention. Other teams drop in from out of town to play against them, or ask to be their official rivals. The Idle Hour host, known as the quizmaster, once asked them to end their winning monopoly by splitting into two teams. They refused. “If you split us up,” explains Butler, “we’re just going to win first and second place.”
I peruse last season’s King Trivia national leaderboard. In second place is a former champion team called Apt 20, based out of Houston. Only a few points behind, Apt 20 could easily break into the number-one spot. “We know they’re watching us and they know we’re watching them,” says Warden. Despite weekly King Trivia competitions happening in hundreds of pubs across the country, 18 out of the top 25 ranked teams are based in Los Angeles County. You could easily chalk this up to the fact that over 100 California pubs host a King Trivia competition, compared to, say, a dozen pubs in Apt 20’s home state of Texas. Still, is there something that makes Angelenos better at trivia?
I spoke with Joshua Lieberthal, the King Trivia CEO, who founded the league in Los Angeles over 20 years ago. “People here have been playing our game longer. It gives them a leg up,” says Lieberthal. He also notes the culture of the city: Angelenos have a front-row seat to pop culture.
As to qualities of a winning King Trivia team, Lieberthal argues that diversity counts. “People of different generations,” he says. “People with different interests and careers. If you have an actor, someone from the Jet Propulsion Lab, a janitor, and a doctor, you’re gonna win.” This appears to be true for Apt 20: Members include an MBA holder, a Duke-educated orchestra conductor, and a geologist.
As for TPODA, I think the team’s success stems from effective teamwork. The group bonded at a time when its members, hardworking industry writers and actors, were going for double or nothing for their livelihoods. The effort paid off, but not after a prolonged period of great uncertainty. If they could effectively organize on the streets, competing in trivia should be (and appeared to be) a piece of cake.
These days, little stops TPODA from showing up. Even on some notable recent Tuesday nights, like January 7 of this year, when Pacific Palisades and Altadena burst into flames, the group was on the patio. “We were here that crazy windy day,” says team member Jared White. “Myles had a mask on. It was his birthday. We didn’t want to miss it.” Or election night, November 5, 2024: “We won,” says Whipple. “They took our picture. Then I cried.”
Yes, they’re trivia champs. But more importantly, TPODA is a collection of friends who can rely on one another in an unreliable world. “When the world is falling apart and everything else is crap, you’ll have two hours to see the people you love and forget the world for a while,” says Warden. “People you know you can trust and love.”
That’s how you really win. With the company of trusted friends, a few drinks, and an order or two of loaded Tater Tots.•
Zachary Bernstein is the managing editor of the Montecito Journal and the Riv. He’s previously written for the Rupture, X-R-A-Y, and Los Angeleno. As a songwriter, he’s toured all over North America as the Bicycats. His original musical, Disasteroid!, was published by Stage Rights.
