When trivia titans clash, knowing's only half the battle

Weekend!Nightlife: On the Rocks

The Portland Tribune, Feb 23, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

DENISE FARWELL / P0RTLAND TRIBUNE

Members of the Pork Swords (from left: Allison Couch, Natascha McCann and Jason Bailes) put their heads together at Clash of the Trivia Titans, held at Acme on Sunday.

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Can you name Persephone’s mother? Could you recognize the theme from “Doogie Howser, M.D.”? Do you know who played the titans in “Clash of the Titans”?

If you’re jumping out of your seat to answer these questions, you might want to head to one of the many trivia nights being held in bars around town. More likely, you’re already there.

Shannon Donaldson is one of several regular trivia night hosts. She calls the shots weekly at four separate venues, and makes a living doing so.

She started out two years ago, she says, after her favorite quiz leader, Drew Marcus, retired from the Horse Brass Pub (4534 S.E. Belmont St.). “He was just the greatest,” she says. “I call him my trivia sensei.”

Donaldson goes by the trivia stage name ShanRock. The former film projectionist says that the past six months have been particularly busy.

“It does seem to be getting exponentially more popular,” she says of the multidisciplinary pub quiz style of competition. It’s part high school pop quiz, part “Name That Tune” and can even include ShanRock’s trademark, the “physical challenge” – tossing balls into a bucket, for instance.

So, with a solid roster of top-scoring teams, she decided it was time for a championship event.

I show up around 5 p.m. for the start of Clash of the Trivia Titans, an invitational for ShanRock’s winningest teams, held on neutral ground at Acme (1305 S.E. Eighth Ave.).

There’s also a preliminary round for all comers – the winners earn a slot in the main event. Each team consists of five or fewer players. Most are coed.

The teams have names, and the custom is to choose a moniker that is either absurdly random or unprintably obscene.

Jenny McKay, a self-confessed trivia addict, is competing in the finals as a member of Imperial Beauty Leopard. Everyone on her team is dressed in leopard print. She plays two nights a week, she says, when she has the time.

Occasionally her studies get in the way – the 32-year-old is working on a graduate degree in biology at Portland State University. On a given night, she says, team formation is fairly fluid.

In the past, she’s played with both the Nads and Hofnar, although Imperial Beauty Leopard will be battling both of those teams later tonight.

Seven teams enter the preliminary round. What are the seven ingredients of a Big Mac? In what order do the leading lady, the chorus and the orchestra take their bows at the end of an opera? Of what mountain range is the Rock of Gibraltar a part?

While this is going on, Titans continue to arrive on the scene. Most are in their late 20s and early 30s. Some have had matching T-shirts specially made.

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