Nonsense
October 28, 2021
Black Sheep Fridays are Back and Joining Forces with Geeks Who Drink for two nights of sophisticated nonsense!
Black Sheep Fridays return this season with that sophisticated nonsense you know and love! The limited weekly program kicks off on Friday, November 5 with Geeks Who Drink taking participants on a wonderful, quizzical journey through the land of Harry Potter while you nostalgically nosh on your favorite sugary Saturday morning breakfast. I emailed Eric Kohen, Events Director with Geeks Who Drink, to learn more about the craze of pub quizzes and which preservative goes best with his favorite jams.
Hi Eric! How have you been?
Fantastic! It’s been an interesting 20 months, hasn’t it?
How did you become involved with Geeks who Drink?
Back in 2007 Geeks Who Drink had only been around for a year in Denver and surrounding areas. Wanting to spread that quiz love more than just in state, the owners found me in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I helped start our first quiz expansion outside of CO. In addition to hosting, I ended up writing questions, helping with sales, and just did enough stuff until it became my full time job! Fourteen years later and today I manage our private events, which helps bring the same fun of our quizzes you’ve experienced in bars and restaurants to any sort of work party, personal party, and everything in between both in-person and virtually (I said it’s been an interesting 20 months!).
What do you enjoy about being a quiz connoisseur with Geeks who Drink?
I love being able to provide a fun group experience to all sorts of people. I love that it’s an experience that’s enjoyed collectively, both with your team and others. When we ask a round’s worth of eight questions, we’re providing eight opportunities for conversation - you never know what deep knowledge your friends and colleagues have about the wildest of topics!
Pub quizzes seem to have taken off and become a popular event night at bars in Denver and throughout the US. Why do you think people enjoy competitive quizzing so much?
I think there’s two sides to quizzing. You’ve got your competitive side - everyone likes to win, it’s easier to do it as a group, and it’s fun showing off your smarts in front of others. I know many competitive quizzers, including some who do it professionally! But I also very much value the quiz as just a fun get-together. You may or may not win, but that’s not your goal. The goal is to have fun answering these irrelevant questions on any and all sorts of topics and finding out what you and your friends may - or may not - know. I’m more of the second category… although you’ll hear me loudly claiming my victory should I make it into first place. =)
We’re excited to have Geeks Who Drink host two of our Black Sheep Fridays of the season with Potter Puffs: Harry Potter Trivia & Nostalgic Cereal Tasting on November 4th and This is my Jam: Jam Tasting & Music Trivia on November 19! What cereal would you pair with Harry Potter: Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows 1 & 2 and why?
I’m not the host of the event, and to let the cat out of the bag I don’t know squat about Harry Potter (personally I’m against the transphobic and frankly hateful remarks made by its author), so I’ve asked my Potter loving co-worker:
Sorcerer's Stone would be Grape Nuts because eating that is the same texture as chewing the Sorcerer's Stone.
Deathly Hallows would be Boo Berry because of all the ghosts, but could be Lucky Charms because the Hallows are essentially charmed icons.
That’s a lot better than my answer would have been, but I’d have just said TRIX because of, well, magic. =)
What’s your favorite flavor of jam and jam to jam out to?
So many good combos:
Peach jam and any track from Peaches’ The Teaches of Peaches
Raspberry Jam and Prince's Raspberry Beret
Apple Butter + Fiona Apple’s Criminal
Vaseline and Flaming Lips’ She Don’t Use Jelly
Literally any flavor and Destiny's Child’s Bootylicious
I love all those songs, but my favorite jam? Lingonberry. And I’d say if I was making a playlist to dance to in my kitchen while making jam, I’d OBVIOUSLY need to include Town Called Malice by The Jam for that mod/new wave sound (and if it’s good enough to get Billy Elliot to jam, it’ll work on you, too!) and then Galantis’ Peanut Butter Jelly because every dance mix needs a good electro/nu-disco song on it.
What are some of your favorite quiz topics?
Oh man, I love just about everything (sports fans, I appreciate you, I just ain’t one of you). If I were picking favorite topics I’d list off all the things I’d know the answers to for sure - but the best fun are the questions you *THINK* you know the answers to. The ones where you hear the answers and you go full Captain Picard facepalm.
Where in Denver could we find Geeks who Drink challenging our quiz knowledge?
There’s a ton of great places in Denver - too many to list so you’ll need to go to GeeksWhoDrink and search by day of the week or zip code. However, I’d say go to Congress Park Taproom on Wednesdays at 7pm - that’s where your quiz host, Becca, is found each and every week!
How can we stay connected?
We’re everywhere!
Firstly, you gotta bookmark Geeks Who Drink because that’s where you can find out when and where we’re quizzing!
Second, check out our YouTube channel at where we post original (and topical!) content nearly every day of the week so you can get your Geeky fix while procrastinating at work.
Third, whatever your social media flavor is: