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Ottawa’s unofficial trivia wizard is celebrating 25 years at the helm of a knowledge kingdom of his own conjuring.
Earlier this month, Paul Paquet spent the anniversary of his Trivia Hall of Fame, where else, but in the Westboro Legion basement conducting a tournament of champions, featuring 21 of the Ottawa Trivia League’s best teams going head-to-head for the first time.
Teams with names ranging from Clocktower Dropouts and Nerd Alert, to Unofficial Notepaper and The Quizzly Bears participate in their weekly pub leagues all over the city with questions created by Paquet himself.
“I would never have thought, first of all, that I’d still be doing it 25 years later, but also that it would mean so much to so many of the people who played,” Paquet said.
Trivia nights have replaced those “third place” gatherings where people would socialize outside of work and home, said Paquet. With the loss of bingo halls, bowling alleys and bridge clubs, pub trivia is one of the last weekly events where friends can meet and stay in touch.
Pandemic jeopardy
While the pandemic could have jeopardized pub trivia, Paquet quickly moved the competition from the pubs and restos into competitors’ rec rooms and kitchens. And, in so doing, the trivia league offered everyone a dose of normalcy, camaraderie and distraction.
“[The players] are part of your life in an intangible sort of way. Even though they’re not best friends. And that’s something I found I missed the most during the pandemic.”
Paquet is also proud of the way his pub trivia nights support local business with guaranteed patrons on traditionally slower weeknights as well as with post-lockdown recovery.
“That was particularly important because we also had inflation almost immediately when the lockdowns ended.”
Paquet’s return to in-person trivia coincided with the start of the trucker convoy in Ottawa.
“The Royal Oak at Bank and Gloucester, that was in the thick of the protests and they ran it every week anyway. And that just blew my mind. I call them the hero bar. There were trucks outside on both sides of the street and they ran it anyway.”
Babies and breakups. If there’s a certain couple that’s intrinsic and they break up, the team breaks up. And babies. People have to raise their babies.– Paul Paquet, Ottawa Trivia League
Paquet fondly recalls stories of nascent romances getting their start during trivia league action, taking place at close to 20 locations in Ottawa, seven days a week.
“Couples have met, more than once, playing trivia, fall in love, get married, have kids,” he said. “In one case I was asked to officiate the wedding.… It was really nice.”
While Paquet didn’t meet his own partner Laura at trivia, it didn’t hurt that she’s a former Jeopardy! participant and also fills in for him in the host’s chair when he plays his annual birthday game. Paquet credits Laura with doing a lot of the unsung administrative work that has kept his trivia league alive all these years.
He also credits Regis Philbin and the hit trivia show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire of the early-to-mid-2000s with taking his league from fun side hustle to full-blown enterprise.
But there’s an ebb and flow, Paquet said. Sure there was a surge of teams post Millionaire, but there was also a drop in teams post-COVID, with several pubs just never reopening.
And then, teams disband too. That’s usually caused by one of two things, he said.
“Babies and breakups. If there’s a certain couple that’s intrinsic and they break up, the team breaks up. And babies. People have to raise their babies.”
Know your EGOT
Even with his Gen X bona fides, Paquet has worked hard to keep his trivia as current and relevant as possible. And that is a rejuvenating experience.
“My objective in doing the game is I want it to reflect the people who play it. And the people who play it are significantly younger than me. They tend to be more millennial, Gen Z,” he said.
“And I also try to reflect their different ethnicities, genders.… That said, there are known things I ask too many questions about and it’s almost become a running joke.”
Good tip: if you’re looking to start a trivia team, know your musicals and your EGOTS, said Paquet. Those are people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
On top of that, a healthy knowledge of James Bond and UNESCO world heritage sites can’t hurt either.
Trivia, Paquet said, has allowed him to find his “ikigai” a quarter century ago. It’s a Japanese word meaning reason for being, where your skills and passions align with what the world needs and what you can be paid for.
“It’s a real creative outlet. There are days when I just get on a roll, like doing this for four or five hours, getting ideas, ideas, ideas, and that’s just a lot of fun.”
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