Of more trivial matters

Quick: What’s the name of the robot in The Day The Earth Stood Still? What actress was known as “the peekaboo girl”? What’s the better-known handle of the artist Domenikos Theotokopoulus?

If the names Gort, Veronica Lake and El Greco are swimming through your cerebral cortex right now, you might want to consider a career in trivia. Or at least a night in it, at one of the many watering holes that make up Toronto’s thriving pub trivia scene.

Pub trivia, long the province of the tavern-happy Brits, has increasingly made its mark on this side of the pond. The trend in Toronto began courtesy of a couple of transplanted Limeys who rallied a clutch of other expats to get quizzing in the early 1980s, at the Artful Dodger Pub on Isabella.

Today, there are three official pub trivia organizations in the city: the Toronto Pub Quiz League, the Canadian Inquisition Trivia League and the Toronto Trivia League.

Teams—which generally consist of five players, including a captain—meet weekly at designated bars (see list below). Participants pay a fee of between $3 and $8 to play a 10-round game in which each player gets one question per round.

If you can answer it without help from your teammates, you get a deuce; if you screw up, a second-try right nets you a single point.

Typically, trivia season lasts about 11 weeks, culminating with the two leaders duking it out for top spot.

Here are those Toronto bars with trivia nights on the menu:

Betty’s, 240 King St. E., upstairs

Stratengers, 1130 Queen St. E.

Murphy’s Law, 1702 Queen St. E.

Gabby’s D, 729 Danforth Ave.

Gabby’s K, 980 Kingston Rd.
Gabby's (Isabella Hotel), 556 Sherbourne St.

Green Dragon, 1032 Kingston Rd.

TKO's, 1600 Danforth Ave.

Artful Dodger, 10 Isabella St.

Duke of Gloucester, 649 Yonge St., upstairs

Spotted Dick, 81 Bloor St. E., downstairs

Jason George, 100 Front St. E.

The Pump, 410 Bloor St. W.

Jersey Giant, 71 Front St. E.

Dark Horse, 2401 Bloor St. W.

Duke Of Devon, 66 Wellington St.

Fabulous Bakery Café, 635 Bay St.

Foxes Den, 1075 Bay St,

Jester Pub and Grill, 1427 Yonge St.

Scotland Yard, 56 The Esplanade

Spirits Bar & Grill, 642 Church St.