Sam Norton
Student Life Editor
“What do you call a male ladybug?” This was the last question that stood between Topher Bishop and the $200 cash prize.
With only seconds to answer, Bishop’s teammates, Kyle Stove and Victoria Rose, waited to see if Bishop’s answer “ladybug,” would declare them as the ThinkFast Trivia Game winners.
Bishop’s quick response was one that made his team, The Divas, the ThinkFast Champions.
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On Thursday, April 5, the ThinkFast Trivia Game was held in the Mabel Brown Room. Teams of three or more congregated in hopes of winning the $200 cash prize.
Each team was quizzed on pop culture—ranging from music, television, sports, and random facts. Using a wireless remote, teams had to click it to win it. But it was only The Divas’ quick clicks that ultimately won them the prize.
Jennifer Ferrell, director of student involvement, said, “We don’t do a whole lot of game shows and I know a lot of people enjoy that stuff. People get into it. So I was interested to see if a late-night game show would work.”
Ferrell, who coordinates the late night programming, said that the game show was an alternative for students who would rather attend an on-campus event than go out on a Thursday night.
“The whole philosophy behind our late night events is to provide alternative alcohol free events on Thursday and Friday nights, which are for students to go out, do something fun and make sure that people have that feeling of there’s something to do tonight or something to do on-campus,” Jason Abisch said.
The Trivia Game, which is organized by TjohnE Booking & Production, is designed to quiz college students on pop culture ranging from current trivia to the 1990s.
“With pop culture, everyone knows a little bit of something,” Ferrell said.
The game starts with trivia questions that have a series of multiple-choice answers.
Once the question appears on the screen, teams race against the clock to click the correct answer. Abisch said that him and Ferrell heard about the trivia game from the National Association for Campus Activities.
“The reason that we did this was because it was different than most trivia games,” Abisch said.
“This is more interactive, and they use wireless remotes on a big screen with all of the potential answers and the team has to work together and come to one answer,” Abisch said.
If teams are unsure of the answer, clues will appear on the screen, canceling out any answers that are wrong—the final clue indicates the correct answer.
But it is the teams who answer the fastest that earn the most points.
However, if teams are trailing behind in points, they are given the opportunity to level out the playing field in the Big Bid Question. Teams must wager a percentage of their points—between zero and 95 percent. The teams who have the highest amount of points after the Big Bid Question round have a chance at qualifying for the Speed Round.
“There’s a Speed Round at the end of the game where students can rack up more points. It’s going to be questions about Keene State. Questions like what’s the name of the room we are in? How do you spell it? Just for teams to get more points,” Abisch said.
Questions such as “How do you spell the Mabel Brown Room?” “When does the Zorn Dining Commons open and close?” were questions that tested the contestants’ knowledge of Keene State College.
The Speed Round takes one representative from the top four scoring teams to compete in a fast-paced trivia blast. Each correct answer wins the team 10 points.
The first contestant to accumulate 50 points is that Round Champion.
This final Speed Round is what ultimately led Bishop and his team, The Divas, to winning the cash prize.
In between each round, five participants were given the opportunity to rack up more points by performing a talent.
The audience members would then vote on their favorite talent.
Marie Whitney and Jim Taddeo, were two contestants who were randomly selected to perform their talent. Whitney, showcased her dance skills—dance skills that ultimately won her the talent round.
Taddeo, performed an act he calls “Around the World.”
During this act, Taddeo would perform different accents, ranging from Australian, Russian, German, and French—taking audience members around the globe.
But Taddeo’s performance did not win over audience members like Whitney’s did.
Whitney’s win with her dance performance, however, still did not rack up enough points to defeat The Divas.
Bishop said that his team, The Divas, watched Jeopardy prior to the show and played Trivial Pursuit, which helped them prepare to answer every question fired at them. Bishop said he knew his team would ultimately claim the $200 cash prize.
The Divas plan to split their prize evenly–$20 going towards celebratory drinks, and $60 for each team member to claim.
Sam Norton can be contacted at snorton@keene-equinox.com