Bako’s Real Lord Of Trivia: Potty-Mouthed Host Is All Laughs At Sandrini’s Trivia Night

Will the real Bakersfield Lord of Trivia please stand up?

For a while I let Matt Munoz of Bakotopia convince me I was the lord of trivia. That was before I went to Sandrini’s Trivia Night, where fun-loving trash talk can be rougher than any pizza parlor Raiders-Broncos game.

On Tuesday I stepped into the underground restaurant-bar in downtown Bakersfield and was put on display like a bit of local trivia myself. I was on a stage at a table with some copies of “Random Obsessions: Trivia You Can’t Live Without” for sale. At the podium to my left was the host, Dave Rezac, a true comedian with the kind of abrasive style you’d expect of a late-night Vegas lounge act.

Rezac, who had been a server at Sandrini’s until recently, pimped me out in style and awarded teams three points for buying my book. How cool was that?

I was sitting with @matildakay from Twitter. We played for fun and had our asses handed to us in the two-round game that saw Rezac as the deadpanning host, throwing jokes like any grouchy stand-up comedian could. It was all part of the act, right?

Of course it was. And it’s part of the late-night entertainment that makes Sandrini’s Trivia Night so fun.

And you thought Bakersfield only had Bingo.

This regularly occurring Bakersfield game show costs $8 for a team of up to four to play. The teams even have names. Not sure I can repeat any here as their ironies and zaniness is probably too off-color for a news site. But let me tell you it’s a fun-loving, knowledge-filled night of local trivia, pop culture questions, science and math conundrums, and any other tidbit Rezac decides to throw at the teams.

He said that it takes him 3-4 hours to compile questions for an evening of fun. And fun and friendship is the name of the game. “To me Trivia Night is more than just answering questions and winning prizes. It’s about having fun and making new friends. It’s part of why I don’t allow single-player teams,” Rezac said.

One interesting sidenote about the game is that a couple of answers to questions are allowed to anyone buying a beverage. That’s a great way to do business and a winning strategy.

Rezac said the bar often fills with game players, which is a rarity for a Tuesday night at any downtown Bakersfield bar. But I’ll go back just for the fun, even if it’s to have a brew, sit back and play for fun.

I should add that last place got a bag of smarties and some other parting gifts, which I’m thinking makes it all worthwhile just to bomb the contest now and then.

Cost: Free to watch, $8 per team to play
Where: Sandrini’s, located at 1918 Eye Street
When: Tuesday nights from 10 p.m. to Midnight.
Twitter: Follow Dave at www.twitter.com/sandrinistrivia where he’s just as off-color as he is as your friendly trivia host.

trivianight
Have some fun at Sandrini’s Trivia Night in downtown Bakersfield
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Posted by Nick on Sep 16th, 2009 and filed under Features, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site

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