Karaoke Forums

Anyone have any ideas how I can do trivia and karaoke. Are there any computer programs for trivia? Thanks.

PCDJ has a trivia solution.. but it's set up more for like a 'trivia party' with up to five contestants (or teams).. and it's like $800.

Probably the best 'out of the box' trivia solution i'm aware of.

Other programs let you generate a screen between singers, or a crawl under the lyrics screen that you could include general purpose trivia questions on.. but no real way for people to 'buzz in' and answer.

I did this for a bar. I am in the process of going after Team Trivia. KJs are in a much better position to offer Trivia than Trivia Companies.

Here's what I did:

I used PowerPoint, searched Trivia sites for questions and then copied them to PP, added graphics, and then showed the questions on the TVs throughout the bar.

I did 3 rounds of trivia with a game show "Champioship" round at the end. In between each 20 minute round, I graded the score sheets and ran karaoke for about 20 minutes. After the Championship Round, it was open karaoke for the rest of the night.

Worked great, but I had some money issues with the bar, so I took my show across the street. Haven't started back up yet, but am going to get some new bars on board next week. The more bars the better! I spent 3 hours on my PP presentation. I figured that the only way to make these three hours worthwhile is if I could use them at other bars.

I saved my PP presentations if you want a sample. Email me at TroyVnd27@aol.com.

PCDJ should be ashamed for charging $800.

Easiest way I've found is with mIRC and the trivia bot script.

http://www.irctriviabot.com/faq.html

Just find some random room on an irc server to join and run the bot. You could also run an IRC server on your local machine. Setup 2 installs of mIRC, one to put on the singers screen (larger fonts, etc) and one for your screen (small fonts for a high res screen)

It also has a pretty extensive questions file.

http://www.irctriviabot.com/downloads/q ... ion_files/

The other nice thing about doing this is, you can send messages to the screen. You just have to layer your windows on the singers screen so it looks seamless, eg not a IRC client window floating.

Or you can tell your club manager to check out the national tv interactive trivia games for restaurants, bars & clubs. It’s called Buzztime, formerly known as NTN (National Trivia Network). It has several different kinds of trivia games based on a variety of subjects such as entertainment, world history, sports, music, etc. That way you’ll have continuous karaoke show & trivia games running simultaneously.

Years ago when I was playing the club/bar circuit the ones with trivia games generates more attendance, hence profitability, customers who normally come infrequently started hanging out with friends to play trivia, sing karaoke & most importantly purchase food & drinks.

Each player has a small computer console to play. More like “Who wants to be a millionaire” game format with multiple choice answers. I think it’s by subscription, broadcast via satellite or broadband transmission. Not sure & I don’t how much. This might be worth looking into.

http://www.buzztime.com/


http://www.tbtrivia.com/Home/contact-us

Good Luck!

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

You (or the bar owner) could get involved with the National Trivia Association:

http://38.127.130.225/content/about-nta.html

Don't recommend NTN/Buzztime to your bar owner...that would be like recommending that they get a karaoke jukebox! It puts you out of a job!

I used to do team trivia as well. People want current events trivia in the major pop culture categories:

Movies
TV
Music
Sports
Politics
Current Events

I used to have 4 rounds of 3 questions, followed by a "Final Jeopardy" type final question where the teams could wager what they had earned so far. So that was only 13 total questions for a 2-2 1/2 hour trivia show. I created my own questions the night before just using the info on various Yahoo pages.

I was paid $100.00 for three hours for trivia, and the bar put up a free pitcher for best team name, $25 bar credit for 2nd place, and $50 bar credit for 1st place weekly.

The key to a good trivia game is the same basics as karaoke. Be ORGANIZED, keep the peace, and entertain. I played filler music at a reasonable level between questions, walked around and talked to everyone, and policed the strict NO CELL PHONES rule, so it was fair to everyone!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I run a separate trivia show on a night other than karaoke night - 6:30 to 8 on a night when there is nothing in the bar. Previously I did it before karaoke at another place.

I've done both -- the PP presentation hooking up to the big screen using a mic from our show setup; and now just using one SM350 on a stand with a microphone and pulling free trivia questions off the 'net. Creating a PP show is time ocnsuming if you're not getting paid enough for doing it. For that show I also wrote all my own shows - took hours and hours of research but it was more specifically tailored then to our area - local sports teams, etc. Bar put up a $300 prize for the winner at the end of six weeks.

Now I am using free trivia questions off the 'net - there are lots of sites - means just cutting and pasting to a document. (One night I did a 25-question true/false round and at the end when we I said it was time to go over the answers, I said, "all the answers are true." Now that was funny....it was 'weird facts' about everything.)

I run 4 rounds so it is quick - some 10-question rounds, some 25-question rounds. Now the place has local vendors giving prizes -- and I 'advertise' their place during the course of the show. Works well and the bar doesn't end up paying out the entire bundle.

PS: Do not make the trivia too easy - people who like trivia don't like to feel like they're cheating because they know almost all the answers. Too difficult, though, and people may lose interest.

You and I think a lot alike. Sounds a lot like my karaoke show. Full of local info, including sports teams. And you are so right, too easy and they lose interest. Too hard and they get frustrated.

I wrote a trivia app. a looonnnnggggg time ago. Signal buttons, automatic scoring., very much like the game on the TV show Jeopardy. I had a lot of fun with it. As shareware however, it was about as popular as the plague. By today's standards the graphics are pretty horrible and it probably won't run on a modern version of Windows and it's probably still buggy but... all that being said if the OP wants to give it a shot I will e-mail him/her/it/them a copy.

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Okay, who took my pants?

I used to run trivia until I found out many people were using their web access on their phones to google the answers.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Funny Lonman - I will make sure the entire room knows that someone is using their phone - ironically, those are the people who don't want to actually play and risk having someone know how "DUH!" they really are. I say go ahead and use them if you're curious - just don't call out answers to those who are playing.

For many years, I've used midi files for name that tune.....even before I got into karaoke

Unfortunately it was more people that were playing that were using them, it was almost a race to see who could google the answer first. Didn't always work, some people actually KNEW the answer - go figure!

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I ran a live trivia show for six years at my main bar. I gave it up because of precisely what Lonman said. Too easy to cheat, and too hard to prevent it with today's smart phones.

Trivia worked very well for me in bars until about 2003 when phones got internet.

I wouldn't run anytype of bar trivia. The best way to do is run a gameshow format.

I know a few people selling gamshow mania systems.


One guy has a face off and the other has a full system.

The face off is $1500 new The Full system is like $4000.

Host trivia twice a week at local pubs and really like it. It's been about 3 months and we're starting to get really good crowds. Get the quiz packets from on online site... pubquizpro.com and just download them to print out or put in power point. There's audio, picture, etc rounds that people really seem to like. They sent me a couple hundred "answer booklets" free for signing up and I really enjoy it.
Its a nice change from karaoke and much less stressful in my opinion.

p.s. Just got a prize wheel off e-bay last week and used it last night for the first time. It was a big hit!!!

Go with the times then... who can come up with the answer the fastest wins ...google or not... that would make it exciting

Audio and visual PP presentations are the best way to have a trivia. Very witty round topics. Bonus drink questions at the end of a round. Instead of booklets use about 20-30 laminated answer sheets and supply dry erase markers. Sometimes there's up to a dozen teams so when they turn in one sheet they can grab another while you score and tally points between rounds. There's a group called Geeks Who Drink that has a franchise in many areas. I too suggest and prefer Buzztime trivia but if you want to get paid, don't.

I have looked into these...looks like a lot of fun.

Anybody have any experience with them?