Proud as hell and excited to announce the birth of our lil tater tot, Declan. He has his mother's good looks and his father's love of sleeping and pooping. He and Casey crushed it (even if he came the day before Leap Day)
I Made the News!
What a weekend. Thanks to WHYY, the Phillies, and Casey (AKA Ms. Producer). Click Through
The COVID Pandemic As Told Through Current Events
Hi. Long time. Since the pandemic started, I’ve been keeping a document of all my Quizzo current events involving COVID and everything around it. Like most of us, I first thought it was just going to be a couple months and not very long. But here we are two and a half years and 15 pages later. Having only written one question in the last three months (which is just tangentially related), plus President Biden declaring the pandemic is over (I disagree, but who am I?), now felt like a good time to post this. Writing it was therapeutic, maybe reading it will be too. Hope you are well and safe. Get vaccinated. Thanks.
Back To My Roots
In 2018, I decided to do Quizzo full-time, with the hope and expectation that it would be a stepping stone to bigger and brighter things that I could then latch onto that would, eventually (and perhaps naively), make me famous.
As with any venture, Quizzo is all hustle—if I don’t hustle, I don’t eat (and look at pics—I really like to eat). When you’re in your mid-20s and trying to figure out who you are and what you want to do, hustling can be exciting. Nerve-wracking. Thrilling. Terrifying. Redeeming. Disappointing.
It’s a lot.
After nearly three and a half years of doing Quizzo full-time (not to mention the two and a half years before that where it was just a side gig), I’m tired; I’m burnt out from the hustle. I’m burnt out from working through a pandemic. Burnt out from having to sell my services to bars and breweries only to wind up with egg on my face and another failed gig two months later. Which is why I was very excited when I saw a job opportunity pop up at the university up the street.
On Monday, I start a new career as Office Coordinator for Student Engagement at Thomas Jefferson University, East Falls. I’m very excited at the prospect—I worked with/ in/ and all over the Office of Student Engagement as an undergrad, and it was something I enjoyed, and I am looking forward to getting back to my roots a little bit.
(And don’t worry—I’m still available as the World’s Greatest Quizzo Host™. It’ll just be a side gig again instead of the main hustle; I can start having fun again and stop worrying about money)
Another Quizzo Update
Three posts in a row about Quizzo Updates, announcing the end of Quizzo at venues… hope this isn’t a trend. There is no more Quizzo at Evil Genius. Frankly, this has been a long time coming. I thought (and management echoed those thoughts) that we really could’ve built something special, but there was always a gray cloud hanging over my head about the whole thing. I was willing to brush off so many of the rumors and stories I’d heard about the place and hope management learned and grew, but you can’t expect a slap hitter to start hitting bombs out of the park.
Strike 1.
After seeing the stories and allegations from @ratmagnet and others last month, I was really mad and frustrated with EG. Having not actually worked there or seen any of the events or (most of) the people in question, I cannot comment on the truthfulness of any of the rumors, but these types of stories and allegations are not something I can take lightly, so I called out the brewery in a few stories on Instagram. Predictably, they didn’t like that. I had a Zoom call with ownership and management to discuss it. They explained their side (which-- fine), and I will grant them that I was “combative” and “adversarial” (two words they used to describe me), but I do not apologize for calling out bullshit and expecting better. Ultimately, what really turned me off about the Zoom call was how they played the victim in all of this; as if the people hurt the most by the sexual abuse and harassment allegations were the bar and its owners.
Strike 2.
Their immediate solution to all of this was to lay low on social media. Which is fine, I can’t blame them for that. But it’s not a strategy I would recommend when you have programming (such as Quizzo) that requires promotion to be successful. Especially when you have big themed events (with Quizzo) that are already competing with other places for attention and aren’t promoted. So when I went to do a themed Quizzo on a Saturday as part of a special beer release, you better believe I was frustrated when there was almost no audience. Shout out to the one team of ladies who told me they came just for Quizzo (and backed that up by leaving after I finished the first round/ the only questions)—the four of them (whose names I neglected to get) are probably the only heroes in this story.
As soon as I finished, I was frustrated (a theme in this tale): frustrated that I spent a day of my life for a failed event; frustrated at management for lackluster responses; frustrated at myself for letting a rough week/month/year get to me and putting myself in this situation. So I voiced those frustrations by venting to a member of the management team (by all accounts a great dude who never deserved the brunt of this-- for that, Dan, I am sorry) about another member of the management team.
Now, yes. I could have handled myself better. I can make plenty of excuses for acting the way I did, but at the end of the day, none of them matter. I acted inappropriately and I own that. I probably ruined a good friendship and a fruitful Quizzo gig.
Strike 3.
I am not the hero in this story. Breaking the baseball analogy for a second, Strike 4 (or 0, I guess, if we go chronologically) was me attaching my name and my brand and my business to a venue that was problematic. I should’ve listened to all of my friends who expressed concern and disappoint in me that I followed through. And for that, I am sorry.
Lost in all of this is the wonderful staff at Evil Genius who were always so nice and so kind and so wonderful to me and Casey. They deserve nothing but the best. Nat, Vanessa, Kyle, and everyone else: thank you.
I hate ending on somber notes, so I leave you with this lesson: we can all do better. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t let your friends be jerks. If you see bullshit, call it out. If your friends and colleagues tell you about bullshit, listen to them. Believe them.
Thanks for reading.
A Quizzo Update
No more Quizzo at Henry James Saloon. It’s tough to build up a crowd when you a) move an established program to a different day/time and b) don’t promote said event, but that’s OK; I’m chalking it up as a learning opportunity. Thanks to Joe, Donny, Dee, and the gang for having me, and thanks to the select few who came out to see me each week. I wish you all luck in the future.
Stay tuned for future updates. I’m not going to be gone from Tuesdays for too long. Hope you like tacos…
Some Quizzo Updates
First things first: Happy New Year! Thank fuck 2020 is behind us (and hopefully 2021 is much better).
Secondly: As of this coming Tuesday, I’ll be doing Quizzo at a new spot: Henry James Saloon in Roxborough (across the street, give or take, from Dalessandro’s, home to the best steaks in the city). But, as Seneca and Semisonic said, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. I will no longer be at Billy Murphy’s Irish Saloon. I want to thank everybody who ever came out and enjoyed the show and wish you the best of luck if I don’t see you again. I also want to publicly thank Hickey and Mike and the crew for giving me a shot so many years ago—this whole thing exists because of them! It feels weird leaving a spot that’s literally the birthplace of my livelihood, but it does feel good that I got the chance to go out on my own terms, and I think that’s all you can ask for in the days of COVID.
If you liked my Quizzo at Murphy’s, you’ll love it even more at Henry James; I won’t have to split the mic, Tuesday is Burger Night at HJS, and there’s still a strict no-Bon Jovi rule (though now it’s purely because he sucks and not from management). You can catch me every week at 7 in the big tent out back.
Stay safe, stay healthy. See you there.
Thanks (Again) to The Local
My December holiday trivia was the lede article over on the Local today. Check it out here. Also be sure to get a copy FREE at any East Falls/NW Phila local shop (such as Thursdays at Wissahickon Quizzo).
October Announcements
Hello. Hope you are well. I’ve been very busy over the last few weeks tying up some loose ends, which allowed me to bring you this announcement. Quizzo! is about to be a lot busier around here, as I am doubling the amount of gigs in the stable. Here’s a graphic I put out on social media, showing the new spots:
Evil Genius, every Wednesday starting 10/14
Wine Dive, every other Wednesday (opposite Tio’s) starting 10/21
The return of Virtual Quizzo!, every other Monday starting 11/2
I’m very excited that I can finally, officially announce all of these! Details are still being worked out, but you can add them to your calendar, they’re happening. You can also catch me at the familiar haunts, Murphy’s, Tio’s, and Wissahickon; those are not changing.
Check out my calendar for more. See ya out there
Thoughts on Quizzo and the Other Side of the Coronavirus
Hello!
I hope this letter finds you safe, healthy, and well. I want to thank everybody for sticking with me throughout the chaos that has been 2020. Together, we have raised $2,665 for charity, including $1,354 to our friends in the East Falls Service Industry, and a combined $280 to the Philly Bail Fund and Black Lives Matter Philly. Not to mention all the local businesses we've supported along the way with prizes and shouts out. None of this could have happened without you sticking with my big dumb face along the way. Quizzo! truly is magical and I am beyond humbled. And we're not even done yet! I cannot say thank you enough, but I will try: THANK YOU. I hope that did it…
On to the next topic: As I said at the beginning of June, Virtual Quizzo! was going to go every other week through the summer, with 'hopefully not that many more.' Well that time has come. Next week, July 2nd, will be the final Virtual Quizzo! (for now*), but with a very special twist; instead of broadcasting from deep within the bunkers of the Quizzo! compound, we will be broadcasting live from Wissahickon Brewing Company, who has so graciously allowed me to host Quizzo! there again live in person every Thursday, starting today (June 25th).
I don’t have a lot of details (I tend to make these things up as I go along), but there will be very limited seating (we're confined to the Beer Garden area, and there are specific number-of-guests and square footage rules we have to follow) and it will otherwise look like the usual Quizzo! you know and love with the new change that we'll continue to use Google Forms instead of pen and paper (though you're still welcome to have a pen if you'd like one. I just can't take them back and if you leave it behind it's getting thrown away). Honor system rules still apply (don't cheat). Pandemic rules still apply (wear a mask and wash your hands). Wissahickon prizes are likely to stay the same for anybody playing in person (tentatively, $40 gift card, $25 gift card, 3 beer tokens, though these numbers may deflate a bit while seating is still limited), and anybody who plays online (which will still be FB Live and the rest) is eligible to win half of the Venmo Pool (charity TBD) and gift cards to local businesses (which, since I'm l̶a̶z̶y̶ efficient may wind up including Wissahickon).
*I plan on bringing Virtual Quizzo! back but I need to figure out scheduling and other logistics, so I'm putting it to bed for all of July, and we'll figure it out in August or so.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for donating to charity.
Thanks for sticking with me.
I love you.
See you on Thursdays (such as tonight!)
The Local Does It Again
Big thanks to the wonderful people at the Local, who helped me plug Virtual Quizzo with a series of videos on FB:
Quick Quizzo Primer (which for some reason won’t link nicely)
Some More Thoughts on the Coronavirus and Quizzo
First things first, there will be no Quizzo until at least April 1st (almost definitely longer, but that is the first date where I was given a possibility). Now I know, grand scheme of things, Quizzo isn’t important. But a) Quizzo helps keep morale up and gives people something to do, so I plan to help as much as I can (boredom sucks!) and, more importantly, b) I’ve chosen this to be my livelihood, so I have to adapt, and as such, I think I’m going to do the following to make up for lost time and money:
Virtual Quizzo!
I’m still working out the kinks, but here is what you can expect:
We’re going to do it either via Facebook Live (we don’t have to be friends, but I’ve never said no to it), or right here on the website (assuming I can figure out the technology behind that)
There will be prizes! (more on this below)
It will be interactive (you can yell at me through text!)
It will be fast paced (I’m thinking something like you have 10 seconds to write a response—I’ll toy with this)
It’ll all be over within an hour (that sounds like a lot)
It will be solo oriented. You are welcome to play with roommates or anyone in the same room, but it feels like the best way to avoid cheating is to have each “team” be in the same room, and then one person be the designated Captain/typer/credit-taker
It will be donation based, and almost like a 50/50 raffle; half going to the winner, the other half going to support me/the business (through Venmo). As I’ve said, Quizzo is my livelihood, so going without Quizzo for what could be 2 months is detrimental to my life (I know, I know, not your problem; but you’re on my website reading this, so I assume you care about me at least a little bit), so any way you can help with this would be incredible. And because the Catholic Guilt will set in before too long, once I am back on my feet, I plan to donate an equal amount of dollars to charity (possibly Carve 4 Cancer, possibly others, possibly several; I am open to persuasion), which will be in each winner’s name (e.g., if Karen Smith wins Night 1 and she wins $50, I will donate $50 to Charity A from the Quizzo Account in Karen Smith’s name as soon as I am able).
In addition to this, I am lining up gift cards as a 2nd place prize. They will all be local businesses for sure, with a heavy preference to the places that let me be an idiot on a microphone every week(ish)—namely, Billy Murphy’s, Wissahickon, Tio’s, and the soon-to-launch The Rook.
There are a lot of moving parts (this whole situation changes daily), but I think this is the ground work. Look for an official event (Facebook, the Gram, this site) tomorrow (Tuesday), and the first Virtual Quizzo Thursday at 8 (which conveniently happens to be the same time as Quizzo at Wissahickon). I’m excited at the prospect of this, and I hope you are too. I can’t do this alone, and I appreciate any and all support (even if it’s just a thoughtful message on Instagram).
Thank you.
-Sean
Some Thoughts on the Coronavirus and Quizzo
COVID-19 is a pretty big deal. Just today (Thursday the 12th), the City of Philadelphia is asking all event with 1,000 or more attendees to cancel. Obviously, Quizzo will never hit that level (a kid can dream), but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t brush this off. I’m already feeling the squeeze from some corporate and school clients cancelling/postponing planned events, and I’ll be really worried if this impacts my regularly scheduled bar nights (losing just one week of Quizzo income would really really sink me), so I’m staying on top of this as best as I can. I’ve got some novel ideas in the tank if the worst-case scenario happens, but lets all hope it never comes to that. Since this pandemic is still developing and things are different day by day, here’s where I’m at, as of this writing:
The City says any event under 250 can “go ahead” (that’s us!), so I will hold to this until we can’t
All 3 (soon to be 4!) regular spots are open for business (And frankly, could probably use your patronage more in the next few weeks), so as long as this holds true there will be Quizzo
I’ve begun the habit of cleaning and sanitizing every single pen used in between Quizzos (it’s pretty annoying, but I’d rather lose an hour than a Quizzo player). If that’s still not enough, I encourage you to bring your own pen (this was always kind of a thing you could do anyway)
Standard hygiene rules still apply—don’t touch your face, do a vampire cough, and wash your hands (I wash my hands before/after every Quizzo anyway, but I’m now even more vigilant about it)
Regardless of Quizzo, still continue to support local business—even more than usual, if at all possible. In addition to myself, I have a lot of friends in the service industry who rely on tips, which are going to dry up in the next few weeks as people self-quarantine and stay inside.
I’m not going to lie, I am scared. I’m sure you are too; this all feels like a sci-fi flick coming to life. Huge shout to the people who are smarter and work harder than me who are actively working to get us through this; thanks to them, I get to continue living the dream of being a full-time World’s Greatest Quizzo Host™. If I have any updates, I’ll post them here, so stay tuned if that’s your thing. If not, I’ll see you at Quizzo.
Cheers,
Sean
More Tooting
I’m officially official now, so that’s cool. Book me to do your event!
Gratuitous cat cameo
Tooting My Own Horn
31 teams tonight at Wissahickon! How ‘bout it. We’ve seen slightly higher numbers at theme nights, but not including them, this was easily the highest I’ve ever seen— by quite a margin. Until now, it was 25 (which we set last week at Wissahickon), but before that it was 24 for a while, which I’ve hit at both Murphy’s and Wissahickon a few times. To toot my own horn for a second… I’ve been crushing it lately. Thanks to everyone who’s come out to my events, thanks to everyone who came out tonight to help me set a record, thanks to everyone who’s come out on the nights where I’ve had 5 teams. I appreciate you!
FYI Philly
Hiya.
Long time no blog. Last Saturday (8/17) FYI Philly on 6ABC did a piece on the winners of Philly Mag’s Best of Philly 2019 winners, including Wissahickon BrewCo, which won Best BrewPub. The hosts of the show did a piece at the brewery, including a bunch of bar shots, such as this one:
Sorry not sorry for the pic of a TV screen (#theworst)
My big dumb face on TV. My parents are so proud. I tried to get the camera crew to come to Quizzo; they couldn’t make it this trip, but stay tuned on that front…
Patting Myself On The Back
Hello again.
Nobody reads this and that’s cool, but I just wanted to pat myself on the back for a second. March is set to be a very very good month. The since-passed surprise Sunday Quizzo was a big hit (and will hopefully lead to more Sunday Murphy’s gigs), I have two corporate gigs lined up, but I especially want to talk about the last two events in the month:
First up, the one I have the fewest details on: I was asked to MC/host a fundraiser basketball event at Mifflin Elementary on the 30th. I love sports (which should be plainly obvious to anybody that’s so much as looked at me). I love hosting things, I love fundraisers, I love East Falls, I love sports…. I love everything about this. I’m real excited to do this. Maybe I’ll get to do play by play! I’m all about new adventures
And finally is Game of Thrones Theme Quizzo on the 29th. I confess that I have never watched a single episode of GOT, but I’m real excited to binge the entire show (or as much as possible between now and then). I’m also real excited to wade the waters that are themed Quizzos. And yes— I’ve done a few before (a low-stakes Simpsons Quizzo early in the Murphy’s days, and a Marvel Movies one at World Cafe Live last May), but this is different; this is the first one where I feel like I’m in the driver’s seat and I know what to do and how to do it well. If this event sells out like I expect it to, you can look for more similar events with different themes (like The Office? 🤔) $10 tickets here.
New Logo!
HUGE thank you to OFFICIAL Brand Solutions for the sick Quizzo logo. Got me looking more legit and less rinky dink
Happy Birthday 40
Bah Humbug by WNOC. So damn good. Miss you Joe.
November Updates
Hi there,
I have some updates for you!
Comedy Night at Wissahickon is on hold. The show wasn’t working as it was, attendance wasn’t there, so we’re shelving it. But don’t worry, it’s going to come back bigger and better in the new year
Be sure to check out the East Falls Local, my trivia is regularly running in the print edition (including a very fun No Shave November/Election/Daylight Savings Time edition in this month’s). You can pick it up for free from almost any local business (including Murphy’s and Wissahickon during Quizzo)
I’m test piloting a new Quizzo in Manayunk at a place called La Roca (it’s the big building in the early part of Main Street, that used to was Union Taco and some Oyster Bar before that). Monday, November 12th at 7. If there’s a solid number of people we’ll make this another gig (yay!)
Quizzo at Wissahickon is probably going later (but not by much; like 7:45-8)
I’m doing a Holiday Movie Quizzo sponsored by the wonderful people at PHIT next week at Rosy’s Taco Bar (22nd and Walnut). Stop on by! If it goes well, that bodes well for future ones, either through PHIT or at Rosy’s
…I think that’s it. Thanks for reading!