WEEKLY PUB QUIZ WITH A TWIST >>>

Tuesdays seem to be the hottest night for the overeducated South Sound masses to prove their intellectual worth. And where do such brainiacs head? Glad you asked.

The GEEKS head to Paddy Coyne's Irish Pub.

The Tacoma watering hole is the site of John Dicker's Geeks Who Drink pub quiz night. Dicker, a genius from Colorado, has taken the Irish Pub quiz tradition to a new level with Geeks Who Drink games across the nation, including every Tuesday night at the downtown pub, hosted by graphic artist and Weekly Volcano production assistant Holland Hume. A second game with host Ozzimo is held Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. inside The Ram Restaurant & Brewery on Tacoma's Ruston Way.

The quiz consists of eight rounds of eight questions and is played in teams of up to six people. Questions are read aloud by the quizmaster; teams write their answers on provided sheets and turn them in at the end of each round. The team with the most points after eight rounds is the winner.

"Rounds two and seven are audio rounds, five is a visual round with image on a piece of paper and the rest are read by me to the crowd," explains Quizmaster Hume, or as the teams at Paddy Coyne's call him - Holland the Wonder Boy.

Team Grasshopper

Four times during the quiz, participants get the chance to answer a random question, and the first one to show the correct (and legible) answer to the quizmaster wins a free drink and bragging rights for the night.

"The quiz is compiled by about a dozen individuals, fact-checked by a team of library science majors, and supervised by a gentleman who earlier this year was one of fourteen people ever to win six episodes of Jeopardy," says Hume.

Team The Goobs

Hume has commanded the Paddy Coyne's version for two months.

"The first month was pretty rough - the second night I had two teams," says Hume. "Now I consistently get 12 to 15 teams every Tuesday night, which packs the pub to capacity."

Team Angry Pissed-off Mama Possums

What's the wackiest thing Hume has seen during his reign?

"I can't really think of any one instance. Usually each night has its own event, whether it is corralling the people too drunk to play or publicly humiliating cheaters. Hmmm. Oh, I had one guy that kept trying to ask me about my shirt while I was reading questions, and then halfway through round one he ran outside and started puking everywhere. Stuff like that keeps the job entertaining if nothing else."

Geeks Who Drink pub quiz

• Tuesdays, 8 p.m., no cover or entry fee
  
• Paddy Coyne's Irish Pub
• 815 Pacific Ave., Tacoma
• 253.272.6963

LINK: Last week's results

LINK: More photos from last Tuesday