Last night, Matt, Mike and I went to the Thursday edition of the Big Quiz Thing. It was less crowded than the more popular Monday night event. There were eight teams competing.

Of the five trivia rounds, one is always an audio round. We always do great until the audio round, in which ten music clips are played and your team has to write down the title and artist for each song. We tank at this point; none of us knows anything about music, and the songs are an eclectic mix of everything from ’50s rock to obscure ’00s hipster bands and anything and everything in between — except showtunes. If there were a showtunes round, Matt and Mike would kick everyone’s asses. But there are no showtunes. So, we suck. Our team is usually much larger than three people, and even so we still suck. (We used to have a team member named Greg who was great with the music stuff, but he moved away. If any music maven out there wants to join us for trivia some time, let one of us know.)

Last night was typical. After the first round, we were in second place. After the second round (the audio round), we were in last place — which, on the upside, entitled us to free drink tickets.

On our answer sheet for the audio round, we’d filled up the ample blank space with the words, “You’re killing us, Noah! More showtunes!” or something similar. Shortly thereafter, during a break in the action, Noah’s sidekick for the evening (who is not the usual sidekick) came over to our table and started chatting us up about showtunes.

We decided he was family. This was confirmed later, during the third round, when he made a comment that referenced his lack of interest in women.

Anyway, from the depths of the audio round, we managed a great comeback. The third round, “Vice President or Serial Killer?”, was done in an unusual way. Everyone had to stand up, and Noah read a list of names. For each name, you had to put your hands on your head if it was the name of a U.S. vice president and on your hips if it was the name of a serial killer. Anyone who got it wrong had to sit down. The last person standing would win three points for his/her team. Apparently I know my vice presidents (or perhaps my serial killers), because I was the last one standing — in addition to Matt, although it’s debatable whether he knew his vice presidents or serial killers or was just copying me. Anyway, I won our team three points, which vaulted us up to fourth place.

After the fourth and final round, the final scores were announced. We wound up coming in second.

So trivia was over for the night, and then the sidekick came back to our table to continue chatting with us.

Soon thereafter, Matt and I left, leaving Mike and the sidekick chatting alone at our table.

On our way out, we decided to guess the odds of whether or not it was going to happen.