Food for Thought 2024

We’ve written about this before (https://quizquizquiz.com/2015/11/food-for-thought-2/) but, almost 10 years on, I think it’s worth revisiting. We are very lucky and grateful to be looked after at almost all the quizzes we run, and this isn’t intended as a complaint, but as an insight into a side of our work that doesn’t get talked about very much. Some artists (musicians, magicians etc.) have riders in their contract. We have been reluctant to go down this route, partly because it feels too rigid for us, and because a lot of the time, we just get on with it food or not. However, as our business has grown and we have quiz staff to look after, we’ve been more direct in asking about our dinner. If you are an entertainer, we’d love to read your comments about riders and how you handle this issue. Please comment below.

It’s also better for our audience if we have been fed and watered. As David noted in his blog post of 2015: “what most clients realise, but some don’t, is that … how can I put this … we are the most important people there. The whole evening’s success depends on us above all. We’re worth treating well. We’re not rock stars, we don’t have a rider (if I had a rider, it would be samosas … and chocolate hobnobs …) but we are, for that night, a valuable commodity.”

No one wants a hangry quiz host with a rumbling belly and plummeting blood sugar as the main focus and source of fun at their event. We’re holding a microphone and the full attention of the room, and need to be engaging and energetic. It makes sense to look after us so that we can concentrate on doing what we do best: running a brilliant quiz. The quiz staff will often have travelled quite a way to get to the venue, arrived early to set up and have an equally long journey home. They often don’t get much of a break as they need to do marking, fill in scoresheets etc. during the teams’ breaktime and they really, really appreciate it when the non-quiz bits of the evening (food, water etc.) are straightforward. If they are like me, it also stops them from eating an entire bag of Cadbury’s Giant Buttons on the way home.

I’ll take you through some of the common food scenarios we see as professional quiz masters:

1. The 3-course meal
2. The sandwich in a back-room
3. The hotel menu
4. The buffet
5. The pub plate
6. The platter
7. The BYO
8. The Nothing

1. The 3-course meal – We are often booked to host quizzes either at the end of or threaded through the courses of, a full meal (starter, round 1, main course, round 2, pudding, more quiz…). Often, the client adds us to the headcount and we are served along with the participants (sometimes at the quiz table, sometimes at a place setting with the other guests).
2. The sandwich in a back-room – If a meal is going on, the client sometimes prefers entertainers etc. to eat in a green room and will provide sandwiches or a mini buffet.
3. The hotel menu – we are sometimes invited to order at the bar whilst we wait to go on stage (we often have to arrive very early for set-up sound checks etc and are due on stage at the end of a meal, so we eat at the bar whilst the teams have their meal in the function room).
4. The buffet – when there’s a buffet, we hope to be invited to help ourselves. Often our client (understandably) would like us to go up last. Sadly this can mean that we don’t get to eat because by the time the whole room has been up to get their food, the break is over and it’s time for us to get back to work. We love people who bring us food or let us queue-jump!
5. The pub plate – a main brought to each participant, this almost always results in our getting to eat! Hooray! Except when the venue staff have been asked to bring ours last. Boo! because we then have to get back to work just as it arrives. It’s lovely when we are fed first/early.
6. The platter – this usually comes in one of two modes: too much food or none at all. If we are given the same platter as the other tables, we often have more food than we can eat but we are delighted because at least we have some. Hooray! If we are given empty plates and asked to go around and grab things from the teams’ platters, we usually go hungry because this is a bit awkward, not least because many teams will jokingly refuse to share food unless we give them answers or extra points in the quiz! Arranging for the quiz staff to have a mini platter or a sandwich is the happy medium here.
7. The BYO – a lot of PTA quiz organisers avoid costly catering and time-consuming clean-ups by asking their teams to bring their own food. They will usually order/bring something for us, which is lovely and greatly appreciated. Sometimes, they prefer us to sort out our own packed lunches, which is absolutely fine, as long as we know in advance.
8. The Nothing – very rare, but it does happen from time to time that a client lets us know that there won’t be food for us at the event. This is often for the very good reason that there won’t be food for anyone (the quiz is not at a mealtime); sometimes it’s because we are staff and they haven’t budgeted for it. As long as we know in advance, we can work around it.

On a related note, we do need water/soft drinks as talking for a couple of hours on a mic is thirsty work. I ran a quiz at a school not too long ago where they didn’t provide drink. I asked 3-4 times and they kept saying yes, it was coming. I was running the quiz solo and had no spare time to keep chasing it up. In the end, I decided (having spent two hours driving there and 5 hours at the venue I had finished my own bottle of water) to order some on Deliveroo along with a sandwich and some Giant Buttons! I then timed the next round carefully so that I was asking the final question just as the rider came into the school grounds, ran out, took delivery and then ran back in to accept and mark teams’ answer sheets. Have you ever gone to extreme lengths to get food or drink at an event? Let us know in the comments.

In summary, we’re delighted to be fed at quizzes, it’s not compulsory to feed us, but we really appreciate it if clients let us know if we need to bring our lunchbox. Mine is a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles one from 1988.