Brain Power: Tri-County Trivia celebrating ten years with special ‘decades month’ in August

What is a fun activity that you and your friends can participate in on a weekly basis at no cost that will also give you the chance to win cool prizes and bragging rights?

If you guessed Tri-County Trivia, then congratulations… you got it right!

For ten years, the duo of John Baker and Chris Kinsel have been hosting trivia competitions in downtown Corbin. In order to celebrate their decade of imparting information, they are presenting a special series of events dedicated to the eras that shaped our world today – the 1970’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s.

“August is decades month,” said Baker, whose day job is serving as director of the Corbin Public Library. “We will be at Austin City Saloon in downtown Corbin each Monday this month, and it’s free for anyone to come play.”

This past Monday, Aug. 7, Tri-County Trivia’s special decades month kicked off with 70’s night. “We’ve seen some bell bottoms and tie dye shirts,” Baker observed. “We are already looking forward to seeing what people will come up with for 80’s night and 90’s night.”

When asked about the genesis of hosting trivia competitions in Corbin, Kinsel, a history and film teacher at Corbin High School, explained, “It started in August of 2013 at the former You & Me Coffee & Tea (currently Folktale Coffee and Bakehouse). When we were both living in Lexington we would play, but after we moved back here we were hanging out and just kind of bemoaning the fact that we didn’t have anything to do. We took it upon ourselves to say, ‘Hey, if we’re going to complain about it, then we need to do something about it.’”

It was at this point that Kinsel and Baker approached Andy Salmons, who was the owner of Corbin’s downtown coffee shop at the time.

“We asked Andy if we could try it, and he said for us to come on down and give it a try,” Kinsel said.

After starting out with just one trivia night a month, the competition quickly gained in popularity. Tri-County Trivia started being presented regularly at You & Me, eventually moving across the street to the Wrigley Taproom & Eatery, and then at the nearby Shep’s Place (most recently known as Scully’s Restaurant and Bar). Currently, Kinsel and Baker can be found each Monday evening at Austin City Saloon, but they also host monthly events outside of the local area, in Middlesboro and Cumberland Gap.

“We have expanded into places like Wildcat Harley-Davidson (in London),” Kinsel said. “We have been to locations in Harlan, we’ve hosted private parties, and we’ve done events like Christmas parties for different schools and businesses.”

While some participants will choose to compete solo, Kinsel and Baker said that teams can be comprised of as many as 6-7 players, and each session will typically include about 20 questions. Teams will write down their guesses to the questions on small slips of paper, and turn them in before the answers are revealed. There is no time limit.

Questions will vary in terms of difficulty and subject matter, but the idea is to make the contests accessible to anyone who might want to participate, from kids all the way up to senior citizens. Each session will also normally include a specially themed power round, which will award bonus points to teams, or individuals, who get it right.

“We like being able to provide something for the community that is family-friendly, and anybody can come and participate in,” Kinsel said.

For Baker, the amount of participants that regularly show up to take part in Tri-County Trivia events prove that there are a lot of brainy folks in the local area. “Small towns, especially in the south, for as long as I can remember have had sort of a negative stereotype of being culturally, intellectually and socially stagnant, if not backwards. By doing this, we are showing that the opposite is actually true.”

Indeed, Tri-County Trivia has consistently brought out the best in people in terms of displaying their knowledge of everything from historical facts, to popular culture, to important current events. It is obviously something that people have enjoyed participating in, hence their ten years of existence.

“I never expected that it would be something that is still so popular ten years later,” Kinsel said.  “It is a great community that just builds itself, though. We have teams that have been playing with us for years, but there are almost always new faces as well. If anyone is intimidated about playing, I would say that it is really more about building a team, and being able to go out and have fun with friends each week.”

To learn more about Tri-County Trivia, including how to contact them about hosting a competition at your business, school or event, look them up on social media via their official Facebook and Instagram accounts.