by Tim Rich
I recently met up with Nick Salyers in San Antonio to chat about trivia and other topics. He recently made TOTW in OQL USA. I decided to have a virtual dinner with him at Biga, the best restaurant on the River Walk.
Rich: How did you first get into trivia as a hobby?
Salyers: I would say I first got into trivia as a hobby in early 2020 when I joined LearnedLeague during the pandemic. Prior to that, most of my trivia-related activities were limited to watching game shows (I was a latchkey kid and GSN was my babysitter), going out to pub trivia when my friends felt like it, and attending one quizbowl practice in grad school that I left in the middle of after the captain would belittle us every single time a question went dead. I first found out about LearnedLeague in 2014/2015 when I read a Washington Post article about the league and I thought it sounded cool and wanted to join, but I had zero connections at the time.
When the pandemic hit, I was bored one day and decided to go through all the articles and sites that I had bookmarked over the years and one of those was that LearnedLeague article. I still didn’t know anyone who played in the league, but I decided to try and see if anyone on Twitter could extend a referral. I searched for “LearnedLeague referrals”, found a Tweet from my referrer saying that they had some, and DMed him asking for one. We chatted for a little bit, they extended the invitation to me, and that’s how it all started.
Rich: When did you first become involved with OQL? Tell us about the formation of Risky Quizness. Also do you play regions and please tell us about your season 1 and season 2 teams.
Salyers: I came across OQL when it was mentioned in a late-2020 New York Times article about the boom of quizzing through Zoom. After reading the article, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up because I just wanted more things to distract myself from what was going on in the world and I desperately needed social interaction.
I decided to sign up as an individual and Risky Quizness formed as a scratch team beginning in season 2 of OQL. I think the majority of us also found out about OQL through either that NYT article or through forum posts on LL. I absolutely adore my RQ teammates Marc, Tricia, Craig, Michael, and Eric, and find myself lucky to have found such a chill and accepting team right out the gate.
I did not play regions in 2023, but I reached out to my friend and COQL teammate Jayanthi Martins to see if they were looking for another person for her team for 2024. She vouched for me to the rest of the team and I’m now a part of Austin Powers and looking forward to playing with them!
Rich: What other online leagues and teams are you a part of?
Salyers: I’ve been playing Connections Online Quiz League (COQL) since season 1 when I joined a scratch team called The Strangers. After a couple seasons together, Vinny Tagle and I left The Strangers to form a team with Randall Eng and Jayanthi called Vowel Appreciation Society where we were our division’s champions in seasons 3 and 5. It is by far my favorite league in all of OQL. It is soooo satisfying whenever we are able to earn 5 points on a question or when we’re able to puzzle out the answer at the literal last second. Being able to play with a group of people I consider close friends makes it even better.
I’ve played pop solos in the past, playtested for OQL UK, and I’m currently playing Pop Culture Challenge. Outside of OQL, I play LL, BPtrivia, and KFL, Quiz Nations, and Apocalypse Trivia.
My personal life has been very hectic these past couple of years, so I haven’t been able to consistently play in all the leagues I would like to, but I always try to find time to be a part of one league/team at any given time just so I can have something to look forward to every week.
Rich: Did you ever go to big trivia events like Geek Bowl or SporcleCon?
Salyers: I did not. I joined the community too late to know about Geek Bowl and personal things prevented me from being able to attend SporcleCon in 2022 and 2023. But I will be attending SporcleCon this year and I’m looking forward to meeting all the friends I’ve made in the community IRL!
Rich: How many times have you made TOTW in OQL and have you ever gotten a full house or come close?
Salyers: I think this was my 3rd time making TOTW. The other two times were seasons ago back when Lynn Yu was still on the writing team, so it’s been a hot minute. And speaking of Lynn, I do want to give her a special shoutout. I had never felt “seen” in quizzing until I played the first couple sets she wrote for OQL. Her inclusion of topics that I had never come across in quizzing before like songs from movies featuring 2000s It Girls and queer content that didn’t feel “forced” legitimately put a smile on my face while I was in the match. It really made me feel like I had a place in the community and inspired me to start writing friendlies for OQL, BPTrivia, and LearnedLeague. Thanks, Lynn <3.
Unsurprisingly to people who know me, but my one and only full house was achieved during a playtest of John Walker’s fabulous Mean Girls pop solos friendly. I have gotten 7 directs a couple times in OQL matches, but never a full house.
Rich: What are your other interests and hobbies besides trivia?
Salyers: Going to the movies (I got a Regal Unlimited subscription last year and have been putting it to good use), watching local drag shows, playing video games (at this point, it’s mostly Dead by Daylight), and watching YouTube videos about the randomest shit. I also enjoy playing poker (Omaha Hi-Lo is my game of choice), but I haven’t built up the courage to go to any local games.
Rich: What music did you listen to most in 2023 and what is your take on the most recent Grammy Awards?
Salyers: Basic white gay alert! According to Spotify, my most played artists last year were:
Charli XCX
Taylor Swift
Beyoncé
Lady Gaga
Nicki Minaj
And my top 5 favorite songs that were released last year are:
“Hollywood Baby” by 100 Gecs
“Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife” by LE SSERAFIM
“I’m So Hot” by Chrissy Chlapecka
“Borderline” by Tove Lo
“Padam Padam” by Kylie Minogue
Most of the music I listen to are songs that I can either work out to or shake my ass to, but I do have my moments where I’ll only listen to a specific genre for like 2 weeks straight and not listen to it again for another 6+ months. The genre that got this treatment most recently was late-2000s, early-2010s rap.
When it comes to the Grammys, I mostly look forward to the performances and acceptance speeches, not the awards themselves. The only three categories I was particularly interested in were the inaugural Best Pop Dance Recording, Best Rock Album, and Album of the Year. I was very pleased with the winners of the first two categories (Kylie and Hayley, the mothers that y’all are), but I was rooting for SZA or Lana Del Rey for AOTY. I’m obvi a Taylor Swift fan since she was my 2nd-most listened to artist last year, but I didn’t feel that Midnights was her best work and I thought SOS and Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd were more deserving of the award.
My favorite moment of the ceremony can be summarized by this Joel Kim Booster Tweet:
Rich: What films did you watch in 2023? Which are your favorites and least favorites and who do you want to win the Oscars in next month’s ceremony?
Salyers: When people ask me what movies I watch, I respond that I only watch gay movies, horror movies, and gay horror movies, and with that, my top 5 favorite movies of last year were:
Bottoms
Theater Camp
Saw X
M3GAN
Cocaine Bear (which also had my favorite scene of the year starting with Margo Martindale’s character whispering “Bear” into a stethoscope and ending with CB attacking ambulance workers while Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” is playing)
And a special shoutout to Godzilla Minus One which would’ve been in my top 5 if I watched it in 2023, but I decided to wait until January of this year to watch it Minus Color.
My least favorite movie of last year was The Exorcist: Believer. It was cool to see Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair reprise their roles from the original film, but besides that, the film was a snoozefest.
I haven’t seen most of the Oscar-nominated movies yet. I didn’t get a chance to watch most of them during their original run so I’ll have to wait until the week before the Oscars to watch them when Regal does their Best Picture Film Festival.
Rich: What is your favorite cuisine and beverage? What is the dining scene like in your city?
Salyers: I was born and raised in South Texas, so I don’t think this will come as a surprise to anyone, but my favorite cuisine is Mexican with my favorite food being chicken and cheese tamales. Favorite beverage is a tough one, but I’m going to stick with the southern stereotype and say sweet tea with lime. If we’re talking cocktails, either a Long Island or a cherry vodka sour.
San Antonio is a huge city and has a variety of dining options, but I’m pretty “safe” when it comes to eating out. I like to find a good 3-5 restaurants that I know I like and just go to those if I don’t feel like cooking at home. I lucked out a little bit and found pretty good Thai, Indian, and Mexican restaurants all less than a mile from my apartment complex.
Rich: If you could have dinner and play trivia with any five people in history (dead or alive) , who would you choose?
Salyers:
Guy Branum - Growing up, most of the gay men that I saw on film and tv growing up were either twinks or jocks and as someone who has been bigger all of my life, it was kind of hard to relate to them in that aspect. The three gay men that I could relate to when it came to body type were Daniel Franzese (best known for his role as Damian in Mean Girls), Bruce Vilanch (comedy writer who was a frequent panelist on the late 90s-early 00s version of Hollywood Squares), and Guy Branum (comedian whom I most associate with as a frequent panelist on Chelsea Lately). While any of these people would be a great dinner guest, I’m specifically choosing Guy since I know he is a damn good quizzer.
Tiffany “New York” Pollard - New York has and always will be my meme queen. With quotes like “I look better than you making your exit right now”, “Do I look like I give a fuck? Because I don’t.”, “I was bored so I ruined lunch purposefully. And I had fun doing it.”, and pretty much any line from her iconic diary room confessional where she goes in on Gemma Collins on Celebrity Big Brother, there’s no choice but to stan. I think she would just be so fun to kiki with and if the trivia host turns out to be creepy or annoying, I can rely on her to read them the house down.
Aaron Swartz - Aaron Swartz was a computer programmer and activist who played a key role in trying to make the Internet free and open. He was a co-founder of Reddit, helped develop the RSS web feed format, was an early architect of Creative Commons, plus so much more. In 2011, Aaron was arrested by MIT police on breaking-and-entering charges in relation to him downloading tons of academic journal articles from JSTOR. This led to him being federally prosecuted for counts of wire fraud and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. They added additional charges in 2012 to try to make an example out of him, even though JSTOR said they did not want this to become an ongoing legal matter. As a result of consistent bullying by the federal prosecutors, Aaron took his own life in 2013. There is obviously a lot more to his life and legacy than I can explain in a paragraph, so if you’re interested in hearing more about Aaron, I recommend watching the documentary The Internet’s Own Boy.
Aaron has always been someone that I have admired and I would love to have the opportunity to chat with him about the clusterfuck that is the Internet of today.
Mamrie Hart - Throughout high school and undergrad, I was obsessed with YouTube’s “Holy Trinity” of Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, and Mamrie Hart. They were just so entertaining and whenever I felt stressed out because of school, I knew I could rely on them to make me laugh. Some of their videos featured them answering pop culture trivia questions, so I think they would all be down to join me, but I’m specifically choosing Mamrie because her pun skills are out of this world and I know she would come up with a fire team name.
Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) - My first exposure to Elvira was either seeing her on a handful of episodes of Hollywood Squares or seeing her as the hostess of a Halloween-themed marathon on GSN. The moment I first laid eyes on her, I was obsessed. Her love for horror, her unparalleled confidence, and her signature vampiness just captivated me. It was such a deep admiration that when I was 9 years old, I unsuccessfully tried to convince my mom to dress up as her for Halloween. Once I grew older and discovered stuff like Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Elvira’s Movie Macabre, and The Search for the Next Elvira (Fox Reality Channel was my jam in middle and high school), my love for her just blossomed even more. I would just die if I had the opportunity to hear her stories in person.
Rich: What are your favorite Broadway Musicals? Have you ever been to NYC to see any?
Salyers: I do like musicals a lot, but I haven’t seen as many as I would like. With that said, my top 5 musicals are:
The Rocky Horror Show
Chicago
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Hairspray
Avenue Q
I have never been to NYC, but would love to go some day. I was toying with the idea of going late last year to see Saw: The Musical on Off-Broadway, but to the disappointment of Tim Gunn, I couldn’t make it work.
Rich: Which award would you want to win the most? Pulitzer, Grammy, Nobel, Tony, Emmy, or Oscar?
Salyers: That’s a good question. I would probably have to say a Grammy, mostly because most of the celebrities I would like to meet are singers. But as some people I’ve played with in matches know, my singing voice is trauma-inducing and the only way I’ll actually win a Grammy is if they create a new category like “Best OQL Reader Recording - Gay Male Aged 28-30”
Rich: Thank you for sharing. I hope to come back to San Antonio some day.
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