by Tim Rich
I recently caught up with Jasmine Leonas who made TOTW in Week 10. I went out to the Mile High City and sat down and talked about trivia and other viable topics. I had the Korean Beef Barbacoa at Dos Santos in Denver.
Rich: This is your first TOTW in Week 10. How did you like the set and what stood out for you?
Leonas: I don’t remember! I tend to immediately dump questions from my brain right after the game ends. I do remember getting the vague sense during the game that the content felt very friendly to my wheelhouses, and thankfully a lot of them fell directly in my seat. I have long argued that all trivia has an element of luck to it. You better your chances by studying and reading and absorbing new information, but you have no control over the questions you’re asked. You can know a little about everything and then a lot about a few things, and then when those few things hit you all at once in a game, it’s a glorious feeling.
Rich: It must be extremely hard getting TOTW in D1. Why doesn’t your captain move you into different seats so you don’t have to go against Victoria in seat 3 all the time?
Leonas: Trivia Team Assemble (shout out to Patrick, Aaron, Devin and sometimes Steve and Josh!) has been together for a while now and we’ve discussed switching seats but there’s a sense of not wanting to mess up a good thing. Sure, there are times when mid-game I’ll think “man, I wish I was in Aaron’s seat right now!” or “is Patrick getting everything I know?” but there’s a certain rhythm to keeping the places set each week that serves us well (even if it means I’m usually losing to a juggernaut like Victoria Groce for TOTW all season).
Rich: You have been with OQlUSA since the first season. How did you get into it and what was it like? Also please tell us about your current OQLUSA and Regions teams.
Leonas: OQL USA started up at the exact perfect time for me to get really into it. Just before COVID-19 kind of blew up the world, I had moved with my family from Chicago (where I’d lived for 10+ years) to Colorado. I had a new job, had moved into a literally new house, my oldest was starting kindergarten and life was just very overwhelming in all its newness. OQL was a place where I could find like-minded people to hang out with virtually almost every day. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some of the best people through OQL, whether that’s playing with them on a regular team or through friendlies or via DMs they send me after they agree with some comment I made in the OQL Facebook groups (looking at you, John Walker).
My current OQL team is Trivia Team Assemble, and as mentioned above, we’re a really solid group. I joined TTA after Aaron Levine reached out and said “how would you like to play on a team where we all live in similar time zones and all have families so we get the challenge of scheduling?” I said yes immediately, both on that basis and because everyone on the team was not only good at trivia, but just good people in general. We were lucky enough to add Patrick Hope to the roster after I met him randomly in a pre-season trial game and the rest is history. Like many women in trivia, I’ve had the experience of being talked over and my contributions dismissed when playing with other men. That’s never happened in TTA and I continue to stick with that squad because I feel like an integral part of our success. We text almost daily, mostly about OQL stuff but also life things in general. We’ve truly become not just a trivia team, but a group of friends. We have each other’s backs both in OQL matches and in everyday life.
My Regions team is also coincidentally great. I knew most of the team already pretty well, because of OQL friendlies or just meeting in real life beforehand, so it’s been an easy decision to stick with them, even with Regions kind of being a newer and sometimes shaky format.
Rich: I remember having to play against your team and it was unique in that it was all women. You even had a celebrity on that roster. What season did that team disband and why?
Leonas: My first OQL team was made up of some of my very best friends, firstly in quizzing (most of us had the same Jeopardy tape days) and just life in general. We had maintained a daily group chat ever since we taped (five years ago!) and I was really excited to form them into a team to engage in the hobby that brought us together in the first place. Jessica Efron Sauer, who’s become one of my best friends since we taped Jeopardy together, had been friendly with Jackie Fuchs (of The Runaways fame) and suggested adding her to our team as well. By season two of OQL, it became clear that scheduling and playing an OQL game each week was really tough for our squad. We all had a lot going on in our personal lives, with kids, sick family members, demanding jobs, etc., so we needed another team member to mix it up. We added LaKedra Pam and that helped the load a little bit, but she had just as demanding a schedule as we all did. By the beginning of season 3, it became clear not everyone wanted to stay. Jackie wanted to focus on other interests (she’s got a board game coming out soon… check out Rock Hard: 1977!), so she checked out first. And honestly, overall, most of my team was not big on the OQL format. There is pressure to answer quickly and they prefer having time to think on questions, like in Learned League. They also really didn’t appreciate some of the teams who discouraged talking during games and just overall were more about winning than the fun of competition. Around this time, I was invited to join TTA, so the team officially disbanded. Robin Falco did eventually join another team, but none of the others (Jessica, Jackie, LaKedra, JR Kinyak and Libby Wood) have come back to OQL. We really loved playing together, but when you need to calm your life down, the hobby that’s difficult to schedule and not bringing you a lot of happiness is going to be what you drop. I don’t blame them for it, and I wish there were more options for them to play online trivia together. And we still chat daily!
Rich: Have you ever gotten a full house in OQL or a 15/15 in Pop Solos?
Leonas: Never! I was really close once. I had 7 own gets in OQL Regions and it came down to a question where I was between chrysanthemum and jasmine for the flower on the imperial seal of Japan. I thought it would be really silly if I blew a full house by not guessing my own name. Of course, it was chrysanthemum and the full house slipped from my fingers.
Rich: What was the experience like being in the Pop Solos Finals last season? I tuned in as it was being played live and was mentally trying to wish you into guessing Lion for that Belgian question.
Leonas: Lion was the first thing that popped into my head! But I thought maybe lions are just an English thing? And, I had recently been to Berlin and there’s a bear on the city emblem, and once that popped into my head, it was hard to get it out.
First off, congratulations to Dan Burgess for winning that final! The experience of being a participant in that game was kind of surreal. I’ve played Dan (and Scott Blish and Tucker Warner) before, so I wasn’t exactly psyched out to go up against him. But I did also feel a little bit of self-imposed responsibility to do well on behalf of all the women in the league who hadn’t made it yet. And I will be extra honest and open here – Pop Solos has been a frustrating league to play over the last year or so. David Plotkin coined a really perfect phenomenon that happens in trivia, and especially Pop Solos, where questions get “ins for him” added. That is to say, making a perfectly fine question easier for men by adding clues that cater to their interests. And on the flip side, I noticed a lot of the opposite, where extra clues are taken out for making a question “too easy,” but would’ve helped people like me (women, usually). Now that Pop Solos has a new editor, I’m hopeful that some of those editing considerations won’t continue and the content in the league is more diverse and interesting in scope. And I hope to be in the finals again someday!
Rich: How did you first get into trivia?
Leonas: On some level, I’ve always loved trivia, or at least knowing things and competitions. It’s a common story – I was the kid memorizing Trivial Pursuit cards and reading encyclopedia books for fun. I taught myself all the U.S. state capitals in second grade because I was bored. In middle school, I had my first experience actually competing. I was on the Geography Bee team (and I was the only girl on it, of course) and was super disappointed when we came in third in the county. I loved being on the team, but I did not like feeling talked over by all the boys. Quiz Bowl was not a thing I even knew existed as I got into high school. Miami is not a place where academic quizzing is popular, at least when I was growing up. I am still amazed that some people grew up in places where a Quiz Bowl-like competition was a thing you could take part in ON TV.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I even started going to pub quizzes, and that wasn’t until I moved to Chicago in 2008. I went regularly to the bar across the street from my apartment, where me and my friends frequently came in second to a team called The Moops, and then just once in a while to different bar trivia around the city. Jeopardy had always been something I loved and I’d even tried out for the college tournament. Back then, there was no online test, so I drove the two hours from Gainesville to Orlando to take the test in person at a hotel ballroom. My car at the time had a broken speedometer, so when I passed the initial written test and we did a mock interview, I said if I won I’d spend the money on fixing that. The contestant coordinators laughed, but it wasn’t amusing enough for me to get on. I remember them encouraging everyone in the room to keep trying, because we were all good enough to get on and it could happen someday. So, I did. I started doing the online test every time I could and finally got another audition, this time for the regular show, in 2017.
Rich: Have you ever been on any game shows? If so, which ones and what was the experience like?
Leonas: That Jeopardy audition in March 2017 felt like it went really well, but I wasn’t getting the call. You have about a year and a half of eligibility, so I watched the months go by and started to lose hope. Life went on and in November 2017, I found out I was pregnant with my second child. I kept thinking how great it would be if I got the call then. Competing on Jeopardy with a baby on board? What a great story, yes, please! Then the months kept ticking by and as the summer got closer (I was due in July) I figured I’d have to try again. But then I got a call from a Culver City number in mid-June. It was Jeopardy! and they wanted me on – for a taping literally the day before my due date. Lauri, who was the coordinator that called me, offered her congratulations on the baby and said they’d try to keep me active in the pool, but no guarantees. My husband quickly shot down my ridiculous idea of driving from Chicago to California and figuring out where all the hospitals with maternity wards were along the way, so I figured my one shot would be gone. But, with some perspective, it wasn’t that disappointing. Welcoming my son into the world was one of the only things I’d give up the Jeopardy! Dream for.
But Lauri was true to her word, and they kept me in the pool. In January 2019, I got a call from Glenn, the contestant coordinator I’d met at my audition. Being 6 months postpartum, and still dealing with all the physical challenges that came with that, it wasn’t the ideal time to be on the show, but I had to take my chance. And without going too much into my full Jeopardy! story, it was kind of a disappointment. I played James Holzhauer. Nothing about my Jeopardy! taping was as I’d dreamed it would be. I was sleep deprived, uncomfortable in both shapewear and a nursing bra, and, in hindsight, completely unprepared to actually compete.
Needless to say, I’d love a do-over. I started applying to other shows to get some kind of more positive TV quizzing experience and I was lucky enough to be on Masterminds last summer. That was such a fun experience and I’m glad I was able to do it. The funny thing is, on Jeopardy! I was at the middle podium in between two men and took home $1,000 (for getting third). On Masterminds, I was at the middle podium in between two men and took home $1,000 (as the winner of the challenger side). Maybe that’s my game show fate forever, but I hope I’ll get another chance to do something trivia-related on TV (and win more money).
Rich: Have you ever been to Geek Bowl, Trivia Nationals, TCONA, or SporcleCon?
Leonas: Before my Jeopardy! taping, I didn’t even know any of these events existed. But as soon as I found out, I wanted to do them all. Unfortunately, my first chance was Geek Bowl 2020, right before the world shut down. I did get to go to SporcleCon 2022, which was a blast, but just so short. Many of my trivia friends are people I only interact with virtually, so it was amazing to see them and hug them and talk to them in real life. I am planning on going to SporcleCon 2024 in Detroit.
Rich: What is the trivia scene like in Denver? Is there a place you play live trivia on a weekly basis?
Leonas: It’s a pretty robust scene. Geeks Who Drink started in Colorado, so there’s always a GWD night going on here. Plus there are a few other trivia ventures that run pub quizzes. Unfortunately, I’m in a different season of life than I was in my late 20s/early 30s in Chicago, where I could do trivia on a Wednesday night and enjoy free drinks for winning and not regret it the next morning. Now, I only really do in-person quizzing when an OQLer comes to town and I’m able to make it out. I live in the north suburbs, about a half hour drive to downtown Denver when there’s no traffic. It’s why I’m so into OQL – I can quiz on my own schedule, from the same space where I work from home.
Rich: Besides trivia, what are your other hobbies and interests?
Leonas: My other big passion in life besides trivia is running. It’s kind of like trivia in that I’ve always loved it, but didn’t pursue it as a real interest until I was an adult. After having my first son, I wanted to set a big goal for myself so I put my name in for the Chicago Marathon lottery. I got in, so I joined a local running club and really committed to the training. It was absolutely life-changing. I thought I’d only do a marathon once, but I loved it so much, I signed up for the marathon again the next year. I’ve physically slowed down a lot since having my second kid but have tried to keep at it. I also have some medical issues that have come up that make running as fast as I used to a challenge. Running, even as slow as I’ve become, is a meditative experience for me. And the sense of accomplishment after pushing myself to finish a long distance run is unlike anything else I’ve experienced. To date, I’ve done four marathons (Chicago twice, NYC and Berlin) and dozens of halves, 10Ks and 5Ks. Weirdly enough, the day I taped Jeopardy!, I found out that I got into the NYC Marathon lottery. It was a nice little reminder from the universe to keep working toward dreams because it’s not the end result that matters, but the pursuit of the thing that changes you.
After I turned 40, I decided to lean into the things that make me happy, whether people think it’s cool or not. So a lot of my interests are things that routinely get mocked and I could not give a bigger shit if they’re considered “basic” or whatever. But I’m a suburban mom, I like what I like! I watch a lot more reality TV than I used to, I get Starbucks often and I’ve fully leaned into being a Disney Adult. I’m going to Disneyland (for the second time this year) next week. When I was younger, I felt like I had to be quiet about the “low brow” things I like, but now I happily eat Disney churros (my favorite food in the whole world) and quote “Frozen” and I really don’t care what people think about it.
Rich: What is the dining scene like in Denver? What is your favorite cuisine and your favorite beverages?
Leonas: Moving here from Chicago, it’s hard to say Denver is a world class food destination. Chicago spoiled me for all time in terms of the quality, innovation and diversity of food options. But Denver does hold its own. There are a lot of cool concepts and fun places to check out in not just Denver itself, but all the surrounding cities. I’m closer to Boulder than Denver, so I like to “go out” there and my favorite restaurant in Boulder is Blackbelly, which is owned by Hosea Rosenberg, who won on Top Chef. My husband and I are big fans of that show, and we’re currently rewatching the Colorado season. We have a new appreciation for it now that we live here and hope to go check out the brunch place Carrie Baird (our favorite from that season) opened in Denver.
I also really love the Mexican food here in Denver. It’s got its own style and is unlike the Mexican/TexMex food you can get in other parts of the U.S. Smothering a burrito in green chile is amazing and there’s a local to Colorado Mexican chain we get take out from at least once a week. Santiago’s burritos for life!
Rich: Do you follow professional or college sports? If so, which teams do you root for?
Leonas: For college sports, I always root for my alma mater, the University of Florida. I graduated just before the basketball team won their back-to-back championships in the mid-2000s, and I lost a March Madness bracket competition when I chose Florida to get to the Final Four but not the final game. Now I root for them whenever I can, including making the probably silly decision to have them taking it all this year as a 7-seed in my bracket. Florida has such a great athletics program that I get to root for fellow Gators all the time, in all kinds of sports. Swimming and track & field are two especially strong sports at Florida, so the Olympics are always fun to watch on that level for me.
It’s hard for me to stick to rooting for one pro sports team. I’ve moved enough that I change my allegiance based on where I live, but the two that have stuck so far are the Cubs and the Nuggets. Living on the North Side of Chicago for a decade and during the time when the Cubs finally won the World Series again, I can’t not feel an affinity for that team. And now being in Denver, we’ve become a strong Nuggets-supporting household. They’re not just one of the most dominant teams in the NBA but also one of the most likeable. My older son is starting to get into watching pro basketball, so Nuggets games are on at dinner time at our house all the time. I was joking around with him about naming a snow plow after his favorite Nuggets player, so I submitted on his behalf to a local contest this past year, and the name was chosen! So now there’s a plow called Nikola Snowkic working the streets of Boulder after snowstorms.
Rich: Which Oscar winning movies did you watch in 2023? Were there any actors/actresses or directors you wanted to win?
Leonas: It’s hard for me to get out to the movie theater nowadays. I only watched two movies in the theater last year – the Super Mario Brothers Movie and Barbie. The first was mostly for my sons, who are obsessed with all things Nintendo and Mario, especially my older son. The second I made a point to go to the theater to see, and I took my older son with me. He loved the movie, probably on a different level than I did, but he loved it all the same. His favorite character was Alan. I was really disappointed Margot Robbie wasn’t even nominated for Best Actress because she did such a fantastic job in Barbie. She took a role that could’ve been flat and one-note and gave it depth and nuance. I did get a chance to watch Poor Things on streaming before the Oscars, so even though I would’ve loved for Lily Gladstone to be honored, I thought Emma Stone was fantastic in that one as well and the win was well deserved.
Rich: What are your favorite genres in music and who are your top five favorite artists of all time?
Leonas: My music interests vary, depending on mood, but I tend to gravitate to indie music, hip hop/rap and alt rock. And I do listen to a lot of musical theater too. I am constantly listening to music, but because I am usually just on Spotify, I am terrible at trivia having to do with album names or exact song titles. I went ahead and looked at my top artist of all time on Spotify and here’s what it gave me: Taylor Swift, Weezer, Lizzo, the soundtrack of Six the Musical and They Might be Giants. These are all artists I genuinely love (I’ve seen all of them live, except Lizzo), but they’re also favorites of my kids, so they get nudged higher up because I’m often listening to this music when they’re in the car with me.
Rich: If you could play trivia and have dinner with any five people in history, dead or alive, who would you choose?
Leonas: It is really hard to narrow it down to 5! There are a lot of OQLers who would fit the bill, but in the spirit of the question, I choose:
Amelia Earhart. The first feminist icon I really looked up to. I have never had a desire to be a pilot but I admire how she did what she wanted and had a give-no-fucks attitude, especially during a time where it was difficult for women to do that.
Celia Cruz. An absolute queen. I was devastated when she died. It felt like a family member was gone. She probably wouldn’t be that into the trivia, but she’d be great at the conversation during dinner.
Desiree Linden. My running idol. Like me, she’s short, Hispanic and loves running. Unlike me, she’s won the Boston Marathon. I’d love to just sit down and chat with her about her life and experiences. She’s also really into whiskey, specifically bourbon, so I’d let her pick the drinks for the evening.
Michael J. Fox. OK, this one is due to recency bias, because I’m currently listening to one of his books, with his narration. What a delightful human being. My father-in-law also has Parkinson’s, so I’ve seen firsthand how absolutely frustrating and draining the disease can be. The way Michael J. Fox has lived with it and shown perseverance, I’m just in awe.
My Abuelo Dan. Smartest and most compassionate human being I’ve ever known and one of my biggest champions throughout childhood. In Cuba, he endured being a political prisoner, the horrific conditions that came with that and being separated from his wife and daughter (my mom) for almost 10 years. They eventually reunited in the U.S., but he missed out on so much of my mom’s formative years because of it. He could’ve lived life incredibly bitter and negative, and would’ve been justified in doing so, but he didn’t. Plus, he was just really funny and enjoyed comedy in a way that he passed on to me. He died in 2010 and I miss him every day. He didn’t get to see a lot of the important things in my life (meeting my husband and my kids, seeing me on Jeopardy! and running marathons) and it makes me really sad. Plus, I don’t think Celia’s English was very good (neither was my Abuelo’s) so they could chat with each other over dinner.
Rich: What is your overall view on the quizzing community both in the US and Internationally?
Leonas: The biggest difference between the US (and Canada) quizzing community and the UK is that the US community tends to be more diverse. That’s not saying much for us here in North America, because the quiz community is still very white and male and straight. I don’t know as much about the broader quizzing community internationally, because I can’t participate in, for example, any Indian quizzing leagues because of time difference. But in my experience with US and UK quizzers, there’s a good amount of overlap in sensibilities and demographics – for better or worse. Getting to know quizzers in the UK has been a highlight of my getting into trivia, so saying they’re less diverse isn’t any kind of insult. It’s an overall issue to work on, and I know of several people on that side of the Atlantic who have that as a priority.
I do want to give some attention to KFL and what Vadym Bondar is doing with that league. He’s in Ukraine and runs KFL often at odd hours for players here in the Western Hemisphere, and he puts out some really interesting content. I just started playing (only in the Pairs competition – shout out to my partner, Adam Hancock) but it’s really international in scope and also insanely hard. When the next season begins in April, I’ll be playing that a lot more. Even if trivia is hard, as long as it’s interesting, it’s worth doing.
Rich: What is your favorite Broadway musical of all time and who is your favorite female and male performer?
Leonas: This is like trying to choose a favorite child – impossible! I was in a drama magnet program from fifth to eighth grades, so I’ve been lucky enough to see (touring and local to Miami) productions of some of the best musicals ever. Before I was in high school, I’d seen productions of Evita, A Chorus Line, Phantom of the Opera, and The Pajama Game, to name the few I can vividly remember. My first official Broadway production on actual Broadway was Les Miserables during a Model UN trip to New York. I last went to New York in 2022, for the marathon (of course), and got to see Into the Woods, which was phenomenal. My last actual show I’ve seen in person was Six, when the touring company came to Denver (AMAZING). All that is to say, it’s hard to choose a favorite. I will always have a soft spot for West Side Story, though I’ve never seen it performed live, so that’s probably my pick.
There’s no one better than Rita Moreno. To have seen her perform live in her heyday would’ve been spectacular. If I’m feeling down, I’ll revisit the 1961 film version of West Side Story and re-watch her dance during “America.” I just love her so much. My favorite male performer is Miguel Cervantes. I was able to catch the Chicago production of Hamilton before I moved away and he was so so good. The right mix of scrappy and sexy and tragic. I’ve seen the original cast version on Disney+ and I’d argue that Cervantes did the role better than Lin-Manuel Miranda himself.
Rich: Who do you want to see win the upcoming Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament?
Leonas: To partially quote Issa Rae, I’m rooting for everyone female.
Rich: Thank you for your time and I appreciate you wanting to get TOTW just to sit down for this very interview.
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