Is it worth paying a professional host to run your trivia quiz night or should you just do it yourself or get a competent staff member?

When deciding whether to employ a professional host or not you have to consider what they will bring to your quiz night. For instance if you pack the house to the point of turning patrons away and you are still using a amateur host, then would it be worth changing him for a professional host? Probably not, because there is only limited value he can bring to the night.

But if you are just starting out, then a professional host should be able to tune into the few customers attending the night and improve the atmosphere, increase the buzz, build excitement and grow your night. Trivia quiz nights grow virally, that is the majority of new patrons attend the night at the invitation of existing customers. The better the atmosphere, no matter the size of the crowd, the quicker it will grow.

If you start your trivia quiz and don't achieve the results you want then the first thing you should look at is your quiz format and the qualities of the questions. The next is your host.

As a bar or club owner, is it worth even trying a non-professional host? If you know the quality of the person and if they have good host criteria, why not? Unfortunately just because someone markets themselves as a professional host doesn't necessarily mean they are good. One thing to note is a good host makes it look easy. The night runs smoothly and anyone watching thinks, "this is an easy job". If you have a good night going, don't be tempted to downgrade your host to save a few bucks. A good host will make it look easy and the night will run smoothly; a bad host can quickly slow down a good night to a crawl.

A common misconception is that a host must be able to dish out endless reams of jokes and banter -- the host must be a talker.

The customers only need to be switched on when the questions are been read out. The host has to keep pace all night, read out the questions, score the answers and interact with the crowd.

Too much talking drags the night out for the customers. The night has to flow at a good clip. Instances present themselves throughout the night that can become the subject of comical and entertaining banter. If the host is a good story teller one or two jokes can add to the night. More can distract from the quiz and remember this is generally why the patrons are there. When starting out it is a good idea to have a helper for the host to mark the sheets. An experienced host can handle this in between the reading out of questions. But when venues start getting up to the 20 team mark then a scoring helper becomes mandatory.

If you do plan to use a current customer or friend of the bar as your host always offer them the gig on a temporary basis, just until you get a professional sorted out. Then in this way if they don't work out and you have to replace them you can do so without destroying the friendship. If they do work out then you can leave them in the position.

When a host comes to a new venue there can be hiccups even for the best prepared quiz master, but a host who doesn't relate to your crowd or consistently is ill prepared and below par must go, sooner rather later.

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