Think you’re pretty good at trivia? Not so fast! Alta Live is excited to welcome several members of one of the country’s most successful trivia teams, a group of Los Angeles–based quiz champions who call themselves Trivial Pursuit of Dat Ass. The team, mostly made up of members who met during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023, is the highest-ranking team in King Trivia, one of the country’s most popular pub-trivia leagues, with thousands of participating competitors on any given week. Profiled by Zachary Bernstein in an Alta Journal newsletter, we’ve invited (challenged) three Trivial Pursuit of Dat Ass members to answer our California-based questions—and yours! Join us for what’s sure to be a lively event, and make sure to bring your Golden State knowledge.

About the guests:

Andra Whipple is a TV and film writer who grew up in Ohio, milking goats at farm camp. She’s now based in L.A. where her bar trivia team is No. 1 in the nation. She was once questioned at the French border for being “too sweaty.”

Myles Warden hails from Illinois and attended Valdosta State University in Georgia, where he began his creative path as an aspiring DJ and songwriter before discovering his passion for writing for television. Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he spends most of his time writing for comedic TV shows such as Act Your Age, even though he still hasn’t quite figured out how to act his own.

Franki Butler is a TV drama writer originally from Mobile, Alabama. When not hanging out with her trivia team, you can find her gardening, maxing out library holds, and spending an embarrassing amount of time at karaoke.

Here are some notable quotes from the event:

  • On how the team began: “We formed on my birthday, and it’s almost the two-year anniversary of the team. We happened to be in a bar called Idle Hour in North Hollywood, and we heard that trivia was happening, so we started to play, and we got third place. We were like, ‘Oh, this is actually pretty fun,’ and the rest is history.” —Whipple
  • On the competitiveness of the team: “That first trivia season was four months. During that time we started going back-to-back. And eventually, we figured out we were creeping up in the national leaderboard. So then, especially me and Jonathan [another team member], who are very competitive, became obsessed with the leaderboard. We were like, ‘Well, if we can become 20th, then we can maybe get to 15th, and if we can get to 15th, we can get to 10th. And if we’re in the top 10, why not number one?’ So we just dived all the way in.” —Warden
  • On deterring cheaters: “The biggest problem with that is that the game is in fact played on our phones; it’s a QR code. You submit your answers on the phone, so it’s an honor code. And what the company did this summer is, every so often they’ll insert a question that there is not a solitary reason for anyone on the face of this planet to know. And so if you had gotten that question right, there is a very, very high probability that you googled that.” —Butler
  • On the success of the team: “You learn more as you go—you learn more information. The other kind of secret sauce, we think, is we all have really different backgrounds. We come from different places, but we all came to L.A. in some way to work in the entertainment industry. We have actors, writers. My husband is a prop master and set decorator, and we have some union people. All of us came to this place, and we watch a lot of movies and TV, which are actually really good for giving you general pop culture knowledge.” —Whipple
  • On starting your own trivia team: “Just ask people to come hang out, and if you want to go by yourself—again, as a person who spends a lot of time sitting around reading books at bars by myself, because if I’m at home, then I’m gonna have to do chores—it’s fine. No one’s judging it.” —Butler

Check out these links to some of the topics brought up this week.