Mayoral candidate Doug Oliver tries his luck at Quizzo night in East Falls

Back in January, NinetyNine emailed each mayoral-candidate’s campaign with a very specific invitation: Come on out to Quizzo at Billy Murphy’s Irish Saloonery in East Falls to answer trivia questions from the host and platform queries from the players.

Considering that the author of this post also hosts Quizzo night at the Northwest Philly watering hole, it was an easy invitation to extend. Each campaign took it under advisement. Three RSVPd with the quickness and locked in likely dates.

The first arrived on Tuesday night, when Doug Oliver finished up an education forum in South Philly and swung by for a few hours.

Let’s talk process before we delve into reaction and results.

With the open invitation averting any equal-time entanglements, one of the four Quizzo rounds directly relates to something about the candidate.

They play that round and, as the scores are being tallied, the candidate gets the mic to make a several-minute pitch and field questions from the crowd of several dozen people.

On Tuesday, the round centered on famous people named Doug or Oliver — see what I did there?

After answering the questions (which are posted at the end of this story), the candidate delivered an abbreviated stump speech (the city needs youthful leadership and someone who understands millennials) and fielded questions from behind the bar about education policy, taxes and other platform items.

Crowd reaction

Considering this was the first poliquizzo mashup, and I was tallying the scores for 14 teams there, I was interested to hear what attendees thought.

Bar manager Michael Murphy noted that, “It’s great to see a candidate that realizes this is a young city. We need someone who realizes what we need for a successful future and longevity of Philadelphians.”

Regular Quizzo players and Philadelphia University students Sean Maguire and Trevor Dority ended up rapping with Oliver at his table well after the Quizzo game ended around 10:30 p.m.

“I thought it was pretty cool to have such an in-depth conversation with a candidate,” Maguire said. “I’m a first-time voter for the mayoral election, so getting to talk with someone so accessible was very cool.”

For his part, GIF-making Philadelphia magazine writer-at-large Dan McQuade took note of Oliver’s unusual-for-politics environs.

“He seemed like a pretty good sport about talking to drunk people in their 20s,” he noted. “He even stayed to eat afterward!”

After all the candidate Quizzo appearances, the campaign will be afforded the chance to put it into their perspective in a post similar to this.

Here’s what Mustafa Rashed from Doug Oliver For Mayor said:

Much like you saw in this room tonight, Doug’s message connects and resonates with people. They are regular but not at all ordinary people, all of whom want to see something different for their city.

Some of the solutions to the challenges that face our city are right here in this room — getting young people to stay and to contribute to our economy and tax base. The people who have been responsible for running our city for far too long have been either unable or unwilling to find solutions to fix this constant churn.

We have people coming here for our colleges and universities, staying for a few years and when they want to have kids they leave. It happens time and time again and Doug is seeking to address that.

The Quizzo Questions

Here are the 10 questions in the Oliver-themed Quizzo round:

1. Name the comedian with Daily Show roots who now hosts “Last Week Tonight” on HBO.

2. Which actor portrayed Liberace in “Behind the Candelabra,” Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” and William ‘D-Fens’ Foster in “Falling Down”?

3. What rapper is best known for the songs “La Di Dah Di” and “The Original Human Beatbox”? 

4. On what 70s TV show did a young red head named Cousin Oliver appear?a) The Brady Bunchb) What’s Happenin’?c) All In the Familyd) Eight is Enough

5. Who was the head coach of the Sixers from 2010 to 2013?

6. Who directed Natural Born Killers, JFK, The Doors and Any Given Sunday?

7. The American five-star general who played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during WWII had a first name of Douglas. What was his last name?a) Pattonb) Eisenhowerc) MacArthurd) Schwarzkopf

8. What does PGW stand for, as it pertains to local utility companies?

9. A member of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, she is the first African American woman in Olympic history to become the individual all-around champion. What is her name?

10. Name the 1983 comedy film in which brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie place a live mouse in a bottle of beer in an attempt to blackmail a local beer store to give them free Elsinore beer.

Bonus question (3 points): Name Bob and Doug’s dog who, promised free beer and sausage, flies like Superman and crashes into an Oktoberfest tent to warn revelers that their beer is tainted.

Test your luck

Write your answers down and check the answer key below to see whether you would have beaten Doug Oliver’s seven-point tally.

Oh, and for scheduling purposes, the next mayoral-candidate Quizzo visit is scheduled for April 21 (hint: the scheduled visitor’s name rhymes with Brim Benney.)

 

Answers

1. Name the comedian with Daily Show roots who now hosts “Last Week Tonight” on HBO. John Oliver

2. This actor portrayed Liberace in “Behind the Candelabra,” Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” and William “D-Fens” Foster in “Falling Down”? Michael Douglas

3. What rapper is best known for the songs “La Di Dah Di” and “The Original Human Beatbox”? Doug E. Fresh

4. On what 70s TV show did a ginger named Cousin Oliver appear? a) The Brady Bunch

5. Who was the head coach of the Sixers from 2010 to 2013? Doug Collins

6. Who directed Natural Born Killers, JFK, The Doors and Any Given Sunday? Oliver Stone

7. The American five-star general who played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during WWII had a first name of Douglas. What was his last name? c) MacArthur

8. What does PGW stand for, as it pertains to local utility companies? Philadelphia Gas Works

9. A member of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, she is the first African American woman in Olympic history to become the individual all-around champion. Gabby Douglas

10. Name the 1983 comedy film in which brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie place a live mouse in a bottle of beer in an attempt to blackmail a local beer store to give them free Elsinore beer. Strange Brew

Bonus question (3 points): Name Bob and Doug’s dog who, promised free beer and sausage, flies like Superman and crashes into an Oktoberfest tent to warn revelers that their beer is tainted: Hosehead.

So, how’d you do?

Oliver got seven points (that was a shade above the room average), and the wrong answers seemingly indicate that he needs to brush up on The Brady Bunch, war heroes and early 1980s Canadian comedies.