When Bob Vogel first came into contact with pub quizzes during his student days, he was immediately sold. Since then, he’s created and led hundreds, maybe thousands of quizzes. ‘A full bar gives me so much satisfaction.’

In a pre-COVID-19 world, if you walked into De Kluizenaar on a Monday night after 8 p.m., you would have had little chance of finding a table. Monday night was pub quiz night at the Bottendaal pub. 700 metres down the street, at Café Van Rijn, on Sunday nights you have to fight for a table because of pub quiz night. And who writes all the quiz questions about current news, music or sports? None other than the barman himself: Bog Vogel, professional pub quiz maker.

The Nijmegen-born Vogel (40) is happiest when he’s in a full pub. With a glass of beer in his hand and sweating on quiz answers for one-and-a-half or two hours with his team mates. ‘A quiz is about so much more than trying to find answers to a bunch of questions,’ says Vogel. He sees friendships flourish within pub quiz teams and sometimes even marriages grow out of them. ‘I’m no Cupid, but people do get to know each other at the pub and during a quiz. This social aspect is very valuable in my opinion.’

In the past 15 years, Vogel has created and presented pub quizzes in pubs, at office parties, and at weddings. If you want the recipe for a good pub quiz, he’s your man.

Catering man

‘I do miss it,’ says Vogel via his computer screen. He sighs. He’s talking to us about his profession via Zoom, the online platform he’s also used to present some quizzes over the past months. Still, it was nothing compared to a real quiz in a pub. ‘If you’ve ever tried to have social drinks online, you’ll know what I’m talking about.’

In 2001, Vogel was studying General Cultural Sciences at Radboud University and working full-time as a barman, at Café Van Rijn and other places, when he discovered the pub quiz. ‘The Irish pub in Nijmegen was the first to organise one, I think,’ says Vogel. What he loved most was the atmosphere. And he’d always been a fan of games: board games and video games. During a meeting at Van Rijn, when the manager asked for new fun ideas to attract more customers, Vogel proposed a pub quiz. Which he designed himself, with great success. Vogel: ‘It was on a Sunday night, which was usually kind of empty, and suddenly we were packed.’

Vogel decided to quit his studies and launch his own pub quiz company. ‘I always really enjoyed working in catering, but I didn’t want to come home at 4 a.m. every night. Creating quizzes allowed me to have the best of both worlds.’

Creative process

How does Vogel go about creating a quiz? ‘I pick a topic. For example a news item, like the House of Representatives’ elections. Then I study it until I find an angle, a piece of information, that people could maybe guess if they tried hard enough.’ Vogel thinks out loud: ‘For example, what’s the name of the woman heading the BoerBurgerBeweging? Or what’s the third largest party in the Netherlands?’

Throughout the week, Vogel jots down random ideas on paper. From an acronym used by politicians to a work of art he encounters somewhere. ‘Coming up with questions is a very creative process. I can’t always steer it. Luckily, I have a mild case of ADHD, which helps me to jump from topic to topic. Sometimes I’m looking for a question about a rhinoceros, and I end up with a question about a giraffe.’

There is no such thing as the perfect quiz question. ‘Sometimes I create quizzes for football team weekends where by the afternoon everyone is already so drunk that they can hardly walk. Other times I write quizzes for the Mayor and Aldermen of some Reformed municipality in the Veluwe.’ Which makes for quite a different atmosphere, concludes Vogel drily. Different people, too, with different knowledge.

Drunken football team

Writing a really good question requires at least a bit of digging. ‘Everyone knows what the capital of the Netherlands is; it’s a no-brainer. You want to make sure that people have to think really hard to find the answer, and in some cases not find it. Aw, shit! I know that I know this, but I just can’ think of it!’ says Vogel, laughing.

This requires being able to put yourself in other people’s shoes, including those of a drunken football team. Which is precisely the kind of challenge Vogel enjoys. It keeps his pub quiz brain sharp. ‘It usually works out well. I’ve done it hundreds, if not thousands of times. Beforehand, I have intensive contact with the people organising the pub quiz. I ask them about their interests and who is coming. And still, sometimes a question will end up falling flat.’

In such cases, Vogel adjusts his quiz on the spot. At home, he often goes through the answer forms, looking for questions that everyone knew the answer to, or those that no one could answer. ‘I’m always busy improving my quizzes.’

This kind of intuitive scientific inquiry is what makes it fun. That and the pub. Vogel: ‘It feels like it’s been an eternity, but I enjoy it so much when De Kluizenaar is packed full. A hundred people or more having a great night out and enjoying my quiz. It gives me so much satisfaction! And I think it will always continue to do so.’