Contents
Contents
The Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz
We can’t wait to see you come to Komedia this October, I understand this is a brand new show?
We can’t wait either. Bath is the first show we’re doing after this year’s Edinburgh Festival where we enjoyed a sell-out run. We love coming to Bath – it’s one of our favourite stops on the tour, we always have a great time here and the audiences are ace.
Yes, you’re right! It is a brand new show. As the self-styled, “hardest-working beefcakes in drinks-based infotainment” we wouldn’t dream of bringing an old show back disguised as new material!
Those people who have come to see us before can expect the same cracking cocktail of funnies, facts and phenomenal free drinks but we’ve introduced new rounds, new challenges and we’ve even got some new jokes. You guys are so lucky.
How many new beverages are you going to educate audiences on in this show?
As ever, we’re furnishing our lovely Bath audience with five phenomenal drinks – four of which we’ve never featured before.
As well as bringing back the delectable Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, a dark, velvet-smooth Venezuelan sipping rum, each and every audience member will get a cool can of Budweiser Budvar, a legendary lager owned by the Czech people and which has been brewed the same traditional way, in the same place (Ceske Budjevoice), using the same sexy ingredients since 1895. Whatever you do, don’t confuse it with the American muck of the same name – which is like having sex in a canoe (f***ing close to water).
Then there’s Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka, an artisan, English spirit made entirely from cows’ milk and it’s the smoothest vodka we’ve ever tasted. You could say it puts the ‘moo’ into ‘smooth’ but that would be a bit cheesy.
Talking of which, it does go really well with a nice chunk of cheese and the fellow who makes it down in Dorset comes from a family who have been making cheddar cheese longer than anyone else in the world. It really is a fabulous vodka and proves that not all vodka tastes the same.
We’re also thrilled to have Lost Explorer Mezcal Espadin too. This is a luxury and handcrafted Mexican spirit hailing from the sun-soaked valleys of Oaxaca. Cast aside our cliched perceptions of cheap tequila and open up your tastebuds to this sweet and herbaceous drop that will blow your mind! It’s exceptional neat or delicious in a Paloma cocktail made with the London Essence Grapefruit Soda that you also get to enjoy during the show.
Borrowing techniques from perfumery and distillation, the guys at London Essence deftly dovetail zesty pink grapefruit with aromatic lime leaf distillate and soothing sage to create a massively versatile mixer that can also be drunk on its own. We put in a show as part of our “Drink Less, Drink Better” mantra. You need some ying to one’s yang.
How did the idea come about?
Like all great ideas, it came to us in a pub after a few pints. It was 2011 and we were doing tutored drinks tastings at food festivals and the like. But they were a bit dull and so too were those hosted by other drinks experts.
It was all too earnest, pompous and serious and we realised people weren’t interested in flavour notes – lychee, white pepper, kumquat, bruised bananas in a school satchel….that kind of nonsense.
So we decided to make it more fun. Muck about a bit, have a laugh and tell people about the amazing stories behind each bottle, the people, the places and the past that has shaped each drink – from Alexander the Great to Andre the Giant, from a brewing nun who was the first person to write about the female orgasm to the Islamic alchemist who invented distillation.
It transformed the tastings and, with no theatrical experience beyond leading roles in primary school productions, we decided to turn it into a show and take it to the Edinburgh festival for a month.
That was in 2011 and having begun life in a 50 capacity freight container, the show now tours around the UK and was recently performed to more than 5,000 people at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival.
"Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka, an artisan, English spirit made entirely from cows’ milk and it’s the smoothest vodka we’ve ever tasted. You could say it puts the ‘moo’ into ‘smooth’ but that would be a bit cheesy."
How long does it take to put a new show together and how much fun do you have selecting the drinks?
We’re always researching ideas and drinks for the show through our work as drinks writers. Our latest book Thinking Drinkers Almanac (Sunday Times Drinks Book of the Year 2021) has been a big inspiration for the last couple of shows but in terms of turning ideas from the page to the stage, the physical process takes a few months of work alongside our amazing director Chris Larner – who is a very funny man.
Are there any drinks that you’ve tried that you’d never want to try again?
Prime. It’s flipping awful stuff.
Alcohol and a live audience (who may have already had a couple of liveners beforehand) could be a recipe for disaster. Have there been any funny incidents?
The whole show is a funny incident. Loyal to our “Drink Less, Drink Better” mantra, the amount of alcohol we taste with our audience is barely enough to make you tipsy and, like any show, we don’t encourage people to come along already under the influence.
While drinks play a role in the show, we’ve had hundreds of abstainers enjoy all the funnies and the facts.
In terms of the funniest incident, a few years ago, a man spilled his drink all over the woman next to him. They’re now married. Proof, if you need it, that one in four people in the UK fell in love in the pub.
Win
So, how does the quiz element come into the show?
Whilst it’s called a pub quiz, it’s not really a pub quiz. All the questions are based on what we do and say on stage and those who are rubbish at pub quizzes have as much chance of winning as the bores that win every week down your local.
As well as the drinks, we give you a quiz sheet and a bookies pen (you can take that home too - you’re welcome) and after each drink and each round, the questions come up on the screen. We then pick two winners after each show – one that’s got all the questions right and one picked entirely at random.
So even if you’re a bit thick, you can still win!
So, is the answer in the bottom of a beer glass?
Yes. Especially if the question is “Where can you find the nucleated laser-etched mark which facilitates the release of the beer's carbonation, creating a steady stream of bubbles and maintaining a head on your beer?”
But without alcohol, none of us would be here. It’s the reason monkeys morphed into man, they were coaxed down from the trees by fruit fermenting on the forest floor and without peering into his pint glass, Louis Pasteur would never have stumbled across germ theory – and we’d all probably be dead.
to book tickets to see The Thinking Drinkers at Komedia on
Saturday 14th October click the link below...
two tickets to see The Thinking Drinkers at Komedia on Saturday 14th October .To enter, click the link below and follow the steps...
