Janet Rosen
Let’s start, oh, in 2002.
Seven and a half years ago, I was singing in a band, playing gigs around town, pushing my albums, doing What All Indie Bands Do, which is to say networking, doing the occasional private gig and acting fill-in slot, and foisting my material on a sometimes-interested public. I was feeling pretty good about things, but honestly, I was only a singer by accident; back in Toronto, I had been a music critic, and after seeing 30 bands a week for a few months, I figured I was better than most of these jokers. So I tried being a singer-songwriter on for size, and while I never sold out any hockey arenas, I did alright.
But in 2002, I played a gig at the Baggot Inn (now closed) in the West Village, and following our band was, of all things, a trivia night. I stuck around, the rest of the band left, I did well enough and talked afterward with the cohosts (Dawn Eden & Caren Lissner, both of whom have since moved onward and upward), and after a few weeks, I found myself in this new community of trivia people. Janet Rosen, a literary agent and standup comedian friend of Dawn’s, was a part of this scene, as an occasional co-host, and soon after, the co-host (with New York Post copy editor and crime writer Jon Blackwell) of a second trivia night, then called “Drinking And Thinking,” at Dempsey’s Pub.
Dempsey’s was a decent “second place,” where we could go and not have to worry about the occasional crowds at the Baggot Inn (some weeks the place was packed, others it would be just a handful of people, and thanks to the rolling guest hosts, the questions were uneven and sometimes uninteresting), and where the questions were at least consistent from week to week. Blackwell was extremely good at hosting and writing, and if his shift at the Post hadn’t changed, forcing him to give up the Wednesday night hosting gig, I might never have gotten into the business.
Janet continued on with rolling guest hosts for a few months, and then the night kind of petered out, as nights sometimes do. Then, in early 2006, the owners called Janet, asking her to start the night up again. She agreed, but didn’t want to do it alone. So she called me, and we revamped the setup.
The Drunken Smartass Olympics premiered Wednesday, February 1, 2006, with an On This Day In History round, an audio round, and at the end, a True-False round, that we tried for a few months and then discarded in favor of something called a Name Threes round. The night started to grow and expand, and if you’re on the mailing list or a regular reader of this irregular blog, somewhere in here is probably where you came in.
Six years is an insanely long time in Bar Night Time, and Janet’s been hosting trivia on and off (way more on than off) for all that time. And now that it’s time for her to do other things with her life (she’s gotten away from standup, and being a literary agent is a full time career by itself), well, to say that I wish her all the best is damning by pithy cliché. I wouldn’t be hosting trivia, with all the great things that that’s brought me in my life since, without her vision and patience.
The Drunken Smartass Olympics (and the Tuesday Fast 50 Trivia Night at Slainte, and the Green Mondays at Shades of Green) will continue, and I’ll eventually find a new regular co-host on Wednesday. But Janet has done more to help the cause of quizzing in New York City than damn near anyone, and for her encouragement and friendship, I will be eternally grateful.
She plans to get back into standup comedy and live performance, and as an agent, she’s always looking for new clients. If you’d like to keep in touch with her, you can email her here.
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