About Stage Time Trivia
How It All Started
Phil Farda, comedian and creator of entertainment brand Comedy CNY, attended a random trivia night hosted by fellow comedian Will Phillips. “I never had any interest in trivia, but I laughed so hard and had the best time, Will was an incredibly entertaining host and the game was fun,” explains Farda on how comedy turned into trivia. Will and Phil combined forces to create the comedy infused trivia brand Stage Time Trivia in 2015.
They describe the service as “trivia night with a comedy twist” and ensure the night is more about socializing with friends and having fun than necessarily knowing all the correct answers.
Stage Time Trivia expanded to bars throughout Central New York (CNY) receiving praise from players for being entertaining and accessible to the everyday bar goer. Questions focus mostly on pop culture, movies, music, and entertainment, with some popular sports sprinkled in along the way. The hosts ensure players have a great time regardless of how full of knowledge their brains might be, and the game format is designed in such a way that gives every team an opportunity to win.
In 2017 Stage Time Trivia launched their online subscription service which makes the game available to bars, restaurants, and hosts nationwide. Locations looking to host their own unique trivia night, or hosts looking for fresh content, can subscribe to the service at stagetimetrivia.com and will get a complete new game download each week for a small monthly subscription fee.
Phil and Will have worked together on multiple projects along the way including the web series “Comedians in Coffee Discussing Wrestling” and the “Three Phils” Comedy Tour. They have both also opened for America’s Got Talent finalist Ryan Niemiller on his “Unarmed & Dangerous” comedy tour through Upstate New York
Our Team
Phil Farda - Founder
Phil Farda is best known for his quick wit and funny crowd interactions which makes him an ideal trivia host. Phil lives at home in Utica, NY with his fiance Laura who he has no real intentions of marrying and their two adorable Pomeranians Sammy & Tammy.
A dog lover and people liker, Phil enjoys the freedoms, challenges and amount of sleep associated with being entirely self employed. Phil began performing as a stand-up comedian in 2002 and has since transformed his love of the craft into a full service entertainment brand. In 2012, his work history in retail sales and customer service combined with his knowledge of the entertainment industry helped him launch his company Comedy CNY which books and produces professional comedy, along with other events and fundraisers, throughout Central New York.
Along the way Phil gets to work with some incredible comedic talents as well as more well known celebrities. In 2015 Phil created the “comedy infused” trivia brand Stage Time Trivia with the help and inspiration of friend and comedian Will Phillips. This unique new trivia format was a hit and within two years expanded to 11 locations throughout Central New York. The game’s popularity is undeniable and is now available to all locations and trivia hosts nationwide via the website you’re on right now.
FAVORITE TRIVIA MOMENT:
When a team that is absolutely shitting the bed the entire game wagers zero points in the Plot Twist round to win it all!
Will Phillips: Co-Founder & Head of Content Creation
A talented comedian, writer and author, Will Phillips is originally from the woodsy outskirts of Utica, NY but has traveled, lived, and performed all over the nation. He currently resides in Utica with his girlfriend Julia and his hairless kitten Ebenezer and her hairful cat Sam. Will has worked numerous creative and odd jobs through the years from bartending for adults to pouring buckets of soda for children at the movie theatre. A fan of craft beer, baseball, odd antiques and professional wrestling, Will draws inspiration from a mountain of, up until now, useless knowledge.
Will’s travels and comedy have taken him to Los Angeles where he spent two years working with Family Guy and absorbing inspiration for what would become his novel Hollywood Failure, which was published in 2014. He is the co-creator of the popular KoldCast web series, Murder Squad, D.B.A. Later on Will made his way to Cincinnati, where he lived, worked and performed. It’s during this time that Will started running multiple trivia nights and developing the foundation for the popular Stage Time Trivia format.
FAVORITE TRIVIA MOMENT:
Will says he most enjoys writing our Mystery Theme Round as it’s the most creatively challenging and fun to reverse engineer a hidden theme. He also secretly finds joy in a team flubbing a Double Down, but he won’t admit it.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. We’ve built Stage Time Trivia for comedians, but it’s also for anyone with an outgoing personality that is comfortable speaking in front of an audience.
Every game is designed to run between 1.5 and 2 hours, approximately the same length as a live comedy show.
You could, and plenty of people do, write and run their own trivia nights. However, it can take several hours of work to write and build your own trivia and not everyone has that kind of time or desire. Stage Time Trivia does all of the work for you, allowing you to just show up and host a fun night of trivia without having to worry about the content. Each week’s game is written and compiled creatively by professional comedians and all of our content is fact checked and accurate.
If you already host a trivia night somewhere why not try out Stage Time Trivia and offer your players a refreshing change of pace? Changing up the format of your trivia night is a great way to get regulars excited, spark interest from former players, and attract new players. Players are always interested when they hear about “the new Stage Time Trivia night, written and hosted by comedians.”
No – But You Should!
Stage Time Trivia is designed for weekly trivia nights and provides a fresh, topical trivia each and every week.
We also offer single downloads and individual themed downloads for one night events.
There is no contract or commitment. You simply sign up for our service and are billed monthly. You can discontinue at any time.
Each download is licensed for use at one location. If you run the same trivia game at multiple venues you will need to pay for an additional subscription per location.
We do our best to provide a bulletproof trivia by fact checking all of our content and running it locally ourselves to uncover any errors, but occasionally a typo or incorrect piece of information might get past us. If this comes up in your live game simply use your best discretion as to how to handle it. You can replace the question with one from our bank of alternative questions, or some hosts will award partial credit or bonus points.
This will be covered in greater detail in an upcoming blog post, and depends on a number of factors, but generally speaking a venue will pay between $100-200 per night to have trivia provided and hosted by a professional.
The rules players must follow during trivia are very simple:
Rule #1 – NO CELL PHONES! This doesn’t necessarily mean people can’t have and use their phones for texting and personal things, but they cannot use their phones to look up answers or help them with the game. Other than demanding all phones put away there is no bulletproof way to enforce this rule without being a dick. It is very much an “honor system”.
Rule #2 – DO NOT SHOUT OUT ANSWERS!
Rule #3 – THE TRIVIA HOST HAS THE FINAL SAY ON ALL ANSWERS! This rule exists to give the host full control, avoid disputes, and keep the game running smoothly. Argumentative players may dispute answers and argue minute details if they think it will help their score, but this settles it.
That’s it.
Yes. Once you sign up your subscription will automatically renew every 4 weeks for $100 until you cancel it.
The most important thing to us is that you have a trivia night solution that meets your needs and works well for your business and your players. If you’ve given us a try and have decided we’re not the best fit we understand and want to make the process of ending your subscription as easy as possible.
Just follow these steps:
1) Go to “My Account”
2) On the lefthand side menu, select “Subscriptions”
3) Choose the subscription that you want to cancel.
Depending on when you signed up and your last renewal, you may have have additional games coming. For example, if your account renewed on the 1st of the month, and you cancel on the 2nd, you can expect the remaining month of pre-paid games.