#217 - Dead Poets and The Art of Quiz Mastery with Eshan Arif

Eshan Arif is a legend in Hong Kong’s bar scene. After a decade in the beer business, he now runs one of Soho’s coolest spots—Dead Poets. He’s also the city’s unofficial quiz king, known for hosting some of the silliest and sneakiest pub quizzes around. We sit down with Eshan to talk bar culture, what makes Dead Poets tick, and why being a quizmaster should never be taken too seriously.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey everybody, before we get into the episode I would like to
do this plug really quickly. Our friends at Craftisimo on
Typing Shan Shan Wan have been running for about 12 years and
if you have been listening to the podcast, you know we plug
their anniversary every year. So now is the time Craftisimo is
coming into its 12th year this Saturday 26th of April.

(00:20):
At Craftisimo, you can buy anything in the fridge and get a
beer on tap for the entire day. Food for Embola as well.
So Embola, if you don't know, inShanghuang is like one of the
really fancy little neighborhoodrestaurants that is
Scandinavian, I believe. I've never been there because
it's so expensive, but for some reason, Craftisimo and Embola

(00:42):
have collaborated together. So food for Embola as well.
If you've never been to the restaurant, you'll finally get
to try their amazing food at Craftisimo.
So if you're at the anniversary party on the 26th of of April,
Saturday, you get to try the food framble as well.
Also, new merch will drop from Craftisimo.

(01:03):
The event starts at 1:00 PM and it will run all the way until
9:00 PM. Craftisimo says bring your
thirst and your appetite. Now let's get into the show.
So I reiterate here, the bill isdead.
The story of this great city is about the years before this

(01:27):
night. I think a lot of the stuff I do,
it's what just what I said earlier.
Been selling beer for 10 years in Hong Kong.

(01:48):
Why do you sell, by the way? We are live.
Well, not live as in people watching.
But I decided to do something a little different today since
you're also a friend, which is to just start recording in the
middle of a conversation. See how that goes?
So like I said earlier, this we've been neighbors for three
years. Yes, this is the first time I've
come to your place. I did actually catch your Wi-Fi
from here. I don't have the password, I
should probably get it. You bastard.

(02:10):
Do you know what my Wi-Fi is called?
It had your name on it. That's how I knew.
Oh, that's. Probably my TV.
Right, okay, so maybe I should hack into your TV and all right,
Hey everybody, it's a new episode of oh, Hong Kong.
I I hope that wasn't so, so weird for you.
I think I would enjoy if you just like walk into the middle
of a conversation. So where I'm sitting here with

(02:30):
my buddy Ishan Arif. I will get to him in a second.
But just so you know, Vivek is still away.
He is in Australia. I think he just finished the
tour in New Zealand. He's still doing the post
production on this, which is very cool given how busy his
schedule is over here in Hong Kong.
We are we just wrapped up the Jiao Ying summers tour shows

(02:52):
rather, and some of you I I, I recognize some of familiar
faces, people who listen to the podcast.
So I know people listening whereit came to the show and there's
a lot of interesting stuff. I think what I decided to do
with this one is I have to wait for Vivek to come back because I
would really like his insight. And also, you know, given our

(03:13):
dynamic, I think it would be better.
And obviously he'll come back with a lot of stories.
So we're just going to have to wait for this full story for for
May when Vivek comes back. However, there is also some
technical issue that happened and you guys know that I'm a
little bit dumb when it comes torunning this stuff, which is why
Vivek is the guy who's doing it.So the episode of Guarantee came

(03:34):
out great. The Patreon episode did did not
come out at all. Not great or not.
It just did not come out becauseI messed up.
I don't know what happened. So I was supposed to record
another one and Justice release it.
I was going to just do it by myself basically, and then I got
busy with the Jiao Ying summer shows.

(03:55):
So what happened is that I didn't record a Patreon episode
at all. And I'm so sorry for this.
However, if you're on Patreon and by the time you listen to
this, I did record now an episode that is on Patreon and
it does go a little bit into some of the details I wouldn't
honestly be comfortable talking about publicly on a free
episode. So if you are on the Patreon,
you can get a little a lot more and it will just be me ranting.

(04:18):
Think of Bill Burr basically, but way less funny and way more
angry because he chilled out. Now I am very mad.
So you'll just get that unfiltered rant of the story of
this week and on the public episode when Vivek comes back, I
will be telling the full story in more detail but also bouncing
with Vivek. So that's all we have right now.

(04:41):
The backstage comedy shows are on hold for a couple of weeks
for reasons that you can probably get from either the
Patreon or when we do the publicepisode you'll understand we
will be back around the I'm hoping for the 3rd of May, if
not definitely the 10th of May. Then we'll have all our things
in order. Now let's get to our guest, back

(05:01):
to Isha and Isha. And how are you doing, man?
I'm doing great dude. So, you know, I, I don't really
like to do the whole like, tell us about yourself.
But now that people got a littlebit about you, they also, I
think people mostly recognize you by either the the Dead
Poets, which is your bar, or thequizmaster.
Right. Yeah, those are two of the

(05:22):
things I actually do. My day job for the past 10 years
has been beer. Are you a Brewer or like what?
What did you do? I.
Sell beer I can't brew for shit.I always joke with the Brewers
that they can do my job, I can'tdo theirs.
Right. Yeah, it's a lot of chemistry to
it, right? It's basically being in a huge
lab. Yeah, even the Brewers I've

(05:45):
worked with in the past, they'veall been chemical engineers.
Right, right. Yeah.
They no doubt way too much my job should take whatever they
do. Shout out to my buddy Kareem and
also one of our OG listeners listens every week.
Listens to Patreon huge, you know, follower of the podcast
that he is a big beer nerd and he lives in Shanghai.
Next time he's in town, he nerded out with Akhil at

(06:06):
curfismo many times to the pointthat I have to be like, I'm like
Kareem, Akhil has work, Please stop.
So but yeah, so I imagine that that it's a kind of a rabbit
hole, right? Like a lot of stuff.
It it is I, I actually kind of got into it accidentally I think
10 years ago. I was still in uni and a friend

(06:27):
of a friend of the time was hiring for this company and I
was still in college and I said I know nothing about beer.
I'll come work part time. Did you you grew up in India?
Yeah. I grew up in India and in Hong
Kong. Most of my, I think, adult life
I've been in Hong Kong. And your family?
When did they come to Hong Kong?1994.
Oh wow, OK. What was the reason for them

(06:49):
moving here? Just like any immigrant parents,
they wanted to get out and. And what industry were they in?
Funny enough, my mom made all our passports.
She had a job at the Indian consulate at the time.
Huh. So in 94 all the passports were
still handwritten. Yes.
So my first, I still have one ofthose.
It's not active. Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, yeah, you have one as well.
My mom wrote my passport. That's amazing.

(07:10):
That's the one who laminated. It for me to get on a flight to
get to Hong Kong. I still have those passports.
Would it be a Was there ever a situation when your mom like
takes work home and then she's just sitting on the dining table
just laminating passports at. Home, I think even back then
there was some security issues. I don't think they'd let you
take passport home. Yeah, OK, fair enough.
But yeah, she, she worked there for a couple of years.

(07:32):
She also worked at Wendy's part time back then.
You guys have Wendy's in India? No, no, we just, I mean, I, I
was just in India last month. Yeah.
And every time I go, I, I visit once a year.
Yeah. But every time I go, there's
always something new. Right.
Yeah, OK. Especially the city, Bangalore,
It, it grows at such a scale, yeah, and so rapidly.

(07:53):
That is it. As fast-paced as Hong Kong, you
think? Oh.
Yeah, really on steroids. But there's also a billion
people in the country. Of course.
And a lot of young people are getting very rich.
Yeah, there's a lot of new stuffcoming up.
Yeah, startups and whatnot. And some of the stuff I saw on
this trip was just blew my mind.Like some of the really cool
restaurants and bars I went to. This could be anywhere in the

(08:15):
world. That's so cool.
Like high quality stuff? Man, I would love to visit.
Oh. Yeah, it's just beautiful.
And with Bangalore, it's everyone talks about the
weather. It's obviously global warming.
Things are getting warmer. So is it just like kind of
sticky? No, Bangalore is beautiful.
Oh, OK. Where's Bangalore?
I'm dumb. Where's Bangalore?
Bangalore's in the South, OK, Soit's one of the biggest cities.

(08:37):
Is that where is it in relation to Goa?
So Goa will be on the east? Yeah, you go further down.
I think by Rd. Goa would be about 12-14 hours.
I might be wrong. Yeah, I haven't looked at the
geography so far. But yeah, OK, so you grew up and
we our obviously friends. So I know a little bit about you
like you grew up in a Muslim household.

(08:58):
Yeah, right. How how did that, how did that
not affect, but how did that rationalize in your head
starting to work with alcohol? Because I have also something
similar doing stand up and you know, being surrounded by
alcohol and stuff. But.
You're not again. So my family is actually kind of
my parents eloped and got married.
So my mom comes from a very Hindu household, South India,

(09:19):
and my dad's from a very traditional conservative Muslim
family. So they fell in love, they run
away. Mom's side of the family,
they're all just mad fox. Like they're insane.
They're super. Like nationalistic or?
No, they're just fun loving. People Oh fun loving OK wow
they. Travel well, well, my dad's
side, they're very, you know, stick with your roots, they kind

(09:41):
of thing. My dad now he's even though he's
a Muslim, he he doesn't what's the word I'm looking for?
Doesn't constantly tell you to do things.
He's like, just leave me alone, Let me do my thing.
I won't force you to do it. So I'm not that religious.
Yeah, but. You're not.
No way, No fuck. That, but there's also a little

(10:03):
bit of that respect because the family does it.
Yeah, it's also like you grew uparound it, right?
Like, it's just like, yeah, you can't just completely ignore it,
yeah. Yeah, I remember a couple of
years ago you were doing like a Ramadan thing in your house and
stuff like. Yeah, you still like, I mean,
yeah, a lot of the cultures I think about is just food
related, right? Yeah.
So every time we go to India, it's like, oh, food behind me.
Fuck yeah, man. Yeah, but it's actually

(10:24):
interesting. Like we, we're recording today
right after you dropped your dadoff to the airport.
And I'm thinking, man, what a waste of opportunity.
I would want to hear from him about how the whole, because
obviously the tension between Hindus and Muslims, and I'm sure
you can also tell me, but I wanted to kind of hear it from
the horse's mouth. Like what is that like?
Especially back then, it was like what, the 60s or the 70s?

(10:44):
He like ran away. I think it was probably the 70s,
late 80s. Yeah.
My parents are still quite youngish.
Yeah, comparatively, I think my dad's like 64 at the moment.
Yeah, but what was that story like?
What? What do you know about it?
Like running away My. Mom's family was very against
it, so my granddad basically disowned her for a while.

(11:06):
It's only after my sister was born.
I have an elder sister. Yeah.
It's only when she was born thatthey kind of melted.
And, yeah, all right, fine. And my dad was really good, too.
My grandparents, so they absolutely loved him.
And it kind of mellowed out the whole Muslim thing.
Yeah, things were peaceful untilwhen I was think, 1514, when my
parents split up, not because ofreligious things, it was just a

(11:28):
lot of personal shit going on. They both had different ideas
and how their life should be andtheir kids are grown up and they
didn't have to take care of their kids anymore.
So me and my sister were just off.
But since then, I mean, I we don't, at least with my dad, I
don't openly talk about a lot ofthings.
I do. There's this mutual respect.

(11:49):
But I have the same with my mom.Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was like. I know what you're doing, but
I'm not going to tell you. Yeah, Yeah.
I mean, obviously because they know also you're here, they're
familiar with Hong Kong, right? And they are like they know
you're here, you're doing well. If you're, I think if you are
like surviving in Hong Kong and not homeless on like a like a

(12:10):
self-employed thing or whatever,you're doing great.
Yeah. So it's it's obviously a brutal
city. I've, I've known a lot of
people. I mean I I would have also come
pretty close to being homeless at some point in.
Oh yeah, me too. Everyone's had that story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think no, we're extremely
privileged and very lucky. How does that the I'm I'm very
fascinated by your parents storybecause I didn't even know about

(12:32):
it. Like even though we're friends,
how how does the whole Muslim Hindu thing play into the
politics of the family now? Even if they are split up, No.
It really doesn't. I think they're, at least where
I come from in Bangalore and South India, it's there's a
little more of acceptance and everyone's sort of like friendly
enough. Yeah.
But obviously everything you hear in the news, it, it is the

(12:55):
situation of the country. But generally in our family,
we're quite like open Rachel about it.
Yeah. My mom's side of the family and
my dad, everyone gets along. Yeah, even though they've been
split up for so long, right. I haven't seen them in the same
room for many, many years, but they still buy gifts for each
other. And it's there's still a lot of
cute things that they do for each other even though they're
not together. Yeah, there's obviously that

(13:18):
respect. Yeah, that we have.
Me and my sister are quite closewith both my dad and my mom,
Right. In other sides, yeah.
It's just a different relationship.
My mom knows everything I do, right.
And it's I think it's just having breakthroughs and opening
up with my mom a couple of yearsago that changed it.
So now just talk to her like she's made.

(13:39):
Yeah. Like goof off a lot.
That's awesome. She doesn't drink that much, we
don't go out that much, but she knows everything I do.
She knows where I work. She knows where I bar.
So going back to to work, what, you didn't have any beer
experience when you started? What was your background?
Fucking 0 back. No, no.
But what did you study? Well, so first I went to film

(14:00):
school, then I did Business School for two years, and then
when I moved back to Hong Kong in 2014, I just quit my job in
Bangalore when I was staying at the time.
And my mom's like, I think you should go back to college and
study some more. Yeah.
Because, you know, I couldn't afford to get a job and pay
rent. Yeah.
So I went to HKU, studied communication and politics.

(14:22):
Yeah, with Chinese history as one of my things.
So you said a lot of stuff that I think the only thing that is
relevant now to your current jobis business.
Everything else, I guess film's cool too, because there's some
acting, right? A little bit I I consider my job
as an act It it is putting on a face.
Which job are we talking about here?

(14:43):
The the beer job, Yeah, I think doing sales in Hong Kong, you
you put on a persona and people get used to the way you are and
you have. To be that, I remember that
interacting with you as better with beer and you were so much
in that character that actually just hung around that just
watched you. Because I'm not saying it's
obviously not you. I know it's you, but it's like
you at work and you're in your office.

(15:03):
It's my work persona. It's your work persona.
I was like, really fascinating. No, but it's fun.
I, I think after a while, you just get so used to it and it
just comes naturally. And it's subconscious.
You don't think about it. It's only when people point it
out. Yeah, you, your voice changes
with your work. It's only then you realize that,
oh, shit, am I doing that? Yeah.

(15:24):
But over time, you realize that you do need to have a certain
persona. You need to have, I wouldn't
call it arrogance, but you need to have, you need to be a little
cocky, I think. Yeah, I mean when.
It comes to sales. When it comes to sales, for
sure. And also if you are, if you are
in such a cut throat market likeFNB in Hong Kong, you need like

(15:45):
my theory based on very little information is that you need to
kind of like people sometime in a lot of bars around here,
people come for the person. Yeah, true.
I don't know if you can agree ornot.
Like Beckley, for example, Beckley is a character.
Like people go to see Beckley, hang out with Beckley and like
the everyone loves her. I love her.
It's like I want to go where sheis.

(16:06):
Yeah, exactly. Because if she, her presence is
just so big, that's what she's. I'd like to say apart from what
experience she has, she's just afun person.
To hang out with, that's why. People like being around her.
Yeah, Yeah. And it's something that you, if
you see it long enough and you see people you admire, you kind
of want to be that person where you want people to be
comfortable around you and you, and you want them to be like,

(16:28):
oh, I want to go where this person is, right?
Did you have earlier iterations of that personality that maybe I
missed Few. People I still admire to this
day that I still hang out with. One of them is back from the
globe. When I first joined the industry
as well, there were just a very few people who were just kind of
there, like I wouldn't say even now, 2 point Pat's a very close

(16:49):
friend of mine. If I tell him, hey man, like you
actually helped me out, he'll belike, I didn't do shit.
But it's just recognizing how these people actually impacted
what I would do at the time. And again, I was what, like
2526? At the time, I had no idea what
I was doing. I was still in college, but
meeting people at that. And also there's another person

(17:11):
called Shanol who had a beer distribution company called
Taipan and then Toby who'd started the Globe as well.
I had conversations with them and they were very supportive.
And I was like, fuck, I want to,I want to be around these
people. It's so cool, you know?
And I still hang out with them. And now they're like my closest
friends and we travel together. So I, there's certain points in
my life where I still think like, this is so cool.

(17:32):
I'm here with that. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, you just like kind of come
back to like, that first, like childish, kind of like
admiration. It's like, oh shit, we're
friends now like. We don't have to and most of the
conversations we have it's I mean, we do goof off a lot, but
there's always learning on both sides.
Yeah, sometimes I'll say something and yeah, either
channel be like, oh, I didn't know about that.
And it's so interesting. So it's that kind of dynamic

(17:55):
that I look for in people when Iwhen I see them.
Yeah. How did the how did that that
poets or talk parallel to that poets, but also the quiz master
thing because that's also reallyinteresting.
Like obviously it's in the F&B space mostly, but it's such a
different skill. I don't know if you would agree
if it's different skill or similar to like sales in a way.

(18:18):
I I think it's similar enough. Also the quizzes started because
of that as well. It was at the Globe and it was
drink COVID and and he said do you know anyone who can host
quizzes for me? Things have been in quiet and I
said I'll do it. Yeah, just for the fun of it.
Yeah, sure, why not? And he said, yeah, I'll pay you.
I was like, I'll do it even morenow.
Yeah. So it started off a little bit

(18:39):
like that. I've always been into quiz shows
and stuff like that so I thoughtit would be interesting.
I used to go to the one at Flaming Franco's and there's a
gentleman Chris, Chris Brown, brown guy.
Yeah, the other brown guy, yes, yes, I get confused for him a
lot. Well, you don't look alike at
all except for the brownies, butI don't know.
Also, we did not talk about thisbeforehand, but I don't know if
he's like a competitor that likeyou will you don't want to like

(18:59):
talk shit or whatever or if you.I don't know him that well.
Yeah, OK. We've had a few interactions.
I met him all. Right, let's talk shit, OK, All
right, No, he's probably dude like.
I don't know enough about him totalk shit about.
Him, right, Right. Yeah.
But he seems very established inthat space.
He's really good. He runs a.
Fun. He has a voice as well.
Like when I like they had the kind of a, a distinctive like

(19:19):
kind of voice. Yeah, yeah.
Kind of commanding. I've not seen you do it.
Like I've not been to a quiz that you run before.
So the way I tell people my quizzes are quiz runs, I mean
it, Chris, when he does it offline, I've seen him at Soho
House before as well. Yeah, super fun quiz.
He has obviously worked really hard to create that structure.
And my quizzes are goofy, man. I don't put it.

(19:44):
It's wrong to say I don't put inthat much effort.
Yeah, but I try to keep it a little more casual.
Right? Like we play silly games in the
middle of rounds. Nice.
I've had people come up to me and say I'm not coming to your
quiz because it's it's too silly.
Right. Yeah.
You want that company to win? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tell. People like no shit, yes, and
I'll be like, well, you can fuckoff that you're not like fun.

(20:06):
Like yeah, what's wrong with like making a paper airplane and
throwing it man? If you don't like that,
something's wrong with. You there's something wrong.
Yeah, exactly. And I'm going to cut this clip
and to promote your next quizzes.
If you're not fun, you can fuck off.
Yeah. Pretty much, man, we do stuff
like, you know, limbo and I'll make them do planks and this is
something to get them out of their seats.
And yeah, you know, everyone becomes like a child for at

(20:26):
least like 5 minutes and. That's actually what I really
admire. Like one of the many things that
attracted me to stand up as wellas that, that the essence of
just like making people laugh, like seeing people giggle.
It's just like they're, and you're not really thinking of
much when you're laughing. You're just thinking of the
thing that made you laugh in this like 5 seconds or whatever.
100% yeah, and it's the same thing.

(20:46):
Agree as well. At least for me hosting quiz,
when I get the microphone, there's this, there's a power.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, for sure.
You must get it a lot. Yeah.
People fucking Heckle you. You like suddenly have locked
and loaded. You're ready.
You're so witty suddenly. Yeah, I mean comics, and that's
a very common response from comics who get heckled is like,
I have a microphone and you don't.
Yeah, Yeah, exactly. So ready.

(21:08):
Like, what are you doing? Yeah.
You'd be surprised. I get to Heckle that quiz.
Sometimes you do. Sometimes I'll ask questions
people like that's wrong. I'm like shut up.
Oh shit, I wrote this or my usual responses.
That was not the answer I was looking for.
Right. Nice.
You might be right. Yeah.
And I'll be like, come talk to me after the quiz.
And then and very rarely people come up to me and be like, oh, I

(21:28):
want to talk to you about that question.
I go quiz is over man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Don't. Even have anything better to
drink so we but. It's actually really interesting
that we have a lot of overlaps in that space because again,
you're kind of doing an act in away.
And you know, you're, you have to be, you have so many, you
have to have so many skills ready.
Like, you know, you have to think of your feet.

(21:48):
You have to keep it witty and like not too serious.
You know you want people to likeyou and you have to keep talking
even though you don't. You want to like you have to
fill it, fill air, right? I mean, there, there are days
where you just had a really shitday.
Yeah. Long, long day.
And, you know, you just want to go home and, yeah, curl up and
cry in the shower. But then, you know, you have to

(22:10):
host a quiz for 60 people. Yeah.
And but that's the thing. As soon as I get there, I'll
just have a glass of water and go to the bathroom, wash my face
as soon as that microphone hits my hand.
Yeah. Boom.
You know you're. Again, this is something we have
we have in common. And so many comedians.
Vivek talked about it at length as well, many episodes about
how, yeah, once you're in like, show mode and honestly, like,

(22:32):
you know, it's, it's that thing.At least I'll speak from
personal experience. Like, you know, like, oh, you're
just up there. You're trying to do your best
with your job. But it's also almost 100% of
time fixes my mood. Oh yeah, 100.
Percent yeah, you can be like, you know, had a fight with
whatever and you know, you're worrying about your whatever
visa or some shit and you go on stage you're like.
Makes me happy. It makes me happy, yeah.

(22:54):
And again with the quizzes, I think so.
Obviously when I first started, it was only at the Globe, but I
think that's something I'm trying to focus on more now,
like that brand is building. Yeah.
So I. Usually do the plugs at the end
but how do how do people find Like how do how do people book
you for quizzes or how do peoplefind where you are hosting
quizzes? So currently I host at the Globe

(23:17):
twice a month and then I'll do one in Discovery Bay at this
place called the Chippy once a month.
We have many listeners in Discovery.
Based, if you would know, Chippyis a great place and Craig and
Mia, his daughter who owned the Chippy.
Craig actually is a regular at the Globe.
And he was asking Pat, who hostsyour quizzes.
And then it was just kind of serendipitous and it happened.

(23:41):
And then after that I just started hosting a bingo and quiz
night at Feeny's. Cool.
It was super random and funny, but it was great fun.
Is it like? But that's obviously on the same
St. as filming Franco's no? But Feeney's one shy.
OK. Yeah.
So you don't want to like get too close.
Yeah, I mean, again, it's like Isaid, I've I haven't spoken to
Chris very directly. I'm pretty.

(24:03):
He knows I exist. Right, right, he knows.
Is it? Is that like really you 2 are
the 2 main quiz masters in the whole city now?
I In terms of numbers, I think yes, cuz Chris also does the
Phoenix and a couple of other places.
But my quiz expertise and knowledge actually came in from
another friend of mine who's also a quiz master.

(24:24):
This guy called Mark Swinkles. I call him Swinks
affectionately. He's just one of the most
amazing people I've met. Man, I'm thinking now like I'm
sure Vivek can execute this better than me.
I should get you and Chris on camera and we quiz both of you
and we just have the ultimate quiz master off.
I'll here's a little I think Chris might agree with me.

(24:47):
Quiz Masters people assume they're smart people.
We're fucking off. We're just dumb.
Yeah man, we just Google shit. Of course, I mean, where else
would you get like, you know, the population of El Salvador?
Who? The fuck knows that no one
knows? Yeah, But yeah, there, there are
a lot of shit like that. Where people assume we know I've
actually attended a few quizzes and I've just been like, I have

(25:08):
nothing to contribute to this quiz.
I'm. Sorry guys, I attended.
Yeah, the ones that do Flaming Franco's.
And you know, obviously that's the whole point of the quiz.
It's like you get a group and you share knowledge.
True. Like I can do like a lot of the
football stuff, for example, butthen they get into pop culture
and I'm so fucking dumb. See.
That's why I'm good. Maybe we should start a team.
You do sports, Yes, I'll do all the pop culture.

(25:29):
Stuff, but also sports is just football.
It's crazy. If there's a football quiz, I'm
bringing you with me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Please. But OK, so that poet is has
started, I think from my memory maybe two years ago or so.
Yes, a little. Bit current location, yeah.
Yeah, year and a half. That poet also just went from
zero to 600 very quickly. It's it's one of the I'm not

(25:50):
saying this because you're my friend.
Like I don't even like go out that much because I stand up and
I'm just busy. But it's whenever I see a friend
in the neighborhood, they're usually going to that post for a
late one. That's actually, I hear that a
lot. You guys are the late one.
Well, we closed. One, yeah, but we're also, I'm
personally very, extremely proudof the place and what it's done.

(26:13):
It's something. So the idea came from Nikita who
who runs the Old man and me and Hammer are like mates.
And you were also running the old man.
No, no, no, I was never directlyinvolved with the old man.
It was just Nikita. But he had this idea to open a
bar called Dead Poets and all the music we have in common that
we listen to realized they're dead musicians and he just

(26:36):
wanted to create like a community bar.
And then after that, Sasha is best friend and also someone
I've known for a while. For me personally, it's like a
little F&B legend. Yeah, it's worked in a few
places. So it just all kind of came
together. We worked our asses off and
somehow raised the money. But you also have the sauce,

(26:57):
guys. So sauce.
Yeah. So Sean wanted to open up a
second location with sauce. Yeah.
So give, yeah, give people the background of what sauce?
What sauce so. Sauce is a really cool
barbershop in Hong Kong. They used to be on Elgin
Unfortunately they just closed their.
Main location, yeah. So now they're only at dead
poets. So they open during the day.

(27:19):
So Dead Poets during the day is a Barber shop.
Yes, yeah. And a coffee shop we do.
We do really good coffee. Wow.
OK, OK, finally I have a reason to come.
We we have good Wi-Fi, we have good coffee.
OK, damn. OK.
And a. Super chill spot and.
And you allow dogs, obviously. We're very pet friendly.
Yes I I personally don't want cats in the bar because I'm
highly allergic and I have a phobia of cats.

(27:39):
You told me that only yesterday I would have just just for the
fuck of it. I would have, totally.
My neighbor upstairs has three cats.
I would have just dragged one down, No?
Please don't. Just for the rates.
I would be I would be very anxious and sweating the whole
time just watching this cat. That would make me very happy.
No, it wouldn't, but OK. But OK, so that poets there is a
few things. I have been obviously the bar

(28:01):
many times. There's a few things that I
think are really interesting, especially starting from the
industrial kind of feel to especially to the bar area.
Who's How did that come about? It was basically a collective.
Nick basically wanted everythingto be very industrial.
That's one of his initial concepts.

(28:21):
We gave to the designer, the designer who basically designed
the place and came up with all of that.
He added a bunch of few touches.My input was I need with green
somewhere in the bar. OK, So what we did is for the
toilet doors we just put green right?
Just to make you happy. A very specific.
Green. I searched the Pantone and yeah,
he showed me a bunch of colors. What's why?

(28:43):
Why did you? Like that green?
I know it's one of my favorite colors.
Actually, I might. I might relay that to maybe your
Muslim upbringing. There's a lot of green.
Don't do that shit man. Yeah.
I think it might be so. I don't know.
It's just the way I think about it.
It's just, it's just very common.
So a lot of mosques. And stuff have I'm.

(29:05):
Really trying. You're trying, You're pushing.
It OK? No, it's just design.
I mean, we obviously all worked very hard on how the place
should look and how to organize it.
I remember initially when we were planning and designing the
place, Nick, Sasha and I, the the designer basically gave us a
huge piece of paper and said draw the bar by scale, right?

(29:27):
So we went to the Globe and laiddown the sheet on the floor and
drew the bar at scale. That's amazing on the.
Floor, yeah, and all the staff. Of the globe were walking around
thinking what the fuck are you? So we're designing our bar.
Yeah, it's just like, yeah, it looks.
Like a bunch of nerds or like guys who are just like on
something, they're like, we're designing a little fun.
It was, yeah. That's.
Why I said that? It went from zero to 600 very

(29:48):
quickly and at the time we obviously didn't have any staff.
So it was just Sasha and Nick and myself.
Yeah, all three of us were, I think, doing 1819 hour days.
Wow. At least a couple of weeks we
had planned when we do our grandopening, but we didn't have our
liquor license yet. Yep.
Story a very common story, but we'd.
Also invited this special guest to come and do our grand

(30:10):
opening. Pretty big deal.
He was in Hong Kong, is a guest.Bartender.
Yeah. So this guy.
Called Dan Nevsky, he's quite aninfluential figure in the the
scene globally. He's quite quite well known and
he turns out to be really good friends with Nick.
And he said yeah, of course I'llcome to your opening.
So everything was prepped and and December 7th we decided even

(30:31):
if we don't get our liquor license, we'll just do a private
party. Sure, yeah, we'll close it.
December 6th, 5:00 PM We got ourliquor license.
Amazing. The.
Stars aligned like. Things were happening, yeah.
But yeah, the burnout, just real.
It was very exhausting. Yeah.
I can imagine both, Nick. And I would.
Go and do our day jobs. And he was still running the
old, He's still running the old man.
Oh my God. I'd go to the office and then in

(30:52):
the evening and you actually physically.
A lot of the times have to be inthe office or go out and meet
clients and stuff on and off. Yeah, but most of it, it's quite
like moving around the city meeting people.
Yeah. So you're not really like.
Work quote UN quote worker from home where you can be at at that
quotes and do your other job. It's more face to face right
yes, exactly. If I could, I'd invite.
All these managers come to my house and hang out with me so I

(31:13):
can talk to them. But yeah, I have to go to them.
That's yeah, that's. A struggle.
And it's also. It was quite.
Yeah. It's a lot of juggling, right?
Yeah. And.
That's why I think at a point I realized I needed a break.
That's where we are now. We are basically had just I
don't know if this is public information.
Yeah, yeah. So you have just left the
depends when this episode. Comes out.
Well, it comes out. In from the time of recording,

(31:37):
it comes out in one to two days.Oh, OK, yeah.
I've just given it my name. OK.
Yeah. All right.
That's yeah, my last day of. Work will be May 31st.
OK. It's a little bit, yeah.
Bittersweet. Yeah.
I've been with Hong Kong Beer Cofive years.
Yeah, it's a long time. And I'm sure you have you have
contributed to many people getting drunk during COVID,
especially I always. Joke that my job is to get

(31:59):
people drunk and I'm very good at my job.
Yes. On both sides when I'm a.
Dead bullets. I try to get everyone to drink
because, yeah. And then on the beer side, I
just want to make sure people are drinking good beer.
Yeah, that powers is mostly. Cocktails.
Yeah, mostly cocktails we also do.
Wine and now we're doing a lot of collabs with beer companies.
We try to. Obviously you have your own

(32:20):
network. From the many, yeah.
That's that's still there. We try to keep changing as much
as possible. So not try not to like fixate on
one thing and become 11 bar. This is where I would try.
I'll turn a little bit into, youknow, a classic journalist in a
way where I can as something that I am personally, I don't

(32:41):
know anything about, but a lot of people listening would do.
So tell me about like the designthat goes into like the
cocktails, Like how do you make that OK?
Something I know nothing about, but a lot of listeners would be
interested. I I know nothing.
About it either so I learned everything about cocktails after
opening that boots really because you're a beer guy I'm.
A beer guy. I had no prior knowledge.

(33:02):
I I drink cocktails, yes. I can tell you what's in it.
Yeah, but before Dead Poets I had no idea because again, I had
many. Friends, I had a friend from
Canada like 6-7 months ago and she knew about dead poets just
by like she looked something up or whatever and it was like
obviously next to my house. I went down and met her and she
was like, these drinks are amazing.
I'm not saying this to like promote anything, but she came

(33:25):
from Canada, found this bar somehow someone told her about
it, but she was like blown away.That's so cool.
Yeah. So which is actually why I'm
asking like how, how does that we so.
In terms of how we do our cocktails, Nick's basically the
brainchild behind all of him. He is the, as we call him, the
maestro, so he'll have an idea. So basically our menu is based

(33:46):
on dead celebrities. Our first iteration was all
musicians, so we had Jim Morrison, we had Jazz, Joplin
and John Lennon. Nick did a lot of research on
these musicians to see what theylike drinking, what their lives
are like. So the the philosophy.
Is dead musicians favorite drinks in a way yeah.
Or like inspired by? Yeah, inspired, for example.

(34:07):
Jim Morrison was an old fashioned.
It was a mental fashion and we called it the whiskey bar and
stuff like that. And then the next version we did
was all actors and actresses. So try to make it very
cinematic, Oscar themed. Are we doing comedians at?
Some point because I can give I can help you with that.
We did have a few. Comedians on the list, we had
Robin Williams. I mean, obviously he's Robin

(34:28):
Williams. Yes, comedians are in the cards.
Yeah, we are thinking about it. If I did, I, I constantly have a
running list of different peoplethat I want to put on the menu.
Yeah, Mitch Hedberg is on that. That's exactly that was.
Going to be my number one guy. I mean, if you want to have
heroin on the menu, that's definitely it's perfect.
I don't think I can get away. With it, let me call it the

(34:49):
heroin and. Make it a drink.
I don't know. That's and everything.
Also might be a little dark given that this is what killed
him, so maybe not true. He would appreciate it though.
For sure, yeah. And every time we serve the
drink, we there's a one liner with it.
Oh, that's. A great idea honestly.
I want to eat rice. When I'm really hungry because I
can eat thousand of something ifI want to eat. 2000 of

(35:11):
something. That's a classic, Mitch.
Hedberg. Yeah, it's one of my Mitch
Hedberg. Yeah, if you guys don't know
Mitch Hedberg, please just stop this.
This is Mitch Hedberg's more interesting than this.
Just go find them, man. It's goofy.
Yeah, it's exactly. It's goofy.
It's like it's just for like, for that simple pleasures, like
I'm trying to make you laugh. Just like there is nothing
behind it. True.
OK. There is also Lenny Bruce,

(35:32):
obviously. Classic.
Of course. Rodney Dangerfield is another
one that I read. Dangerfield.
Yeah, Dangerfield. I think would be he's he's very
audio visual. I think his face looks funny.
So people laugh at his face. Yeah, but I put George Carlin on
it. Nice.
And. It'd just be a shot of fucking
whiskey. That's it.

(35:53):
Yeah. Yeah.
Here's your cocktail. This is George Con.
Exactly. Yeah, that's the.
George Conner, exactly what you said.
I don't care. You pay what you want.
Exactly. That would be the.
Just take your. Fucking drink.
Shut the fuck up. Stop being a pussy.
Yeah, just. Abuse people when they order
something. Since you run the like, you kind
of are the boss there. Yeah, I would never.

(36:13):
Call myself the boss, well, but.You I guess technically or Co
founder or maybe 1. Of the owners, sure.
Yeah, one of the owners. Like, do you feel because that
poets again, it's quite a popular bar, especially in the
central area, Do you feel the responsibility to to like, kind
of like live up to that? Like I need to keep it fresh.
I need to like put out a face, as you said, like even when you

(36:34):
don't feel like it, do you feel that pressure a little bit
sometimes? When we do events or I have a
lot of my friends who who go to that poets and say, oh, I'm
being a big group and if I'm busy, obviously I can't be
there. But sometimes they're like, oh,
it'll be great if you're there. Yeah.
Then that pressure is always with you.
It's like, oh, I know this is somewhat important for me.
Yeah. I really want to go and make

(36:55):
sure they're having a good time.But it's also like the kind of
people we have working at Depo. And so you would trust them so
much. Yeah.
You know, even if I'm not there or even if Sasha's not there,
Nick's not there. Like it's going to be the same.
Yeah. The only difference is we'll
obviously drink with them. Yeah, of course.
But. Think that's the good part about
the kind of people we have and who we work with.

(37:16):
The team's so good that we just leave them alone to do their
jobs and which is obviously they're.
Really good at as well. They're really good at it.
I mean we. Have so you don't need to
micromanage. Anybody.
It's just like when you go, you're just hanging out as well.
Quite the obvious I. Personally think the hardest
person working in any team should be either the owners or
whoever the bosses are. Yeah, it's just automatically,

(37:38):
Yeah, fills in like if you work hard enough, like everyone wants
to follow. If you start being lazy and
ordering people around, yeah, noones going to do shit.
Yeah, on that. Note, and this is completely out
of context, but, you know, to your point, when we moved these
shows that we did this week for jogging summers, we moved them
to the house. Long story, but one of the most

(37:59):
impressive things I've seen is Sharon hosted GM of so house,
who I've never met before. I used to work with Anna, her
assistant GM and Anna's on maternity leave.
So Sharon kind of like, you know, took over my, my, my
shows. But for both nights when the
shows where Sharon was behind the bar, if you actually don't
know who Sharon is, you would think she's a bar back.

(38:20):
Yeah. Yeah.
And she was just like, she wasn't like being a manager
looking. I've seen people ask for like,
extra salt on their popcorn and she's like, OK, yeah, yeah.
She's just like doing everythingherself.
Yeah. And it's it's exactly to your
point, like, oh, that's the hardest working person here is
that GM. And if you don't know who she
is, you'll just think she's bar staff.
True. There's.
There's a bunch of people in Hong Kong I know that way, where

(38:44):
they don't have any errors aboutthem.
They just want to get the job done.
They just want to make sure people are having a good time.
Yeah. And it's because of that a lot
of these places are successful. Yes.
I, I don't want to name a lot ofnames now, otherwise we'll just
I mean, if you're saying. Something good, then go ahead.
Yeah, Yeah. I'll go back.
To like that, right? Like that's like been in the

(39:04):
industry for so long. And I've, I, I remember 1
instance a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting and talking to him
and he was off. He was about to go home.
Yeah. And I think next to me, someone
ordered something and Pat was distracted and he kept looking
behind me and he said, excuse me, I'll be back.
He went to this guy, picked up his glass and said, I'm really
sorry, I've refilled that for you.
It doesn't look right to me. And he picked up the beer,

(39:27):
wasn't right just by looking at it, came back and poured him a
fresh mind and gave it back to him.
Amazing. That kind of detail is something
you, you, if you see it happening, yeah, you go, I wanna
do that, you know, like I wanna do that.
That's that should be the standard.
That should be the standard, yeah.
Like you wanna surround yourselfby people who hold themselves up
to that standard. Yeah, yeah.
Because in whether it's in your industry or food or

(39:49):
entertainment, it's so easy to also show up and just do
whatever. And some people would show up
like an audience or someone who is coming to eat or drink.
They will show up like not for them to come after me.
But Bar Pacific is a good example.
I know they're like, you know, whatever gang owned whatever,
but like Bar Pacific is that like there is no fucking
standard. True.
It's just like, you know, I'll tell you something about bar.
Pacific. The one opposite Soul House.

(40:11):
Yeah, fucking great. It's really the place.
Is amazing, really good and mainly.
Because of the staff who work there.
This is super fun, but it also. Like random breaks in the middle
and do KTV. Like do karaoke on their own
karaoke thing. Yeah, go play darts.
Walking indoors, there should be, there should be a group of
old Chinese uncles sitting in the back clapping for you on the

(40:32):
cold side. No, honestly.
Yeah, but that's. Actually, almost part of its
charm is that, but you know, when you're talking about this,
the standard of service, it doesn't kind of, it doesn't
exist, right? True to true.
I think that's important. Yeah, Hong Kong is a good
example of that. The level of hospitality in Hong
Kong I I haven't seen in a lot of places, right?

(40:53):
That stuff is always there. And once you go in, you becoming
a regular only takes you 2-3 visits.
Like you go three times the samebar, they'll know you.
Yep. And they'll treat you like
regular, like, hey, we've got something special for you.
Here's a shot with us or anything, right that the
welcoming people in is I think is very Hong Kong in a way.

(41:13):
Yeah, it is. A lot of bars do that.
Well, it's also because. You know, even if you're looking
at it purely from business perspective, you have to, again,
you have to stand out. There's a lot of good products
and there's a lot of good, you know?
Yeah. Like our my buddy Sharbel, who
runs Beirut Bistro up with three, three other brothers.
He was a guest on the podcast. If you're listening to this and
have a listen to Sharbel's episode, just search by Ruth on

(41:36):
our search thing and you'll findthe episode.
Fascinating guy. His particular skill is that if
you have been there one time at 4:00 AM for 5 minutes and he
told Sharbel anything about you.Yeah.
And you come. Back.
Six years later, he was like, oh, you moved to Vegas?
How is that going? That man's got a memory, dude.
He's got a he got. An insane memory, but it's that
personal thing. It's like you're not just

(41:57):
another customer. Yeah, and it just.
Makes you feel like you're part of that community.
Yes, obviously for us in depots,we, we get a lot of industry
people come through, yeah. Or just like, hang out just in
our vicinity, just in Soho. There's so many different bars.
Yeah, we all hang out at each other's bars.
I was going to ask you about this.
Because, again, all my references are pretty much

(42:17):
comedy. So for us, it's so small that
it's like impossible to have, like, territorial competition.
Like, let's say Jason Stricklandwas a common friend between the
two of us. If Jason and I are producing
different shows and like, we're like, oh, if you work with
Jason, you can't work with me. We're both going to die, right?
It's just like, it's goofy. Do venues do that?

(42:39):
To. Some extent when it comes to
headliners, the reason being like, if I am bringing in this
headliner and I'm paying, I'm taking the risk on them
basically and then someone else just booked them.
That's silly. That's just bad business, right?
But I'm talking about the local roster.
Like Jason and I have to be friends.
Even if deep down we don't want to.
There's a handful of. Comics in Hong Kong, yeah like

(43:00):
it's it's still a very at least what I've noticed it's it's
quite tight knit community, yes.And when you guys do shows,
everyone's on the show of course, because there is like.
Of the working comics, I mean, Ican name them like of the
working comics are like regular goods, reliable.
They're like, I think less than 15.
Yeah, like it's a crazy small number.
But going back to to what you'resaying, like you all hang out

(43:22):
each other's bars. Do you feel like it's more like
a a healthy competition thing when you're like, yeah, OK, so
it really is it's. And also the the amount of
support you get from the industry is insane.
Yeah, even when we first opened as well, the first ever event or
guest shift that we did was honky tonks like Jake and Edgar.

(43:43):
They were like, dude, we want todo the first event.
Yeah, it's like that kind of support, you know, good food and
and we're always there and so weall hang out.
How do you guys this? Is where maybe we're going to a
little bit of a riskier questions.
How do you guys push back on thebigger companies, bigger dogs in
the market because you guys are basically independent Yeah,

(44:03):
right. How do you how do you you know
my? I actually, Nick and I have
spoken about this before, is just we always go put your head
down and do the work. That's how we do it, right?
Like we try not to get too bothered by what's going around.
Obviously, there's a lot of things that go on in the

(44:23):
industry and stuff like, oh, whyare you not part of this, let's
say awards or why are you not part of, you know, like, we
don't care, man. We're pretty happy where we are,
yeah. And if you've been to Deadpool,
you'll know. It's just.
I think it's the same approach when I do quizzes.
It's just casual enough where itdoesn't feel like a fancy

(44:44):
cocktail bar where you have to drink and drink a certain way.
Yes, yes, we're pretty relaxed. And yeah, you don't have to like
if you. Bring a date and you don't have
to like, oh, I brought you here to impress you.
It's like I brought you here to see who you really are.
Yeah, exactly. It's.
Yeah. We we get a lot of people who
come in on dates, which is really cool because.
Like, yeah, this is not a pretentious place.
Just be yourself and we'll see, like if we get affordable,

(45:05):
right? Like.
One of the main things that I think all three of us had in
mind is because we used to go out drinking a lot.
Yeah. So we'd we'd go have beers and
sometimes we'll feel like a wine.
Sometimes we want a cocktail, and I kept thinking in, at least
in southern Hong Kong, there's no place where I can go have a
good beer. Yeah, there's no place where I
can. Well, I would push.
Back on that, Craftisimo, I meanCraftisimo.
But that's the point I'm trying to make.

(45:26):
I can go to Craftisimo, but whatif I want to have a cocktail?
That's true. There is.
Yeah, I mean, or a glass of wine.
I can't do that hard. That's really hard.
Yes, yeah. I agree.
So that was the idea with that. Poet saying like, we'll have
everything for everyone. Yes, hey.
You want a beer and. It is.
Affordable, I would have to say for like, you know everything, a
nice looking, yeah, less than 100 bucks.
That's that's actually. Pretty crazy.

(45:46):
We try to. Keep that and obviously on, on
business side, we, we know what we're doing.
Yeah, a lot of people when we first opened they're like, Are
you sure about this? What?
Do you guys talk about? Like, Are you sure of like,
yeah, yeah. But we're like, no, no, no, we
know what we're doing. Yeah, it's OK.
But that doesn't mean we skim oningredients for ship, right?
Yeah. Everything's still, of course,

(46:07):
high quality. Yeah.
But we just know the way we do it will make us money.
Yeah. Plus, we're lucky enough that we
have people in the industry and the community that back up the
place with events. We do one get shift a month
where we invite someone from outside of Hong Kong.
That's really cool. Yeah, people obviously will.
You'll have the show in the shownotes, you will have the

(46:30):
Instagram for Dead Poets and everything else you give me.
I'll just put in the description, but on Aberdeen St.
and you so going back to the thequiz, because I also find that
fascinating. So you now have like no, no more
beer, let's say after a month orso.
So you want to how do you want to structure your life after

(46:53):
that, given that you have been doing like beer for the last
five years And now you are a quizmaster, which is also at
night mostly almost all the time.
And at night you also need a dead poets.
But then you have that dead air during the day.
How are you going to reconfigureall of this?
It's a very good question. It's something I haven't thought

(47:14):
about yet. Well, you just think about.
It together I'm still figuring it out.
Like I said, it's still pretty fresh, but what I want to do is
take a break, take a sabbatical for a bit.
I want to go back to India. My my sister is having a baby.
Oh nice. Thank you.
So I'm going. To be an uncle, Yeah.

(47:35):
Which still hasn't hit me yet. Yeah.
But I want to go and just spend some time with her first in June
and then maybe travel a bit in July.
Yeah. And now that I don't have to
apply for annual leave, yeah, I have the freedom to travel a
little bit. So I want to do that before I
come back and decide what I wantto do next.
But you're pretty set. On at least these two paths,

(47:55):
which is Dead Poets and it's development and also the quiz.
So the quiz is something I'm. Trying to obviously build on and
do more. I'm going to start doing a new
venue next month. It'll be inside one Crushed
Wines that just asked me to hostthat quiz as well.
Yes, that's. Steve.
Oh, no, crushed wines. And I was thinking of there is

(48:17):
another bar that is, oh, that's primal, Yeah.
Primal is a great bar. Yes, yes, I love Stevie's.
I was just. Thinking of that, Yes.
What a fucking legend. Yeah, Steve, another another
legend in Hong Kong. Yeah, you should get.
Him on I, I would get him. On he's he's out of his mind in
a great way. He's great but but also one of
the. Nicest people I've I've met.
Absolutely. I've only interacted with him a

(48:37):
few times but the first time I went to primal through a
colleague of mine, he was passing by and he said dude I
found this really cool hole in the wall it's great bar they
haven't opened yet we should go there and went there and just
sat there till closing. And I went back the same week
and two of my friends showed up and we just sat there again.
So I know him from Chaotic. Hong Kong expats, because he's
very active on their safe keys. And he's just like, you know,

(49:00):
post like the most random shit or comments or whatever.
And when you opened the bar, we all showed up and, you know,
held a couple of events there aswell.
And he's like, such an interesting guy.
He is. Yeah.
But he's got really good taste. He's got a good palette.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He he, you know, he can speak for himself.
I feel like he opened the bar aslike a neighborhood kind of bar,
but he knows exactly what he's doing.

(49:22):
It's not like, oh, you can just grab an Asahi here.
No, no, no. Like, actually we ate food.
The food was excellent. You know, the drinks.
Like he thought of everything. Yeah, yeah.
No, he's a great guy. I.
Definitely like hang out there more now that I have more free
time. So yeah, if you're in sign.
Point or even if you're not, go to primal booze and feed is the

(49:43):
full name. Yes, and right next.
To his crushed right exactly there.
You go so crushed. Actually, my friend Kat works
there. Yeah, Kat is the reason.
Why I got the quiz? There you go, we all know each
this. Is now just like this is Hong
Kong man we. All know each other, yes.
So Kat Long. Shout out she she works at
crushed as well. So you're saying that you're
adding the the she she's the onewho brought you in.

(50:04):
She it was. Her idea, I think as a team,
they were discussing doing events at Crushed and Quiz was
one of the things that came up and I'll see Kat messaged me and
said, Hey, I want you to do thisquiz ready.
What dates do you have? And it was just that like no
initial thing. She's like, you're doing the
quiz. That's it.
Like here's the thing. So I had a meeting with them
last week and again, they've they've known my quizzes and

(50:26):
they said they want to bring that to crush and a little bit
smaller, which I'm very excited about.
So there are a few more places I'm in talks with to kind of do
quizzes, but I'll have to do 30 quizzes.
Well, that's actually where I. Was I want to bring you into my
work a little bit because I don't I know you enough to know
that I don't really think you know what you're signing up for.

(50:49):
No, I don't. Yeah.
I really don't think. So because forget about that
post for a second. Like it's, you know, it's
successful in its own whatever, you're now the big boss.
You're just looking at the numbers and, and making money,
whatever, right? Put that aside.
You are signing up to be a full time entertainment entertainer
in a way, or a performer. Yeah.
And if you're doing it at the scale, you're actually doing it

(51:09):
most more than most of the standup comedians working in Hong
Kong. This is true, yeah.
It's it's it's. A very gruelling job.
You're basically becoming. Yeah, like a a bit of a touring
act inside the city, pretty much, Yeah.
So. If I do add I think these two
more venues I'll essentially be doing 7 quizzes a month.
That's a lot of prep, my friend.It's a lot, and again.

(51:30):
Like each venue has to be a different quiz.
Yeah, because you want people, the demographics.
Are quite different. Yes, the globe is something I
take a lot of liberties with because that a lot.
Because they're your friends, Yeah.
But. I've been doing it for the past
four years of the globe. So it's like he knows my format.
Yes, he knows. Tell me.
Tell me. About some of the the more wacko

(51:50):
things you've executed there we've done.
Limbo ones, I think after round 3 or 4, I did a bunch of serious
rounds. I did history and geography, and
then suddenly I go for three points, come and do limbo,
whoever wins. Like everyone's so confused and
they're like, what the fuck is he on about?
And I know it's three points, man.
You won't do it or not. And you'll see a bunch of very

(52:11):
serious quizzers get up and actually come into limbo.
Lovely. I love.
That they loosen up a bit. You know, of course they give
out shots and we that's the whole point.
Almost all of them, even if theyare working in whatever
industry, no one, again, as we said, no one in Hong Kong is not
working hard. Otherwise you're not going to be
here. You will not survive.
Would you want to go sit at a? Pub and just be really quiet and

(52:32):
write shit down. Exactly.
You want to hang out with your friends, you want to talk, you
want to drink. And you hear that, Chris?
OK. No, no, this is not.
I don't know why we're bashing Chris.
It just be talking shit I do I do want.
To go meet him and be like, hey man, I just want to give you a
heads up. This episode is going to come
out. It made me do it.

(52:52):
There's no video here. It's just me staring shit up.
He's. Holding a gun, man.
Exactly. No, but I yes, you're right it.
Has to be a lot more. Interactive, right?
Yes, I've been to so many quizzes where it's just like
this really tired old man is reading out questions.
I was going to say actually this.
Is not even a joke. I agree with you like because we
do open mic sometimes at bar 109and across the street there's

(53:13):
Churchill and you run those quizzes.
It's that I don't even know who runs it anymore, but it's just
like an old guy, I think, with Churchill's.
It's it's aim for the a demographic I understand aim for
serious British old. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, for them, there's nothing wrong.
But like, to your point, it's exactly that.
It's not like, you know, just going through the motions.
It's like old British guys, likemaybe it works for them, but

(53:34):
it's just kind of boring. Yeah.
I mean like like. You said earlier as well with
the people in the audience, or at least in quiz with the teams
like you make it accessible enough where they can talk to
you. Yes.
Like it's not like, shut the fuck up and listen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I talk to.
People at times, and I'll make them sing songs and make them do
bird noises and shit like that in the middle.

(53:54):
OK, your quizzes. Sound super fun to wrap this up
tell people well first where you're doing the quizzes that
that are confirmed now or or anycalendar any any month.
So the globe would. Be the first and third Tuesday
of the month and then once a month at the Chippy Discovery.
Dates vary, but it's usually on a Wednesday and then Thursday.

(54:18):
Once a month at Phoenie's, whichis a bingo in quiz night.
I call it quiz night, but it's people shouting answers at me
and I'm throwing shots at them. It's a lot looser at the
Phoenie's. And this is Bingo's one.
Chai, Yes. Yeah.
Phoenix. One Chai, yeah.
Yeah, it's bingo. It's not.
Even like, yeah, it's like, yeah, it's bingo.
It's basically like old folks home games, but in like a super
fun way. But it's a boozy bingo.

(54:38):
It's a boozy. Being it's fucked up.
Yes, Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I do that.
And it's super fun. I love working with the Phoenix
guys. And yeah, starting May I'll be
Quizmaster at Crushed once a month on Wednesdays as well.
Nice. Plus adding.
A few more. And then that poets.
Is obviously the main stable thing.
There's always something going on here as well.

(54:59):
Is this the? Part of the episode where I do
all my plugs. Yes, yes, shout out to my.
Mom. Yeah, exactly.
You're the mom I want to be. Mom.
I'm a radio. This is actually.
At my neighbor's house. Yes, at your neighbor's.
House where you can get your ownWi-Fi here, that's true, yeah.
So, dead poets, we're open everyday.

(55:20):
We never close, really. I didn't know.
That not even like Monday night off nothing.
We're open Christmas. New Year's Day, Chinese New
Year. I love this we.
Only close when. We need a team break, yeah, but
apart from that, we're open whenthe whole team every day.
When the whole team quits and like, all right, well, I guess
everyone needs a break. I think the last time we closed
we did a Team Phuket trip, so we're closed for three days.

(55:42):
Oh, that's awesome. So team date.
I I didn't go because my password expired.
That's another story. Yeah, well, we'll get.
To the you don't know, I, I, I hope I told you, but there is
Patreon after this for 1500% yeah.
So we're going to be a bit more looser with the Patreon.
So just so you know, listeners know that Patreon, you can't
download it. It's just people who are
subscribed to the Patreon. They can listen and that's cool.

(56:05):
Talk shit about Chris and. That's exactly what we're.
Going to do so it's going to be 1500% if you're listening I'm.
Sorry dude. Like you have to, you have to
pay. Five U.S. dollars a month to
listen to your own bashing on Patreon that is about to happen?
No, absolutely not. No.
No, but I will get. The more like actually what I do
want to ask you about the page, like on the Patreon, seriously,
is a bit more of on the politicsof the F&B industry, because

(56:29):
that's something I'm also personally interested in.
And it's tough that even if you want to drop names or whatever,
we can do that on the Patreon. And for our listeners, you know,
the jail patreon.com/O $5 a month.
And you can get a little bit more of the uncensored version.
Plus, as I said in the beginningof the episode, you also get my
own uncensored version of the shenanigans over this this past

(56:50):
week's shows. Ishan, thank you so much for
joining us. This was lovely.
Yeah, this. Was pretty overdue, but I'm glad
we I it's only taken us three years.
To do this, yeah, but. Everyone go to that poets on
Aberdeen St. all the plugs that Ishan did with the with the
quiz. Actually, I'm going to tell you
right now on record that I was also interested in working with

(57:12):
you and bringing it to base hallwhere we can I can just do we
can do that together with basically stand up and quiz in a
format where we can actually getour stand up audience out
because people can eat at base hall.
You can just bring their own obvious, obviously it's a food
court and then we have our own bar and stuff.
So it'll be super cool. So stay tuned for that as well.

(57:33):
We'll be collaborating with Ishan.
Thank you everyone for tuning in.
Life stand up shows are back, yeah, from the 3rd or the 10th
of May. And we're about to do the
Patreon. So stay tuned and thank you for
listening with you next week.