It's wrong answers only at Tampa Fringe's new live game show 'Trivia Only I Know'

You won’t know the answers to the questions Tampa comic Clark Brooks’ poses at his new live game show act, “Trivia Only I Know.” But that doesn’t mean you can’t make something up. And in an audience of creatives, Fringe’s primary demographic, I expect to hear some very entertaining wrong answers.

“I’m going to ask questions about things that only I’ve experienced,” Brooks told Creative Loafing in an in-person interview at The Fringe Theatre.

So don’t bother inviting your smart friend. Instead, invite your friend who comes up with the most bizarre, offensive answers in a game of Cards Against Humanity. Because sometimes, wrong answers are the best answers. And once you’re done telling your tall tale, sit back and let Brooks tell you the real story or whatever he’s prepared. It’s hard to tell what’s fact from what’s fiction when you’re talking to comedians.

Brooks’ has been performing comedy for Tampa audiences for about twelve years now.

“It was a bucket list item for me,” Brooks told CL. “I was a big fan of Letterman and Carson, and I always said I wanted to do stand-up comedy one time. I’d written some things on Twitter and got fairly good responses.”

One day, Brooks performed some of his Twitter jokes in front of a live audience at a Double Decker open mic. It went well enough, but when Brooks saw how hard everyone else had worked on their material, he decided to take his comedy more seriously.

“You can tell the ones who take it seriously,” Brooks told CL. “And there’s others that just riff, and they’re usually terrible. You can tell when people put the effort in. It usually shows up in the finished product.”

Brooks has performed at Side Splitters Comedy Club and Tampa Improv before it became Funny Bone. He’s also performed in bars, coffee houses, a retirement home in Bradenton and a fertility clinic in Lakeland.

In 2019, as Tampa Fringe entered its third year, Festival Producer Trish Parry went hunting for Tampa Bay comics on Facebook. Brooks answered the call.

“I looked at the parameters where you get to keep all the ticket revenue, they give you a venue, and it costs virtually no money,” Brooks told CL. “It was a no-brainer.”

Brooks got together with fellow Tampa Bay area comedians Ricky Hicken, Natasha Samreny, Elijah Hernandez, Amanda Wilson, and Kaiti McCoy, and together they performed “The Restful Bitch Face Show.”

“None of us knew what Fringe was about when we joined,” Brooks recounts. “But then one of the first nights, one of the other performers, Dandy Darkly, walked all the way over from Hillsborough Community College just to come over and say hi. And we realized, oh, this is what Fringe people are like; they’re all about supporting each other. And so one of our performers, Elijah Hernandez, took time off work and just spent all day at Fringe watching shows, which is the way it’s supposed to be experienced.”

Fringe has since become a well-known venue for comedy and storytelling, and Brooks’ “Trivia Only I Know” has both. We can’t tell you if it’s going to be any good, because we have to wait until June 8 to see the show just like everyone else. But if past performance is any indicator, Brooks’ new show will be both surprising and funny.

Clark Brooks’ “Trivia Only I Know” premieres at Tampa Fringe on Sat. June 8, 3 p.m., with additional performances on Sun. June 9, 4:30 p.m.; Mon. June 10, 8:20 p.m.; Sat. June 15, 9:30 p.m. and Sun. June 16, 2:45 p.m. at The Cage in Kress Contemporary. 1624 E. 7th Ave., Ybor City. Tickets start at $10.
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