Chase Utley, Martina McBride, and the winner of last year's Snooker World Championship all made appearances at The Old Toad last Sunday. That's the problem with trivia night - you never know who's going to show up. Troubling, especially considering that if you could have named the last guy (Graeme Dott) it might have won you $400.

Both Sundays and Mondays are trivia nights at The Old Toad (277 Alexander Street, 232-2626) - arguably the best way to get a taste of Britain without hopping a transcontinental flight. Sundays at 9 p.m., teams of up to four put $5 into the kitty and vie for the grand prize, which carries over if the night's top team fails to correctly answer a final question. The questions are split into four categories, usually general knowledge, sports, and two others like music, literature, or geography.

Wendy Murphy, who's been volunteering to read the Sunday trivia questions for the past two years, says that some of the more intense Sunday players have been known to study their facts beforehand. "There's some people in here that take it seriously and read lists," she says.

But does it help? "Probably not. It's very random," Murphy says.

On Monday, teams start crowding around the pub's booths early to get a spot for the 9 p.m. game. With no categories, no fee, and no limit on the number of team members, the atmosphere is more casual. After all, there's less at stake.

I caught up with staffer Catherine Carney just days before her flight back to England to hear about the Monday loot. "Teams can win anything from a hat to a key ring to a scarf to a bottle of beer, depending on how generous we're being," said Carney.

The last-place team gets a prize, too. "Last week I gave out a pinch of salt to put in their wounds," said Carney. "It's just a lot of fun."

More mercifully, participants can win a free drink by shouting the first correct answer to one of the nights' "beer questions," which, depending on what's in front of the winner, could be beer, booze, or even water - you get a second of what you're currently drinking.

But a little water isn't always a bad thing during trivia night. "It'll keep your head nice and clear," Carney jokes.

Down the block, Mex (295 Alexander Street, 262-3060) varies the quiz night formula with its own style of music trivia. Tuesdays at 10 p.m. the frozen margaritas come with paper, pencil, and a DJ. "We play 10 songs and you guess the artist and/or the song. You get one point for the artist, one point for the song," explains manager John DePuy.

The concept came from a game the staff would play with the bar's satellite radio. "We would try to guess what band was playing without looking at the screen, and we thought it would be cool to do that as a weekly thing, to get other people involved," says DePuy.

The staff tries not to favor any one genre, DePuy says. "I think this past week we had a Mandy Moore song right next to a Sonic Youth song. We'll play anything."

For prizes, the bar's been giving away tickets to Darien Lake. Not too bad for your no-longer-useless knowledge. "It's a lot of fun," says DePuy. "We have a blast doing it."