[MUSIC]
Hello humans of planet earth, welcome back cnet's live coverage of CES2018 am Ashley Esqueda You may have heard about next guest to [UNKNOWN] hit online game HQ Trivia, We have here with us Queasy McGuire himself the host of the most [UNKNOWN]
Hey.
Hi.
Hi [UNKNOWN]
Hi.
So, so good to be here on CSpan.
Yeah.
CSpan.
Yeah.
You have so many fans.
I have noticed you have been sort of stopped every about ten feet here at the show.
It has been a lot of fan girling and boying.
And it's nice to appreciated and taken photos of, like this lovely lady here taking a photo and that's good.
How exactly does it feel to have killed the productivity of most of America with HQ Trivia?
Yeah, I feel like I'm the anti-Henry Ford.
He increased productivity.
And he was an anti Semite so I can be an anti Henry Ford, right?
It's a-
Yeah.
Payback.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
I like it, it's good.
So I talked to you a little bit earlier this week and I know that-
Yeah, we met this week.
We did [LAUGH] I know that there was alcohol involved, but I believe you said that you have been doing stand up comedy for 12 years, right?
12 years
Yes January, actually it's been 13 years.
It will be the anniversary in a couple of weeks of my first time on stage.
Lucky 13 and you're mega famous now.
You're one of those overnight sucesses that took over a decade to happen.
Yeah, people think overnight successes are overnight.
They're in fact 10, 12 years in the making, sometimes longer.
So how did this even come about?
Did you just Answer Craigslist ad and not get murdered?
It was a Monster Inc.
What is that Monster website?
Just Monster.
Monster jobs, no, it wasn't that.
[LAUGH]
You're just submitting your resume on Monster?
LinkedIn.
No no.
It was an audition, it was an audition.
Okay.
And I got the call.
My friend Nick Gallow who I met ten years earlier when I was starting out.
I started out interning for the Onion-
You know you can trust them cuz he's been your friend since before you were successful.
Exactly, and he, well he's the reason why I'm successful because he.
I met him interning at the Onion when I was out of college, 2008 And we kept in touch of our Facebook.
Facebook, I would say, is the biggest networking.
As you do.
For me.
Yeah, sure.
And Nick said, hey, we're doing thing.
I think you'd be a good host.
Would you wanna come out and audition for it?
I said, all right, sure.
Let me give it a shot.
What did you think when you started, when they said, okay, here's what it is?
It's a game show and it's It's literally just you.
There's no stage, you're not gonna have live studio audience.
What was the reaction there?
Well, I didn't really know what it was gonna be at the beginning and no one really did.
They had the format for the live, the technology, [UNKNOWN] viewing, we're gonna go live.
At the beginning it was once a day, five days a week.
Now it's twice a day during the week, twelve shows a week.
It's really popular.
It's really popular.
We're doing UK shows now, we've got Sharon hosting the UK shows and it's when I first got the idea, I thought well, this could be something.
I mean I was gunning for taxi TV, I wanted it to be at the back of taxi cabs.
Okay.
And elevator TV was also high on my list.
If you ever want we do some of that so you can come do.
Yeah.
Some videos for C Dot and then we'll put you on the back of a taxi during CES.
But now I'm a.
I was telling my friends, I'm gonna be on an app, I'm an app guy.
You're an app now.
At the time, it seemed silly, but now, now I'm sure we're gonna see a lot more of these happening.
I think so, I think this is really interesting that this has kind of blossomed into a completely different vertical for apps, this sort of, like you said, appointment apps.
App-pointment.
It's like a pop-up shop.
But you can win money.
Right.
Instead of spending, you can get.
Yeah, if you guys, maybe people here don't know HQ.
We should explain what it is, perhaps.
Yeah, if anybody, I'm sure a lot of people here play it, but please, by all means.
Don't be so arrogant as to think that we all know.
So HQ is a live daily trivia show on your phone.
3 PM Eastern time, 9 PM Eastern time, we go live with it.
Download it if you haven't, just go to HQ it's in i Store?
iTunes App Store.
iTunes App Store.
You seem really into technology.
Very tech happy.
iTunes store and then also
The Google Play Store.
Then also Good Play Store for Android.
It just launched for Android.
It just launched recently, I think we're still in beta
You recently had over a million.
It's free.
And it's free.
And you recently
We give out money.
had over a million people
Yes.
concurrently playing a game like right around new Years, right?
Just this past Sunday night we cracked the milliion player mark for the first time.
That is pretty remarkable.
It is remarkable.
and exciting.
1.2 million concurrent users.
I asked 12 questions.
The way it works when you download it and you get a personal notification when we go live
And when we do go live, you open the phone.
And you yell, quiz daddy and then it's you.
You say quiz daddy three times and I appear.
It's like bloody mary but even better.
And I ask 12 questions ranging from easy to hard, Trap Trebek.
Yeah baby.
Yeah baby.
[LAUGH]
You have ten seconds to answer the question
And it goes fast the past ten seconds.
If you get it right, you tap the three multiple choice answers that pop up on your screen.
If you tap the right one, you move on to the next round, make it to the end answering all 12 questions correctly, you winners split the cash prize.
We give out real money everyday.
Actual money.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been given out already.
Can you explain why you screwed me on the [UNKNOWN] Tales when you accidentally ran that question early?
I'm very upset and I think our people out there did you remember the [UNKNOWN] Tales?
I'm very->> Cancer berry gate.
I'm still very salty about it.
It is cancer berry gate.
Look, we've done over 200 shows now.
Things happen, humans run this thing.
It's live, it's live.
It's live, it's not AI
And that was a glitch and we restarted it.
But look, the good news is if you got to question eight that day you already had the answer.
So some people benefited.
I know, but I gt tripped up at like four a lot of the time.
Four's savage.
Four can get savage.
That's when things start getting tough.
Yeah.
Are you able to say at all
How many like, what is the process of like, who researches the question?
Who's looking this up?
Or is there a really big team now?
Or do you have, is it one guy whose just like, my God, I gotta look up all these questions?
Is it you?
It's a team, a team of writers.
I'm sort of the last eyes on it.
Okay.
Copyright, we've got fact checkers, there's the director, creative director.
And then ultimately, before it goes on air, I look at them all and make sure I know what I'm talking about.
Have you ever vetoed a question where you're like we can't do that question?
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah.
Is it because it's offensive or is it because it's just wrong?
No, it's just like who would would know this?
Like what?
I mean there was a Q3, has anyone heard of a book called The Runaway Children?
No.
The Runaway Children, you've heard of it?
He's like no.
This was a Q3, it was scheduled for Q3, and this author Ian Nesbitt wrote this popular book.
I said I've never heard of Ian Nesbitt.
For questions three that's pretty tough.
For question three I needed a Winnie the Pooh question instead.
And we all know Winnie the Pooh, still thousands of people got it wrong.
That's smart, that seems like a good choice.
What percentage of the time would you say, you are not wearing pants when the show goes live?
I wear five pairs of pants every time.
[LAUGH] Just, it's cold in the studio.
It's very cold in the studio.>> I see, I see, I see.
No, I wear pants.
People wanna know if I wear pants?
Are you sure though?
They wanna know if I wear mascara.
I don't Never have.
I don't believe that.
I don't need to.
Look at your beautfiul eye lashes.
I have naturally-
Your beautiful eye lashes.
Maybe I'm born with it, maybe it's Maybelline?
But no, I'm born with it.
It's not Maybelline, it's Gregowski.
Yes.
It's all Gregowski.
Real and spectacular.
What time do you get up in the morning to do this?
Do you get to sleep in or are you up just [UNKNOWN] it up?
Depends.
I'm thinking about questions all night.
I don't sleep anymore.
There's a lot of bags under my eyes that Phyllis was trying to help fill in back there, the make up lady.
She did a good job.
She did an admirable job.
Now I'm-
That's why we pay her the big bucks.
I'm about to commute from the burbs.
Right now I'm not living in the city.
All right.
And then-
And you're a New Yorker?
New Yorker.
You're in the city.
But I like to wake up and I do my research that morning, look at the questions that morning.
Yeah, I'm up around 9:00 I would say around 8:30, 9.
That sounds pretty good.
It feels like you get to sleep in a little bit.
A little bit but then I'm getting in late and then a lot of commuting, a lot of the train.
You just sit there for, are you just sitting just in front of that camera just waiting for it go live like a little robot?
Some people have argued that you're an AI.
I power down.
Right, I do my questions and I power down and then I bloop, back.
And then they try to plug you in.
No.
It's USBC now so you can charge faster.
Gotta eat my lunch, gotta get salads.
All right, so we have a gift for you.
We do.
We have this beautiful CNET hoodie.
Giving to me or do I have to earn this gift?
You have to earn it because I have some quiz questions for you.
I thought it would be fun to turn the tables.
So we'll have They get easier as they [CROSSTALK] They get harder as they go along.
Okay.
But very similar format.
That is a very similar format to HQ.
A very similar format to you.
Okay and you also only get ten seconds.
I might actually like Three, two, one go.
My god, here's the question.
So, okay, first question, choose one.
What city does CES take place in?
That is it A, New york.
B, Los Angeles, or C, Las Vegas.
Las Vegas baby.
Yes, you got it right.
You got it right.
Okay, so that's que one.
That's a cupcake.
That's que one it's easy.
We give it to you.
My big face is on the
Second, I know, second question, what is AIBO?
Is it A, a robot butler, B, a robot dog, or C, a robot vacuum?
You've already lost me.
Robot dog?
You got it right!
Woo!
You're going by instinct, you're going by instinct, I love it.
Okay, question three, this is a tough one, we're starting to [UNKNOWN] this is question three now.
Approximately how many people attend CES?
Is it A over 180,000, B Over 240,000, or C over 460,000?
This is where I'm going to flag you as vague questioning because [CROSSTALK]
3,2,1.
I'll take A because everythings over [UNKNOWN]
You're right, it is A. It is A. The next question is, how many total square feet of exhibit space does CES take up?
Is it A, around 1.7 million, B, around 2.6 million, or C, around 3.7 million.
Can I get a lifeline, audience?
No-one knows!
B, I'm gonna say 2.6.
That is correct, you're killing the game right now!
You're killing the game, I was gonna give you an extra life.
Yeah.
Okay, well there's only one more question.
My God we're getting to the end here.
You're getting to the end, you're getting to the end here.
Wow.
How good of friends would you say you consider us?
A. Okay friends, B. Good friends, C. Best friends.
Based on our texting
There's a correct answer here.
Best friends.
That is correct.
We are best friends.
Yes.
You won.
You get this beautiful [UNKNOWN]
We've texted at least five times.
At least five times.
Woo-hoo.
That makes us best friends in the world of technology.
Amazing.
I feel so loved.
You know what.
My bestie.
You should be because obviously
Everybody here is super excited to see you.
Yeah.
So I know you can't talk about if HQ's gonna launch a third show or anything like that.
And they didn't announce specifically for CES but-
You want scoops!
I would love a scoop or an exclusive but I will take your shining presence.
You want a scoop?
Sure.
When I get back on HQ on Saturday,
I might have had a haircut.
[NOISE]
You're gonna wanna tune in for that everybody.
But actually, I probably won't have time to get the haircut until Sunday.
So Sunday night, the haircut.
You're gonna keep pushing that off.
Is it gonna get delayed like everything else here at CES that gets announced?
Yeah or sometimes HQ games, yeah.
It'll be you're like I'm sorry.
We have to delay this haircut.
Right.
I'll do this last question and then we'll wrap it up.
Okay.
Do you think that we will see more and more of this sort of pop up style of appointment app or appointment sort of technology because of the success of HQ Trivia and what you guys are doing over there?
Yeah, I think
Everyone's who in this space, who's creating shows, making apps, they want to capture live audience.
Yes, I think we're already seeing some imitators.
Accept no imitations, HQ is the OG.
I'm not gonna name any other ones, but they're out there.
But yeah, I think we're gonna see this year, this quarter, maybe by March even, We'll see big players coming in to this base.
Maybe they'll have you know, Jamie Fox hosting a show, I don't know.
Would you rather watch Jamie Fox or would you rather watch [UNKNOWN] that's the question you have to ask yourself.
I mena I can't say no to Quizzie McGuire.
Quizzie McGuire.
Quizzie McGuire is my favorite.
Well, Lizzy Mcguire could be hosting one.
That would be amazing actually.
That, I would watch.
She could replace you.
That would be fine.
[UNKNOWN].
To answer your question, I think we'll see a lot more but.
I think HQ is gonna be ahead of the curve.
We know what we're doing and we're building and building and-
I'm gonna pitch you on an idea.
Live races where people use the steps in their phone to race.
But so People just randomly start running.
Running.
Just running.
That's good.
Like Pokemon Go, instead of walking around.
Yeah, it's racing.
It'll be running.
At 12 o'clock, at noon or at 12:30 after your show's over every day people just ransomly just start
Sprinting for no reason.
That's it.
Other than to win money.
15 people just watching this are creating this app right now,
Perfect.
You know?
It blew your idea.
You are so welcome Internet.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you, best friend.
Thanks best friend,
Yeah!.
Bestie, bestie.
You are actually our very last interview.
That's it!.
On the seat of live stages.
CES 2018, we're done!.
We're done!
Well done!.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much to everybody at CNET for watching.
Thank you.
There is so, so much more of CES to read and watch on CNET.com.
So not for too long, so long, and be good humans.
