Disclaimer this article contains mentions of suicide.
Robin Taylor Wright has been hosting trivia nights at Hallett Brewing for the better part of a year and now he’s hoping to use trivia to shed some light on mental health issues.
“I did always want to do a charity thing, just to give back to the community in some way,” Wright said. “I did want to do a Robin Williams night, or maybe my son said it.”
Then he started to think about doing the two as part one night.
“I think the problem is, because we’re curious people, we’re the kind of people who would look at a car crash…The thing is you cannot deny what happened to him,” Wright said.
A well known actor and comedian, Robin Williams died by suicide in August 2014. Williams widow Susan later said that a few months before he died he’d received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. After his death an autopsy of his brain showed Williams had what is known as Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) which can initially present similarly.
According to the Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA): “Lewy body dementias (LBD) are the second most common form of degenerative dementia. The only other form of degenerative dementia that is more common than LBD is Alzheimer’s disease (AD). LBD is an umbrella term for dementia associated with the presence of Lewy bodies (abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein) in the brain.”
Also according to the LBDA: “Behavioral and mood symptoms, including depression, apathy, anxiety, agitation, delusions, or paranoia,” Are among the most common symptoms of LBD.
For this Robin Williams themed trivia night, Wright will be donating the proceeds to the Fort Frances chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).
He has received donations of prizes from several local businesses so the top four teams will receive prizes.
Curvy Chick, Boston Pizza Fort Frances, Batter & Cream Baking Co. and Betty’s of Fort Frances have all come on board to sponsor prizes.
The price of admission for the trivia nights at Hallet Brewing is usually $10 and is the recommended payment for the Robin Williams charity night but as the proceeds are going to charity Wright is offering it as pay what you can with a recommended minimum of $10 asking for folks to donate on top of the typical $10 cost of a trivia night.
Wright says the questions won’t be super specific about the late actor and won’t be questions about mental health, but rather more general questions about Williams’ life and work.
“Round one is going to be just general trivia, again, you don’t have to be an expert, it’ll be things like ‘Where was he born?’ Then I’ll give you a geography question, that kind of thing. So I’ll give you hints leading that way,” Wright said. “The second round is going to be guessing the movie based on the description, tagline or promotional material. Then the third round I’m going to quote the movie, I might get someone from the Hallett to maybe do some dialogue stuff too and we’ll say the lines in the movie and you try to identify it.”
“I think if we can acknowledge these things and then celebrate the life,” Wright said. “It’s sort of like a good wake should be. You don’t dwell on how they died, but we’re doing this because they’re not with us anymore and his career was cut short.”
Robin Williams trivia night for mental health will be at Hallett Brewing on Tuesday August 27 at 6 p.m. To register a table you can contact Robin Taylor Wright via his Facebook or Instagram page ‘Fort Frances Trivia,’ individual players are also welcome.
