Matt in his persona as ‘Goliath’ on ‘The Chase Australia’…

Hello! When Matt and I left off our discussion last week, Matt was outlining how his Big Win on Sale of The Century in 1992 had drawn him towards being really interested in the human brain; about how we know what we know, and how our brains organise all the information they accumulate as we move through life…

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SH: So it’s drawn you towards that, but has it drawn you away from the world of comedy, do you think? From writing and performing, and from pursuing stand-up? That is, do you view Winning The Lot on Sale as a ‘sliding doors’ moment, a fork in the road… or was your interest in the mind something in addition to your performing itch that needed to be scratched?

… and with Matthew Quartermaine (L), in full flight as The Empty Pockets.

MP: I had been in a double act (The Empty Pockets) and I was starting to do solo stuff around the time I won Sale. And once I won Sale, it became odd… Because I was never sure, when I went out to do solo stand-up, how many people in the audience were aware that I was a Sale of the Century winner. And when you’re doing solo stand-up, the best way to come on is people not having too much of a clue who you are, so that you can make up who you are. You can have your own stand-up persona. And for a while I got caught thinking, “Oh, I should come out and have 10 minutes about Sale of the Century, to cover that off. But then I’d do gigs where I’d do that and then feel like, “Oh, I’ve lost them because no one in this room knows that I won Sale of the Century. They don’t care!”

SH: Yeah, oops.

MP: Because back then, I was there and gone in a week. With The Chase, it’s been 10 years. So I can count on the fact that most people in the room now will go, “Oh, he’s that guy from that show”. Whereas back then, my run on Sale of the Century was seven episodes. So if you didn’t see them, you had no idea that I was a guy who’d won everything. So that did draw me a bit away from comedy. I felt really unsure then, going out and doing stand-up. And also, it’s good to do stand-up from a low-status position.

SH: In the persona of an underdog.

MP: And when you come out and there might be people in the room who know that you just won a bunch of money on this quiz show, you don’t have low status anymore and they expect you to somehow address the fact that you have this. So it did drive me away from that a bit. And also it exposed me to opportunities outside of comedy, (which I’d only ever done kind of out of necessity, to have a paying gig). And the quiz opened up all this other stuff.

SH: Yeah, right.

MP: It just made people go, “Oh, that guy could talk about other stuff.”

SH: “He doesn’t just have to do jokes”?

MP: Yeah. So it opened up other opportunities. So, yeah, it did draw me a bit away from comedy, yeah. But it’s brought me back to that too, because that’s a lot of what I like to do on The Chase now.

SH: Of course. It’s the best of both worlds!

MP: Yeah. It’s in the way of, like, “when’s my next chance to make a smartarse comment? What I want to do is show off! That’s what I love doing. So having enough answers to sit in that chair and be a Chaser is just the key that opens the door for me to get into the comedy bits. So when people say to me now, “do you miss doing comedy?” I say, “I do it all the time. Watch The Chase. You’ll see me do it”. I mean, 90% of my best lines are on the cutting room floor. They get cut in the edit because they’re either too blue for TV or we just can’t fit them into the length of an episode. We’ve got to fit the gameplay in there.

SH: Of course.

MP: But still, I play to the people in the room. I play to the crew. I play to the contestants, and that scratches my comedy itch nicely.

SH: Yeah, that’s brilliant.

MP: Yeah. I’ve been saying recently that I’ve come in quite a big circle because one of my key early experiences at the age of 14 was being on It’s Academic, representing my school.

SH: Ah, right!

MP: And then after that, I went into stand-up comedy, and now I’m doing this job that’s kind of brought me back and completed those two circles. I’m doing TV quiz and I’m getting comedy into the mix. So I’m in a really good place at the moment.

SH: That’s fantastic.

MP: But yeah, to answer your question in a nutshell, because that turned into a rather self-indulgent rave –

SH: No, it’s great!

MP: But to answer your question in a nutshell, over the time, over whatever it’s been – four millennia? – since I won Sale of the Century, the culture’s interest in nerdliness and remembering and memory and having a good mind, that has increased along with its importance in my life. So, yeah, that’s what I’ve noticed.

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Interesting… Now that Matt mentions it, I supposed I’ve noticed that too. Have yoooou? Next week, we discuss the concept of ‘General Knowledge’. How has its form and importance changed over the years? How will it change in the future? What even IS ‘General Knowledge’ in this day and age? For the answers to these questions – and so much less – be sure to check back by HowToWinGameShows.com next Tuesday afternoon. See you then!