From left to right, it’s the Chasers! Issa “Supernerd” Schultz, Matt “Goliath” Parkinson, Mark “The Beast” Labbett, Brydon “The Shark” Coverdale and Anne “The Governess” Hegerty.
Hello! I hope you’ve been enjoying my chat with Matt ‘Goliath’ Parkinson over the last five weeks. We’ve covered a lot of ground after starting off with his winning the lot on Sale of the Century back in 1992, and now, as I prepare to wrap things up…
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SH: Before I let you go, I must ask; how’s The Chase going?
MP: The Chase is in hiatus between seasons. But we are greenlit for our… 16th season, I think it is. So we’ll be recording again in the second half of the year. We’re celebrating our tenth year on air.
SH: Fantastic!
MP: Going from strength to strength, and I’m probably enjoying it more than ever because the pressure is off now in the sense of, for the first five – No, for the last 10 years, I’ve put the pressure on myself to be as good as I possibly can, and maintain a really high success rate.
SH: Yes.
MP: And now with the show, it has a proven track record and the runs on the board, so I can focus a bit more on having fun and enjoying myself and farting around in the studio.
SH: Yeah.
MP: Just letting the contestants have fun too.
SH: That’s brilliant, because I do remember talking to you about it in the early days of it, and you had a self-imposed, very strict sort of study regimen, as I remember. You were studying a lot of the time after hours.
MP: In those early days, I really needed to reinforce my confidence. Yeah. So that under pressure, I was not having a large amount of brain space taken up with thoughts like, “you’re not properly prepared, you shouldn’t be here”. If you’ve done enough preparation, then you don’t have to worry about that. That’s why people get to be very good at whatever their chosen field is. They do the preparation, so when they’re there on the day, and even under a bit of pressure, they just go, “well, this is what I do, it’s what I’ve been preparing for”.
SH: Yeah, and it all falls into place.
MP: Why I’m enjoying a more relaxed attitude, because it also means, I don’t care quite so much if I can’t recall the name of a given Harry Potter character, or I don’t know what Olivia Rodrigo’s album is, or whatever, like I’m sure would if I was a proper quizzer. It’s okay, because I’m a television quizzer, you know, I’m not a world league champion quizzer, I’m an entertainer.
SH: Yes.
MP: In the art form of quizzing.
SH: Yeah.
MP: In the field of quizzing. Did I just call quizzing an art form?
SH: Yes, you did. Yes, you did.
MP: Correct.
SH: Yeah, but there are some people who are in these leagues of quizzing, and I spoke to Yogesh Raut, who was – and is – a big champion on Jeopardy!, but quizzing is absolutely his life. He is dedicated to it, and it’s a real vocation of his.
MP: Look, I totally respect people who are doing that, because, you know, you want people in any field doing the thing of “how far can this be taken”? What’s the most number of places you can memorise pi to, or can you possibly cram all the biographies of all the US presidents into your brain… to see what the maximum is for you personally, to find out your personal best.
SH: Yeah.
MP: But I think the unusual thing about quizzing the in television environment is that your real number one metric is “How long we keep this baby on air?”
SH: Yeah.
MP: You mentioned Jeopardy!, and that’s probably the one that you’re looking at for like, “let’s make a show that goes forever”, that just becomes a universal thing. I love the way Jeopardy may be in the background in movie scenes… and you don’t even have to see the screen, you can just hear the answer being given as a question, and the stoner on the couch who’s a character in the movie is just like, nailing every answer, you know. I love the fact that Jeopardy has moved itself into that position, it’s as much a part of US life as, I don’t know, the Declaration of Independence or whatever. It’s just the thing that people immediately know that’s what that is, when they hear the the answer as a question.
SH: You go “Right, that’s Jeopardy! you’re listening to”.
MP: Yeah. And I like that, too, about The Chase after a decade on air. In the beginning, people used to, recognise me in the street or whatever and they’d say, “Hey, I recognise you from the show”; they’d lead into the chat with that.
SH: Right.
MP: But now, they just come straight in with the chat. I’ve been in their lounge room once a week, every week for the last 10 years, so they don’t feel the need to say G’day or whatever, they’ll just start. They’ll just come right in with, “What do you mean ’emPENNnage’?! It’s not pronounced ’emPENNage’ – it’s ‘EMpennage’!”
SH: “What were you thinking, Goliath?!?”
MP: Yeah. I have a woman in my neighbourhood who’s a former pilot who was outraged that our host pronounced it “emPENNage” and not “EMpennage”. It’s a term in aviation.
SH: I’ve never heard that word before in my life – what’s it mean?
MP: It’s for the tail part of the aircraft – the tail fin and the rudder and all that, that’s empennage, apparently.
An empennage, yesterday.
SH: Good to know.
MP: And that person no longer feels the need to come up and say “How’s the show going?” or anything… she will just see me when I’m out for coffee and yell “EMpennage! EMpennage!”
SH: Yes. Dare I say she… cut to The Chase?
MP: (LAUGHING) Of course!
SH: Oh dear oh dear. I’ll see meself out. Hey, thank you so much for your time today Parko, and for all your great contributions.
MP: My pleasure Hally, love your work.
SH: Love yours! See ya!
MP: Bye.
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Once again, I’d like to thank Parko for so generously sharing his time and all those great memories with me. And remember, you can catch him doing his thing as ‘Goliath’ in The Chase: Australia, on the Seven Network here in Australia. I look forward to seeing you back here soon…
