Blair at radio station 4ZZZ
Hello and welcome to the final part of my chat with Blair Martin, who won ‘The Lot’ on Temptation in 2007! When we left off last week, Blair and I were reflecting that over the years, we all change; that none of us are the same person now that we were ten or twenty years ago…
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BM: No, none of us. And over the last decade, I have become a leader in my community; I’ve become a mentor. One of the young announcers at 4ZZZ – who I’ve actually never met, I met him through a zoom call – does a program that’s all pre-recorded and it’s their digital station that I look after, and I’ve been mentoring him in that way. And his dad sent me a message recently because his son was applying for a regional community grant, and he wondered if I’d write a letter of recommendation. So I sat and wrote about 700 or 800 words and sent it off. And he was quite emotional about the way I phrased the letter. He said, “you have no idea what this means. And you have been so generous and we so appreciate you”, and I’ve gone, “Yeah, that’s what I’m here to do”. And if this is what I do for the next ten years, that’s what I do. If something else is meant to happen, then that will become apparent.
SH: Yeah, if you can pass on what you’ve learned, and do it in kind and enlightened way, that’s a pretty good thing to be doing. And also you learn from young people.
BM: I learn from young people all the time and I totally agree. I totally agree. But there’s also this other thing; I need to be an advocate for people of my age, but also my community, because in my community and age, we don’t have them. The people that may have been my mentors are very few in number. And my age group is perhaps not as heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS as the generation up from me; the people born in the 1950s, late 1940s. I was born in the early 60s, but yeah, we still suffered as well. And I am very aware of this. A couple of years ago, I hosted a podcast series that trained home carers, as now there are people who live with HIV/AIDS who are at an age where they have home carers. They asked me to do it because, yes, I’m a radio host. And where are the people advocating for people like myself, who are now over the age of 60? As an older gay man, I’m in a minority within a minority now. And so I’ll see where that goes, what that body of representation does. But I’m very aware that I have to do that.
SH: Of course, yes. And so would you say that the win on Temptation – Sorry, I keep going back to that.
BM: No, no, no, no. That’s the nature of our conversation.
SH: I was going to say that most people I’ve spoken to say, “I’m thankful for…” I know that with my winnings, we bought this house. Well, we didn’t actually buy all of this house, but a fair chunk of it.
BM: Yeah.
SH: And with your winnings, it sounds to me like you’ve travelled to all sorts of different –
BM: I totally agree. And there have been places I have been, I still remember quite distinctly, being beside Lake Geneva in September 2009. And just saying, “I am so grateful for this. Thank you for this opportunity to do this”. I did help other people a little bit along the way.; there were there were a couple of people who I assisted. One was David Bermingham – a dear, wonderful doyen of theatre and arts here in Brisbane who’s now sadly no longer with us. I thought I was helping him anonymously, but I gave myself away at an event I was doing to promote my business. I put this quote up on a screen… And it was the same quote I’d anonymously sent to David, along with some money to help him. And he said to me later, “So, it was you!”
SH: Well Blair, I’ve really enjoyed all the places our conversation has gone. Is there anything that’s sprung to mind that I haven’t thought to ask you about your Big Win and the impact it’s had over the last 19 years?
BM: I suppose the thing that’s still there is when people find out and then see me at a quiz night somewhere, they go, “Well, no wonder you’ve done well.” And I’m like, “Yeah, but, come on – that was 19 years ago!” And I’ve got a feeling it’s harder now in World Quizzing because there’s so much information from so many sources now in The Hot 100 that World Quizzing puts out every month. If I get 60 out of 100, I’m thinking, ‘oh, that’s not too bad’. A lot of it, though, is like training for a race. The more you do, the better you become. We all have different knowledge, we all have different things. I think you we should just rejoice in the fact that we’re above ground, we’re not in it.
SH: That we’re living and breathing!
BM: And for most people, you’re not living in a country or a city or a region where a drone is going to kill you tomorrow. And you are blessed because of that. So do something to make it possible that everyone can live like that. That’s your role in life.
SH: That is an inspirational thought to finish on. Thank you.
BM: And I also want to say that intelligence is having an open mind, not a vacant one.
SH: That’s good. I will quote you on that!
BM: Please do. Along with your job in life is – if you’re living a privileged existence, your job is to make sure everyone else is.
SH: Hear, hear. Wise words.
BM: It’s lovely to see you, Stephen. You really are a wonderful person. And you have a brilliant, brilliant career. And I admire you greatly.
SH: Oh, thank you so much, Blair – what a lovely thing to say! Thank you. I’ve really enjoyed chatting to you today.
BM: Well, anytime you need it, I’m around. Take care. Bye bye.
SH: See you. Bye bye.
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And on that lovely positive note, it only remains for me to thank Blair so much once again for so generously sharing his time and all his reflections. I really enjoyed our conversation, and may Blair’s final inspirational words carry us all onward and upward through 2026!
And I look forward to seeing you back here next time…
