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"A great pub quiz is all about participation. The people taking part have to feel like they have a chance of winning."
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Exclusive Interview With Dr Paul »
Interview by Jamie Miller
With fifteen years experience as a professional quiz-master, Dr Paul knows a thing or two about what makes for a good quiz. Today we quiz him on all things quizical!
1. In your opinion, what components makes for a great pub quiz?
A great pub quiz is all about participation. The people taking part have to feel like they have a chance of winning. The worst cul-de-sac that quizmasters find themselves in is the situation where the same team wins every week. This is avoidable by mixing enough different styles and subjects of questions into your quiz. A great pub quiz is one that’s delivered with a bit genuine enthusiasm on behalf of the quizmaster. Listening to a quizmaster whose heart isn’t in it can kill your soul like being on hold to a particularly naff call-centre.
2. What is your proudest quizzing achievement?
The fact that I have been a professional pub quizmaster for 15 years. Not many people make their living out of this job and it puts me in the club of people who make money out of doing something they love.
3. You have been involved in the quizzing scene for many years. Who is the greatest quiz player you have ever seen?
For me, quizzing is not about celebrity quizzers like Kevin Ashman or Daphne Fowler, impressive as these people are. It’s about people getting together and having a good time in the boozer. So my greatest quiz players are the thousands of weekly regulars who get themselves away from the television and out of the house on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Anyone can go out at the weekend but these people who go out on school-nights are heroes who make Britain a better place to live!
4. What is your best advice for people wanting to be a successful quiz player?
Apply for TV quiz shows you actually like and try to have as much fun as you can along the way. You won’t ever be able to rely one hundred per cent on actually winning, so you might as well enjoy yourself.
Know the format and think of your tactics before you go on. And don’t whine or be a victim: sometimes shows and formats are ‘unfair’. Remember – this is not a meritocracy - this is entertainment.
5. What has been your best win on a pub quiz machine?!
The best win so far was deciding to give up playing them. The house always wins!
The only time I bucked the form was after a random situation in the late 80s when I found myself taggin' along with my dad who was working at a trade show of fruit machines in Cwmbran, Wales. For two solid days I was able to play DLT’s “Give Us A Break” quiz machine without spending a penny as all the machines were set to play on free credits.
I didn’t win anything of course, as payouts were also disabled and I forgot about it.
Two months later it all came flooding back when a pub I frequented updated their old Give Us A break machine to the new edition. Having committed a fair chunk of Dave Lee Travis’s questions and answers to memory over the two days in Wales, I cleaned up. I made £10 or £20 every Saturday night for a few months until they suddenly upgraded the machine again and I was back on skid row.
Check out Dr Paul's website:DP Quiz, a UK-based Resource site for quizmasters, including 6000+ free quiz questions!
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FIND OUT MORE »
Check out Dr Paul's website:DP Quiz, a UK-based Resource site for quizmasters, including 6000+ free quiz questions!
Contact me: jamiemiller@quiz-genius.com |