Let loose in the chair
It’s taken almost four decades, but David Barnes has finally got his time in the Mastermind chair and he’s making the most of it, discovers James Croot.
When David Barnes first tried out for Mastermind, Fair Go was making its TV debut, Sleeping Dogs was released in cinemas and Electric Light Orchestra topped the charts.
Turning up for an audition at the TVNZ offices at the top of Dunedin’s Octagon, Barnes answered enough questions on his specialist subject of aviation to earn himself a shot at TV stardom. He’d made just one mistake – presenting for the interview in his St Paul’s school uniform.
‘‘I was a plane nut as a kid. However, I don’t think they knew my age when I signed up for it. It was only when the interviewer commented that University
Challenge was where they were going with the youth market that I thought I might miss out,’’ the now 52-year-old Barnes says down the phoneline from Dunedin.
He did follow that person’s advice and tried out for the Otago University team while studying there, but never made the final cut.
Now, after almost four decades, he’s got his moment in the iconic
Mastermind chair. In fact, he’s had a few, earning a spot in next weekend’s finale after a Portugallike qualification as one of the ‘‘best losers’’ for the semi-finals, and an impressive three-point victory in last week’s third semi.
During those performances, he’s shown an impressive range of general knowledge, specialist knowledge on two very diverse topics (British Antarctic Expeditions to the Ross Sea Region and Kiwi band Split Enz) and a deep understanding of how best ‘‘to play the game’’.
‘‘Because of the time pressure, you don’t want to just guess an answer. If you just say ‘pass’, you move on, but if you get it wrong, he’ll [compere Peter Williams] say ‘that’s not correct, the answer is blah, blah, blah’ and then start the next one. So you’re wasting time getting it wrong.’’
As has been etched on many of the other contestants’ faces, Barnes admits to being frustrated by the show’s rules that mean you can’t answer the question until Williams has completed it in full. ‘‘The questions are reasonably long. They say they’ve done some work on the timing, even if it doesn’t seem it, to ensure it’s fair for all. But, I can remember, my first general knowledge question was about a prominent New Zealander who died on the 11th of January 2008 and it carried on for quite a while. That date happens to be my wedding anniversary, so I’m going to remember that quite well [the answer is Sir Ed Hillary for those wanting to know]. So, I was thinking ‘just get on with it now’. However, there were other times where I was using the whole question to try to think of the answer.’’
And Barnes admits the studio set-up does add extra pressure. ‘‘In the semi, I think there were at least three I passed on that if I’d been in a pub quiz, I would have blitzed. You think, ‘I know this one, just give me a minute to think this through’.’’
Not that father-of-three Barnes is a big pub quizzer, more of an irregular team member, although he says he has won competitions all over the Edinburgh of the South.
When I mention that I was once a member of the famed (or infamous) serial quiz champions the Rattray St Rats, founded by Speights’ chemist Don ‘‘Flash’’ Gordon, Barnes’ mood darkens slightly.
‘‘Those bastards. We could never beat them. A friend of mine in Wellington was asked to stop going to a quiz, because other people had stopped going because they could never win anything, their team was so good.’’
Time to swiftly move on. Why British Antarctic Expeditions and Split Enz as choices for his specialist subjects?
‘‘I think my interest in Antarctica probably started with a book my father had on one of Shackleton’s expeditions. Then, when I joined a tramping club at 17, it was the end of the glorious amateur era down there, so there were people in the club who had gone down to Scott Base. In those days, you just needed to know how to use an ice axe, crampons, and climbed in New Zealand conditions. These days, I think you need to be a qualified mountain guide to go there. I also remember there was a really good TV series in 1986 called The Last
Place on Earth, based on a comparative biography [originally titled Scott and Amundsen ]by Roland Huntford. It was in the pre-video recorder days and it kept me glued to my seat every Sunday night for six to eight weeks. After watching that, I had to go and read that book and then read more and more until it got to the stage where I read Antarctic books all the time.’’
As for his back-up subject, which he was required to use in last week’s semi-final, Barnes says he’s simply been a ‘‘big fan for a long, long, long time’’. ‘‘I got virtually every book and documentary on them, somewhere along the line.’’
That proved handy when it came time to study for the show.
Lifting the lid on Mastermind’s inner-workings, he says contestants only have to agree to a couple of set texts from which to draw the questions from.
‘‘I re-read them before the show and wrote a lot of notes. I ended up with a wad of paper on the Antarctic topic that listed the crew members of each expedition and their roles. Then, I found myself lying in bed at night going, ‘now which glacier did they go up for that western expedition? And who was the meteorologist?’ And then, the next morning, I’d go and get the book out to look up anything I missed.’’
Interest in his progress has been high in Dunedin, with his ACC workmates (where he is a technical claims manager) quick to rib him about questions he missed, ‘‘even if it’s the only question they knew’’.
And he admits keeping the results secret has been hard, especially when he didn’t actually win his heat. ‘‘I kept saying to people, especially when it came to the last two heats, that there were only six people who could knock me out and five of them would have to do better than 21, so I stood a good chance – knowing full well that I’d filmed the bloody semi at that point.’’
He actually missed seeing himself in the heat because he was flying back from filming the semi in Auckland. ‘‘I had to watch my performance on demand.’’
While he understands that putting yourself out there for a show like this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, Barnes says he has really enjoyed the experience. ‘‘I guess like anybody who goes on the show, it’s the opportunity to let my innersmarta... come to the fore.’’
Mastermind 7.45pm, Sundays, TV One