Chloe plays the brain game

Green MP Chloe Swarbrick talks about her role in Celebrity Brain Busters where contestants take part in increasingly tricky challenges involving maths, memory, spelling and an obstacle course. Kerry Harvey reports.

Chloe Swarbrick has accomplished a lot of things in her 26 years but excelling as a quizzer is not one of them.

“I’m typically a liability when it comes to a pub quiz with mates,” says the MP for Auckland Central ahead of her debut on Celebrity Brain Busters.

“I think I’m probably somewhat unusual in the political realm because instead of pretending to obfuscate when I don’t know something, I’ll be pretty straight up about it and that was definitely one of the approaches I took when it came to the game show.

“Without giving it all away, I didn’t embarrass myself, which is definitely one of the goals that I set myself going into it.”

Celebrity Brain Busters has been launched off the back of last year’s children’s show Brain Busters. But instead of children, the 20 contestants are well-known Kiwis competing to raise money for their favourite charities.

Just like the kids who went before them, the adult contestants are quizzed on their general knowledge, maths ability and te reo skills before braving an obstacle course that is designed to test their physical prowess.

The line-up of contenders includes, among others, Wellington Paranormal’s Karen O’Leary, How To Dad’s Jordan Watson, comedians Guy Williams and Pax Assadi, and TV presenter Matty McLean – plus Swarbrick who admits she finds it a little strange to be considered a celebrity.

“Being presented as a celebrity is pretty funny. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I think that people who haven’t necessarily had the opportunity to see behind the headlines may see more of who I am as a person,” she says.

Swarbrick became a household name when she unsuccessfully ran for the Auckland mayoralty in 2016.

She entered Parliament at 23 as a Greens’ list MP but, in last year’s

election, was voted in as the MP for the hotly-contested Auckland Central electorate – making her only the second Green Party MP to win an electorate seat in the history of the party.

Celebrity Brain Busters was both a new personal challenge and an opportunity to raise money for Rainbow Youth.

“Rainbow Youth plays close to my heart, as somebody who is in a same-sex relationship,” she says.

“It plays a role in helping to affirm to kids and younger people that it’s OK to be a little bit different.

“They’ve done amazing work, particularly in my own backyard of Auckland Central, but they are doing their best to expand their operations into the regions where potentially Rainbow young people don’t always necessarily have the kind of affirmation or ability to explore their identity.”

For Swarbrick, being on a television quiz show was the latest in a long line of challenges designed to take her out of her comfort zone.

“It’s a different kind of being vulnerable, being exposed and putting yourself out there. However, I’ve ended up over the past year doing a number of things which I never would have seen myself doing.

“I never saw myself in politics to begin with, I guess, but I have done things like play in a charity basketball match, which was utterly terrifying, and I’ve done stand-up comedy so, I guess, it made sense to be on a game show. And it turned out to be one of the more unusual experiences I’ve had so far in this world.”

While sworn to secrecy about the outcome of her episode, Swarbrick says she ended up “doing all right” although the obstacle course proved, well, a bit of an obstacle.

“I had operated under the assumption that because the obstacle course was built for children, that I would have somewhat of an advantage,” Swarbrick says.

“There’s all these jokes that fly around about my height but I’m five foot six and a half (169cm) and I thought that would work to my advantage.

“I’m also relatively – not massively – fit. I work out a few times a week but again, without giving too much away, it definitely came across that having longer limbs and being able to go at almost twice the speed of myself operated as a better fit.”

Swarbrick is not worried about her detractors.

“What I’ve realised about my job in particular is regardless of whatever I do someone is always going to have a negative opinion so I just do the best that I possibly can for the communities that I represent and try and build bridges. With an opportunity like this you get to, I guess, look at things from a different perspective.”

“It’s a different kind of being vulnerable, being exposed and putting yourself out there.” – Chloe Swarbrick on taking part in Celebrity Brain Busters.