DESTROYING DOUBT
Why chasing his dreams is no trivial pursuit for Shaun Wallace
SHAUN WALLACE ON WHY HE’S DETERMINED TO MASTERMIND HIS OWN LEGACY
On TV he’s stern and gruff, always clad in a dark suit and with an intimidating gaze that can make people quake.
So it’s no wonder that visitors to Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter do a double take when they realise the smiling and shirtless man splashing around in the water on a baking-hot summer’s day is Shaun Wallace – also known as the Dark Destroyer – from the hit British quiz series, The Chase.
And when a couple of them call out to him as he’s being photographed for the Weekly,
asking if he’s “that guy off The Chase”, Shaun couldn’t be friendlier. “Yes, I am,” he says. “Just give me a couple of minutes and I’ll be with you.”
And sure enough, once he’s finished the shoot, he heads over to chat to several fans of the show. He happily poses for selfies, sporting a huge grin that’s the complete antithesis of his chaser persona.
Shaun says that while he is serious on The Chase – “Quizzing is a very serious business, I’m not there to have a laugh” – it’s a different story when it comes to meeting fans of the show.
“I am very conscious of the fact that it’s members of the public who have made it such a success so I will always stop and talk to them. It is my way of saying thank you.”
The upbeat Londoner had plenty of chances to show that gratitude to Kiwi viewers during a whirlwind trip to New Zealand to promote his autobiography, Chasing the Dream.
“I wrote the book because I wanted people to know my back story and I want to inspire the next generation. If you’d told me when I was a kid that I would be doing what I am doing now, I would have said you were lying. But I am proof of what you can achieve.”
Shaun (58) was born in Jamaica and emigrated to the UK with his family as a child. His mum Millicent was a nurse, his dad Linford worked in a Heinz food processing plant and he grew up in the working-class London suburb of Wembley.
He wanted to be a lawyer from the age of 11 and is now a practising barrister, defending clients facing a range of charges from petty crime through to murder.
“I still think becoming a lawyer is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he admits.
The next best thing was winning the crème de la crème of quiz shows, Mastermind. A big fan of general knowledge quizzes – “I used to play Trivial Pursuit with my brother Steve and I never beat him, ever” – he took part in the show in
2004, with soccer as his specialist subject.
“I was the first black person to apply for the show in its 36-year history, which got a lot of press coverage once it screened,” he says. “But I didn’t tell a soul I had entered and nobody knew I had won until they saw it on the telly. I knew it would be a big thing because, being black, it was a big achievement at the time.”
The week the final screened, he went overseas and didn’t tell anyone where he was.
“I think my mum was worried. When she saw that I won she gave me a scolding for not telling her. She got over 100 phone calls, and my dad – they were divorced – was in a workingmen’s club and he got a standing ovation because his son had won. I would have liked to have seen that.”
The Mastermind triumph was a pivotal moment – he commemorated it with tattoos on both his biceps – and eventually led to being the first of five quizzing experts chosen to appear on The Chase.
The worldwide success of the show has been overwhelming, but Shaun insists while it has changed his life, he is the same.
“I am still the same guy, I still have the same friends, I still live in the same road I’ve lived in for the last 55 years.”
And he still has the same job, fitting his Chase commitments in with his work as a barrister.
There are similarities between law and TV quizzing, he says. In both he has to be wellprepared and able to retain a lot of information. He prepares for The Chase by watching as many other TV quiz shows as he can and going to four pub quizzes a week. He’s in a team with fellow chaser Paul “Sinnerman” Sinha, and they’re currently second in the Quiz League of London.
Shaun keeps fit, doing 1000 sit-ups a day and training five times a week with a personal trainer, because
“it also keeps my mind healthy”.