The Chase’s ‘Dark Destroyer’ Shaun Wallace on how to win at pub quiz

How do you win a pub quiz? Regular quiz practice, reading lots of general knowledge material, and watching endless TV game shows.

“You’ve got to practise a lot,” says Shaun Wallace, one of the original “chasers” on the UK TV quiz show The Chase, aka The Dark Destroyer. “You have to do a lot of reading in relation to general knowledge. And simply turn up to as many pub quizzes as you possibly can. Practice makes perfect, I always say. Yesterday, I went to my usual Tuesday night pub quiz, I’m hosting another one tonight. For me, pub quizzes are a way of life, and it’s a great way to interact with people, test your knowledge, a bit of showing off.”

One good way to get better, says Wallace, who is also a barrister, is to watch lots and lots of TV quiz shows. He no longer reads original factual material like encyclopedias, though he did as an aspiring quizzer.

“When I started out, on a show called Fifteen to One, which was the Rolls-Royce of tea-time quizzes on Channel 4.”

It was a tough, three-round quiz game with 15 contestants that originally ran from 1988 to 2003. “I always wanted to win the grand final with the fifth century BC either Roman, Egyptian or Greek artefact [prize]. And I took six weeks off from my [legal] practice and read 27 encyclopedias. Sad to say, it didn’t go that well. So that’s the only time I’ve really read encyclopedias.”

But it wasn’t wasted effort: “That’s when my knowledge really, really shot up.” His practice now is to watch lots of game shows. “I go on to YouTube and watch TV quiz shows like Fifteen to One, the Weakest Link, Mastermind, The Chase, and just test myself. But I’m only interested in the questions I get wrong, not the questions I get right, because I already know the answer.”

So he doesn’t go to Wikipedia and online sources for subjects like history? He does not.

“Those subjects I’ve already got a good grounding in. That’s my favourite topic. History is a very, very strong subject for me. Not just English history, but histories of other nations around the world. I’m very good at science, good at geography, literature, art, not too bad on entertainment. My Achilles heel is [TV] soaps. Every Achilles has their heel, and my Achilles heel would be soaps. Not interested.”

He’s also good in sport, partly because he loves it, particularly rugby. He’s coming to New Zealand this month for a series of quizzes around the country, but it’s no coincidence at all that the All Blacks are playing two tests against England while he is here (more on that soon).