Monday 26 July 2010

I'm sorry to say that I'm no genius

I had an email last week from Jamie Miller. Jamie is the author of How to Be A Quizzing Genius. I have to admit that I haven’t yet read the book, and so am unable to comment on it on way or another. That’s by the by. In a pleasingly flattering email Jamie asked if I’d be prepared to answer a few interview questions for his new website. Well, dear readers, you know that I am congenitally incapable of passing up any opportunity to talk about myself, and so I answered them to the best of my ability.

The website is now up and running, and you can find it if you follow this link –
Quiz - Genius
My interview is there, but don’t worry, there’s also interviews with the lovely Daphne Fowler, and the equally lovely Shaun Wallace. Its pleasing and at the same time rather humbling to find myself included in that kind of company.

I think its early days for the site at the moment, so any of my comments have to be viewed in this light. Still it looks very good, very professional. I enjoyed reading the interviews with Shaun and Daphne, and there’s also links to several rather interesting articles elsewhere on the web. There’s also a plug at the bottom of the page for Jamie’s own book, but I don’t blame him for this. If I’d written a book you can bet your life I’d be plugging it in every post in LAM, and every reply to every comment about every post in LAM !

Jamie takes a tack with this website which is interesting. If I may him quote from the homepage –

“I have been earning a living from quizzing for many years now and created this site for people who want to do the same.
Whether you want to wow your friends at your local pub quiz, use the pub quiz-machines like ATMs or scoop a life-changing amount on a television game show, this site should point the way. “


I must bow to Jamie’s superior knowledge on this one, and if he’s making a living from quizzing, then I take my hat off to him, and he’s going to be worth reading. To be fair, if you read the three interviews, we have all been asked for learning and preparation tips, so its certainly about helping people to maximise their performance in a quiz. But making a living from quizzing ? Personally I know relatively few people who’ve ever made a living from quizzing, and even fewer if we discount those who have won £1 million on WWTBAM, or are part of the daily cast of a TV quiz show. If we take my question setting friend, for example, he’s been doing it for years, has built up his business over a long period of time, and frankly I doubt that he’s making a huge amount from it. So this is an aspect of the site I’m going to be watching with much interest. Jamie, if you can tell me how I can turn a certain amount of quiz chutzpah into hard cash, then I’m all ears !

Actually I’m going to watch the whole site with interest. Jamie has a nose for interesting articles, and if he gets more interviews as he plans to do, then I’ll be well pleased. Well worth a look.

No comments: