‘King of the Nerds’ exit interview: Zachary Storch on fan reaction, Nerd-Offs, gaming, and more
There are few contestants on “King of the Nerds” that had the same sort of impact as Zachary Storch; heck, there are few contestants out there on any reality show that played as a big of a part in their season. He was thoroughly entertaining, a huge competitor, and produced an endless stream of soundbytes that will ring through the halls of Nerdvana for many seasons to come (at least if TBS renews it).
So to say that we were excited to chat with Zack would be as big of an understatement as saying that “Final Fantasy 7” was just a ‘good’ game. We were hoping that the same sort of passion that he showed on the show would shine through this exit interview conducted via email, and he does not disappoint. We’re not going to waste much time on an introduction here; let’s just dive right in to the good stuff.
CarterMatt – Since you were such a big character on the season, this seems like a good place to start. What has the reaction been like since the last episode aired?
Zack – I definitely was—I’ve seen more than a couple people call this season ‘the Zack Show,’ which at times may be pretty accurate. My response in general for the first two episodes was largely positive. The usual bizarre internet vitriol started up episode three and started to fade when four aired. The people who liked me at the start stuck with me till the end (you’re all awesome and know who you are!) and I know I grew on a large number of people who didn’t (you’re also all awesome, thank you!). By this last episode, I’ve had a very positive response along with what my knowledge of sociology tells me is most likely a vocal minority giving a negative response. I went out respectfully but kept my head held high, and I think a lot of people appreciate that!
And I also have the response of course of still being seen as the villain of the season. I think from a story perspective it perhaps works (though anti-hero is would be more accurate from a literary lens when my entire Nerdvana adventure is taken into account), but I didn’t really fit the bill of the average reality TV villain. I did things in the game I felt remorse for, but everything was just part of the game and I think games give you a ticket to be rougher than you are in real life. I never cheated or lied—as a gamer, both of those upset me to no end and are off-limits actions. At one point, I told MK she was on the target list and later learned she was not, but that was only because I was lied to because I was being voted in by my team!
Were you surprised by how you were polarizing to some people in Nerdvana, and were you expecting more acceptance since these people are (at least in theory) like-minded
I’ve kept a rule going for much of my life which has yet to lead me astray: be yourself. Most people will like you that way, but odds are not everyone is going to be your best friend if you’re being yourself—that’s okay, the people who like you will be the kind of people you’ll really connect with because they accept you. And when you’re being yourself, you can accomplish a lot of good not only for you, but for the world! I think that sometimes there can be a lot of pressure to be who we think people want us to be in order to fit in. Don’t. Know that you’re awesome and keep doing your thing, and you’ll find the people who’ll love you for who you are.
One of the things I kept thinking while in Nerdvana is that I’ve raided with people in World of Warcraft that flat-out hate each other, and we’d still all get along enough to get our boss kills—and maybe even do it again next week. Nothing in Nerdvana was even at a level I’d call hate either. The people who it was a little rougher with were people opposite my personality. In real life, it’s a little harder to work through that than it is in a video game where your main interaction is voice chat.
To answer the question directly though, yes, I was expecting more flat-out acceptance. One of the things that’s super-important to me is the side of nerd culture about accepting virtually anyone. I also identify as a Nerdfighter, and one of the major morals in that community (along with fighting ‘world suck’) is to accept people. I’m worried that nerd culture may lose its aspect of acceptance someday, and I don’t want it to. The acceptance in nerd culture is what lets nerds do all the awesome stuff we do together and have people we can nerd-out over things with that someone else might not appreciate.
Just doing one Nerd-Off alone seems stressful enough for an ulcer. How did you keep the nerves from getting the best of you, especially when there were times (a la when you were facing Nicole) when there were so many distractions thrown at you?
The nerves did get to me on a few occasions, but not during the Nerd-Offs. Namely before my first I was pretty rattled (if you notice, during my photographic memory interview clip I’m crying a bit). After the first I felt incredibly confident and didn’t have any issues preparing for the next three. The hardest part during challenges was just that no one seemed to be cheering for me ever—to use a reference no doubt far outside my understanding, not having the home field advantage can be rough!
In the anatomy challenge, I was employing some meditation techniques to learn the material as well as I did, so I was extremely relaxed going in. In Battlehammer, there being an aspect of luck was sort of calming in its own way (although, in the end luck didn’t play a role. The official roll count total was 42 for me and 43 for MK—MK had slightly better luck but I still managed the win). Nicole was different as you suggest, though we did prep together some which was fun (we were doing logic puzzles to get our minds primed!). Going against a friend isn’t easy, and she wasn’t making it any easier the way she was trying to troll me! A few times she managed to actually reassure me though (intentionally or not), which helped. But I was really sad after I won. I wanted to make Genevieve’s record my record too, but it was tough doing it by beating Nicole.
On a scale of one to a million, just how glorious was it for you and Jack to win that Nerd War for George Takei? Was that one of your better moments this season?
It was OVER 9000 (million). That was easily one of the high points of the experience to me. When I got up to the laser maze I saw a path essentially comprised of a combat crawl (which we’d practiced extensively) and three jumps—three jumps if the person you’re directing through the maze is a fencer or long jumper. Jack (a fencer) had to do the jumps while keeping himself quite low, which is extremely hard for most people. Meanwhile, my depth perception is much better than the rest of my eye sight (which also helped my throws in Robot Dodgeball!) so it was easy to direct him through the maze. I gave him a lot of directions based off of those pillars you might have seen on the edges too. We communicated effectively and smoothly and completed the maze in outstanding time, and then the math problem was pretty much all Jack using his math powers to save the day! It felt really good to finally win a Nerd War, and having it be a teamwork challenge that felt like a trust building exercise it felt fitting!
And it’s a shame that Legacy Effect stuff couldn’t be shown! We saw some of the coolest things ever! We’re talking about the people behind the effects for Avatar and Iron Man (along with half of the other big movies in the world and a huge portion of cool TV ads). Next to personal time with Bill Nye, I think we won one of the cooler rewards of the season! I mean, with that one [DELETED] and that whole [CLASSIFIED] and then we saw all of the [COMMENT REMOVED]! It was amazing!
Did your recent victory with Jack make it that much harder to go against him in the Nerd-Off?
Jack, in contrast to Nicole, was easier to go against. We had a lot of fun together in that Nerd-Off, with plenty of joking back and forth and the like! I think coming out of a victory with him made it a lot more fun to go against him. Plus, there was the good news that, win or lose, a Midas Touch Attack player still made it final four and has a shot for the crown!
Preparing for it alone was hard though; while I didn’t ask for help it seemed clear I wasn’t going to get any (at least I had Twilly!). I don’t think anyone wanted to face me in the final four, and given that’s what we were going into I don’t blame them for not helping me that late into the game—it was a game decision on their part.
This is a pretty broad question, but it’s something that we love to ask: Who was the coolest guest judge that you got to meet this season?
Though not a judge, meeting George Takei was a definite dream come true. He’s every bit as epic in person as you’d hope he is and I’m an even bigger fan now than I was before! They may say not to meet your heroes, but I can assure everyone he’s a great person to meet—everyone I met was! Meeting Mayim Bialik was amazing too, because I’m crazy about Amy on the Big Bang Theory. She plays one of my favorite characters on TV—though to be honest, I love all the characters on the Big Bang Theory! Bill Nye was of course incredible to meet as well. Although he didn’t vote our way, Bill Nye is responsible for making nerdy cool to a huge number of people. Those are probably my top three, but given they’re all heroes or idols to me, I’m not sure I can pick a favorite.
So how are things with you and some of the other nerds now? Even though there were some tense moments, you guys are all part of the same nerdy family and share this insane, unique experience.
As you’ve seen in places like the premiere party stream, we all get along and enjoy each other’s company when it’s shared. I’m certainly closer with some than others, but I think that for the most part everyone knows that a game environment is different than ‘real life.’ Competition can get rough, but we are all part of this amazing nerd family, and I’d much rather be able to remember it together than alone. We’ve had the chance to meet, and have essentially joined the ranks of, the first season cast–the people who I watched on TV obsessively and gave superhero status to in my head!
It’s an honor to be a part of King of the Nerds because the show has a message that I deeply believe in: It’s not just okay to be yourself, but it’s awesome to be and we’ve all known what it’s like to be picked on at least once in our lives, so accept people for who they are. Nerdvana was and will always be an epic experience for me!
It’s always nice to end on something fun! Rather than have to basically go-cart in a Tron-like universe, what would have been your dream gaming-related challenge to take part in?
It would’ve been nice to see some real video gaming—I was half expecting a fighting game challenge, which would’ve been interesting because I could definitely give Xander a run for his money at that! It’d be close and no doubt completely epic! I practiced my Guitar Hero skills before going to Nerdvana as well, but I’m glad that didn’t come up. Rhythm games are not my specialty!
Battlehammer was definite fantasy fulfillment as far as commanding a fantasy army goes, but the technology isn’t there yet for dream gaming-related challenge. I’d want flat out warfare and battle against monsters utilizing sword and spell in a holodeck system. We might see the possibility for that kinda sci-fi stuff soon. Augmented reality is increasing at an exponential pace, and while the keyboard is my realm of comfort, challenges using augmented reality combined with body tracking would be a blast!
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Thanks again to Zack for taking the time to compose what we feel are some pretty epic responses to all of our questions, and we’re looking forward to seeing what happens on Thursday night!
This is turning out to be a big week for our “King of the Nerds” coverage. We just posted another interview featuring Chris Jackson, and if you head over to the link here, you can see everything from our episode reviews to our podcasts with Matt and Jessa. Our final contestant rankings of the season will be posted tomorrow, and then we’ll have the finale review and the last podcast of the season up Thursday and this weekend, respectively. If you want to get some of the good stuff on everything we cover at CarterMatt sent to your email, sign up for our weekly newsletter today!
Photo: TBS