‘King of the Nerds’ exit interview: Brian Davidson on skills, strategy, and (of course) his beard
There are many great things about getting to do extensive coverage about a show like “King of the Nerds“: You get to watch a show that is extremely entertaining and well-produced, and if you are a fellow nerd, you get to see like-minded people doing awesome stuff on TV.
One other great thing about it? That you get to do some pretty great exit interviews, and we’ve had fantastic ones almost all season long. You can now add Brian Davidson to that list, as he was just as articulate as you would expect from a literary scholar of his aplomb. He gives insight on his strategy, some of the tasks this season, and of course the absolutely-enormous beard that has a fan following all its own.
CarterMatt – Watching the show, you had an edit that at times was under the radar. Was that a part of your strategy in the game, or did you even perceive yourself playing a more behind-the-scenes game while it was happening?
Brian Davidson – I think that my strategy was pretty straightforward given what I knew about the structure of the show: basically, help my team out as much as possible, but try to let us others attract more attention while biding my time until the individual game begins. My biggest strength in the competition was my adaptability and I think that, along with Nicole and Xander, I filled a bit of the ‘jack of all nerds’ niche. That meant that, to the Titans, I could appear very dependable without them worrying about the potential for me to completely dominate in the late game, while [Midas Touch Attack] evaluated me as a ‘mid level’ threat — not as immediately dangerous as Chris or as flashy as Katie, but as someone who would be dangerous as time went on. And in these kinds of games, being ‘in the middle’ is exactly the right place to be. So yes, I may have seemed ‘under the radar’ at times, but I knew what I was doing. Moreover, I think that my personality did eventually get a chance to shine in the show — which is great!
Is there any one thing that you would necessary attribute to the success of the Titans of Rigel?
It’s hard to pick any ONE thing. There were at least three major ingredients to our success:
1. Our unique blend of skills: We really hit the sweet spot with the right mixture of technical, creative and intellectual skills. Even those of us who ‘overlapped’ a bit had unique strengths — Xander and I, for instance, were both ‘creatives,’ but he ended up filling more of the visual artist-and-performer niche, while I filled in the details as writer-and-loremaker.
2. The way our personalities meshed: with rare exceptions, we Titans also got along extremely well. We were all very good at burying our egos and coming together as a team, allowing us to work quickly and efficiently. We respected each other, felt comfortable trying out ideas, and also knew when it was time to back off and try a new path.
3. The dysfunction of the Gold team: As good as we may have seemed, every single Nerd War was still extremely close. (Well, maybe not the laser maze. Jack’s jumps really did blow out our ‘slow and steady’ on that one). If MTA had been operating at their full potential, I think they would have beaten us much more frequently.
Are you little bummed that there wasn’t a Nerd War that would’ve catered more to your strengths? Who would your dream guest judge be?
Well, I don’t think that ‘textual documentary editing’or ‘bibliographic description’ Nerd Wars would have played that well on TV! I didn’t expect a Nerd War to cater exactly to me, but as it stands, they all had aspects that I was able to latch onto. The Science Fair tickled by research bone (and you didn’t get to see me studying up on volcanology, which allowed me to answer one of Bill Nye’s questions and make up for confusing ‘cubic kilometer’ with ‘cubic meter’); the LARP engaged my strengths in performance, writing, and role play; and I loved the debate (Debates are great in general and I was the biggest Trekkie besides Kayla in the house). The only Nerd War that I didn’t feel comfortable with was Robot Dodgeball — and that’s because I lacked both Xander’s artistic skills and Chirs/Kayla’s technical expertise.
As for a dream judge: I was not-so-secretly hoping for Joss Whedon or Felicia Day, especially for the LARP challenge, and when we walked into the library for the spelling bee, I was convinced that Alex Trebek might be ‘hosting’ it. Alas!
Are you haunted at night at all by some of those questions that caused you to get eliminated, and is it frustrating to make it so close to the throne only to be eliminated
Sure, it’s frustrating, but I’m not haunted at all. I do wish that there had been more trivia about broader intellectual subjects, but really, that’s what Jeopardy! is for. As it is, I’m so glad to have been at Nerdvana at all, and I’m especially glad that I got to experience each challenge “in person” as well.
How well do you think you would have fared in the Nerdliminator?
I would have done well — whether or not I could win would depend a lot of who I was up against and who my ‘helpers’ were. That said, it’s easy to say that now, when I’m not dealing with the acute pressure of a $100,000 game of Pac-man!
Since we end with something silly most of the time, are you aware of just how fascinated the general public seems to be by your beard? (Personally, mass applause for having the patience to stick with it … seems rather itchy.)
Oh, I’m aware! People seem to put me somewhere between a hobbit, an ewok and a werewolf, and I’m just fine with that! It’s not itchy at all — that’s just when it first starts growing in (so for me, about the first three hours).
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Thanks to Brian for the time spent to answer our questions! We have one more “King of the Nerds” exit interview coming tomorrow with winner Kayla LaFrance, and it shall not disappoint! For now, just click here if you want to read our interviews with the other finalists, or here to get some more updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: TBS