‘King of the Nerds’ exit interview: Katie Correll on costumes, challenges, and spelling bees
Katie Correll had a nice run on “King of the Nerds” this season, and for at least a little while, we were starting to feel like she was the #1 contender to sit atop the Throne of Games. We’d put her #1 in our rankings two week s in a row, and the only thing that seemed to slow her down in recent weeks was being shifted to a new and very dysfunctional team in the Midas Touch Attack.
So what did Katie think about being switched over to the new team, going out courtesy of a spelling bee, and a variety of other nerdy subjects? We chatted with the game’s resident puppetmaster (yes, obvious pun) about some of these topics recently via email.
CarterMatt – How did you feel about the way you went out in the Nerd-Off? Does something like one little mistake in a spelling bee haunt you, or are you at peace with what happened?
Katie Correll – I could curse myself for misspelling a word I use all the time, or for having slightly slower reflexes, but in general I think it was a really fair contest.
You are so far the only person who’s has experience being on both teams. Why do you think in general Titans of Rigel was so successful? Was it the personalities meshing so well, or just that you had a great mixture of skills?
I would attribute it mostly to personalities. The MTA had a formidable st of talents, they just had certain, erm…. roadblocks in the way of effectively using them as a team.
We joked that we were #communism on TOR, because everyone was happy to contribute what they could for the good of the team, while the gold team seemed to be some sort of revolutionary dictatorship.
Was there any way that you could have acted more to the Midas Touch Attack like you were on their team fully? Do you think integrating even more could have helped someone like Jack decide to not vote you into the Nerd-Off, or do you think it was inevitable you’d be targeted just because you were not an original member?
Part of that is of course the editing. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the Titans of Rigel from the point where I switched teams until after my new teammates decided to vote me into the nerdoff.
I did everything I could to contribute to the Midas Touch Attack, but in the end Jack made the only decision that really made sense to him- I would have done the same thing in his place.
I kind of knew from the moment I drew the gold coin that it was a death sentence- only a matter of time before I’d get put in a nerdoff.
Do you think Chris and Brian pushed a little too hard to keep you from going to the Nerd-Off? Maybe this was just editing, but it seemed like their plea to Jack had an adverse effect on him.
I really appreciate what they tried to do for me. It may not have been the best move for the Titans, but it really illustrates how that team worked in that we wanted to do whatever possible to get the full team into the finals.
Zack is clearly someone who has gotten a huge reaction online this season. What was your relationship like with him both on and off the Midas team?
I don’t want to give credit to his antics by talking about them.
You really got a chance to show a ton of your strengths on the show, in between creating a puppet, robotics, and even with the debate. Was there a highlight, or anything else that you really wish you could’ve done?
I think one of my favorite challenges was the LARP challenge because it resembled an ‘Unconventional Materials’ challenge from Project Runway (I think I kept shouting ‘Make it work!’ while I was sewing that dress into a romper- No one even got to see the dozens of tiny pleats I put into the cuffs). In puppetry we frequently use things for everything other than their intended purpose, so all the repurposing that went on in that and the robotics challenge was right up my alley!
What’s it been like for you to sit back and watch the show now? Obviously it’s like everyone else is getting to experience a memory for your past, but a slightly augmented version of it.
I hate seeing myself in videos or hearing my voice recorded, so there’s that cringe factor- but I’ve been watching it with friends who do a good job of keeping me from covering my eyes the whole time.
It’s really interesting to see what makes the cut. Obviously there’s A LOT of footage since for a lot of the challenges we were given 24 hours to prep our projects. We’ve all been trying to guess what they’ll show but you never know till you watch the show.
There’s a whole other show that could be made out of our out-of-challenge antics!
We like to end with something silly: You mentioned the slave Leia costume last night, which had to take a TON of time to make. So why not go with a Leia wig? Is the purple hair a signature?
Okay, so here’s the story behind that costume.
When I made it I had brown hair past my shoulders, so it totally worked at the time. I took it to DragonCon 2013 to wear in my puppet slam performance (which has by now been widely viewed by the KotN fanbase on youtube)- the context of that was that I started out in a trenchcoat and had a reveal of the costume halfway through as a sort of visual gag, so basically I started as myself and turned into a character during the performance.
While I was at DragonCon a friend persuaded me to go to the Slave Leia photoshoot, which is where that picture came from. I wasn’t really prepared for it, haha. But now that that’s gone over well, and since my costume has some subtle modifications to begin with, I may keep going with a more punk-rock Leia in the future.
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Just in case you were wondering what Katie was talking about with her puppet slam performance, we’ve got it for you below. Also, we just posted our latest “King of the Nerds” rankings, so be sure to check that out.
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Photo: TBS