6 | Forever Keele
INSPIRING ALUMNI
I ' ve started , so I ' ll finish ..
This year saw not one , but two members of the Keele community take part in the long-running BBC quiz show , Mastermind . In these accounts , Joe Andrew , Emeritus Professor in Literature and Culture , and Jack Karimi ( 2020 Politics ) tell us about their experiences .
I ’ ve watched game shows for as long as I can remember , and wanted to go on one for about as long , but I thought quizzing was something that you could only really do casually . It was only during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 that I found out that quizzing was a valid hobby , when I found a community of people hosting game shows over Zoom . I also joined online quiz leagues LearnedLeague and the appropriately named Online Quiz League , and started to apply for anything I could .
I ’ m not sure what it was about my application for Mastermind that worked , but I think my unique specialist subject probably helped . I ’ ve always been a sponge for politics , and been fascinated by the odd nature of the Vice Presidency . Being one heartbeat from the Presidency but not having any official duties or importance has led to an interesting range of Vice Presidents , and I knew of some funny stories and anecdotes prior to choosing it as my subject .
Preparing for the show was more difficult than I expected . I was allowed to select a book on the Vice Presidency that the question setter would also have to revise from , and I made over 200 flashcards that I was able to go over each day and memorise fully over the course of a month . I wasn ’ t able to work on general knowledge much , but I practiced on heats from the previous series .
On the day , it wasn ’ t as bad as I feared . I didn ’ t feel much of the stress that I ’ d been warned about , and hit my targets of half of the specialist subject questions and nine from the general knowledge . I ’ d kept my appearance a secret from most people outside of family and a few friends , and the experience of hearing from people who ’ d seen me on the show was lovely . I ’ ve continued to watch the series and will be rooting for Joe as he goes on to win !