Canberran (who might have poured you a drink) wins SBS gameshow

Regular visitors to the Burns Club in Kambah will have spotted a familiar face on the latest episodes of Mastermind Australia.

Mick Logue works behind the bar most of the time, but years of practice hosting and organising regular trivia shows at not only the Burns Club, but also the Canberra Services Club, paid off this month when he won the grand final of the hit SBS game show.

“I didn’t find it as intimating as it looks, but I definitely felt a lot of pressure,” he says.

“I know a lot of brilliant quizzers who have bombed out on telly, so that doesn’t make it easy. My first game went to a tiebreaker so, again, I felt a lot of pressure, but I made it through and … ended up winning four episodes all up.”

Mick’s quest for knowledge began as a student at Stromlo High School and then Canberra College.

“That was probably where I first got an interest for it, but I was a bit frustrated because my family was quite into trivia but they wouldn’t bring me down to the pub ’till I was 18,” he says.

He contented himself with family games of Trivial Pursuit and TV shows of the time like Sale of the Century.

“I guess I’ve just got a curious mind, and am good at retaining a lot of the information that we come across every day, most of which just goes straight over top of us,” he says.

“I found my recall was pretty good too. I haven’t done much on the clock except for practicing for Mastermind and then going on the show, but I found when I needed it, the answers were mainly there.”

A university degree and some years into a job in the public service later and he began looking at ways he could make money from his aptitude, and began hosting his own trivia nights at local pubs under the business name of “Trivial Excuse“.

“I was running trivia some nights, and pulling beers on the weekends, but ended up going full-time with the trivia until COVID,” he says.

“Everything’s been all over the shop since then.”

He’s attended various trivia competitions and championships over the years, including in places as far flung as Greece, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.

In April 2018, he was among four Australian contestants at the World Quiz Olympiad in Athens, Greece, described as the “Olympics of trivia”. Other contestants included former Jeopardy staff Ken Jennings, and Ann Hergerty, better known as ‘The Governess’ on The Chase.

He earned a place on Mastermind Australia when a team of the show’s recruiters met him at the NSW Quiz Championships.

“I ran a pretty miserable fifth place last year, but won that this year,” Mick says.

He says COVID and inflation has changed hospitality forever, with fewer people going out than before, but there’ll always be a place for trivia in Canberra’s pubs and clubs.

“Everyone knows something.”

Now with added clout from his appearance on the show, he’s hoping to again go full-time and expand Trivial Excuse into more local venues, even if not as host. Ideally, he’d like to “get more into the production side” and write the scripts and questions for shows like The Chase.

“You don’t need to be a brilliant quizzer to host,” he explains.

“You just need to be able to hold the crowd. You need someone who’s kind of bubbly and engaging, and that’s absolutely not who I am, but I run with what I have. I’m a bit more sarcastic.”

Mastermind Australia episodes are available for streaming on SBS On Demand. Mick Logue appears in Season 6, Episodes 72, 75, 84, and 85.