Owen Garratt an artist, whose work can be found at www.pencilneck.com, now lives in Edmonton; but, is originally from Wawota. Last year he was chosen to be on the second season of Canada's Greatest Know-it-all. The show will be premiering this Monday, Jan. 14 on Discovery.
Garratt watched the first season of the show with his sons, Hudson (10) and Harding (7). Together his eldest boy and he would be yelling out at the screen, "no, you boneheads do it this way," Garratt explained.
When the show ended his boys began bugging him about when Garratt would be on the show or if he had applied yet. Finally it was found out by the boys that auditions were being held and after discussing the possibilities with his wife, Karla Elder, he decided to send in an audition tape.
From there he received a call while in Dallas doing a portrait for John Rich. The producers asked if he was free for a phone interview and began asking him questions: What does an alternator do? How many Prime Ministers has Canada had? Then he was asked to name them. Upon returning to Canada he received the final phone call telling him he had been chosen for the show and that his flight had already been booked.
He was flown to a city in southern Ontario to compete and was away for the month of June last year for filming purposes.
This was very exciting for Garratt who explained there were a number of highly educated people on the show and he with his grade 12 from Wawota Parkland High School. Quickly though he discovered the competition demanded street smarts and academic knowledge as well as an element of fitness.
Garratt enjoys a challenge and an adventure, so the show was a perfect direction for him. He has been swimming with sharks, climbing mountains, and a number of other adventures.
"This T.V. show was by far the best adventure I've ever had outside of fatherhood," Garratt explained.
The show Garratt described as being, "kind of like Fear Factor crossed with Survivor, crossed with Myth Busters."
Ten know-it-alls from across Canada were chosen to participate including Ph.D. holders, an engineer/inventor, an arctic ranger, a physics prodigy, an entrepreneur, and others with different world experiences.
Two teams are then created and constantly change as people are forced to leave following individual battles in the elimination rounds.
Essentially they would be placed in an extraordinary situation taking the contestants out of their comfort zone and given a task to complete.
The central theme Garratt said is to place people with book smarts against those with real world smarts. He quickly discovered, however, that in order to go anywhere with the show the contestants needed both. His analogy to explain the competition was that of "a strong man competition, but with more nerds.
Just as strong men condition themselves for lifting the heaviest weights and competing in endurance events, the same is needed for knowing a lot of information and problem solving in Canada's Greatest Know-it-all.
Garratt went into the show hoping all of the books he has read and the random, obscure pieces of information obtained throughout the years would pay off. He says we'll simply have to watch and see if it does because he wouldn't give anything away.
He did say he made an alliance early on in the competition. Self-proclaimed for being able to read people fairly well he simply took a back seat initially in order to get a feel for each person. Everyone always has qualities, which can surprise you and Garratt wanted to know what these were before he began playing the game. In the end he was able to develop an alliance with someone who held strengths in areas Garratt didn't and vice versa.
"We've become very good friends and are considering entering the Amazing Race..." Garratt explained. This is not yet certain, but they are attempting to make it happen.
As for Canada's Greatest Know-it-all, Garratt thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would jump at the opportunity to do it again saying if there were ever an All-Stars season he would love to be asked.
He was often asked if he was intimidated being around all of the "big brains" there, which at first he had been unsure of the answer. Shortly after the first couple of times he was asked this a moment of clarity came to him and he explained, "No, not really, I don't hang around with idiots."
People are people no matter who they are or what their credentials are and this show seems to have given this opportunity to be shown to the world. A person with a grade 12 education from a small town can compete in the same competition as someone with a Ph.D. Everyone on the show passed the requirements to be cast and were all there on their own merits.
During the show he learned a lot about himself and about a number of subjects, but feels he accomplished his goal set before the acceptance of the challenge. Essentially this is the reason why he auditioned and accepted the offer in the first place.
"I went into this to teach my son some life lessons instead of just telling him. Not just with the challenges, but interpersonal things," Garratt explained.
Important for Garratt was to have this accomplishment in his hometown paper as he may live in Edmonton now, Wawota will always be home. During the show he even talks about his high school math and science teacher.
