The Quest Interview Series: Patrick Higgins

The Quest is a reality competition show set in the fantasy world setting of Everealm. Twelve Paladins must endure and survive training to find the one true hero and defeat the enemy, Verlox. One of the men who finds himself being among the final four with the possibility to be the one true hero is Patrick Higgins. Below is an interview I was able to have with Brother Bear himself!

The Quest airs on ABC Thursday at 8 – 10 pm ET. This upcoming Thursday, September 11, is the finale with back-to-back episodes.

A thank you to @Session_Diva for the pictures!

Patrick Higgins can be found @pqhiggins

Tina Degenhart: How did you learn about The Quest and how did you audition process go?

Patrick Higgins: I heard about The Quest through Facebook in a post that one of my fellow 501st Legion members had reposted.  I figured “what the hell, this email will take 5 minutes to send and this show sounds right up my alley.” I didn’t really think anything of it, but the next day I got a call from Kristen, one of the casting agents in LA. She liked what she heard over the phone, so she asked if she could follow up with me on Skype, which we did shortly after that.  Then she set up a face to face interview with Luke Verge in Chicago and from there it was just a waiting game until the beginning of July when they flew the 24 they had it narrowed [it down] to out to LA for there days of all kinds of stuff. From there they made their decisions on the final 12 and the rest is history!

TD: What are your thoughts on the social media blow up, especially Twitter?

PH: I honestly had no idea that the social media involvement would be this insane. The feedback on my fan page, the daily tweets with the fans, and tweeting during and immediately after the show… it’s been a blast, but also exhausting! I’m definitely looking forward to being able to tone it down *a bit* but on the same token I absolutely adore the fan interaction. So don’t think that once the show is done that you have seen the last of me. I am far from done.

 

TD: Could you ever imagine that you and Bonnie would become some close? Good thing you guys were stuck rooming with each other! 

PH: Never in a million years. Us ending up as roommates was probably the best thing that could have happened to me on the show, only because when we had downtime (and sometimes there was a lot of it!) we really had nothing to do but talk. So we became pretty close friends pretty quickly, and love the fact that we have remained that way. I talk to her a few times a week (although not recently with her vocal chord surgery!), and we’re both REALLY looking forward to being at Fantasticon together. She’s especially excited because she will finally get to meet my youngest daughter, Lucy, and my wife, Becky, that she had to hear so much about!

TD: Do you feel your background as a teacher has helped at all with your time with The Quest?

PH:  I definitely felt that it helped a ton. It was most obvious during the challenge with having to use the flags to send a message. I think that trying to be as descriptive for Shondo and Andrew, and being able to disseminate the important information and relay it to them was a skill that I have honed as a teacher over the years. All that aside, I think that just learning how approach things calmly and try to see the solution to things came in helpful sometimes (although not all the time… let’s not talk about that barricade).

TD: Which challenge was your favorite and why?

PH: Well I would have to say the flag challenge was my favorite, because it gave me an opportunity to demonstrate some of the skills I have that are unique to me. That being said, I loved the horse challenge a lot, and even the Fates challenge with the cages and obstacle course. That gave me an outlet for some pent up emotions!

TD:  Soooo… I hear you have a pretty big sword, at least by Sir Ansgar’s standards. Care explain the joke from your side?

PH:  Well, when we were all given our swords, our instructor decided that the sword looked too small in my hands, so Heinrich, one of our trainers (and the guy with the beard who wakes us up to see Queen Ralia in episode 2) brought me one of his personal swords. He and our other trainers are part of the Austrian historic medieval battle team called The Bloodhounds. They are the ones playing the Runeguards on the show. At any rate, they do real steel on steel fighting, so he brought me the beast of the sword that you see me using on the show. Sir Ansgar had a sword that was bigger than the other paladins, but not mine, so I made sure to point that out to him every time that I could.

That, and like Peter told you, he hadn’t gotten the practice with the swords that we had. And they don’t show it on air, but one time we came out of the sleeping area into the courtyard and he was supposed to be practicing, but he looked… “uncomfortable.”  So I gave him grief about it, this started before the whole “Lady Patrick” thing, which I am sure was his attempt at a retort… and honestly, the black eye was such a bright shade of purple, it almost did look like really bad eye shadow for awhile. So it was more of a respectful joking banter between two warriors. He’d smirk and say something funny… and I’d just pull the sword out of the scabbard a few inches and point to his and laugh…

TD:  Were there any other funny or favorite moments that stand out for you?

PH: The paladins had come up with a drinking game for when we watched the show. That was pretty funny. Jasmine would be the one to talk to about the different rules for that. When we got stir crazy towards the end, we even started doing skits in front of this mirror that was supposed to be like a confessional to go into and send messages or just talk to. I am sure that wasn’t its intended use, but whoever has that tape has to be dying.

The singing though… I am sure it’s been said, but when all of us would get together and sing “Wild Rover” or “A Health to the Company”… and we were ALL doing it… those were the special moments that I won’t ever forget.

TD: Was there anything that happened that never made it onto the show that you wish it had?

PH: Hmmm… off the top of my head? Nothing I can think of. Other than the premiere. ABC should have kept that at two hours. There was some really cool stuff, and I know the EPs tried to share some of it, but I would have loved to see what a two hour premiere would have looked like.

TD: How does it feel to be in the final four?

PH: Amazing… utterly amazing. It’s bittersweet without the other paladins because we really did feel like a tightknit family… and it was kind of like… “Well wouldn’t TWELVE true heroes be better than one?” How about we call this ALL training, no one goes to the Hall of Fates archways, and we all smite Verlox together!” But alas, that is not how things work in Everealm.

TD: Finally, is there anything you wish someone would ask you about or something you’d like to add?

PH: Just that everyone should remember that there is a true hero inside of them. What makes a person a hero is having the courage to allow themselves to be that hero.

That… and this: The Quest Army ROCKS!!! BEST FANS EVER!!!