During his Schmoedown career, “The Powder Keg” Paul Preston competed in the singles and teams divisions. Drafted by Kate Mulligan in the 2020 Schmoedown Draft, he was a member of The Den during Season 7: The New Era and Season 8: War, and a member of The Fan Favorites during Season 9: Reboot. Here are his reflections on the show we all love, in his own words.
Looking back on the Schmoedown, what is the most memorable moment that you were personally involved in?
The funny thing is, I said when I joined the league that I wanted to be memorable right away. The first time Adam Witt and I were brought in to compete was the 2019 Free4All and I found myself standing next to William Bibbiani when he cleared the stage – 4XXXX. That was memorable but that’s NOT what I was talking about!! Nevertheless, it was a big moment, but I’m reading “memorable” as “favorite”, and I have to say bowing out so early in the F4A was not a favorite moment ‘cause it was certainly my favorite style of game to play, I wanted to keep going! So, I have to say it was the response to the “bro” characters Adam and I brought to the table after our first match. We were new and we had dumb ideas, but would they fly? It was a little intimidating coming into a league that had been around for six years already and was an established machine. We worked hard, did a lot of writing, prepared a lot of bits (still do!) to give people a SHOW. It was great to feel the response immediately and get the idea from the crowd that they wanted more. Happy to oblige, and whenever the trivia game went south, we could always rely on the concept “Win or lose, be memorable”.
What is the most memorable moment that you were not involved in?
Can I throw a little love at my partner in crime Adam Witt? His pull of “Daultay Dofine” in a Star Wars showdown with Sean Sullivan will be remembered far longer than the fact that he never won a match. This was, once again, an encouraging response from the crowd early-ish in our time at the Schmoedown and the kind of events that got Adam self-coined “Fan Favorite”. Actually, can you edit out the fact that I mentioned that Adam never won a match? Probably shouldn’t bring up such a painful subject.
Which of your matches would you say is the best you played?
Probably Free4All V just this last May. I mentioned that this format is my favorite and there’s a reason I did increasingly better in Free4Alls the more I participated in them. You may have heard me gripe on after shows or The Movie Guys’ Movie Nonsense show that you really can’t determine whether one person is better at movie trivia than another unless you ask them the same questions. It rules out subjectivity of a question’s difficulty. I know the answer, you don’t, or vice versa – that’s it! So when the whole match is just everyone being asked the same questions, it allowed me to just rely on my trivia, not my handling of THE RULES. And I did well. Quite well. At Free4All V, I knocked out two former champs (Murrell and Bateman) and was in the final duo remaining with another former champ in Marisol McKee. I fared well in the Free4All before that and did extremely well in the horror Free4All a couple of years ago. This is also why I had a high percentage of perfect Round Ones in my career, when it was mostly trivia and no baloney, I shined.
Which match that didn’t involve you would you say is the best you ever saw?
More recency bias, but I gotta go with Smets’ return match against Chandru. What a mountain for Kevin Smets to personally climb to get back into competition, let alone jump into a championship and come out on top. I mean, this guy Smets rebounded from Stage 3 Colorectal cancer and I recall the first time I saw him in person after the lockdown and he looked better than me! Then, to have his head about him to successfully jump into a match, guns blazing, and come out on top? Smets delivers for the fans. Constantly.
How would you describe the Schmoedown’s impact on you?
Adam Witt always describes this well. Sometimes you go deep on movies and find yourself talking into the void. Thanks to the Schmoedown, we now talk movies into a beautiful echo chamber of like-minded people. Between the other competitors and the fans, references usually lost on a muggle get appreciated. And these competitors and fans will now transition into life-long friends. Can’t beat that.
What will you miss most about the Schmoedown?
I always enjoy a reason to create. Creating a character, writing and performing promos, prepping pre- and post-match interviews and more was satisfying as hell. Not to mention this whole weird project inspiring Adam and I to create things like the Star Wars Free4All and the Flash of Genius Trivia Exhibition Match. These and other videos like the draft previews were wholly enjoyable ventures thought up simply because we were involved in the league. Will we stop making crazy content? Hell, no. And we hope our new extended family follows along with whatever we do next. We’ll be watching them.
Paul Preston can be found on Twitter @PPrestonLA.
