It is surprising to hear the trivia genius, Itai Herman, whose amount of knowledge seems to be almost infinite and whose memory is phenomenal, declares to himself that as a child “I experienced myself as forgetful. Even today I forget where I put things, I forget where I put my keys, coming home Having items in hand and not remembering where they are. As a child the basic experience was that even though I bothered to do my homework, and I was sure I put the notebook in the bag, it wasn’t in the bag, and then I came home and found that I had put a sandwich in and took the notebook out.
The horror of forgetting made me find strategies that compensate for it. I thought: ‘How will I remember this when I grow up?’. I think the ability I show on the show is compensation. I have a superficial but varied mix of liking current affairs, sports and songs.”
Herman, 51, an entertainment and television personality, a game designer and a quizzer who wrote questions for almost every possible entertainment that aired on television in Israel, broke into the public consciousness when he began to play the role of “the chaser” in the entertainment show “The Chase”, whose seventh season will be released this Monday at 11:21: 15. “People think that my knowledge is almost passive, something passed and I absorb it like a sponge,” he says. “But I invested mental effort in remembering certain things. It is also a decision to remember many things, to make an association in order to remember.
Before I didn’t have this insight that I was doing something special. This is really my profession – to understand how we know and remember. Everything you know and remember is connected to something. What you will remember most is something you are emotionally connected to. Usually this process is unconscious, but it can be made conscious. When I hear the news or see a movie, I say: ‘I want to remember, I want it to stay with me.’ In retrospect, I’ve been doing it since I can remember.”
In the upcoming season, many competitors from all over Israeli society will participate, including quite a few celebrities who will try to show their knowledge against the chasers, including Yoram Arbel, the legendary host of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”, Tomer HaCohen, Noa Kirel’s partner, Zohar Israel, Daphne Leaf , Nati Ravitz and Tomer Sharon. Also, during the season, a number of special episodes will be broadcast: a Purim special with Tipex, an independence special with Olympic athletes Noam Gershoni, Oded Mekens, Vared Buskila and Toher Abutbul; And a women’s special with Yochi Brands, Shafra Kornfeld, Noa Yadlin and Dorit Rabinian. “With Yoram Arbel there was excitement, because I wrote the questions of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’,” says Herman.
“I was used to seeing him from the monitor of the control room, I submitted questions to him through the computer, and suddenly we are in a competition. Another huge excitement was when they brought me my childhood hero Oded Miknes, the great soccer star of the 1980s. When the filming was over, I told the production: ‘Don’t look Another record, because there won’t be one.’ People are terrified when they meet me. Almost everyone who comes connects with their modest side, it’s lovely to see it.”
The Chaser (photo: Gabriel Beharlia, courtesy here)
Did you make discounts for celebrities?
“I don’t make discounts. It doesn’t even cross my mind. When celebrities come, what’s important to me is that they feel comfortable, that they don’t regret coming. When at the end they say, ‘Here’s the question,’ I really don’t see anyone, I do my best.”
Do you get stressed sometimes?
“The final round makes my memory work better. The survival mode unlocks something in our brain and gives us access to the knowledge we have accumulated, but its retrieval is difficult. It happens towards the end. This season I worked hard on it, too many duels came to a screeching halt, and fell in my favor and sometimes To my detriment. I’m also under pressure during filming, this is the definition of healthy pressure, I don’t want to freak out at every moment of the show, I arrive knowing that I have a good chance to succeed. I want to succeed in my own right, but I also empathize with the contestants. Everyone wants to give a good performance, and a lot Sometimes they leave with a good feeling, and I also leave with a good feeling even though I lost.”
Is there an area in which you feel less strong?
“What I need to work on is current knowledge, new movies, I haven’t overcome the lack yet. I’m not strong on the whole superhero issue. People assume that I control all the Marvel and Disney stuff, who’s brother to whom. But that’s my kryptonite. It’s a segment.”
When Herman reveals to me his “kryptonite”, the subject in which he is weak, I try to trip him up with the question: “What is the name of the island where Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot, comes from?”, but he immediately replies: “Tamiskira. ‘Wonder Woman’ I bothered See”.
Fun on set
The comedy show “The Chase”, which Ido Rosenblum presented for five seasons until he was replaced by Lucy Ayoub, won the Academy Award five times in a row. In the upcoming season, Rosenblum returns to be the moderator who bridges the contestants and between the two chasers, Itay Herman and Michal Sharon.
What is the secret of the program’s success?
“The show has everything you need to be successful: excellent moderators, Ido and Lucy, excellent chasers, contestants, excellent casting, excellent questions, they manage to innovate. This cannot happen outside of the corporation. The viewer feels that he has benefited from the show, he is treated intelligently, And at the end there is fun on the set. The format is not Israeli and it is successful in many territories because at the end there is a segment with the chaser – ‘Will Goliath fall now’. There are also fans of the chasers, there are two sides to the coin. There is something clever here. This is how you get survivors I’m anxious, more than the viewers, because I really don’t know how it will end and the ending is always tense.”
Do you see yourself as the “villain” of the show?
“It’s built like that. It’s really built as a villain that you fight. The first object of identification is the competitors, the ordinary people who have to face. You identify with the underdog, while I’m the villain. I laugh and joke and they laugh at me. It’s cracking, it definitely works there. I wanted to be more of a villain , in production I actually worked on it before season 1. I’m a nice guy, and I thought I was in trouble, and that I needed to create an image and play it very tough.
When we started filming, they really demanded that I get off it, because they catch a fake, I might be a bad actor. The fact that I’m a little pompous or arrogant is part of the humor. It took people a while to understand that it was humor, they would say to me: ‘I think you have a good heart inside.'”
Thanks to Mona Lisa
How is your relationship with Michal Sharon?
“There is camaraderie. Bring it on, and suddenly there is someone else in the world who is like me, there is someone who really understands you. There are days when you feel bad that you lost, ‘what nonsense I said there’. Suddenly I have a sister. We shoot three episodes in a shooting day.”
What was it like to return to work with Ido after he replaced Lucy?
“Lucy is amazing. Very pleasant, she took the role and did it her way. I enjoyed every moment. When Ido came back it created very high sparks. It was funnier. I used to say ‘it’s not possible anymore’ and it turns out it is possible.”
Herman uses his vast knowledge today to deliver the lecture “The Riddle Boy from Neve Rasko”. “During the Corona period, I received many inquiries from companies and entities looking for creative solutions to maintain contact with employees,” he says. “I built a model of company events through Zoom, with unique Kahoot games and trivia quizzes adapted to the client. The goal was to contribute to the consolidation and strengthening of the unit’s pride in a time of uncertainty.
The success was dizzying in all sectors: government companies, local authorities, business companies, families. In retrospect, they also discovered the added value beyond strengthening the social identity: the tools I incorporate in the games and lectures relate to improving work performance both on a personal and organizational level. Many of the requests that reach me today are to conduct workshops for managers on the topics of management skills in a changing environment, learning and creative thinking.”
How does a career as a quizzer begin?
“Mostly by chance. My friend, Giora Hamitzer, started on the children’s channel and recommended me to the producer of ‘Galgal Mzal’. Then in ‘Shastos’ he said: ‘I want you to write questions,’ and I said: ‘I want to be a professor, why is he distracting My opinion on trivia?’. Then the ‘King of Trivia’ came to Israel and I was good at writing questions, then I got to ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ and that’s how I rolled into almost every trivia show, until I became ‘The Chaser’.
I am asked in lectures how I know what I know. There is the strange feeling that things are related to my biography, only that my biography is not as interesting as that of the hero of the movie ‘The Enigma Boy from Mumbai’. You can learn from everything. I illustrate this thing. I bring content related to visual memory, for example, and ask ‘What does the Mona Lisa do with her hands?’ People don’t know it consciously, but they have the image in their head.”
You define yourself as a “gameologist”. What is gameology?
“Gameology is introducing game elements into our conduct in life, and it improves us. I’m a gameologist before I’m a chaser.”
Do the threats to close the broadcasting corporation scare you?
“This saddens me the most. The channel started when its existence was threatened, and now suddenly this sword is raised. We all deserve something intelligent, something of quality. There are many successes, and that’s not good enough either? What is needed? What’s really fun is the feedback that refers to the corporation. It’s a body that makes Excellent work on television, in digital and in the news. This is what I see and receive. Other channels also understand this. They understand the place of the corporation that enables things that are not done on other channels.”