U of A Student to Compete on ABC's "The Quest"

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FAYETTEVILLE -- The Quest, ABC’s newest reality television show, combines Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Twelve seemingly everyday people, known as Paladins in the show, are thrown into a fantasy world where they have to attend horse, archery, and sword camp to prepare. The Paladins compete in a variety of challenges with the end goal of finding the one true hero to save Everealm. The University of Arkansas senior Jim Curry is one of the contestants.

“Growing up a fan of the Harry Potter series and becoming an athlete playing Muggle Quidditch, I felt I could be a good fit for this show,” Curry said. He went on to explain how participating in The Quest has impacted his life.

“I feel a lot more confident these days. After facing ogres, school and work seem a lot easier though not always as exciting. I’ve been able to bring a lot of the lessons learned from The Quest home with me.”

Curry, who is a technology education major from Little Rock and a member of University Recreation’s Quidditch club, said he represented Harry Potter fandom when he auditioned against 10,000 people nationwide for the chance to compete. Through this experience, Curry was also able to travel to San Diego  for the annual International Comic-Con last weekend, where he helped to promote the show.

“Comic-Con was amazing,” Curry said. “This was my first one, so I got to act as spectator and attraction. Five of the contestants were there doing interviews for ABC and other smaller programs.”

The Quest, which has Rob Eric,  best known for his work on the Rings trilolgy, as executive producer, premiers at 7 p.m. CDT Thursday, July 31. For an explanatory video about The Quest, visit http://mashable.com/2014/06/12/game-of-thrones-like-reality-show-the-quest-finally-explained/. To support Jim in his quest to become the one true hero visit http://www.thequestshow.com/ and to see pictures from Comic Con, ‘like’ his page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PaladinJimCurry).