Tim Blais

**Tim Blais** was a contestant on Season 2.

## Background

*Retrieved from CBC.ca*

Tim’s one competitor who won’t be camera-shy – he’s a popular YouTube star, with over 3.5 million views on his A Capella Science channel, where he reworks pop hits into songs about science (catchy and informative!). Tim’s friends and family call him a genius – will they be able to call him Canada’s Smartest Person?

Tim has over 3.5 million views on his popular YouTube channel A Capella Science, where he combines his love of music with his Masters in Theoretical Physics to make science fun! This YouTube “edutainer” re-purposes popular songs into educational and entertaining videos about science. He writes and shoots all of the material himself as well as arranges and performs the vocals.

Everyone in Tim’s life calls him a genius and now he’s out to prove them right by competing on the Canada’s Smartest Person stage.

## Episode 202

Before Tim was summoned to the stage, a clip of him and the other three contestants, Marielle Leigh, Maryanne Lewell, and Ira Timothy, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, apart from introducing himself, Tim stated that YouTubers are the educators and innovators of the new generation. In the first challenge, Double Take, Tim got 5 correct answers. As a result, Tim finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points.

In the second challenge, Blow Back, Tim was the only contestant not eliminated from the challenge. As a result, Tim finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points.

In the third challenge, Mix Master, Tim earned 3 points. As a result, Tim finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points. In the fourth challenge, Pipe Fitter, Tim successfully connected his plumbing system and filled his glass 2 minutes and 18 seconds into the challenge. As a result, Tim finished in 3rd place and was awarded 2 overall points.

In the fifth challenge, Spin-a-Speech, Tim was the second contestant to give a speech and had to give a eulogy as his speech. He said, "My dear ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here with genuine **emotion** to bereave the loss of **Frank** **Ocean**. We know Frank. We were **flabbergasted** by his amazing ability to enjoy all sorts of things, from ice cream; whether it was **vanilla**-flavoured, **rum** and raisin, **red** velvet. We enjoyed him for his love of animals, especially his **rowdy** **puppy**, **Shotgun**. We loved his **sumptuous** **secretary**, although some of us kept that behind closed doors. And we especially love the way that he so **fervently** and moistly kept the **chemistry** alive throughout his entire life." Tim received a score of 14 words. Guest judge Mary Walsh commented that Tim struggled a little linguistically. Mary ranked Tim in 3rd place for his overall performance and Tim was awarded 4 overall points as a result. After the first five challenges, Tim had received a total of 21 overall points. As a result, he finished in 1st place and was congratulated by Jessi, along with Maryanne, for qualifying for the Gauntlet.

In the sixth and final challenge, the Gauntlet, Tim gained the early lead on Maryanne as the former completed the first two sections at a decent speed and was working on the musical section as the latter finished unscrambling her final word at the linguistic section. After Tim completed the first task at the physical section, Maryanne started gaining momentum by completing the visual section and matching pairs quickly at the musical section. However, Tim completed the last two tasks at the physical section quickly and breezed through the logical section. Ultimately, Maryanne stopped at the musical section as Tim hit the buzzer, which signalled his victory and his spot in the season finale. After the challenge ended and Tim was declared the second finalist of the season, Tim and the other three contestants celebrated onstage with Jessi.

### Summary of Results

 5

  WON  This contestant won the final challenge and advanced to the finale.
  LOST  This contestant lost the final challenge and was eliminated from the competition.
  ELIMINATED  This contestant was already eliminated from the competition.
     This contestant qualified for the final challenge due to a sufficient total score.
     This contestant was eliminated from the competition due to an insufficient total score.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on linguistic intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on physical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on musical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on visual intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on social intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on logical intelligence.

## Episode 208

Before Tim was summoned to the stage, a clip of him and the other six finalists, Anthony Craparotta, Marco Iannuzzi, Alex Manea, Dan Tweyman, Jason Vander-Hoek, and Katy Warren, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, Tim stated that although he's accomplished a lot, winning *Canada's Smartest Person* would prove that he is able to compete on the national stage and be successful in doing so. A narration also recapped in this clip that Tim has two science degrees and millions of YouTube viewers, but that he is also looking to add the title of Canada's Smartest Person to his resume. Jessi greeted the contestants and made them take notice of an empty eighth podium to the left of Jason's. She then announced that it is a wildcard spot that would be taken by the contestant who had earned the highest total overall score without winning their preliminary episode's Gauntlet. This additional finalist was revealed to be Heather Whittaker, who joined the other finalists on stage. In the first challenge, the Speed Round, Tim received a percentage score of 66% during the **Faces** mini-challenge and received an overall percentage score of 80%. As a result, he finished in 2nd place and was congratulated by Jessi, along with Katy, for automatically advancing to the third challenge.

From the stage, Tim and Katy witnessed Jason and Heather and then Anthony and Dan competing against each other in the second challenge, Ultimate Face-Off.

In the third challenge, Syllable Switch, Tim got 2 correct answers. As a result, Tim finished in last place and was awarded 1 overall point.

In the fourth challenge, Orders Up, Tim was the last contestant to present his surf and turf dish based upon the theme of **romance** and it consisted of asparagus with a small glaze on them, cherry tomatoes, noodles, a lemon slice, and a small flower positioned on top of the steak. Guest judge Mark McEwan commented that the dish could best be described as scientific, considering that the ingredients were generally detached from one another, and that Tim faltered by accidentally touching his plate with messy fingers. Mark ranked Tim in 3rd place for his dish and Tim was awarded 2 overall points as a result.

Jessi reminded the viewers that Tim managed to create a YouTube channel by combining his passion for music with his knowledge in science. Following this, a clip of Tim was shown in which he stated that it is important for people to realize that they do not need to stick to doing just one thing that they're good at and that intelligence comes in many forms. The clip also showed footage of Tim working on and performing in his parody videos and he also shared some of the history behind the growth of his YouTube channel. In the fifth challenge, Sliding Scale, Tim locked in the correct sequence of notes in 16 seconds. As a result, Tim finished in 1st place and was awarded 4 overall points.

In the sixth challenge, Moving Sum, Tim got 5 correct answers. As a result, Tim finished in 2nd place and was awarded 3 overall points.

In the seventh challenge, Screen Test, Tim was the second contestant to pitch his film and he had to pitch a romantic comedy film with a sexy robot protagonist and with a family reuniting at the end of it. He said, "I'm here because I think TIFF is the perfect place to pitch our new movie *Robomom*. This is a–It's a romantic comedy. It's about a dad; he's got three teenage kids and he's really in a bad place at the start of the movie. Um–And so, in his–So–He takes a–a robotic sex worker into his home. It's a little bit–Uh–It's a little bit of *Lars and the Real Girl* setup, but we throw in a bunch of sort of *Ted*-style jokes about–Um–between him and his companion. The kids and the mom have a lot of good moments of, 'oh, you're not my mom, you're not even my mom's species,' you know. But, it's a real bonding experience for all of them and, at the end, the whole family comes together." Guest judge Cameron Bailey asked Tim how he could be able to connect to these characters, especially considering that one of them is not even human, to which Tim responded that the non-human character is a medium for the dad to learn how to love again. Cameron ranked Tim in 3rd place for his pitch and Tim was awarded 2 overall points as a result.

In the eighth challenge, Ball Handler, Tim finished catching his red balls 39 seconds into the challenge and finished sinking his white balls 2 minutes and 1 second into the challenge. As a result, Tim finished in 1st place and was awarded 4 overall points. After the previous six challenges, Tim had received a total of 16 overall points, which he shared with Katy. The tie between Tim and Katy was settled by their overall percentage scores in the Speed Round since both contestants shared an equal number of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes in challenges. Since Katy had an overall percentage score of 83% in the Speed Round and Tim had an overall percentage score of 80%, the former finished in 2nd place and the latter finished in 3rd place. As a result, he was eliminated along with Anthony. Jessi prompted applause for Tim and Anthony in spite of their shared elimination.

After the ninth and final challenge, the Super Gauntlet, ended and Katy was crowned Canada's Smartest Person, Tim and the other finalists, except for Marco, celebrated onstage with Katy's mother and Jessi.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://web.archive.org/web/20151225051539/http://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/participants/tim
2. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/meet-the-competitors-from-episode-2