Nickelodeon GUTS Referee Moira "Mo" Quirk: A Conversation With Your Childhood Crush

via nickelodeongutscentral.web.com

"Mo" with host Mike O'Malley on GUTS

Back in the early '90s, Moira "Mo" Quirk inspired legions of kids to take up athletic pursuits as the co-host and referee of Nickelodeon's GUTS, a game show pitting kids against each other with feats of extreme athletic prowess (well, extreme for kids, anyway). The most memorable part of the show was when kids would scale a massive, glowing mountain, the Aggro Crag, in the search for ultimate supremacy and a trip to Space Camp. Ah, Space Camp.

After GUTS fame, Mo fell off our radar--until now. Quirk called in to local Miami comedy and pop culture podcast Quarter Life Crisis and told them what she's been up to since her Nickelodeon days, including web series and voice acting in video games. Catch up with Mo after the jump.



New Times: Can we call you Mo?
Moira Quirk: You...may. It was just [GUTS host] Mike O' Malley ... and my grandfather. No one else has really [called me that] before or since.

Tell us a little bit about how you started in the entertainment business.
In Brooksville County primary school, I played the king in a Dick Whittington pantomime, and I never looked back. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I was a pretty phenomenal king, and I found I had found my calling.

How did you get the job with Nickelodeon GUTS? Were you up against a lot of people in referee shirts?
It was probably one of the best auditions I'd gone once I arrived in Orlando. I guess it's cause I figure it was just not for me. I was against a lot of what I'd call blond goddesses. And then I stand up looking like a little dumpy Irish girl.

Your co-host on GUTS is now famous sitcom actor Mike O' Malley. Anything you can tell us about him from back then? Was he a dick?
He wasn't! I don't think he's changed, even though his life has changed. He's actually really lovely, and sensitive, and has a great deal of integrity. He's a good guy! He's one of the good guys. He's very exuberant, and very A-type, but it's all from a very good place.

Do you still talk to him after all these years?
Yes! Not as much as we'd like. He's actually just down the street from me. We do keep in touch. It's not that we don't want to, it's more that we all have grown-up lives now.

So you don't get together and scale the Aggro Crag?
Well, apart from that!

Do you have a piece of the rock in your house right now?
Yeah! It's actually on the piano right now. I went in the garage and found it. It's always a question people ask me. And I'm like, yeah, obviously! And I don't care! It's such a waste on me. It's like, I hate it, but yeah, I'm keeping it! Because I know that you want it. [Laughs]