Ever since Issa Schultz started on The Chase Australia as “The Supernerd”, he’s had plenty of female admirers contacting him via social media.
“There’s a lot of, ‘I wish you were my grandson’ – that sort of thing,” Issa, 39, tells TV WEEK. “The Facebook profile is Dorothy with beautiful white hair and she has a little poodle. They’re really sweet. They make these lovely comments.”
“I don’t sell myself as being David Hasselhoff or anything like that.”
(Image: Supplied)As well, there have sometimes been younger female admirers who’ve been keen to get to know Issa in person.
“There have been phone numbers slipped [to him] after Chase episodes,” he reveals. “It does happen. I’m always a bit humbled. I don’t sell myself as being David Hasselhoff or anything like that, so I’m pleasantly surprised when offers come in.”
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With Issa competing in the current season of Dancing With The Stars, along with professional dance partner Lily Cornish, his fan base has grown.
“I’ve never been in so much pain in all my life.”
(Image: Supplied)“I did notice my Instagram went from 2900 to about 9000 – and when I put up a video of Lily and I training, a quarter of a million people viewed it. I’m like, ‘What?’ And they’re all women.”
UK-born Issa is wowing DWTS audiences – and judges – with his enthusiasm and expressiveness. Although he doesn’t have a dance background, he did study violin and piano when he was young, and played trumpet, trombone and French horn in a jazz band.
“I like to think it helped with the dancing,” he says. “Lily said straight away, ‘Oh, you’ve definitely got a rhythm. You know how to keep time.'”
But Issa, who wasn’t a gym-goer before he started rehearsing for the show, admits he struggled early on with the physical side of things and almost quit.
Issa’s animated expressions on DWTS have led to people telling him he should get into acting.
(Image: Supplied)“I’ve never been in so much pain in all my life,” he says. “The first weekend, I was having some wines with some friends, and I said, ‘I think I need to pull out. It’s too painful,’ and they basically shouted me down and said, ‘You’re a wimp! This is a great opportunity.’
“It was a reality check. I changed my attitude, the muscles adjusted and I started to enjoy it very much indeed.”
In fact, Issa found his overall health improved as a result.
“I slept very well,” he says. “I used to get a bit of acid reflux during the night. That disappeared, which was wonderful. It was just a general feeling of well-being.”
Issa’s animated expressions on DWTS have led to people telling him he should get into acting. He says it’s something he’s thought about before – and he and one of his fellow Chasers, Anne Hegerty, aka “The Governess”, have even come up with an idea for a television show they could star in together.
“We sometimes joke about a detective duo trying to solve crimes,” he explains. “If you know that TV show Vera, Anne’s a bit like a Vera, and I could be the goofy sidekick getting into scrapes. I would definitely do something like that.”
Although Issa has plenty to keep him busy, he’d like to be in a relationship. His dream is to find a woman who shares his interests, which include playing Nintendo and going to pub quizzes.
“My old quiz team had a married couple, John and Joan. They loved quizzing and I always looked at them and thought, ‘What a perfect marriage,’ because they shared the same passion, so it was never a hassle for them to go to a pub or an RSL and do a quiz.”
Even Lily knew Issa had rhythm!
(Image: Supplied)As an uncle 10 times over, Issa would love to have children of his own.
“I’m the only one without kids, which is very painful,” he admits. “But never too late – my father had me in his fifties.”
Issa thinks he’d be “awful” at changing nappies, but would enjoy spending time with his children, doing whatever they’re interested in.
“That would be so much fun.” he says. “Obviously, I’d try to get them into music and maybe some video games, maybe a bit of quizzing, a bit of reading in the cot… I’d love to do that so much.”
