It doesn't matter if you walk away without winning as long as you nailed that one question on your preferred topic.

Knowing you are an expert on that one subjectis partly why the concept of Hard Quiz works well. It gets you thinking about the topic you would choose.

Are you an expert on Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton or Pink Floyd? Or are you more knowledgeable about Saturn, the European Union or the Australian Constitution? Whatever it is, if you know enough about the topic, it may just be the thing that helps you win the ABC quiz show.

Host Tom Gleeson is lucky enough that he gets a chosen topic every week. This week it was goats, but the topics tend to be about as everyday as they come. Think Brussel sprouts, graffiti and paperclips.

So, would the comedian-turned-TV host choose a similar type of topic if the roles were reversed and he was the one answering the questions?

"Part of me just thinks I'd pick something like The Rolling Stones - music or a band that I know quite a bit about because that'd be easy," he says.

"At the same time, quantum physics is one that I had as an expert subject once when I was on a quiz show, and I won with it. So I'd be stupid not to pick that because quantum physics is one of those things where I did it at university.

"But if you're going to ask questions about it on a quiz show, there can only be so much detail - they're not going to be asking you to solve equations.

"And also, there's next-to-zero chance of anyone stealing from that subject. I'd pick something like that, or statistics or something. Some annoying subject, maybe nuclear physics would be another good one."

Hard Quiz is set to hit Canberra next weekend, with Gleeson taking the Big Brass Mug - the trophy reserved for winners - on the road. It's time to see just how many Canberrans have what it takes to - as the host would say - play ... hard!

This will be Hard Quiz like never before, with audience members pulled on stage for a live roasting from the brutal quizmaster.

So brutal that the first season saw a drop in ratings because people thought Gleeson was just being rude. Hard Quiz was inspired by Gleeson's "Hard Chat" on The Weekly, and roasting the contestants was part of the bit.

"The idea of abusing the general public to their face amused me because I just thought, no one does it. And also, all game show hosts, in general, are convivial, to the point that it can be a bit fake," Gleeson says.

Fast forward to season seven, and the show is more popular than ever, with Gleeson picking up the Gold Logie for most popular personality in 2019.

But this live iteration of the game show may be the best chance to see peak Gleeson - in front of a live crowd, like he has done hundreds of times before for his stand-up material, except this time he's flaying contestants (and hosting a quiz) for audience enjoyment.

When you put it like that, it sounds intimidating for the contestants - to say the very least. Here's a chance to test your knowledge publicly while also being roasted.

But that doesn't stop people applying to be on the show - or heckling Gleeson at his comedy gigs.

So when Gleeson calls out to the crowd to see who wants to be part of the live show, he's expecting plenty of volunteers.

"We did a couple of rehearsal shows and it was heaps of fun," he says.

"It did feel like more fun than the actual TV show because [with] the TV show there's a lot of subjects you've got to keep right on top of and if something goes wrong, it has to be fact-checked and things have to be run by the lawyers. So it was so fun just to be able to do the show in a footloose and fancy-free way.

"I don't have to stop. When I'm recording at the ABC, often we have to stop because someone's armpits get too sweaty and they have to change their shirt or they have to move the cameras around or someone yelled out something from the audience or I go off on a tangent that's a little bit too not-fit-for-purpose for an 8pm timeslot. So in the live show, I'll be able to just run amok. So I'm looking forward to driving a car with no brakes."

This time around, Hard Quiz will have a big box of questions for contestants to choose from. Whether you're interested in politics or reality TV, there'll be a topic to have a crack at.

But whatever the topic is, you can be sure that - just like the show - the questions hit that sweet spot between too easy and way too difficult. And when strung together, as Gleeson says, they should tell a little bit of a story on the topic.

"Someone's subject at the end of last year was the Monster Petition and I'd never heard of it before, but it was a really large petition that was being signed in Victoria in the late 1800s, and it was to give women the right to vote," he says.

"And so, through those five questions, you'll learn a little bit about that historical event and by the end of it you're like, 'Oh that's quite fascinating, I didn't know that'."

Although Gleeson has helped out with some questions during the first season of the show - "I think I wrote a round on wombats" - he takes his hat off the writers. Not only for being able to take a topic such as bricks - which is set to appear later this season - and come up with questions that are interesting for everyone involved, but also for researching topics that, at times, can be downright unpleasant.

"People don't realise sometimes when they apply to Hard Quiz, they might as well have just got a hand grenade and thrown it into the writers' room," Gleeson says.

"When someone ducks their head in the door and says, 'Who wants to do the subject toenails?' some poor person has to go through the history of toenails and write questions on it.

"And all the writers say the same thing - apparently their algorithms on their computers are all out of whack because they've been researching such bizarre material. Often Google gives them pop-up ads for fungal treatment of toes or various things that have nothing to do with them, but has everything to do with all the subjects they've researched."

Hard Quiz - Live is at the Canberra Theatre Centre on March 5 at 5pm and March 6 at 7pm. Tickets from canberratheatrecentre.com.au.