Gabon Cast Revealed

[pawpaw]

So we have 4 "ringers" this year:

Charlie knows Eliza & Todd outside the game

Corrine knows Ethan & Jenna outside the game

Michelle was Parvati's boss outside the game

Bob Crowley was Julie Berrys high school teacher

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Matty Whitmore: "I'm an honest asshole," "a fool," and "I don't want to take myself seriously"

The first thing Matty Whitmore did when he sat down to talk to me was turn his chair 90 degrees to his left, so he was no longer facing me. Although we were under a tree, sunlight occasionally filtered through the branches, and he asked if he could move his chair. “Absolutely,” I said, not anticipating that I’d be having a conversation with the side of his face for the next 16 minutes. So it was, to say the least, odd.
So was Matty. He had some interesting things to say—about consumerism, for example, and about what matters in life—but he also seemed bothered by the whole experience, including our conversation. And while he has a really clear philosophy about not taking things seriously and having fun, he was super-serious and humorless the whole time we talked. Like Kelly, he had a tendency to give short answers, although always with a tone—an almost sneering, arrogant, dismissive attitude that you can hear and judge for yourself below—that suggested I was an idiot for not already knowing a clearly obvious answer.
Matty’s grandfather is Oscar-nominated actor James Whitmore, his grandmother Audra Lindley played Helen Roper on Three’s Company, and his uncle is TV director James Whitmore, Jr. Despite that pedigree, he told me, “I’m below the poverty line. My family doesn’t give me money or give me handouts; doesn’t happen.” His CBS bio, however, said he had inherited and burned through a trust fund, so I challenged him and he admitted it. “I was given an education trust from my grandfather; I went through that by the time I was 23. I’m about 30 now, so that’s been 7 years of being destitute, on my own. All me.” He later said he “hated that money. … Money’s not everything. Not even close.”
Perhaps because he was recruited—at the Whole Foods in Santa Monica—Matty said a few times how much he was looking forward to going home, even tough the game had not yet started. He repeatedly said how content he is with his life in Santa Monica, where he works as a personal trainer. When I asked what he wanted out of the game, he said, “More self-awareness, more self-understanding. Growth. Going home, loving my girlfriend more, loving my dog more, loving where I live more, loving the way food tastes more, loving the way—I just want to take it all in, you know?”
In the game, he said, “my biggest concern in this is taking myself seriously. That’s my concern basically in life. I don’t want to take myself seriously. Ever. I’m a fool, and I want to remain a fool,” he said, and he wasn’t kidding at all. Speaking of kidding, when I asked what he’d contribute to his tribe, Matty said, “I bring the most important sense that the human beings have, and that’s the sense of humor. … All the other senses are good, but that’s top.”
Ironically, he didn’t say a single funny thing during our entire conversation, and was rather serious about his philosophy. “I like to be simple, you know? This world’s too caught up with experts and political correctness. I just want to be a lighthearted person and make people not take themselves so seriously as well.”
Later, he said, “I’m an honest asshole,” and also described himself by saying, “I don’t like to read much, I don’t like to write much, I just like to socialize, you know, be with people—that’s where I do my best work,” he said, adding repeatedly how he wasn’t concerned about how others would react to him, or about the game’s effect on his body, or anything else except snakes.
When I asked him about his strategy for training people, he didn’t really have an answer except to say, “I give them the Matty experience.”

[pawpaw]

Next weeks TV guide
Courtesy of Survivor Fever

[Twilight]

They're bringing back the car challenge? Oddly enough that's the bit of info that's interested me the most so far.

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Ace Gordon: "We are here to win. Sometimes I think we forget that"


Ace Gordon may already be the most-recognizable Survivor Gabon cast member, thanks to the airtime the bald, English-accented 27-year-old photographer is getting in promos for the new season. In those, he talks about his arrogance, and seems like a cocky ass.
The other members of the media who talked to him found him to be arrogant, too, but I liked him a lot, finding him to be thoughtful, intelligent, and engaging, although he’s also clearly aware that he’s charming. Perhaps that’s because, of the six media crews, just two of us were not videotaping our interviews, and to the other members of the press, he was already performing for the cameras, which itself would be troubling.
Those contradictions worry me, and I’m not sure which version Ace we’ll get on TV; while I hope it’s the one I talked to, the promos suggest otherwise. He also said, “Mark Burnett called me Dr. Evil”—not exactly a title one would give to someone who seems committed to spiritual growth and, among other things, wants to help artists “[get] their art exhibited so therefore they can dedicate more time to it.”
He lives in Naples, Fla., the conservative, Southwest Florida collection of strip malls and cookie-cutter subdivisions where I grew up, although we went to different high schools a few years apart. Ace, however, has lived everywhere from Hawaii to India, and has studied Eastern medicine and other practices. He watches Survivor with his family, and applied for the show once before leaving the country, and then again for this season.
Ace has a very interesting but hard to encapsulate philosophy, some of which he describes in the audio clip below, he’s clearly committed to growth that comes from varied experiences. “There’s more than just materialism,” he said. “I’ve given up monetary compensations in my life to do things that I thought would make me grow as a person.”
He also said, “I really believe in that idea that each person has something to give you. There would be no reason we wouldn’t meet them if they didn’t have something to learn from. So I think there’s 17 other people that must be amazing, because we beat all these other people out. … These people must be unique; I’m excited about meeting them.”
Like others, he cites “the challenge” as the reason for his participation. “I like things that are different.” However, he’s clearly ready to play. “We are here to win. Sometimes I think we forget that,” he said, almost sounding irritated by those who aren’t there to play. Talking about his previous work as a Cartier salesperson and the skills that involves, he said, “Sales are a manipulation. … You’re not hurting them, you’re just directing them. You’re re-orienting their brain in relation to what they thought they wanted. You give them options.”
As you can hear below, he said “I don’t consider it lying; I consider it manipulating.” That game player in him could be formidable, especially when hidden behind his genuine exterior, and he said repeatedly that “it’s nothing personal—as the Godfather said, it’s business, it’s nothing personal. Bang!”

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Randy Bailey: "If you carve a strategy in stone, you're ****ed from the beginning"

In Africa, members of the press were given copies of the Survivor Gabon contestants’ bios (drafts, it seems, since some have changed slightly) to read before interviewing them, which gave us something to talk about. After all, it’s a bit odd to talk to someone about things they have not yet done. Randy Bailey’s official CBS bio clearly wanted to establish him as an asshole: “He considers himself a ruthless bully who enjoys picking on those that were not blessed with his strength or intellect.”
That alone made me dread talking to him, never mind having to watch him on the show, at least until everyone voted him off. But listening to our conversation again, I’m not quite sure why I ranked him in the lower third (again, I created that list immediately after meeting them all for the first time, long before I saw them interact during the first episode). My lingering impression of him then was negative, but listening to our 15-minute conversation, he now strikes me as more of an astute player and less of an asshole than he did then.
Randy is outrageously honest, saying that the experience up to that point was “ups and downs. The ups are, it’s unbelievable to be here. The downs are asking permission to take a ****. We’ll be turned in a few days, so it’ll be all ups then.” Late in our conversation, he said, “I was going to say that I get laid every now and then, but that’s not true. It’s been last century, probably. Make sure you write that down—if there’s any Survivor-chasing girls out there, groupies, I’m available.”
Also in the honesty department, he said that, if he wins, he plans to “put it in the bank, invest it, give nothing to charity, and not work another ****ing day in my life. That’s the truth.” But he also admitted with that question and in general, he plans to conceal his true feelings to all except the confessional cameras and producers.
Randy has applied for Survivor a lot, has “been called a time or two in the past,” and actually got into his current profession, wedding videography, when (and because) he first applied seven years ago. After paying $300 to have his first (ignored) audition video professionally shot and edited, he said he “bought all the equipment, the software, [and does] that now for a living.”
Having watched the show since the first season, Randy clearly understands the game. “If you carve a strategy in stone, you’re ****ed from the beginning,” he said, and cited two cast members’ comments on their respective seasons about effective strategy for people like himself. First-season star Rudy Boesch taught Randy that “there’s more of them than there are of me. I got to get along, not them. I’m taking that to heart and I’m going to try to wake up thinking about that.”
And from Ami Cusack (of both Survivor Vanuatu and Survivor Micronesia), Randy learned “you don’t have to do anything. People will do things on their own to get voted out. So I am going to try to be cool and if I make it halfway, I’m not really going to start aggressively playing the game until the halfway point—or not—hoping that Ami’s right and people will do stupid things to get voted out. If Ami’s wrong, Ami, if you read this, I’m going to kick your ass.”
I think that’s the kind of statement that turned me off of Randy, because he says those kinds of things with a flat, deadpan seriousness that comes off as genuine, but now it seems more obvious that he was trying to be—and actually often is—funny. Maybe that’s also true of when Randy referred to his fellow cast members derisively as “bozos.”
Speaking of the bozos, Randy said, “My biggest challenge is getting along with the 20-somethings. I do have the ability to do that because I think I am a very young 49. But I was not expecting the cast to be like it is. … They could easily bond together on the first day and I’m gone.”
Still, he also respected some of them, and planned to work with them. “The young, hot blondes seem to have their eye on the ball better than two or three of these stud guys, because I see them checking out butts in the swimsuits. I may be wrong, but it appears the game is the furthest thing from their mind,” he said. Randy said he planned to be in the “fatherly role” with the women and align with the younger men “so the target is not on me,” but kept acknowledging, “I could be first to go.”
Hear him talk about the “two levels of the game,” casting, and his strategy “to surround myself with some protection”:

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Dan Kay: "I think it's going to help my strategy that I'm nice"

Boston lawyer Dan Kay was quiet, thoughtful, intelligent, introspective—and about to be crushed and destroyed by more ruthless competitors. And by that, I mean everyone single other person, even those like listless Matty Whitmore. At least, that’s how I was left feeling after talking to him. He’s a great person, but I wasn’t quite convinced that he was ready for Survivor.
Dan was recruited while watching the Yankees play the Red Sox in a bar in April, and said that Survivor Gabon “kind of came along at the right time. By no means was I in a position to continue the career path I had a couple of months ago.” He left his job at his firm because “it’s been a life-changing year for me. … About a year ago, I had a relationship that ended—not my choice—but it really made me reevaluate who I was as a person. And I didn’t realize how depressed I became with my profession. … And I didn’t see the full effect it had on me personally.”
Dan describes himself as “a pretty emotional person, but in a constructive way. I’ve learned over the past few years to talk through things. And I think there’s an outlet for it, which is probably the point of the show; it is the camera.” He’s also introspective. When we first started talking, he mentioned being “nervous” about his strategy, “anxious to meet everybody,” and fascinated by the “surreal” experience. “I think I look cookie-cutter,” he acknowledged, but also said that he’s “a pretty complicated person.” (Hear him discuss that below.)
He’s very cautious about the effects of his words, which one would imagine is a skill that’d work well in the game, except that he might just come across as insecure, unsure, or just weak. For example, when anticipating the physical challenges ahead of him, he said, “I imagine it to be a little bit like book camp, but I don’t want to take anything away from people who’ve been through boot camp.”
Dan’s unwillingness to be critical or hurt other people’s feelings (the polar opposite of self-described “asshole” Randy Bailey) also became clear when he talked about his family, who he’s close to. When he was growing up, his mother cared for Dan, his sister, their grandmother, and their father, who was “forced into retirement” early in his life and faced “cancer, heart disease, diabetes,” never mind a fall from a 40-foot ladder.
While Dan obviously has a lot of sympathy for his dad, he’s also aware of the impact his dad’s parenting had yet is unwilling to be critical. “And my father, who’s always pushed me to be a better student and a better person. I know it comes from a good place, but it made me a little bit neurotic, a lot self-conscious. I don’t want him to take the blame for that; I’ve had great parents, but I’ve had to overcome some mental obstacles. I’m my own worst critic, and I listen to that,” he said.
Toward the end of our conversation, I mentioned how genuine he seems and asked, “Are you too nice for this game?” He’d heard that previously, and said, “I think it’s going to help my strategy that I’m nice. But you just have to remember that it is a game, and you can’t take anything personally. They want or need the million dollars more—or just as much as I do.”
I don’t want to make too much of a conversational slip, since none of us speak flawless sentences, but it is worth noting that he defaulted to saying the other contestants want the money “more” than he does. After talking with Dan, I felt like he’s the kind of player who would sacrifice himself in the game for someone he thought was more deserving, and with the liars who tend to play this game, he could easily be swindled.
But Dan did acknowledge that his biggest challenge was “being able to trust and knowing when not to trust. That is going to mess with my mind, and that is going to be the most difficult, absolutely.” And he did have a well-developed understanding of the game. “There’s so many variables to this game that you can’t give any weight to those. The only one I can really give any weight to is keeping your emotions in check, not let everyone see any anger or frustration or dislike,” he said.
He prepared to be on the show, watching past seasons on DVD and getting ready physically. “I’ve trained my body in the past month to operate on as few calories as possible, and hopefully retain as much muscle as I can.”
When I asked about how others will perceive him, both in the game and once the show starts airing, he said, “I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I hope that the true person that I am now comes out in the media, because I like that person, and I think that person might be able to help other people. However, if it does not, I need to be able to overcome that and remain happy and healthy, and that’s really all I can control, so we’ll see how it goes.”

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Charlie Herschel: "I want to be the gay, white, athletic, male Cirie"

Like Dan Kay, Survivor Gabon cast member Charlie Herschel is a lawyer from the northeast. Unlike Dan, however, Charlie is a student of the game who’s watched it since the first season. Because of that and for many other reasons, he actually resembles Survivor China winner Todd Herzog. (I even accidentally typed “Todd” a few times while writing this.)
Charlie’s biggest obstacle both in the game and even in getting cast for it seems to involve other people’s perception of him, and that includes comparisons to season 15’s winner. During our conversation, Charlie asked, “Do you think I look like Todd? That was the casting people’s biggest concern. They were like, ‘We can’t have you, you’re Todd.’ That was the only question I ever had to answer: Why aren’t you Todd?” He said casting even had him put on a vest to see if he looked like Todd, even though Charlie wouldn’t ever wear “skinny jeans and a vest.”
He pointed out that he’s really “a totally different person”: “Todd’s a Mormon, I don’t believe in religion”; Todd is more confident whereas Charlie is more “under the radar”; Charlie is older, a lawyer and not a “stewardess”; and is tall and athletic, whereas “Todd is kind of like a puny midget with a mullet.” (That description still cracks me up.)
Still, Charlie acknowledged looking somewhat like Todd, and said, “At the end of the day, I do think Todd and I are very similar. I think he could have gone to Penn, become a lawyer, done everything I’ve done. So it was really hard trying to convince them that I wasn’t Todd when I did think that I was a little bit like him, and only now am I allowed to say that I do like Todd.”
Charlie talks ridiculously fast and was full of energy. He didn’t conceal his extreme enthusiasm, nor do I think he really could. While he’s very friendly and engaging to talk to, it’s not hard to imagine that some of his tribemates might find his liveliness and non-stop talking to be insufferable rather than charming. He seemed to recognize that: “My biggest concern is that these people are going to eat me up. I’m so nervous. They walk around with these dagger eyes. No one’s smiled at anyone,” he said.
Charlie was recruited, and although he’s never applied to the show, it’s not because he doesn’t watch. In fact, he’s watched since the first season, and said that “everyone in my life knows that I’m a super, super-duper fan.” He just equates applying to the show to playing the lottery, an essentially pointless task, and thus never applied. However, Micronesia and Vanuatu cast member Eliza Orlins was casting at his law school, and people told her to find Charlie.
As a result of being a fan, he clearly gets the fundamentals of Survivor. “I’m not sure if there is a golden rule book for how you should play this game. People who do well go in flexible,” he said. “The thing I’ll need to do is tone it down and be less paranoid, be less aaah!, and make people perceive that I’m comfortable—but I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable in this game.” Discussing authenticity, he said, “trust is the only thing you can have in this game, and I think that, it’s really important to be yourself to the extent that you can.”
However, some of the discussions of strategy were contradictory. “I want to be like the gay, white, athletic, male Cirie,” he said, but later he said, “I’m a follower; I’m the furthest thing from a leader.” Cirie, of course, was a pretty strong leader. And at various points, he described his strategy as involving possibly disparate things like being “the social butterfly” and “flying under the radar.”
Similarly, he told me he was “a whole ball of nerves,” in part because production asked the cast members to bring and wear their work clothes, thus upending his strategy of lying about his profession and pretending to be a math teacher instead of a lawyer—even though he also said that “being authentic and being yourself” is important, a contradiction he later acknowledged.
The challenges he identified involve the social game and, again, how other people perceive him. Although he’s run seven marathons, becoming a runner as a senior in college when he was “obese,” he doesn’t appear to be athletic. “I don’t know how many guys you’ve talked to here, but, like, their muscles are gigantic,” Charlie said. “In order to compete with that, I think I need to step it up and say, hey, I have endurance, I can compete as well.”
Charlie’s also worried about how fellow cast members will react to him and others. “I’m not used to being around people who aren’t used to being around diversity. So I think that’s going to be a big challenge for me,” he said. “I might be the first gay person that a lot of people meet … and I’m really concerned how I’m going to handle that, because I take acceptance for granted

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + "you are a guy sitting behind a computer writing **** about all these people"

Today’s interview with Charlie marks the halfway point of my Survivor Gabon cast interviews. Re-listening to my conversations and condensing them based upon my notes from June has been a fascinating process. As I mentioned at the start, I’m anxious to see how those translate to the actual game (and it’s been difficult enough to stick to my pre-game notes and impressions, since we did see the first episode play out).
While I welcome criticism and it certainly is a healthy part of journalism, and I’m used to the occasional angrily worded message, one message I received about these cast member analysis pieces was particularly interesting, especially since it was sent anonymously from someone in Chicago:
”..first of all why don’t you tell the truth about the contestants… you are a guy sitting behind a computer writing **** about all these people the game hasn’t even started… Dan is the ****ing CRAZY one.. Susie.. cant shut the **** up in her interviews… Matty has way more of a go then anyone else.. and Kelly is a smart beautiful young girl that prolly didn’t like you cause you were a asshole..and I heard she had something in her eye the whole time u were interviewing her.. SO WHY DONT U GO tell the ****ing truth to America..about urself.. ur white trash.. and Corinne.. on the bottom.. ? and Paloma and charley and susie on top…you like to judge a book by its cover..thats prolly why u picked all the ugly people.. cuZ u could never get a pretty girl.. FAGGOT”
I think that message communicates “the f**king truth to America” better than I could. It’s also interesting because I didn’t mention Chicagoan Kelly Czarnecki getting something in her eye in my interview with her, and since no one else on the planet would have known that, the message (which had an Illinois-based IP address, which I checked because I was so curious) is either her writing in the third person, or is from a friend she shared that random detail with and who’s defending her. I can understand and even sympathize with either possibility. It is odd to me to think that some of the cast members are actually reading and watching themselves be analyzed, whether it’s what I’m writing, what Jeff Probst has to say, or what fans are discussing on message boards.
Still, since the eye irritation is getting blamed for Kelly’s not-exactly-pleasant disposition and not-exactly-stimulating answers during our interview, and because I believe in transparency, here’s that exchange, which actually came at the conclusion of our interview, 11 minutes into the 12 minute and 20 second recording. Judge for yourself whether I was callous and should have called for an ambulance instead of continuing to be an asshole:
Andy Dehnart: “Anything you want people to know sort of about you going into this game? How, you know, besides what you’ve already mentioned, like, about yourself or the way you’re — how they might perceive you, or anything like that? Can you anticipate someone’s reaction to you in advance and say, here’s what they should know about me?”
Kelly Czarnecki: “Well, that I’m very independent, I’m competitive by nature. And, um. Hold on, there’s something in my eye.”
Andy: “Lots of bugs flying around.” (chuckle)
Kelly: “Yeah. Um. (pause) I’m creative, like my creative outlook on things. Positive. Very optimistic. (brief crosstalk) Some people, like, portray me as a bitch, but just because I’m, like, honest.”
Andy: “And that—do you worry about that, like, your honesty? Are you going to try to…”
Kelly: “I don’t take anything personally. If you take things personally you’re screwed.”
Andy: “So just be yourself?”
Kelly: “Just be yourself. I’m always myself. Successful. Always willing to take a risk, to succeed and push forward.”
Andy: “Excellent. Well, good luck pushing forward through the next 39 days in the game.”
Kelly: “Thank you. Yeah, don’t you wish you were me?”
Andy: “Uh, I don’t know! (laughs)”
Kelly: “Oh my god, it’s very crazy!”
Andy: “I’m enjoying this part of it.”
Kelly: “Chilling in the shade?”
Andy: “Exactly, yeah.”

And that’s where our conversation ended. Of course, by posting this (the transcript itself makes a clear argument for the necessity of editing), I’m probably asking for more criticism, and that’s okay.
That response, however, makes me curious what you non-cast members think so far. Are these pre-season interviews (here and elsewhere) a good way to judge how people will play the game? Or how good the season will be? Or is it unfair, especially when there are insects involved? Share your thoughts on Facebook, whether you’re a fan, a hater, or a cast member who doesn’t take things personally.

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Ken Hoang: "I'm mentally prepared. I'm not going to choke; I'm not going to freak out"

Ken Hoang has been watching Survivor since the “race war” season, Survivor Cool Islands, during which producers recruited 85 percent of the cast because of the low numbers of non-white applicants. Ken told me that when he watched, he thought, “hey, guys like me can compete,” and that’s why he applied for the show. In other words, his interest and eventual casting are due to that season’s inclusion of a more racially diverse cast.
In our conversation, Ken had an intriguing mix of exuberant confidence and naivete. For example, talking about being called back even after producers first said they weren’t interested, he said, “I think that I’ve worked harder than anyone else to out here to even get to this point. I got called the second time. No one’s ever done that.” He also called himself a “huge fan of the show” and seemed confident in his complete understanding of it, even though he’s only watched the last four seasons.
In addition, while he probably has a better understanding than some of the recruited cast members who just crammed via DVD, and while not that having a clearly defined strategy in advance is a good idea, Ken’s ideas about how he’d play the game were all over the place. At various points, he talked about being the tribe’s provider, “puzzle master,” underestimated weaker member, backstabber, and moral support. Can he really do all that at once?
Ken is a professional gamer, but he’s also a full-time college student studying illustration, and calls gaming “a part-time job,” even though he’s a world champion. He called Survivor both “the ultimate game” and “a dirty game,” and said he’ll have no problem lying or backstabbing. “In the end, it’s all mental,” he said. “I’m mentally prepared. I’m not going to choke; I’m not going to freak out. And those are reasons for people to vote you off in this game.”
As to how he’ll win the mental game, Ken said it just comes down to a single moment during the 39 days. “I believe that it doesn’t matter how much you screw people over in the game. Once you get to the jury, you can convince them to vote for you,” he said. Of course, you have to make it to the end first, and because Ken is the smallest male physically, that might be difficult.
However, he considers that to be an advantage, and is basically begging people to underestimate him and view him as weak like they did with Yau-Man. “The girls would want to align themselves with someone like me rather than a strong threat,” Ken told me. “I am the underdog on this. … I am the smallest guy out here, looking around, these big buff guys. How good at they at balancing? How good are they at keeping their arm up? How fast are they? How smart are they? You don’t know.”
Discussing his preparation, he said he’s been practicing making fires, sleeping outside, and “training for this physically, too. Going to the gym every day—got some muscle, got a little six pack going. I’m ready,” he said, actually showing off his muscles. And he’s not bothered by the elements, bragging in his unassuming, gentle way that he hadn’t had any water all day (we talked around 11:30 a.m.), and in his first answer, excitedly shared how many bug bites (12) he’d already gotten, which is odd and amusing all at once.
As the preceding paragraph suggests, his tendency to be lighthearted yet serious seems to define him, and he’ll be interesting to watch in the context of the game, because I’m unsure how it’ll affect him. He also smiled constantly and has an engaging personality—and knows that. “With my personality, I think it’ll make the tribe better because when you’re suffering out there, you have to have a sense of humor, or course,” he said. “I don’t want to be the guy who’s bossing: ‘Do this, do that, we’re going to die.’ I’m never negative.”