Survivor China: Interview with Aaron - "How could you do that?"

[hepcat]

When is a challenge not a challenge? When your tribemates are doing their best to lose, that’s when. Unfortunately, the sap left holding the bag was Aaron Reisberger, the 31-year-old surfing instructor from Venice, CA. Going into last night’s tribal council, Aaron may or may not have known that he had been set up – but he had to have known he was in danger. Or maybe he didn’t…but I’m willing to cut him some slack. He went from a well-ensconced position at the head of his tribe to sitting down for press interviews in the blink of an eye, and that’s got to suck.

Good afternoon Aaron! So how did you come to be on the show?

You know what, I just ran into somebody who ended up being a casting person for Survivor and asked me if I wanted to be on Survivor—it happened very quickly. I said, “Sure, I’ll give it a shot,” and one thing led to another, and in about nine or ten days, after I had gone through six or seven interviews, and eight or nine tests, and a couple of different meetings with executives, I found myself on a plane to Beijing.

That fast, wow.

It was really fast, yeah. It was one of those twists of fate.

So you really didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, no time to start anything special?

No, not really, other than I started to do a lot of reading, and I watched a couple of episodes and seasons. I tried to just find out where people find themselves in the show, and what kind of twists can happen.

Right off the bat you were designated the leader of your tribe. How did that play out in every day life in the tribe?

You know what, it was fine. I tried to not necessarily be a micro-manager and dictate, “You do this and you do that.” I tried to make decisions based on the consensus of the group. People thought, “Hey, what if we have a challenge today, maybe we should rest,” and I would say, “Well, what do you guys think?” They’d say, “Yeah, yeah, I think so.” Then there were also days where I needed to crack the whip a little bit here and there, and I’d get people to get firewood and I’d get people to boil water, and I’d get people to build the shelter—but for the most part I was right alongside with them working as well.

As far as voting was concerned, do you feel like you were the one calling the shots in your tribe?

Yeah, yeah, at Fei Long, for sure. To a certain extent, I was only there for one vote really. I kind of swayed that. It was between Jean-Robert and Leslie, and I kind of swayed that, because I just felt like we eventually couldn’t trust Leslie, like later on down the road, after she had just been kidnapped—and also, because I felt like we needed Jean-Robert’s athleticism, his size, in some of the contests that were coming up. Because until that point, the contests were very very physical.

Yes, very physical. So what would you say were the differences between Fei Long and Zhan Hu?

In hindsight, watching it, they [Zhuan Hu] didn’t seem to have very much cohesiveness; there was a lot of splintering going on. I don’t think they had a great strong leadership, it was between Peih-Gee and Dave, and it became Dave and I don’t know, I don’t know how well he handled that, not really. But then in Fei Long, it was really important for us to get a win under our belt, but also, especially in comeradeship with James, we kind of knew that if we were going to win, we needed to rest on the days that challenges were happening, and that was going to help us. Also, wins just bring people together—even if you’re in an alliance with someone else, you’re still winning as a team, and that brings you together to a certain point.

Can you comment for us a little bit on your tribemates, starting with Jean-Robert?

Jean-Robert: kind of lazy, and not a lot of good advice coming from him. There were a couple of things that I took to heart, because he had good things to say, but just kind of a lazy guy doing a slow play poker hand.

Have you learned anything about him from watching the edited version of the show, that you didn’t know?

That whole thing where his strategy was to go from being a cellar dweller to the penthouse—it was like that at the very beginning; it was his gamble, he’s a gambler and a poker player, he’s going to do that. And I really believe that if we were to have lost that first challenge, he would have been the first person going home. But the cards played out differently, and he’s still there, and I’m doing an interview with you.

Who would have thought it, really.

Exactly, exactly! It’s so neat. It’s fun to see how it all plays out.

So how about Courtney?

Oh, Courtney. [Laughs] Poor Courtney! We made the mistake of putting her in that challenge with the chopping, and you know, she would do things around camp, and she was helpful, and we weren’t too worried about her, about how much she was eating and stuff like that—she came in skinny, and got a little bit skinnier, but so did everybody else. But I enjoyed that she told it like it is, and also enjoyed that she saw some of the same things that I saw, like everyone saw, really, in Jean-Robert.

I also wanted to ask—were you and James particularly close, or anything? Or did you just have the bond that you’re both very physical?

That last part is true, we both came from athletic, competitive backgrounds, and both of us had that, and also, something that you don’t really get to see out there—it was Todd, Amanda and I in an alliance, that I trusted all the way to the final three, but at different times we had different people in that alliance, because at some point we needed the majority, and the majority in the beginning was five, and we had Denise and Leslie, and we decided to get rid of Leslie, so we had to bring somebody else in. I did ask James a couple of times, whether he would like to go in on the alliance, and he refused both times, because he knew that once the singular immunities came about, once the merge happened, he would be on the chopping block. But then I was like, “At least you get to that point.”

Did you want to comment on your other alliance members, Amanda and Todd?

Yeah, you know what? I was really lucky to get into an alliance with them. I’m glad that they chose me to bring into their duet. They’re Survivor fans, they’re Survivor students, they wanted this for a long time, and it was really lucky of me to get in with them. Eventually, all the way down the road, I wouldn’t be able to trust them, but you can’t really trust anybody down that far—at the beginning it was nice to get their insight and their information, and Todd’s a crafty kid, and Amanda’s a good athlete, and an honest—an honest seeming person I should say.

So you mentioned James refusing to join the alliance. Wouldn’t that put a target on his back? He seems to be very literal—he couldn’t just lie to you, and say, “Sure, I’ll be in your alliance”?

Yeah, you know, that was an interesting thing, and I guess it was like—he’s kind of chivalrous, I guess, and what I’m trying to say is, mano-y-mano, he’s like, “Don’t bullsh*t me and I won’t bullsh*t you.” Like, “You’re going to get rid of me as soon as the merge happens, because I’m a good athlete and I can go far.” And I’m like “Yeah, but at least you can get there, and you won’t be voted out beforehand.” It was just a very blunt conversation. He could have lied, and tried to get in some other way, but that’s just not his style.

It doesn’t seem to be, at least.

No.

About the other side—at what point did you figure out that the women had thrown the challenge?

Not until quite a bit after we’d landed back from the challenge, back at camp. It was probably forty-five minutes of discussion, of back-and-forth, and just seeing their flippant attitude, and just their blasé-ness, and also them going away by themselves. In TV-land you got to see them being very smug, and we didn’t get to see any of that, but we started to come to the realization that maybe there’s something else going on here—these girls are smart, and they could have put that together easily. It came before tribal council, and then it was just completely factualized at tribal council.

James was so upset during tribal council. I would lay down money that it was news to him. But it seemed like it wasn’t quite as much a surprise to you.

Yeah, I probably picked it up quicker than James did, and then I tried to feel out who was on more of a chopping block, was it James or me; and then I tried to save my butt. I tried to say, “You know, I think James is a bigger threat later on in the immunity challenges.” Because I knew that the gig was up, I kind of felt like the girls—this was in tribal council, and I realized, there was no way they ever could have lost that puzzle, with the kind of a lead that Eric and I got them. But I think James, in tribal council, it was starting to become real clear to him.

So you’ve got the fact that James was really upset in tribal council, and like you pointed out, he was going to be a threat further down the line, so I’m just wondering, why did he end up staying over you?

[laughs]. Because, the perception of the threat—I couldn’t convince the girls of that. I think what happened was, the vibe that they got from me, versus the vibe they got from James, was based on who had the stronger alliance at Fei Long. I think they got the vibe that I had the stronger alliance. I wasn’t so forthcoming with information, and I think that separately they may have talked to James, and he said “You know, I’m not really in an alliance, I’m not really out there.” And who knows, he could have been playing a smarter game than I. I think they sensed that, coming from him, and they decided to keep him around, and so I’m sitting here talking to you.

One other thing—he voted for Peih-Gee, but you voted for him. Why weren’t you guys in sync, or why did you end up voting for him?

You know, the whole way through, I thought that he was going to be the one that goes. Anywhere from him saying in tribal council, “Don’t vote Aaron off, vote me off!” and even being back at camp, just berating the girls, and they were getting tired of it, and I knew that he didn’t want to stick around and live with these people who would throw a game like that. And I thought that everyone was going to vote for James, and I decided to throw my vote in there as well, not to offend anyone later, and just in case that information would get out, that I had voted for EriK or Peigh-Gee or Jaime at some point. That, and I thought that—I couldn’t vote for myself—and since we were the only two on the chopping block; I could have voted for someone else but I don’t think that they would have gone home.

Did you try to get Eric to vote out one of the women?

No, and in hindsight, that was a mistake on our part. Who knows what he would have done, but we couldn’t really tell with Erik, he was kind of a stone wall. We couldn’t figure out whether he was in on it with the girls or not. It seemed like it ended up that he wasn’t with the girls, that he was shocked that they had decided to do this on their own. And knowing that I got voted off, I would have certainly pursued that, knowing those two facts.

Yeah. Do you think overall this is going to be a smart move on the women’s part?

It’s their strategy, everyone has to pick one, everyone has to go with one, and they’re trying for it, they’re going for it—it’s going to really benefit them if they can get James out; it’s going to be a huge benefit for them, because if they can go into the merge with ten, if that’s when it happens, with five Zhan Hu and five Fei Long, then it’s really going to get interesting. But if somehow they can’t get James out of there, and they go back, and Zhan Hu still doesn’t have the numbers, then they’re going to be in trouble and it’s not going to matter. They’re going to get farther than I did, but they’re not going to get all the way.

I have this vision of James going back to the Zhan Hu camp and ripping apart the shelter.

[belly laugh from Aaron]
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He’ll be taking apart the fire pit, breaking all the water carriers…what do you think happened that night after he went back to camp that night after Tribal Council?

[still laughing] I don’t know, but now that you mention it I am so excited to see the next episode. I can’t wait! I just need to see what my boy James, what he’s going to do with that camp, because he—I could have struggled with it—but he, I think he would go ballistic. He probably slept in the lake.

[laughs] I just think he took it personally. I can’t wait to see it too.

Yeah, totally—we all took it personally. It was just like, “How could you do that? How could you call yourself a competitor, and then throw a challenge like that?” Now I’m hearing people say that it’s probably never been done in Survivor, and it’s such a detriment to the honesty of the game, even though there is very little honesty in the mental part. But as far as the challenges are concerned, now you’ve taken that out, and so—we’ll see what happens.

Do you think anyone is close to finding the immunity idol?

Oh, yeah. Todd has to be. There’s got to be one more clue, or another kidnapping, something like that’s going to happen, someone’s going to get it, no doubt about it. They’re going to find it. Todd has three of the clues, and I don’t think anyone else does so far.

Did you have any inkling of it when you were out there?

No, I had none. I think all the clues were given to Jaime, Leslie, Dave and Todd. Todd and Jaime are the only ones left, so if they go to the merge, and maybe Todd goes to Jaime, and tries to find it—but I think Todd can probably find it before that.

Is there anything you’d like to add? Anything you’d like people to know about you, or your time on the show?

No, you know what, it was an amazing experience, and I would do it all over again. And if anyone has that kind of like inkling in their mind – really try and play this wonderful game. I’ve become a fan all over again, and I will watch every episode after this.

Thanks to CBS for the interview, and we wish you the best of luck, Aaron.

[Google]

 

[psylancer]

Aaron was robbed!

[Brooks]

Thanks, hepcat, that was a fun read!

after I had gone through six or seven interviews, and eight or nine tests

Given Courtney's condition, I'm interested in what those tests involve.

[waywyrd]

Aaron was totally screwed over with that stupid twist.

Great interview once again, hep!

[Leo]

Originally Posted by Brooks

Given Courtney's condition, I'm interested in what those tests involve.

Can't be a BMI test. She already looked way underweight on day 1.

Great interview, hep.

[Bonbonlover]

Originally Posted by psylancer

Aaron was robbed!

And so were we!! I would much rather watch the strong players play this game and send the jokers home early...