Survivor: Interview With Brendan - "I didn't think I needed it!"

[waywyrd]

Brendan Synnott is the latest in an increasingly long line of contestants to be blindsided while still having a perfectly good immunity idol in their pocket. Read on to find out what the 30 year old entrepreneur has to say about that, the game, his tribemates, and Coach's silly stories...


How does it feel to be slain by the dragonslayer?

I am so proud to be part of one of the better nicknames, I think, in Survivor history. And part of Coach’s master plan. [laughs] But no, it wasn’t his plan, it was Tyson that really got me voted off!

Did it feel good to take that whitewater rafting trip away from Coach?

Oh, that was so beautiful, especially because he had talked so much about his kayak story, which I really don’t believe. And so he talked about how he could dominate the river and he wanted to run the rapids so badly, and to be able to go take that away from him was...now, particularly, it’s really gratifying.

Even though you felt safe at Tribal, why did you respond to Jeff’s question and tell everybody you had the idol?

I think at that point in the game, one of the things that put a target on my back was the fact that I’d been to Exile so often. Because I was there so often, I thought that would make a target on my back, I thought that was the perfect opportunity just to come out and come clean with it and be like “Listen, guys, I have it.” Because I was confident in the Exile alliance, that at that point, if we’d voted one more person off, the Exile alliance could have taken control.

So do you remember Coach’s ultra-rare meditation technique? Because I can’t find it anywhere on the internet.

I do not remember the name of it, so I’ve replicated everything I saw Coach do on the show and I’ve incorporated that into my life because I want to be like Coach. [laughing]

What do you think Sierra needs to do to save herself?

You know, to me, the way I see Sierra is very similar to the way I see Jalapao overall in terms of coming in the game, into the merge. Jalapao basically just morphed into whatever Timbira wanted to have happen, and they went along with it. And I think Sierra needs to do the same thing in order to stay alive. There’s a great opportunity for the people at the bottom of the rung to kinda cling onto some other folks. You just don’t want to be at the top.

Why didn’t you use your idol last night?

I didn’t think I needed it! I thought that my alliance with Taj and with Stephen was good. I thought it was really fun thing to be a part of, to really change the dynamic of how Survivor was played in terms of having people that were on Exile together form an alliance. Everyone seemed pretty into it, and I thought it was good, you know? If I didn’t think it was good, I would have played it.

Do you regret not going to Taj at the merge and solidifying the alliance?

I totally regret that. But the thing is, I told Taj and Stephen prior, that once we get to the merge don’t expect me to be all buddy buddy with you. You know, we need to kind of continue to keep this on the down low. But I should have, at the merge, when I was giving Taj a hug whispered in her ear “It’s all good!” I didn’t do that. Kinda with any relationship, you need to over communicate to make it work. [laughs]

So why do you think that she didn’t trust you?

I think it was actually less Taj, and more Stephen’s allegiance to JT that broke it up. Because Stephen’s a pretty weaselly character, he’s gone back and forth on a lot of different alliances. Basically, right after the merge I talked to Stephen pretty extensively and I was like “Go talk to Taj so I don’t have to.” And I don’t know if he ever did!

Do you feel betrayed by JT after bonding with him on the rafting trip?

I don’t really take any of the stuff that happened too personally, from a betrayal standpoint. We all entered into a game that has no rules and that you have to lie and cheat in order to win, no matter what people say. And so I don’t hold it against anybody, I just hope that the person that plays with the best strategy and has the best game ends up winning this thing.

Did you think of leaving the idol for Sierra?

You know, I was so caught off guard by the whole thing. I should have taken the idol out of my pocket and just thrown it to her right before my fire got extinguished. But I was sooo, just, like, blindsided by the whole thing I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t even think about it.

Do you think Coach is going to take all the credit for you being ousted?

Coach takes all the credit for everything, no matter what. That’s the assumption. But it wasn’t Coach that did it, it was Tyson. I think Coach likes to think that he’s orchestrating everything, but he’s not.

Going back to what you said about wanting the player with the best strategy to be in the final two, is this coming from someone who doesn’t need the money?

The reason I did Survivor is I wanted to go on an awesome adventure and play a really fun game. And, you know, at a certain point, what you’re willing to compromise in order to win comes into play and I think that we all have different definitions of that.

Were you surprised by anything that was said behind the scenes on the televised show?

I knew Tyson had a big mouth. I think Tyson’s frankly hilarious, I get a big kick out of him. He’s got a pretty sharp tongue. But other than that, there’s nothing that’s said that was too crazy. I knew that Coach loved getting interviewed one on one and just talked about himself incessantly, so that was also pretty apparent. No real big surprises. I guess one of the bigger surprises was how much - you know, Stephen’s a pretty good weasel - and that surprised me in terms of what he was willing to do in order to win the game.

So he didn’t come across that way in the game to you?

Not quite so much. He came across in the game as, you know, he tried to pretend he didn’t know what was going on and would just go with whatever. But he was brokering information in a very smart way.

I hate to keep coming back to Coach, but if his stories turned out to be 100% true, would that change your impression of him?

Um, I think Coach is a very nice guy. I think he’s a very smart guy. I think that he reads a lot of fiction, a lot of fantasy, and I think that he has lost the ability to tell the difference between what he reads and what he does in his life, and he’s created a new reality for himself. But at the end of the day, Coach is a nice guy and he’s totally harmless. He kind of only could potentially hurt himself. He’s not malicious, he doesn’t really go after people, he just lives in his own world and I kind of feel grateful for experiencing it, it was like nothing I had ever seen before!

Before I forget, I wanted to tell everybody about one other thing: I used to have my granola company, I started a burrito company. It’s called evol burritos, and we’re doing a big offer. We’re giving away 50,000 burritos, and the reason we’re doing it, the offer’s good as long as this season goes on or until Coach gets voted out. [laughing] It’s kind of my last ode to Coach.

How did you get picked to be on Survivor?

I was recruited, I got a phone call and they said “Do you want to do this?” and I was like, no way, I wouldn’t want to go do that. But then I kind of got in the process and went back and rewatched some of the seasons. I was like, oh my God, would that be a fun adventure! And I went into it and had a great time.

So what was Exile Island like, being alone like that?

Exile? They give no love to Exile. Like I was telling my friends, they were like “Exile looked like kind of a vacation spot where you could just go hang out and talk about your strategy.” I was like, “Are you nuts?” That place sucked! We had no shelter, we didn’t have very much food at all, it was difficult to make fire, you couldn’t make water very easily. And the thing is, for me, I was on Exile for 9 out of the first 12 days, and so the bulk of my time I spent with the other tribe and on Exile. So I became pretty familiar with the place.

Do you feel for Stephen being there all alone?

I do. But you know, but the other thing that - especially if you couldn’t make fire - but the worst time was actually when I was on Exile with Stephen and we couldn’t get the fire started because it was raining all day and we’d just spoon all night. As long as it didn’t rain all night the place was okay, but if it started raining you were just screwed.

What was your favorite challenge?

My favorite challenge I think, was When Pigs Fly. I loved it because it was kinda like a two part challenge. It was one about the strategy, about how you had to build your defense kind of mechanism. And then one about if you could actually physically throw the pigs. So I thought that was a really fun challenge.

What was the hardest part of the Survivor experience for you?

Easily, the hardest part for me was once we got to the merge. To me, it kind of felt like we instantly went into a very toxic environment, and the fact that for me, we lost our first challenge. We voted out Candace, which was very clear. And then we got to the next challenge- we lost, and we voted out Jerry because he wanted to take himself out of the game. But then, the rest of the game, we were winning! So it was really fun, it was pretty mellow. And then as soon as we got to the merge and when everybody started talking about everybody, I just got a big pit in my stomach, it didn’t feel right. That was definitely the hardest part, being in a place where you can’t trust anybody, and everybody’s out to get you. It just didn’t’ feel good. The physical stuff was fine, not eating food was fine, not sleeping was fine. But not having someone you can trust and be in a safe environment? That’s harder than it looks.

What was the easiest part for you?

I think the easiest part was just kinda living in the outdoors. It was super fun for me, you know, I love camping, I love being outside, I love the adventure part of it. So that stuff was all fun.

Was there any talk yet of taking people to the finals? For example, taking Coach because it would be an easy win?

I think that as soon as we got to the merge...the attitude was in the first couple of days was like “how do we get to the merge with the most numbers,” and as soon as we got close to the merge, it was like “who are we gonna take to the final four, or the final three?” So there is definitely talk about that.

Do you think anyone will have the guts to take JT to the finals?

I think that Stephen and JT have a pretty good relationship, I think that JT and Taj have a decent relationship, and I think Coach and JT have a good relationship. So, you know, JT’s been good about ingratiating himself with a lot of different groups.

How surprised were you to watch the show and see all the plotting and paranoia going on?

Actually, I thought it was really fun to see all that stuff. It’s fun to see how people perceived you, the other kind of plots that were going on, and it was really surprising to me how early Tyson wanted me gone. Or he was suspecting that I was doing something with the other tribe at Exile. But it’s been totally fun to kind of see it all play out.

What started all the antagonism between you and Coach? Was there something we didn’t see?

I actually didn’t have a lot of antagonistic feelings, (but) I didn’t necessarily like how he treated some of the women on the show. I didn’t think that was real cool. And I also didn’t like how he would talk a big game and then not step up, either around camp or in the reward challenges or immunity challenges. But other than that, I just thought Coach was overall pretty amusing. Like, I didn’t have any hatred for the guy. I just thought he was living in his own world.

Knowing what you know now, who would you choose from either tribe to make your “Dream Team” alliance?

I think JT would have been awesome, and then from my own tribe, Sierra was totally loyal to me. She had my back from the start. The only problem with Sierra is that she would run her mouth every once in a while and that would kinda get us in a little bit of trouble. But, other than that, those two are probably my picks. I thought Taj was awesome too, I thought we had a good bond especially considering both of our backgrounds. I was a little sad that she kind of bailed on me.

What’s the one thing you shouldn’t do when playing Survivor?

Trust anybody. [laughs]

What’s it going to take to vote Coach off?

I don’t think that Coach is really well liked by everybody, so I think it’s just about the right opportunity and the right time. You know, Coach isn’t that big of a physical threat, so it’s not that bad, it’s not that scary to take him deep into the game. So I think that it’s just a matter of when it makes sense. Like, Coach, to me, I thought was relatively benign so he’s somebody you would want to have in your alliance.

Was Tyson at all choked last time, when he won immunity and there was no Tribal Council?

[big laugh] Oh, yeah, he was definitely pissed. He was like, can I get a burger for this or something? Just give me some type of reward. But I think the fact that Joe went home and we didn’t have to go to Tribal, he took it with the right attitude, he didn’t cause too much of a stink. He just enjoyed giving Jeff some crap overall, so it was just more fuel for the fire.

Did anybody actually know how successful you are outside of the game?

It got leaked prior to me going to the game that I could potentially be on the show, so people kind of knew. What was amazing, I thought it might have been a bigger deal than it was, and the fact that it didn’t really impact the game once you actually get into it. People forget about what happens outside of it and its really just about who you are in the game.

So there was no disgust at all?

There was disgust. I mean, people talked about it and when people asked me I was honest about it. I told them that I started a company and sold it, but it was never that big of a dialogue. It was as much discussed as I would talk about Tyson’s background in cycling or Debbie being an elementary principal.

How would you parallel the business world with this Survivor world?

Survivor is so different than anything else. The first half of the game was fun, kind of like leading a team, so there’s definitely some parallels there. But then it just becomes all cutthroat, all about me trying to get to the end, you don’t win in a business plan that way.

Are we seeing an exaggerated version of Coach or is this an accurate portrayal?

No. Coach, this is an accurate portrayal. I mean, Coach is also, he’s a good listener, he’s genuinely interested in other people. But overall, that’s Coach. Nobody was forcing him to say any of that stuff and he was happy talking about it.

Were there any other weird stories that he told you, that we didn’t get to see?

Oh my God. I can’t even begin to talk about all his stories. The story that they showed last night, of him being in the Amazon, they skipped the part about him being force-fed pig’s blood and having pig flesh stuffed into different parts of his body. And the witch doctor coming around and dancing in front of him. The story went on and on and on.

Nobody tried to call him out on it?

I would try to call him out on it, just kind of jokingly, asking him for specific details about the situation, but honestly you’re all sitting out there with nothing else to do, and if some dude wants to tell you a crazy crazy story and it’s amusing to everybody, people just kind of sit and listen.

Do you, in your mind, think Coach is crazy?

I think that Coach is...I think he’s a little bit delusional. Coach is a nice guy, who’s very smart, who for whatever reason feels the need to infuse fiction into his life, to kind of complete his story. In my opinion. You know, Coach could come out of this thing, once he’s done with the show, he could come out and prove everything that he said on there and I could look like an idiot, who knows? [laughing] But, my general sense of it is, he just enjoys the art of storytelling and just makes himself the main character in it for the most part.

Being on Exile with Taj, how did the whole alliance idea come about?

When I went out there for the first time, I was just like, oh my goodness, this is kind of like a really unique twist in the game that both of us are out there. And so, how do you take this twist and turn in into your advantage? The best way I thought about it, not only do I want to have both of us sent back so we can figure out our immunity idols, but if we can start working together now and nobody knows about it, we can get to the merge when typically the two tribes are going at it and we can already have a plan set up. So I just kind of told Taj that, and she was like, God, that’s a good idea, let’s do it! From there, we worked on it together.

Were you surprised at how quickly Tyson picked up on the fact that you might have been working with the other tribe?

Yeah, I was super surprised when I saw the edit. But when you see the edit, who knows what was said before or after it. But it was pretty astute of him to recognize that and I think one of the bigger tells was when I ended up picking Stephen instead of taking someone like Joe or something like that, that’s when they kind of solidified it.

Were you nervous when Sierra was sent to Exile and she picked Stephen? Because at that point, you hadn’t talked to Sierra about anything.

I was a little nervous, but I thought I had a good enough relationship with Taj - Taj is a very smart woman - and I thought Sierra would be pretty attuned to it as well, that they would figure it out pretty quickly. When you have two days on Exile, you have a lot of time to kind of hammer through the details and they both gave each other enough details where they made each other comfortable that what was being said was the truth.

If you could pick the winner right now, who would it be?

You know, that’s really tough. I wouldn’t be able to pick it based upon - you know, there’s half of the game still left - but in terms of the people who impressed me in terms of their gaming and their strategy, I think Tyson’s a great player, I think Taj is a great player, JT’s a great player. I think those are the horses I’d bet on.

[Google]

 

[imissme]

I love these interviews, it is so interesting to read the expelled players opinions and thoughts as to what went down during the game. No editing just what they honestly said. Thank you.

[MissThing]

Excellent interview .

[hepcat]

I started a burrito company

This is so random to me. Surely there was not a burrito niche out there waiting to be filled.

I love all the comments on Coach. Thanks for doing this, Way!

[queenb]

Thanks, waywyrd! I'm very glad to see that Brendan noticed and called out Coach's treatment of the female players--so now we know it's not our imagination.
Also, I'm glad he does not seem upset by anything he's seen on his tv; he must be a pretty good egg.

[PWS]

Originally Posted by hepcat

This is so random to me. Surely there was not a burrito niche out there waiting to be filled.

I love all the comments on Coach. Thanks for doing this, Way!

It's some kind of organic burrito I think....so a "healthy" burrito. There's a link to it elsewhere on the site, so you can see he actually does say, until the end of Survivor or until Coach is expelled.
ETA The link is on post 25 under Brendan's thread.

[astrotronix]

Brendan's actually pretty funny he will be misssed. I'm rooting for Taj now.

[FBhang]

I knew he is a nice and funny guy, but good for him thinking he didn't need the idol. Thanks for keeping my Sierra around longer!

[sunnymicki]

Originally Posted by PWS

It's some kind of organic burrito I think....so a "healthy" burrito. There's a link to it elsewhere on the site, so you can see he actually does say, until the end of Survivor or until Coach is expelled.
ETA The link is on post 25 under Brendan's thread.

Yep, my husband is very excited about the idea of a tasty burrito you can buy in the grocery store. I don't know. Maybe it is a man thing.

[ko_vixen]

Awesomw interview!! It's funny that he actually had some "nice" things to say about Coach. I LOVE his buritto challenge....great advertising!! Too bad he's gone!