By Gordon Holmes
Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:37:11 GMT
Love him or hate him, Randy Bailey definitely made “Survivor: Gabon” interesting. The latest member of the jury didn’t hold back when we asked him for his thoughts on Sugar, Crystal, and the rest of Nobag…
Randy: I remember you.
Gordon: You do?
Randy: Sure I do.
Gordon: Do you remember good things or bad things?
Randy: I didn’t like any of you, didn’t you watch the show?
Gordon: Yeah, I don’t blame you.
Gordon: What’d you think of last night? It seems like Sugar and Runaround Bob upset a member of the jury for no good reason.
Randy: They must think that I took a flight back home and I’m out of the game. There’s no strategy there. They don’t realize that I’m voting for the million-dollar winner. And what you didn’t see last night was during when Jeff was snuffing my torch, Sugar was falling in the dirt and she was pointing at me and wiggling in the dirt and laughing at me. She just doesn’t get it.
Gordon: I spoke to Charlie last week, and he gave me the impression that Sugar isn’t being portrayed accurately.
Randy: I was dreading last night’s episode, obviously because of what happened. But it was my favorite episode of the season and the reason why is Sugar’s true colors started to show. She has gotten this edit the entire season that just shows her as America’s sweetheart. She’s a professional pin-up, and she has these cute chick faces mastered and it looks good on TV. But last night it started to show just what a vicious skank she really is. I saw the whole time I was with her. Charlie saw it the whole time he was with her. And fortunately America got to see it.
Gordon: What were some of the things Sugar would do around camp that would drive you guys nuts?
Randy: You saw her last night she was wearing that burlap bag? She makes those bags by tearing up other peoples’ bags that “Survivor” gave us to keep our own belonging separate for other peoples’. She’s not aware that anyone else is there. She sleeps where she wants, anyway, I don’t want to waste my time talking about her. She’ll get hers in the end, not in the game, I’m talking about life.
Gordon: Is there any animosity toward Bob?
Randy: Bob is a good guy. He doesn’t have a clue how to play the game, but he’s a good guy. I talked to him and you know, I never want to go camping with him for a month. He told these stories. He tells them three times in the same day. Bob’s basically a good guy.
Gordon: The impression I got from you when we talked in Gabon…
Randy: And you fell for it.
Gordon: I did. I thought this was a guy who has an edge, but will be able to keep his emotions from getting the best of him.
Randy: I wish I had toned it down a little bit. I did let my emotions get the best of me. I thought I could control it more, but I really had no idea how much I could take these people.
Gordon: How much of what we saw was the real you?
Randy: Yeah, that was all me, but I’ve never slept in the dirt with people for 30 days. So, I didn’t know what was going to happen. If you remember back the first 10 days when I was with the original Fang, I kept the snarky comments to myself in the confessionals, and I was all smiles and everybody’s friend. The people at home saw what I was like when I was by myself and a lot of people hated me, maybe two or three people liked me. But finally it just got to a point where I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
Gordon: How hard was it to bite your tongue those first days with Crystal and G-C?
Randy: I’ve waited for years to play “Survivor,” and it was actually pretty easy to bite my tongue because I wanted to be out there. I knew the worst thing in the world to do was try to take over, and everyone there was doing stupid things and that tribe was just hopeless.
Gordon: One of your strategies I noticed was where you mocked Crystal for crying. Was that to prove yourself to Kota?
Randy: What you didn’t see was Crystal would cry at every challenge. Win or lose she would just start crying. And everyone was sick of it, both Kota and Fang. When I did the “Wah wah wah” the only person that I p---ed of was Crystal. Everybody else was like, “It’s about time someone else said what I was thinking.” But yeah, it was a little bit to prove myself to Kota.
Gordon: At the first Tribal Council, Jeff does a demonstration where he lets the players know how quiet they have to be when they vote so they won’t be heard by the other players. So, what Crystal said last night was obviously for everybody’s ears.
Randy: Oh Gordon, she was screaming it. Her voice was echoing through the jungle. You could hear elephants being scared off and running. Again, this is a perfect example of horrible game play. Just as bad as Sugar and Bob with the immunity idol. If Sugar makes it to the end, after what she did last night how does she possibly think I could vote for her? I don’t get it.
Gordon: At this point in the game, who do you think is playing the best game?
Randy: Kenny’s got a lot of props the last couple of weeks, and he’s a strategic player, but last week? His blindside of Charlie? That’s not strategic. The way this game has shaped up, the best way to play is to have no strategy at all. And it’s working for Bob, it’s working for Sugar. Corinne knows how to play this game, but she’s in a tough spot right now. I hope she can pull it off, I wish her the best. The thing about “Survivor” is four morons can vote off three rocket scientists all day long and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Gordon: When you were at the reward challenge, you said that one of the Gabonese ladies was hitting on you. Now that you’re on TV has your love life picked up?
Randy: Actually that lady from Gabon flew back with me and she’s living with me now.
Gordon: (laughs)
Randy: No, where I live, nobody even knows that I’m on the show. Nobody even recognizes me. I had a love life and it was 15-20 years ago.
Gordon: Do you think you’re being fairly portrayed on the show?
Randy: I think it’s pretty accurate. The only thing that I don’t like about it is I have a lot of moments bonding with Charlie, Marcus, and Corinne and it shows a way more human side of me. Marcus and I would go fishing for hours every day. Charlie and I would share a pillow at night, actually it was a bag of rice, but we used it as a pillow. And, Corinne and I would get together and I swear that girl can read my mind, and I can read hers, and we would just laugh for hours. “Survivor” ought to put a three-hour show on Showtime, they do that with “Big Brother.”
Gordon: I’ve got some word association…
Randy: Whatever you want, CBS makes me do this.
Gordon: Do they? Well in that case, give me some thoughts on Charlie.
Randy: Awesome.
Gordon: Sugar?
Randy: Skank.
Gordon: Crystal?
Randy: Another skank.
Gordon: Gabon?
Randy: Nobag.
Gordon: Ponderosa?
Randy: Fun, a relief.
Gordon: G-C?
Randy: Quitter.
Gordon: Runaround Bob’s arts and crafts project?
Randy: Go back to Maine
Gordon: Jeff Probst?
Randy: Tool.
Gordon: What do you take from your time in Africa?
Randy: I don’t know. I think the jury’s still out on that. It was a great time, made some good friends. But whether or not I become a more well-rounded person, time will tell.
Gordon: How do you respond to the viewers that weren’t Randy fans?
Randy: You know, I’m not going to change anybody’s mind. The people that hate me, hate me and the people that like me, like me. They’re free to hate me if they want. That’s fine. I probably hate them too.
Subject: Castaway Interview: Randy Bailey 
Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:14 pm
