Tasha Wilkie of Cincinnati, Ohio, pulled off another great weekend of fundraising events involving Reality TV personalities to benefit the American Diabetes Association and the Diabetes Action Research & Education Foundation. Fans of RTV were treated to a variety of fun events and free access to the RTV personalities in attendance.
Friday night at Jillian’s was the meet and greet party for sponsors and the public. Everyone was in a fine mood, as the reality stars were just as excited to be seeing each other again as we were to be meeting them. Old friends from the Mole were there, Myra, Bribs and Bill, as well as Kate from Mole 1, who is from the area and who had been waiting to meet her Mole 2 colleagues for some time. Dana Varela of Big Brother 3 once again proves that despite the stress-related meltdowns we see on TV, most of these RTV characters are, in fact, quite sane and lovely people once out of the pressure drop. I told Erika Landin that I thought they (Big Brother contestants) were the bravest, because while I could see myself ‘Surviving’ or “Racing Amazingly,’ I know I’d end up on trial for homicide if I had to be locked up in that house all summer. Erika agreed, saying it was like “being in jail.” Amy Crews was there, lovely and charming as ever, and even managed not to visibly grit her teeth anytime someone offered her cheese or made some other lame, cheese-related joke. Yeah, like she’s never heard that before. She was insanely envious that Tijuana Bradley (Survivor PI) had thought to bring her adorable dog, Carleigh, and lamented the fact that had she known it was allowed, she would have brought her ‘baby’ Bucky.
Bribs Bribiesca and Gorgeous Girlfriend
Brennan Swain of Amazing Race did a great job of promoting the new network RealityCentral, coming soon to a cable or satellite system near you. Insight has already signed them up, but if you are on any of the other systems like DirectTV, for example, remember to write “I want my RealityCentral!” on your bill every month. Al Rios, one half of last summer’s most-beloved Amazing Race team, ‘The Clowns’ ( teammate Jon was on tour and couldn’t appear, much as he longed to) was a great and affable guy, just what you’d expect after their unflappable performance last summer. In fact, I’d say Al wins this year’s “Best Goodwill Ambassador for RealityTV” award, as I saw Al repeatedly go out of his way to be accessible, kind, and funny for the fans. Brennan and Andrew Hyde are also great at this. Why are the Amazing Racers so personable and engaging? And this is not to say the other stars in attendance weren’t also quite lovely people. But rather that a few immature lackwits (who shall remain nameless, they know who they are) could take lessons from them in how one should represent the genre and their shows and how to respect the event, cause, and fans that they were flown out and given free hotel rooms for— I’m just sayin’.
Osten and Ryno
While many of our favorite Survivors who attended this event last year couldn’t make it this time, due to All-Stars still being in progress, Tasha made up for that by nabbing quite a few of the Pearl Islands cast and some old favorites who had been unable to attend previously. Christa is as kooky, fun-loving, and crazy as she seemed on the show, and Sandra was quite warm towards everyone who wanted to talk to the latest Sole Survivor. The boys (Shawn, Burton, et al) were as rowdy as you might expect. Osten was terrific and more than willing to discuss his controversial decision to leave the game. One thing new to this writer was that he had multiple staph infections at the time of his exit, and I can’t help but feel that Mark Burnett’s questionable gimmick of the “clothes on their back” also contributed to a situation where a player could feel so physically devastated as to force them to make that kind of decision. I think I cheered Osten up when I told him that a good friend of mine from his neck of the woods had vigorously defended his right to leave. Later in the weekend, I remembered a promise to another dear friend. I went up to Osten and explained (fumbling) that my friend Honey had asked me to give him a hug for her. (Trust me, in my quasi-journalistic capacity, I’m not known for asking the TV people for hugs, with few exceptions.) But Osten was trés cool about it. When I started to walk away, he called me back and gave me an even bigger hug, saying it was to go back to Honey. So there you go, Honey, an Osten hug for you (and damn, he smelled good!).
Saturday’s events were a whirlwind. First up: challenges, games, and volleyball out at Deer Park High School. Everyone had fun, the weather was great, and the RTV kids really got into the spirit of it. Probably the funniest moment was the demented tackle/sack races when Shawn tackled Ryno from behind as he was hopping along in his sack. This was again a great event for the younger fans, as they get to actually participate in challenges and events especially created to emulate those they see on TV, like the puzzle, the guide your blindfolded team, the catch a beanbag shot out of a giant slingshot, etc.
Tijuana Christa Darrah Tanya and Erika with other cute chicks
The signing session was great as always and had the extra twist this year of being held at Strikes and Spares bowling alley where, after the signing was done, one could bowl with the stars. I saw some truly interesting form on the lanes. Yes, I’m talking to you, Michelle Tesauro and Bill of Team Guido!
The premiere event however, was undoubtedly the Talent Show and Celebrity Auction on Saturday night. After a late start, Mitchell Olson opened the show with a bit of hilarious stand-up and his always amusing “Survivor Parody” (although you really need to write in new verses for the last few seasons, Mitchell). Brad Holcman of Average Joe did ‘Average Tap’ (no tap shoes, so more like a softshoe routine) he was really very good and endearingly funny. Everyone’s favorite Southern belle, Amy Crews, sang a smoky rendition of “Fever.” When an excited fan shouted out to her as she prepared to sing, “Amy, you’re so hot!” she coolly responded, “Thank you, sugar.” Dennis Luciani of Average Joe is a fantastic guy, and let me take this moment to say that although I had never watched Average Joe, I was impressed with all three of the attendees from it, Brad, Dennis, and Jason Peoples were all truly sweethearts and great with the fans. The bad news: Dennis did a song I didn’t recognize, something like “Wish the Pain Away.” Unfortunately, it was painful. I felt like I was in the first round of American Idol auditions. Sandra and Christa re-enacted a few of their most famous moments on the island in skit form, including the “who dumped the fish” and “would you be my brutus” scenes, in which each vignette ends with someone getting the old pie plate of goo in the face. Too hilarious.
My favorite act of the night, and one that wasn’t even on the program, was the “How to Survive in a Lifeboat” bit that Al Rios came up with, and Andrew Hyde assisted with (including learning the impromptu patter). It seems Tasha asked Al if he would do something at the last minute, and veteran trouper that he is, he obliged with an fantastic and side-splitting stunt. (see pictures below for sequence) It involves getting four people on chairs at right angles and having them lay across each others’ laps, and then removing the chairs until there are none left holding them up. I’m not doing it justice verbally, but it’s one of those things that doesn’t seem as if it should work--check out the photos, it was truly AMAZING! The tie for best act of the night goes to Andrew Hyde and the young dancers he works with, who did a stunning original routine to an original remix (also by Andrew, of all the best RTV theme songs and quote sound bites). The dancers were pumped, the routine drop dead great. That’s all I can say, except I’m abysmally sorry I couldn’t get better photos of it for this article; my digicam couldn’t cope with all the fast movement and stage lighting, apparently. But much heat and buzz surrounds this promising young man who has his iron in a hundred different fires (including a radio show in Dayton, Ohio) and looks ready to set the world ablaze.
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