Elites TV talked with Amazing Race 5's Marshall and Lance after their elimination from the show. The brothers talk about crazed fans, Charla and Mirna, and what ended up on the cutting room floor.
Elites TV: What are you guys up to now?
Lance: We’re working. Back to reality. The real reality, which is going back to work. I’m working at the restaurant; Marshall’s doing whatever he does. Back to real life!
Elites TV: Was it hard to come back to reality?
Lance: It wasn’t really hard. Our partner was covering the restaurant, and the day I got back he said “Ok, get to work, I’m taking off.” He didn’t give me much time to ease back into daily life. The reality show was very exciting, but unfortunately it was over.
Elites TV: Did participating in AR increase business at your restaurant?
Lance: From the day that CBS announced AR 5 on the Early Show! Some of the fans are crazy—they’re diehard fans. They took the video, freeze framed it, focused in on our hats and saw that it said Café Nostra and then started doing searches on the internet, and literally within hours of that airing we were getting phone calls from people doing research on our restaurant, who we were, and what we were doing in the race. So yes, it’s definitely made a difference. Lots of people who are in Dallas for other reasons will make the 45minute drive to come to our restaurant because they’re fans of the show.
Elites TV: Marshall, how is your knee?
Marshall: It was just an acute case of tendonitis. I was in agony as you could tell on the show last night. I could hardly walk. I had seen a couple of doctors and their prognosis was that I needed rest and ice, two things you don’t get while participating in Amazing Race. There was no fix for it while the race was on, but as soon as we left I was able to ice my legs. After a few days they were much better, and after a week or two they were back to normal.
Elites TV: I’m glad it's better. So they had doctors there during the race?
Marshall: They got you any medical care you needed. They were prepared for much worse situations than that.
Elites TV: It seems like you really hated Charla and Mirna. How did that start?
Marshall: I don’t think its fair to say that Lance and I were the only ones hating them.
Elites TV: OK, it seems like everyone hates them. But the show highlighted you two, and Colin and Christie, voicing your dislike the most.
Marshall: I think it’s telling to see that a lot of people did not like Mirna and Smirna and don’t like them to this day because they’re miserable people. They’re not nice. They introduced themselves to us the same way they did to America, by lying. There’s nothing genuine about them. They come off telling you “Don’t treat us any differently.” Charla said “I’m a little person, I can do anything everyone else can do,” and then 10 minutes into the race she’s acting like a pathetic human being begging for help from people at the airline or, wherever we were. She totally did the opposite of what she told us she was going to do and the how she waned to be treated. They’re just not nice people, bottom line.
Elites TV: When you guys would have dinner at the Pit Stops and hang out, were Charla and Mirna part of it or did they alienate themselves?
Lance: They alienated themselves by being the way that they are, and then everyone else alienated them because of the way they are. So the answer to your question is that is wasn’t just for television that we weren’t nice to them. We didn’t like them, we’re not friends with them, we’re still not friends with them.
Elites TV: Have there been any show reunions?
Marshall: Actually, I got married 3 weeks ago and there were 3 1/2 teams at my wedding. Most of the other people on the show would probably tell you that they’ve made some very good friends that I hope will last a lifetime.
Elites TV: Who came to your wedding?
Marshall: A bunch of teams. Chip and Kim, Dennis and Erica, Colin and Christie and Kami.
Elites TV: What was your favorite leg of the trip? Where you able to enjoy the beautiful sites you passed?
Lance: A lot of the times we weren’t able to enjoy the sites- you’re just so caught up in the race itself that you don’t have a chance to enjoy anything. But there were other times that you really get to consume your surroundings.
Elites TV: Had you traveled extensively before this, and do you think that AR inspired you to travel more?
Marshall: I traveled throughout Europe before the race, but AR inspired me to not feel like I need to travel to locations that are “Americanized” and I don’t have to worry whether the locals speak English. AR put us in situations where you have to figure out how to communicate with people, and I learned that people all over the world are incredibly nice and want to communicate with you as much as you want to communicate with them. The Race opened my world to more exotic travel—go to places that are off the beaten track and not the Marriot.
Elites: what was your favorite and least favorite detour?
Marshall: The least favorite for us, or for Lance, was the Caviar.
Lance: The most enjoyable one for me was watching Marshall eat the chocolates.
Elites: It seemed like there were no white chocolates for you!
Marshall: There are a lot of points in this race where it has nothing to do with physical or mental ability, but it comes down to pure luck. We got lucky in the first episode when we played roulette and I picked my birthday. I won on the first spin and we were out of there in a minute. But then again we get to the chocolate factory and there are 11,000 chocolates on the table. And against all odds I bit into 3000 chocolates and couldn’t find one! You win some, you lose some and that’s how the race works.
Elites TV: Were you off chocolate for a while after that?
Marshall: Oh God, it made me nauseous!
Elites TV: Did you feel the Show portrayed you as how you really are?
Lance: The way they portrayed us on TV is how we are. We’re the obnoxious New Yorkers with big mouths who really don’t care what people think of us.
Marshall: I think it’s about how people interpret it, too. Lance and I say it like we see it. If it’s on our mind we’re going to speak it and tell you what we’re thinking. I think that a lot of people—whether it’s this reality show or other reality shows—purposely don’t say things because they are afraid of how it could be perceived on television. Some of the stuff we said comes off as looking bad on television—like when Lance went into his thing about the Russians being the most miserable people he’s ever seen in his life. But the truth of it is that he was describing something that, at that point in time, I thought there was a lot of merit to. We were sitting on a train in Russia and it was very sad that not a single person smiled and everyone looked totally miserable. That was the piece that made the show. The part that ended up on the cutting room floor was when we became friendly with two women on the train and they were great…they helped us off the train, helped us get a cab and communicated with the cab driver. They were so nice to us, but that wasn’t as “good television” as us saying how miserable the Russians are.
Elites TV: Has this changed your relationship at all?
Lance: To be honest, it really hasn’t. We lived together for over a year, opened up a restaurant together, so we were very close going into this. AR was something that maybe solidified all that but it didn’t really bring us to any kind of new level. We’ve always been close and we remain close.
Elites TV: Thanks for talking with Elites TV and good luck!
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