See if you can figure out which competitor is related to an Academy Award (tm) winning actress. I’ll give you two hints: there is a physical resemblance, and they have the same last name.
Speaking of movie stars, everybody loves the Roaming Gnome. Seriously. I took him out to the beach to do some video for this season and it was hard to work because so many people wanted to take pictures with him. He is a total professional on set, great to work with. And what a great short game!
I first met Jason at our Phoenix auditions last year. I remember it well. Someone had talked him into auditioning the night before, so he’d driven overnight from LA and caught 40 winks parked in the clubhouse parking lot. I drew the first audition that day, and he was first in line, so I talked to Jason. And he was brilliant on camera. For whatever reason some people just have that transparency that shines through on camera, and Jason has it in spades. Glad he made the drive.
We saw some fantastic creatures on Big Break Mexico. An ostentation of peacocks took up residence outside of the production office - fun fact: a group of peafowl is an ostentation or pride, not a flock. We had to schedule the end of each day to finish before the troop of monkeys that live in the jungle near the course. They make a late afternoon commute tree to tree through the golf course. It’s an absolute spectacle to watch monkeys diving from tree to tree within feet of the spider camera operator. And lets not forget the iguanas and lemurs running around, both made the final version of the show open.
By the end of show 2, the cast was starting to get to know each other, and for whatever reason this group had a lot of nicknames. Jay was Mr. Perfect because, well, look at him. McKenzie became known as the “little fella” because of a low, raspy voice she does. The whole bit with Taylor trying to say Arnold Schwarzenegger is absolutely true to life. The cast tends to hang out in the common room in the evenings while people are doing interviews, so all night this bit was playing out where different people were trying to get her to pronounce the “Governators” name correctly.
I went to breakfast one morning more tired and worn out than usual. My lovely waitress asked me if I wanted poquito tequila with my coffee. It cures everything.
So far between life and business I’ve managed to traveled quite a bit without any serious mishaps. In fact, I have stamps from Thailand, Ireland, Germany, The Bahamas, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, and Norway in my passport, which I promptly lost 15 minutes after clearing customs in Mexico. Ay chihuahua! You know that feeling that you’ve lost something but you can’t quite figure out what it is? That’s exactly what I felt standing at the rental car counter. Imagine my growing panic as I inventoried my pockets, and realized that I was missing my only legal documentation in a foreign country! Panic stricken I returned to the airport exit and tried to explain my situation to the security guard outside. It’s amazing how little spanish I can speak considering I’ve lived in Florida most of my life. Just as I started imagining how bad the line was going to be at the consulate, a second security guard walked out of the airport with my battered passport! Gracias Amigos!
Team Aztec is up against the ropes in this episode. As McKenzie says in the show, “Our planning sucked.” So much of the time on Big Break the difference between success and failure is reading a situation correctly. No challenge tests that quite as completely as Blackjack. The goal of the game is to read the other team and plan your strategy accordingly. The Aztecs had a tough time doing that this episode, let’s see if they do better next week.
Till next week, Adios!
Jon Painter - Series Producer Big Break Mexico
