Girls Gotta Eat: Deep Dark Secrets & Being Happily Single with Rayna & Ashley

Transcript

Big day for the podcast, everyone. Very big day I have reality royalty in the house. I'm going to use that term to describe you here today, the bad boy of MTV's The Man who looks the curse in the eye and laughs, and I'm going to add another one here, which I think you've mentioned, which is the Tom Brady of the challenge. Any time you're associated with Tom Brady, well, I've heard see, everyone always says on the Tom Brady challenge, but now after this, everyone has to say that Tom Brady is the Johnny bananas of the NFL. That's very true. And again, more importantly, we're going to get into this as well. The host of First Look on NBC, which means we're actually like, weirdly related because NBC, Bravo, it's all part of one big family. We're all part of the same family man. Let's just welcome an all around legend of the show, Mr. Johnny Bananas. How are you today? I'm dude. You know what? It's today's looking up already. Anyone who doesn't know this name a guy now they say people who have a face for radio. This guy's got a voice for radio and a face for TV. So that's an interesting combination coming from you, sir. That means a lot. And let me tell you how f**king hospitable this guy is because we are not doing this episode from Action Park Media. Johnny Bananas opened up Cassady bananas to me. I'm sitting here in the living room right now looking at the art on the wall. Yeah, we got Morgan. Will that in the back over there, just podcasting on our own podcast and on her own. I'm one step away from being invited to Thanksgiving here. You just said we're part of the same family. Before we get into the interview, because of course, I have a lot of questions for you. A lot of people are very excited, including myself, that you're here. We start every episode with the dream of the day, and this is a first for the off brand podcast because this is the first time I have a dream of the day that includes my guest that has never happened before, and I thought you were going to like, we got to look into your DMs and I was like, Now Morgan's right over there. Morgan's already briefed me on the protocol for this episode. Don't worry, I was given a list of do's and don'ts. What do you mean by DMs are all from like, you know, like old grandmothers and and and children? Exactly right. OK, so this is blank. Katz with a Z 31 are Nima. I heard you're having Johnny Bananas on your podcast. Please tell him that he can make banana bread with my naked body any day that he was. How does that happen? I don't know, but you know, it's it's a forward. Wait, so does this mean that I have to make banana bread like on her body? Or am I using parts of her body for the banana bread? I took it as parts of the body for the banana bread. Oh man. Like, I like a kinky, like, S&M type thing. OK. That would be a weird tasting banana bread. Yes, it would. So before we get to the interview, I want to talk about some fun facts. I did my research on Mr. Johnny, be over here and I have a couple of fun facts I want to talk to you about because you've done a lot of interviews and I wanted this podcast to be a little bit different. So I'm going to go to my fun facts of the era. It already is. We're doing it in my in my living room. That's right. As you mentioned, that's right. He's not wearing a shirt, which is super weird or pants. So here we go. It's my house. My rules. Yes, right? So first off, the name is actually John Amadeus, and I'm going to pronounce your last name here. Okay. Steven Anseo. Wow, how impressed are you right now? That is all on your first try. And so the middle name is Amadeus because the dad was a fan of Mozart. So is that something that comes up? You're like an ice breaker for you? You know, it's funny is I'll show people my driver's license. Yeah, and they'll be like, That's not your real middle name. And I'm like, You're right, I actually forged a fake I.D. to put a fake middle name on here. Believe it or not, my real first name had it been up to my dad would have been Giovanni. OK, which is John in Italian, so my name would have been Giovanni, Amadeus, Deven Anzio. My My Sparks for sure. For sure. For sure. My mom, who comes from a much more like traditional WASPy English background, her parents when I was a baby were like, This kid's name is going to be Giovanni Armadas Stephen and Joe. He'll never get a job. So they settled on. John got it. But he but they stuck with with Amadeus, which I'm pretty thankful for because it's a pretty unique name. When I was a kid, not so much, but now when you're older and I know you probably realize it still things you didn't appreciate as much as a kid, you appreciate more as an adult. One hundred percent. Like, when I was a kid, I wanted to wear like baggy pants and cut off jeans and stuff that didn't fit. My dad would always be like, Listen, I'll take you to Banana Republic. We'll get you all decked out in a new wardrobe if you wear it. And I'm like, Dad, I'm not wearing that crap. We were like, the no fear generation likes to see it. All of that. Yeah, yeah, dude. Just started, didn't fit like they used to. The cool was like the bag. You're the better. And then a few years later, I was actually working at Banana Republic, and that's all I wore. And I'm like, How amazing is it? My dad is a foresight to be like, You know, this was good for you then and years later, I come around and I and I realized that actually was, it's the vision. And I got to tell you what really stuck out with me about the Amadeus thing was that you went with the bananas nickname instead of the ahmida. You could have gone with Mozart. You could you could call the maestro. Are a lot of things you could have done. So this all again stems back to me working at Banana Republic. A lot of people want to know is one of the questions I get all the time where the nickname Johnny Bananas come from. And a lot of times are let down because the story is rather boring. And I had a job at Banana Republic, moved to New York. First job I got was at Banana Republic, and I worked there with a guy who, to this day, is my best friend, John Healy. Shout out. We were both John. So the way that our friends then distinguish the two of us apart. He worked at Kenneth Cole, I worked at Banana Republic, so I became Johnny Bananas. Yeah, and but your real friends call you, John. Yeah, I've done. My research did. Yeah. So like if someone calls him John, you know, this is an OG in his life. Like, this isn't some like fake Hollywood s**t. So do you actually like John better than Johnny? It's not that I like it better. It's it's weird. It's like when I first started transitioning from John to Johnny. I mean, the reason people started calling me Johnny was because of Johnny bananas. My family doesn't call me Johnny bananas. All my friends from back in the day high school, even college called me John. So it's almost like used to feel weird when I'd call myself Johnny, sure. But now it feels weird to now call myself, John. But if you look back, do my earliest seasons of the real world and challenge my name on my jersey was John. It's funny because I used to have a thing when I was like my early 20s. I was fat and very insecure, and I kind of hated guys like you who I think we just automatically were just crushing a*s left and right. And whenever they would call themselves at the Y to the end of their names, it like literally pissed me off. They'd be like, Oh, hey, this is my friend Mikey. Yeah, and these guys always bang the hottest girl. If you were young and had a y at the end of your name, you for sure had sex with all the hottest girls in your high school or college. Say so. I guess true to my my upbringing, I actually when I was John, you're actually kind of right. When it was John, I had a lot less kills, of course, than I did once I added the Y. This is a universal law that I just want to establish. I have a few of these and this is like the ultimate one. So my mind's blown right now. And with a name like Neema, I was always like, left out like the chubby Persian kid who was like heading up breath mints in the corner. You know, you should have dropped the A and put a y could have been Niemi. Yeah, but that doesn't have like, no girl wants to bang Nemo. Listen, yeah, I know you could have been Nemo. You girls love Finding Nemo. He's just trying to make me feel better right now, and I appreciate the gestures. And for all you guys out there that are having a hard time getting laid. If your name is Mike or John, what's another name? You could be anything. Chrissy, Steve. Mikey Marky. Throw a y in your name. We actually want to see if this theory is correct, so throw on your name and get back to us about three months and let us know if your kill count is going up. Yeah, but just wear a condom. Don't want to have illegitimate children nine months from now. So by the way, not to steal a Johnny Bananas expression here. But in doing my research about you, I hit the old GOOG, which I'm stealing and im not crediting you at all. By the way, every week for Google and one of the things about you, I think just because of like your prolific career on the challenge and on MTV and now on NBC is everyone talks about like you being old? Oh, Johnny's old, Johnny's old. We're the same age, by the way. So I take particular offense to the great for your age. Know, and I feel so young in my life and you're you are incredibly young about literally years and decades and decades and media ahead of us. When people are like, Oh, you're in your thirties, you're old person. I'll f**k anyone who says that. Okay, because that's not the case. I actually believe it or not. I'm having more fun in my 30s. All right. Then I had in my 20s, OK, and I honestly feel like I'm one of these guys. You know, there's that you see people who like, peeked in like their teens and they're in their 20s now. They're like, like a lot of guys I went to college with who literally went to college. They peaked in college and just gave up. They married their college sweetheart, got a nine to five job, had a family. And now I look at them and I'm like, You guys look like s**t agrees with me. I went from college and I like to call reality television the challenge. Never Neverland, because I've been essentially the Peter Pan of reality television. The challenges being might never Neverland. There's obviously a influx of new cast members. Every season are early 20s, so I've literally spent the last 15 years of my life with people. Now, granted, when I first started, I was in my early 20s, but I'm older now than almost all the production, right? It's literally kept me young, not just physically, but like in the mental sense as well. Morgan can attest to this because I still have the, you know, emotional development of a 14 year old, right? I'm very into like immature sophomore jokes, pooh pooh jokes, fart jokes, whatever. They're my favorite, which is a great place to be, and it is a really good place to be. My credo, if you want to steal another one of my kids, grow old, never grow up, and that's kind of like where I've been is. It's like, dude, we only have a very finite amount of time on Earth and it's like, I just love having fun, dude. That's that's just my thing. And it's like, you know, people get too serious about life too soon. And I'm like, I'm just going to take it as it comes. I could not agree with you more. I mean, no disrespect to my friends who you know who you are. I love you dearly. But when we go to weddings and s**t and then it's like, I'm the guy just boozing and having the time my life and my buddy has to like, deal with like a situation that's happening with his wife or his kids or whatever. I just am not at that age where, like, I want that. Yet you're also in the public eye, though it kind of forces you to have to, you know, be aware of your appearance completely. It's one thing if you like, let yourself go for a while, you know, you kind of just disappear. But if you let yourself go and then you show up on national television, you were like, What the hell was I thinking if I put an ounce of body fat on people like, Oh, look at this guy, look how fat he's got, and he's old. Just to recap this, neither myself or Johnny are old. We are in our thirties, similar to him or in our prime. I am having the ultimate glow up moment in my life. I love my thirties to death. It's the best decade of my life. You know, my attorney says, I mean, he stuck with me. He was like. People take you seriously in your 30s. Yes, when you're in your twenties, you're kind of like a s**t bag, really, girls? Yeah. You know what I mean? But now all of a sudden you're like, I'm now going to be moving into directing in my thirties. But these are things that 20 years I was getting slammed in Hermosa Beach every weekend the same way. And you know, it was funny. When I was in my 20s, I talked to girls who were either in their 20s, my age or older. And when I tell you like the amount of just utter contempt that I got, especially from older girls, I'd be like, What is it do like? I'm on TV, I'm a girl. I didn't realize you're in your 20s. That's the problem. Like, you don't even realize it, but it's like you're wearing like a cheap cologne, right? Like, they can smell it on you. And now it's like, I do. I feel like once you get into your thirties, look at us. We're a couple of sophisticated gentlemen here. You've better facial hair than I do. I mean, I am really envious of the facial hair. I'm not going to lie if I could, if I could pull that off and not be screened at every airport I go to for the rest of my entire life, like randomly selected my a*s. If that wasn't the case, I would. I would rock that beard all day long. Well, I appreciate it. But to give you some context and this has been done before and I'm tried, I've tried my M.O. with this interview was to try to do things that were not done before, but this is one of them to give. We're already sitting here doing the podcast half naked. This is already in my living room, so this is already way out of the realm of what I'm used to. Visionary did give you some context of iconic TV brands that Mr. Bananas has been on TV longer than Seinfeld Law & Order, and to give you some context into your greatness of Friends of seven championships in your field. I want to give you a list of people who have achieved seven or more rings or titles in their fields. Look at the category you're in. All right, Bill Russell and I love them. Yogi Berra, my man. Joe DiMaggio, another great Italian. Babe Ruth. Yup. Tiger Woods and Serena Williams. Wow, that means not on that list. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Shaq, Tom Brady. So, you know, you got to give him respect with respect, this, dude. Let's go to the beginning here, dude. Born in Orange County, Penn State, guy now Nittany Lions like a legit school, you know, got a degree in economics. And were you just like, was the plan to be? No, it was never sawstop. For those of you that have never studied economics in high school, econ and college is way the f**k harder than econ. And I was like, Econ in high school is like, here's a supply and demand graph that's so cool. Econ, not business, but econ and college is like, here are financial records you have to analyze is so much math that goes into it. Yeah, so well. You're like a third year in econ. You couldn't have been thinking like, I don't want to do this. No. And to rewind a little bit. What's actually really funny about my journey into econ was econ is actually the class that almost prevented me from graduating high school because I made a kind of an off color comment to my teacher, Miss Robertson, shout out. She's like, Here's how econ works. We're going to say that this company here is we're going to call it Miss Robertson. And then the company sells off pieces of Miss Robertson. And I was like, I want a piece of Miss Roberts. That's the first day of class and gone. So because I didn't take econ in high school, it almost prevented me from graduating. The administration bent some rules because they want to get me the hell out of there. And then here we are. Fast forward a few years later, I'm at Penn State and the only major that was available at that time because I wanted to do fashion buying. I wanted to do like marketing communications full. So the next thing it was like something in finance. I didn't want to do accounting. So econ seemed like the next logical step, especially because there is math involved. But there's a lot of theoretical with like math. It's like a plus B equals C, but in econ, it's like A-plus B sometimes equals, but it can also equal an F depending on variables. I've always been a much more theoretical, abstract kind of guy, so I was like, Oh, I'll give econ a shot. What's cool about this? I'm a bit of an education snob. Just so, you know, Penn State's a really good school. I graduate from the Small Business College, so your best business school in the country, you're a smart guy. Yeah, I went to a good college as well, and people oftentimes approach me with this like, Oh, wait a second what? Because I think the expectation is that if 100 percent, you know, we're not, we're not educated, we didn't go so like, you must have really worked your a*s off to get to that program. So yes and no, I had to do really well in community college before I transferred, so I transferred in as a sophomore. I moved, like you said, from Orange County to New York. When I was 17, I had no drive, did I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was a C student in high school. I graduated 250 or 500, so I was literally dead center in the middle of the cla*s. I moved to New York with my dad and I went to Nassau Community College, which is as far as community colleges go. It's the highest funded community college in the country and the transfer rate out of there is better than anywhere else. So you do well at Nassau, you could go to Harvard or Penn State. It was the first time that I really wanted to take schooling seriously. I wanted to go to college. I really wanted to go to college. My cousin had just gotten a full ride to Penn State for football. Vince, who's actually been on a few seasons of the challenge with me and it was when the first time. Listen, I've always been a really intelligent kid that took my intelligence and I put it towards the wrong areas. I never found things when I was younger in school that actually like piqued my interest. Sure, unless it was sports or unless it was, you know, building stuff, the majority of my energy in school went towards entertaining people and being the class clown and sitting there listening to teacher and finding one liners that I can throw out. And so it was like that. It's kind of like where my intelligence went when I was younger was to being an entertainer, and then I got to community college and it was the first time that I actually applied myself and I made the dean's list three semesters in a row to the surprise of, you know, everyone who knew me and I basically got to, you know, I sent my application to Penn State because my cousin was playing football there and I had an option to basically go to a lot of different places and then ended up at Small Business College. In the economics department. You took the words out of my mouth, which is one thing I was generally curious about, and I can relate to this. So while you're on the come up here, I was going to ask you, were you always a larger than life personality? Always. And I think that when you have that, yeah, it's really hard to like, you've talked about this not wanting to be part of a nine to five thing like it's not part of your life. I think when you have that organically, it's very hard to bury that when you say you don't want to be, no, I don't have the that's that's the whole thing is it's not even like I have the choice. There's no way I could ever work. I've been fired from every job ever had, every job I've ever had. I've never quit them on. I've been let go every single time and a lot of the times like, we love you, great great energy, great personality. But you have a problem with authority. I was working on this really fancy Italian restaurant in New York. They were like, You got to understand people are here to have a party. You're not part of the party. I'd be the waiter. I'd be like hanging out at their table like I was part of their party, you know? And I never saw a problem with it. But my dad always says this. You know, somehow, someway you've taken this mischievous nature that you've always grown up with because my parents were in and out of the principal's office all the time, I spend it constantly because I was always acting up. I was always talking out of turn. I got a progress report here from like high school. It's hilarious. The progress reporters, like, doesn't use his time wisely interrupts often. Can't keep his hands to himself. So I literally took that and my teachers would tell my parents he's not a bad guy. He's not. He has no malice intent. He's not me. He's hilarious. But it's like, I'm trying to teach a class here, and he's not letting that happen. And I think I did. I was able to take that mischievous nature that ability to like, make people laugh and to get a rise out of people, and I was able to somehow then parlay that into a career. I mean, how that happens, if you ask me how I did that to this day, I be like, you know, it just happened, and I am one of the few people who have managed to take what I'm good at. Find a niche for it, find a job for it, and somehow managed to become relatively successful at doing it. This is a quality that I've seen in a lot of people who have these, like larger than life personalities. You know, what this reminds me of is Gary Vee, who famously talks about not being a good student and kind of getting s**t on friends and teachers and stuff. You don't really have that as much seems that your teachers are more supportive in his work. No, they weren't. OK, well, there you go. Don't get me wrong. Yeah, my teachers were not supportive at all, dude. I remember Miss Perkins doing my second grade teacher to this day. You remember all their names. It's pretty remarkable. Bro misspell office was first grade. Miss Perkins is second grade. Miss Becker was third grade. Mr. Smith I had four and five and he was the first teacher that got me, Mr. Smith. If you're still out there, man, he got me. Do you know many times administrators like We need to put your son on Ritalin or like. Sure. f**king what are, you know, A.D.D. medication? And she's like, he doesn't have really. He's a boy. He wants to run around. He wants to be outside. He wants to play. He's energetic. My mom always encouraged my creativity and my sense of humor, and I credit her so much to me, becoming the personality that I am because she never tried to squash that and she never let other people who tried to tell her to squash that like administrators. She's like, No, I believe that my son has a gift. It's his creativity. This is his journey, and we're just going to see where he takes it. That's like the ultimate flex in parenting to me, is to, like, recognize a strength. I see that as a strength personalities of strength and to be able to encourage it. And by the way, if you would like to meet Mrs. Bananas, you can go bananas, mama bananas. You can go on to YouTube, go to first look. And there's a such a ten out of ten endearing scene where Johnny walks through a farmer's market. Your mom was like the chairman of the Santa Monica farmers manager. She started that market. Yeah. Thirty eight years ago and literally walks Johnny through and like, gives you this like actually really fascinating history of like the farmers marketing talks about, like how they approach the different kinds of like suppliers in the fruit stand and how sit there. Like, I was a little high, but yeah, it was like, really, I was really fascinated. It's my mom's fourth child due to is that market. She started it from its inception and she created a juggernaut, all the food movements that you've ever heard about organics in the slow foods. And those have all originated from Santa Monica and from the farmer's market. So my mom has really been pivotal in food in general and healthy eating. There's no question where you get that on camera charisma from, but I will say for those that are listening that are not in California and Southern California, we have a lot of farmers market. But Johnny is really accurate and like that one is not only iconic, it's like the iconic farmer's market in California, but it's also massive. Like, it's the one in Melrose that I go to is like a strip. This is like Block four. I think it's two blocks, two city blocks one way and three or four city blocks the other way. Dude, this is where Nancy Silverton, one of the greatest chefs in the world. Right? Mosa Yeah, she started. She was one of the first chefs to start sourcing her produce. On the farmers market, she grew up in a pickup truck with a wad full of cash and she'd buy and her whole thing. That's how I buy my weed, by the way. I need to continue in a pickup truck because you have got to have a vehicle to put it in the bag. But she's one of the first chefs to realize that the better produce you start with, the less you have to do so. If you start off with amazing ingredients, you'd have to do a lot to produce that is from the Earth. That's not genetically modified that produce that you put in your mouth and you put your body is going to be like, this is you'll know why people are paying $12 for a basket of strawberries from Harris berries when you could get one at Ralphs for 299. It's a very cool thing to do to be able to, like, see the food and like where it comes from and why people don't get that experience. I love it. I love it. I was super fascinated by group play a quick game, by the way. This is just a rapid fire game. Why are you pulling a bottle out and setting it on their backs? The two of us. So this is a just a quick little get to know Johnny here. So you just give me quick answers. We're gonna fly through this. This is just called the favorite spot of his favorite things. Favorite comfort food man pizza. OK, any kind you know you change it. Yeah, listen, I tell you, I know this is going to sound very basic. I mean, pepperoni pizza or in and out double double for breakfast burrito favorite time of day. When are you happiest? Dusk? Why is that? Dude, I don't know. Man, there's something about especially living in Southern California. You know what is after? It's been really hot all day and the sun finally starts to go down, the sun starts to set. My favorite thing to do is light one up. Have a glass of wine and just go outside in my bare feet. Yeah, walk around the yard water stuff and just become grounded. Love that. Love it. Never band. Growing up, my favorite band was lit. I'm actually still friends with the pop off brothers right on favorite band now. I would have to say probably Lumineers. OK, good choice. Favorite sports team The Rams for football, angels for baseball and I'd have to go with the Ducks for hockey. I was going to ask if you were an angel or a Dodgers fan and Clippers for a basketball? Yeah, I mean, I'm an Orange County guy. So yeah, the Rams and the Angels used to play in the same stadium right here and right off the 47th. That's right. Were you ever an athlete? I was. I played baseball growing up. Did you? Yeah, I played all the way up to college. I played a club for my first semester and it was way too much. Did I mean, I'm in college to, like, hang out and have fun and party not be up at seven a.m. for conditioning every day? This was one of the reasons why I knew my marriage was going to fail was because my ex-wife signed me up for a softball league in Manhattan Beach and I was like, This is so positive. I'm f**king shockingly terrible. Absolutely. You look like you could be an athlete. Basketball, golf and I do all day long. Baseball is just not my thing. It's tough. So I'm like, This is going to be great. Going all, get slammed on beers. Go out there and make whatever these guys were showing up like sickos out there. I do like rockets rock and they're like doing like prep. And I was like, Where's the keg? Where's the party? And these guys are doing like drills. And I was like, This is this is not going to work for a lot of reasons. Take it way too seriously. Do you think, by the way, a little parallel to the challenge? Do you think being a good athlete is imperative to that? Here's the thing about the challenge and it takes yes, but it takes so much more. Sure. I see so many people were like, Oh, I was a I used to play whatever. I can't tell you how many athletes I've seen come on the challenge and completely s**t about my cousin Vince being one of them. My cousin Vince was the premier high school quarterback, got full ride scholarships to Ohio State, Penn State, Cornell. I mean, freak athlete shows up on the challenge and it's like a lot of times if you're really good at one sport, those skill sets don't necessarily transfer over to what's required on the challenge because you have to be good at everything. You have to be strong, you have to have endurance, you have to be nimble, you have to have balance, you have to have agility, you have to be able to be a critical thinker and to problem solve. You have to be able to adapt. And I'd say over all my skills, everything. And this isn't just in life. It is one challenge. I would say. The one thing that has separated me from most people I know a lot of people I've met is my ability to adapt to my surroundings, and I feel like that's what's helped me out throughout. I mean, it doesn't matter where you put me, what environment you put me and who you put me in a room with. I can figure it out. And I think with the challenge, that's what's so difficult about the show is it's every season's different. The cast is different, the formats, their theme is different. And within the season, things will change on on a dime. They're throwing curveballs at us, left and right. We're thinking that the games Wednesday and then we're, you know, all of a sudden T.J. throws a curveball and the game's completely on its head. You go from being on top of the world onto an island overnight, and it's about being able to adapt and adjust to that. And I've been asked this in the past, do I consider myself an athlete? You look at athletes on TV, baseball players, football players. I would argue that this skill set that I possess, not necessarily my speed or my strength or my ability to run a four three 40, the hallmark of an athlete and a good athlete is somebody who can compete when the pressure's the greatest. You could be the most freak athlete, but when the lights are the brightest and when you have to step in, when you have to perform, if you s**t the bed, then you're not a great athlete. Tom Brady he has ice water in his veins, dude. LeBron James, no matter how big the moment is, no matter how bright the lights get, they. Writes that occasion. That's one of the abilities that I possess, and I think that is what separates, you know, athletes away from people who are athletic makes total sense. So let's just talk about the challenge from an abstract sense. We got a lot of questions from fans about story questions, and I kind of dodge a lot of that because Johnny has answered a lot of questions in the press before, but I actually had some questions about just its fourth wall type stuff I was going to say. There was no plan, but I think in just 30 minutes of sitting with you, clearly your plan a is to be an entertainer. Whatever that medium is might shift over time. But like you're an entertainer, it's obvious to anyone who knows you. But the early days of the challenge was sort of like a hodgepodge of real world and road rules. I mean, you were on the Key West? Yeah, 'cause that's what the challenge was, right? It was just these shows being pitted against each other. And then I think once reality TV evolved, Jersey Shore comes on the line and then suddenly the survivor and it was us. Big Brother and survivor were the only games in town you've seen that like evolution of the show like you were. Do you miss the old days where it was just like the Wild West? Because here's what I'll say when I meet someone who's on Bravo, like not on my show, but like a different joke. I go mafia with it. I'm a gourmet guy or a girl like, you're made, you're part of the family. I feel like those O.G. real world wrote like, those are made people. And now you're getting some like these newbies coming in. Is it is it different? Like, do what is your take on that? A few takes. One is yet back. Reality television days back in its infancy when I first started was the Wild West. Sure, anything went OK. Things have changed a lot. We're living in a time and a place where anything you say or do could literally lead to your undoing. It's a culture dude. It's cancel culture. Cancel culture didn't exist, bro. It was like, You know what it was. It was like the summer of love. That's how I relate in the 60s. Anything goes wrong. Woodstock, it doesn't matter. Drugs, sex, rock and roll it. It was lawless, right? Well, we do challenges where challenges were sideshows like spring break. There was no seriousness to do it with Carnival games. Production would leave us for the weekend. We would be in Mexico. We'd head into like wherever. Party all night. Show up in a cab like, you know, the morning of the challenge after partying all weekend and just making terrible decisions and then can be. I mean, that sounds incredible. Yeah. Cell phones you had you had computer like books that it didn't matter, dude. It was like, basically we were there spring break in a house and they were just there to document. And there's no social media at this time. But when the night is over, the stories are over. And that and I think social media really changed the game a lot. I think two things, in my opinion, have really changed over the years. The addition of social media is different now. The kids growing up right now are just wired differently, and they are just it's like the they're woke, dude, they're woke. But they're also the participation trophy generation where we shouldn't have to do anything and we should get everything for doing nothing. The work ethic and the idea of like working right to make yourself isn't there anymore. It's like, I want to go on TV. I want to do one season. I want to have 10 million followers and I want to be a social media influencer. Whatever you want to play, who are just like, Oh, I just like, want to influence and like, it's becoming a joke now. I like the skin care routine joke, his neck now becoming entrenched in our society where it's like a lot of you been asking. No one asks, No one f**king cares about your skin care routine. No one, unless you are like teeth whitening. Yeah, let's you're like the CEO of Neutrogena. Like, no one cares what you do to exfoliate. And that's the thing is, before social media, when I went on the real world, it was like, Obviously, you know what the real world was? It was like, and I really did. I wanted to go on the road. But what's funny is I wanted to go on the real world to do the challenge. Oh, interesting. I saw the challenge. You know, the guys who who were on it back in the day mark long, the Miz Abraham, Brad C.T. You know, Darrelle. All these guys, Derek. I'd watch these guys, you know, when I was in college and I'm like, That's what I want to do. Yeah, I want to go on reality TV. I want to compete. I want a party literally right out of a job and be like, This is what I want to do for a living. That's it. Get paid to party and compete and have fun. How did you do it? How'd you get on? So my senior year of college at Penn State, I had no plan. OK. I had roommates who are juniors who already had internships lined up. One of my roommates, Pat, had a full time job as a junior ready to go at KPMG. One of the big one. Yeah, it's a big big four accounting firms lined up. He could have left the junior and had an $80000 job starting. I'm a senior. It's January and I have no clue what I'm going to do. I just girl, I had a crush on who I'd always want to hang out with, and every time I'd go to her apartment to hang out her friends, I'd be sitting around in their PJs watching the real world. And this was the Philadelphia season was on and so I had to sit down and shut up. I'd walk in the door, shush me, and I'd just sit there like a f**king dunce, just watching, you know, what's on TV. And it was when MJ landed right? And I'm watching these guys and they were just dude, just dudes. They're just guys, man. Did they go out to the bars in Philadelphia Eagle Party? They look up and I'm like, I could. I'd love hanging out. This is all you do. So I go on this show party and hook up, make an ask myself. Like, Where do I sign up for this? Oh, I see. So I literally made an audition tape using one of those old school camcorders. I rented it. On the VHS VHS, I rented it from like the IT department, right? I had my buddy Elliott film me in a Scooby Doo costume. I caught a frisbee in Scooby Doo in front of Old Main, which is the very iconic building. What was the what was the reference for Scooby Doo? It was a Halloween costume. He just had like, I don't know why he had a plethora of like, different Halloween. He had Bam-Bam. He had Scooby Doo. My idea was like, OK, this is at the time when to make it on the real world. You were one of 200000 applicants. Yeah, this is like winning the lottery to totally win in the way. So it's not like it is now. Reality shows weren't dime a dozen. It's not like there was a reality show for everything. It was like the real world survivor. Big Brother. Like, that was those are the only games in town. There was obviously a lot more people and make the application process was a lot crazier. My thought was, you have to hook them. It's like, this is what the presidential debates the first 30 minutes. That's all anyone cares about, right? I'm thinking about with this audition tape. The first 15 seconds is all it matters because they're probably going through these things one after another. So I was like, even if they hate me, I want to be memorable. I want them to be like, Who's the guy dressed up like that's going to register in someone's head, if so smart. If they go dressed in Scooby Doo? Yes. So and sure enough, and end up working. They call you in for a meeting. I mean, first they sent me an application which was brought as it came in. A Manila envelope was like 70 pages long. It was like a g*****n psychological profile, dude. I had to draw a picture of myself. I had to talk about like my relationship with my parents. You know what kind of personality I am? Do I fight? Am I hot tempered? What have I been arrested? Like it was? It was a pretty intense application sent that in two weeks later, I got a thing that says we're going to do an on camera interview. This is again before camera phones or smartphones, I had to put it on speaker phone and then record myself with the camcorder and then send them the tapes. That was my first interview. I did a second one and then my third interview I flew from Pennsylvania to L.A. How nervous are you in that plane? Just who was in f**king first class on this plane? I was obviously in the back. Tarantino. No way. Favorite director of all time. Yeah, yeah. Me too. And I'm boarding the plane and I look, I'm like, Quentin Tarantino's on my flight. I'm like, This is an omen. I mean, this guy has made a living on the big screen, just making some of the most like dramatic, insane, bloody, memorable scenes ever. And I'm like, I'm going to go on reality television and I'm going to be the Quentin Tarantino of reality TV. Let me tell you guys, by the way, MTV did that. So the 70 page application that he's referring to is literally for insurance, because what they're going to find out is this guy going to snap and kill someone in a fit of rage. So if he passes that, which he did because they want to make sure you're normal, you're well adjusted. I'll draw the f**kin picture. Whatever makes this guy that it's like a lunatic. Then when that happens, they go, OK, now we going to the camera test. And the camera test is because no matter how great of a personality you have, there is just a huge portion of the population that will freeze. Yeah. The minute the cameras go on, you're really going through rounds and rounds of this, and it's really hard. You know this. I know this to not get hyped as you make it to the next round. They could have still flown him to L.A. and passed. The universe worked out differently, and we're all glad that it did. But like, it really does take a bit of like emotional self-control to understand that nothing is guaranteed. No. And in fact, I do interviews and I'd be like, I f**king bomb that I'm not going to hear. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, in a way, for me, it was almost different where instead of me being like jacked up and how did I was the most pessimistic one? They're like, Dude, trust me, you're going to like, I don't think so, man, I'm still up against a lot of people totally bombed this last interview. In fact, when I went to L.A., Jim Johnston, who was the executive producer of All the Real World, me and him are still friends to this day. He even said that other people on production were pushing for a different cast members, and he's one saying, Now we're going no way. And so I owe a lot to to Jim Johnson there from, you know, Murray Productions. He gave me my start. He believed in me. Like I said, we're still friends to this day. We still talk all the time. So can I ask you a couple of really quick eats challenge questions? I don't spend too much time on this. So since they opened it up and the challenge became people from other franchises outside of like the real world and road rules, which franchise do you think does the worst people from? What show do the worst? I don't get in trouble for answering this question, OK? Here's the thing I or the best either one dating shows are the worst. OK, OK. Because people come on from dating shows and the whole point of a dating show is to get drunk and hook up. While that is obviously part of the challenge like, yeah, you want to be able to go and that's that's part of it. People want to see people hooking up, the people who come from, are you the one who comes from the Bachelor dating shows? They come on. It's like they are one trick pony and that's all they got. Then you have Big Brother, who I think are better as far as the gameplay is concerned. But the thing about Big Brother and this is why a lot of Big Brother players who come and do the challenge aren't great at it. Big is about keeping secrets, big brothers, about never talking and listening. Challenges like that. The challenge is about being manipulative and it's about openness, about discussing your, your ideas and your politics out there. Plus, we don't have live feeds on the challenge. Think a lot of people on Big Brother come in and they're so used to being like, I need to watch what I say 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If they had live feeds on the challenge, you know there'd be no chance culture. Yeah, there'd be no challenge. So yes, I think dating shows obviously do the worst. I love the influx of kids from the UK. Brought in from all those shows because they are just f**king wacky, the UK are a whole different breed of human being. I have the same feeling about Aussies. Yeah, every Aussie I know and not please. Let me be clear, I love people from Australia, but y'all are f**king crazy. Crazy. They give no fox, dude. Let me ask you two more questions will pass this. One of my questions was, Well, it's sort of the cardinal sins that you see, and I think you've already mentioned, like hooking up is probably like I was thinking like hooking up too soon or being too open about like alliance building like day one. Yeah, might be a red flag trigger spreading yourself too thin. All right. You never, dude. I've always said this in the past. If you're in an alliance with everyone, then you're in an alliance with no one. Sure. And that gets around you. And while in the short term, this is the hardest thing to do with the challenge with competition shows is you want to go in and you want for your own peace of mind. You want to feel like you're protected from all angles. You want to feel like you're on everyone's good side, right? This is impossible. And the thing is, the more people you go around and make a deal with like a Ponzi scheme, at some point you're going to have to make good on all these deals that you've made and people talk. So if you're the one that is being outed for being a floater and for making deals with everyone, it's almost better to go in. Keep your mouth shut. Not talk to anybody and wait until your a*s is do the flame or until the moment is right where you're like, OK, now I need to make an alliance because the longer you can wait and the less you talk game, the better off you're going to be. This one, I'm actually really fascinated to know. So you coming in, especially from the perspective of being a veteran and being sort of this legend in the game. When you meet people that say, I'm coming on the challenge, you are nothing about me at all. What is something that you would see as like a huge sign of weakness in me, something that I could do? And conversely, what is something that I could do that you're like, Oh s**t, this guy might be the real deal. When I'm sizing up new type, I always look at how they interact with everyone in the house. And like I said, if a lot of times people come in and they play a scared game and by a scared game, I mean, they're trying to day one politic and make alliances and do all the guys that come in, you know, like the saying goes, confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud. Generally speaking, the more somebody talks game and the more somebody's politics, the less confident they are in their ability. Guys that come in and don't do a lot of talking, and then they show up the challenges and they compete. It's like, that's when I know it's like, he's got what it takes. My attorney told me something like this one time. He said when he's against opposing counsel, he said the account, if he sees an ounce of emotion, he's a guy. I've won, but it's the attorney on the other side that says nothing. Yeah, I'm like, I got to be careful. This is basically the same thing with the challenge, and this is in life. It's like, you know, I've always been told I don't ever be persuaded by fear or emotion, and this is how I've always been in life to. I make decisions based on what I feel like is logically analytically the smart way to go. I don't think, Well, this is what I feel bad. I'm going to do this because I feel bad or because I'm scared when you make decisions based on emotion and a lot of times they're not the right one. My last question for this is actually a fan question. This is for the beats up on the challenge, but it's actually one that I'm curious about. How did you become the resident toastmaster every season? So how did you become the guy that every season cheers aside, was it just like a stature thing now, man? I've always been the straw that stirs the drink. You know what I mean? I've always been the life of the party. That's just always been me. When I was young, when I was in high school, it was like my house was the party house, right? When I played baseball growing up, I was most inspirational player because that was the thing is, I was always good at getting people amped up. And I think that's part of just being a natural leader. I think it's just you have the ability to rile up the troops and people look to you. I mean, the first challenge, the duel. It was when I was leaving. I got eliminated first, first chance and let people know this. I was the first one eliminated and as I was leaving the house, this is back when they didn't just pack you up and ship you out from the elimination. They let you go back to the house, pack, say goodbye to everyone. So I was on my way out. It was the hardest thing to do. I was literally holding back tears. Yeah, you know, I just proposed to you guys have been great because I didn't want anyone to think that I was doing my head down, even though I was dying inside. I wanted to walk out. My head held high like this isn't bothering me, even though it was like one of most devastating experiences of my life. So that's kind of where it started. And then it would just be like, Dude, we go in every season and I would just love being the guy that did the toasts. And then Bill Simmons is actually the first one to, like, really make it a thing who's also a huge challenge. And he goes, I attribute all of your success to your toast. I was like, All right. And then when I thought about game, I actually have that. He actually had me do his three year anniversary toast for Grantland. When that was those words, he is like such a challenge. He was asking you like real technical question. I watched that whole thing with this guy, like, really f**ked with the channel. He knows there. Yeah, he knows you s**t, man. Let me switch back to John for a second here from Johnny. So clearly larger than life personality when you make it and you're on this like meteoric rise. Undoubtedly, people from the past are going to start asking you, How have you navigate it? Is that a positive to you? Is it a negative to you? It depends, man. It depends on what they're messaging me for. It's almost like, Don't forget where you came from. Right? And that's I think one of the things that I've that I've done that really has kept me grounded through all this. I really do believe the key to finding balance in life is to have stability and chaos like, you know, you can't have too much of one or the other. It's kind of the yin and yang symbol, and that's what that symbolizes. It's stability and chaos. And if you have too much stability, you're not ever going to experience new things. What if your life is all chaos you're going to? And burn out really quick, so having one foot planted instability and having the other foot in chaos, so you're able to experience new things, but then have that foundation, which I feel is important. So I've always kept the people that I grew up with who knew me when I was gone before I was Johnny bananas and my family really close to me and I've never been one. These people that just kind of like moves on and forgets about the people that came up with. I went to an all guys Catholic high school, so my best friends are my God. These group from high school like I literally we hang and talk with a WhatsApp group chat like goes off all day long. All of us had different things. What you said is so accurate because it forces me to ground myself, and I've only been doing this for three years, like in the public eye. But like these, people don't give a s**t about that. They just they were me as Neema, the guy that they grew up with, and it just keeps you sort of like normalized, I would say. People always ask me. I mean, I work out of L.A., right? So NBC's based out of L.A., but that's why I don't live in L.A. That's why I never wanted. That's why I couldn't live in New York City, because for me, it's like it's almost like being an alcoholic and hanging out in bars. There's too much temptation, and there's just too many things that would just lead you in the wrong direction if you're in an environment like that. And I think one of the things that has managed to keep me as my longevity, the fact that I've had the longevity that I've had, which again, I mean, when it comes to reality TV, I've been on reality TV consistently longer than anyone in the history of I know, I know, and I attribute a lot of that to a keep myself grounded and not again forgetting where I came from, but to I don't live lavish life, dude. I'm not going to Vegas and buying tables and spending like I like nice things, but I don't live above my means. I like to live within my means and it's like, I'm not one of these guys that wants to take trips to ABC and go on these trends and drugs. And it's like, it's like to me, it's like I had those days every once in a while, dabble a little bit. We'll go to, you know, whatever. But I have never been a person that wants to live in the limelight because it is a dangerous world. It is a dangerous world. And you look, either are very, very, very few people who have grown up in the entertainment industry from when they were young to older and have not had some sort of major episode. And I feel like the fact that I haven't especially given what I subject my mind and body to twice a year every year for the last 15 years, people always ask me like Newcastle rock on the challenge and there'll be two weeks in and they're like, How do you do this? I'm ready to lose my mind. You've done 20 seasons of this. You've been doing this for 20 seasons and you seem to have not lost your mind. And it's like, I think I had to come to the realization after a while because I look at people that they're crazy. I'm a certain type of crazy. Being crazy doesn't mean that you're this lunatic idiot that like can't function normally. Being crazy the way that I am is the ability to be able to not just survive but thrive in that environment for as long as I have. And I just think one of the main keys is when I'm not filming, I literally separate, like, that's like my other life, dude. I'm done with that. I'm going to go back home and I'm going to regroup and reconnect and ground myself. And, you know, flip that switch when I need to. The very, very healthy way to go about that, that's exactly how I try to navigate my experience as well. I want to go into a couple of things here because we're running out of time, but I have a couple of things on my banana isms about you and I want to talk about these. These are weird, quirky things that I guess if you know, John, you might know this. But if you know if you know Johnny bananas, you will not know this when you hate scary movies, hate scary movies like all of them, all of them, like you couldn't watch the ring. That was the that's the scariest I've ever seen in mind, so it's pretty f**king terrible that, OK, you just you literally just hit on the movie that has the ring f**ked me up worse than any movie ever seen. I was twenty one years old when that came out. I had to sleep on my sister's floor. I don't like being startled. People like, looks like a roller coaster. No, it's not. Roller coasters are fun roller coasters. You know it's coming. What I hate about movies and especially scary movies now a juke you out. Do they like, give you the old okey doke or like the music and it's all intense? You think so I'm going to pop out and it does it. And then as soon as you let your guard down and it's like, Bam, dude, what happens like the old school, like the old Schwarzenegger movies do the Stallone's there. When I was in college, I got really, really stoned. Yeah, super high. And I watch Total Recall for the first time. Such and I had no idea it was such a good movie and it had such depth to Schwarzenegger. One Yeah, yeah. Who is f**ked? Let me tell you, if you've not seen the original total recall, please smoke a joint and watch it because it will take you to like or don't. Yeah, it will take you to the dimension, literally. I was going to talk about like the bandanas and the fedoras aspect, but I think you've addressed that at some point your life. We all made fashion decisions that we were sort of like, Yeah, I mean, the bandana just became the fedora. I mean, yeah, that was just a faux pas, I guess. I just went through a phase there. I still wear fedoras every now and again, but not with the band. And I think that was kind of a that's like a Bret Michaels. That's a Bret Michaels thing. I think the big mistake I made going back was the the goatee, where I literally just had a patch of hair on my chin, right sideburns and an eye and a faux hawk. And I look back at those days and I'm like, What the hell were you thinking, dude? We all know Wonder Girls wouldn't touch it. We are. Yeah, it's funny. Women love beards, but any beard goatee hybrid? Yes, it's like it's like a third of it discussed. Them to no end, unless you're Keanu Reeves, right? Or like or like Johnny Depp. It's like, yeah, you could have asked hair on your face and they'd love it. Shot up, by the way, to Morgan will let your girlfriend because she gave me a lot of these. But I did some research and I said, you could not buy. Yeah, she was like, Make sure you ask him about these lizards in the backyard because he loves to go, sit and find his lizards in the backyard. Can you explain what's going on here? So for years, I had a cat. I live in Southern California, Southern California's desert. This area that we're in right now is essentially desert. So, I mean, one of the things that comes, you have these little alligator lizards that live all around. But for years I had a cat and my cat would kill them all. So now that I am a cat anymore, they've all kind of like, came back. If you were to take a lap around my house in the year and now we'd probably see 15 20 lizards. Yeah, she says, you hang out with them. Are you out there like across all, like smoke a little bit because the little ones you can actually hold them? Yeah, yeah. They haven't developed a fear of people yet, and they actually love it, dude. It's it's the coolest thing I'll literally find when these little guys and once you put it in your hand after it gets over its initial fear, they'll literally sit on your finger and fall asleep. That's the cool thing. And I'll just like, literally sit there. Baked out of my mind is holding this little baby lizard. And just like, dude, they'll like, fall asleep on your hand and then, you know, I let them go and I kind of put them in, you know, the better areas of the yard run. Others like more insect activity because they're going to, yeah, you know, have a good time. But bro, like, I love my lizards, man. The last thing she said and I got to say this last one, she talked a lot of s**t about this one and I had your back. I mean, because I did the same thing. She's like, It's the weirdest thing. He smells his clothes before he wears them. Yeah. And I was like, not only do I smell my clothes apart, but I also if I'm trying something new for the first year, I'll smell the food before I eat it. They say that your sense, your sense of smell is the strongest sense tied to memory, OK, and I've always been like a nostalgic smell. Also, I'll walk in or smell someone like, Oh my god, that smells of candy for when I was five years old. Yeah, or dude, this smells like a book from when I was in elementary school. Dude, my clothes. I'm like, I got to see if I've worn this before. I'm not going to wear something as dirty. I'm going to smell it first, you know? I mean, Morgan needs to come around on that, by the way. I totally agree with you. I'm going to skip all of the challenge sort of like story questions because honestly, like Johnny has addressed all I go on YouTube, you just type it in that he's done a million things on the stories. And like different these guys, if you are a fan of the child you want to hear, like, why did you do that? One thing? I only have one question and you've already addressed it. He's already famous. He talked about the whole Sarah situation. I would, and I don't mind talking about it. I would have done the exact same thing because again, he's not in there to, like, build a life with Sarah. But my only question for you about that, this is the only question about this I'm going to have is, did you know the entire time you were going to do it? Not that you did it, but like from the minute you guys were on that path, were you like, Yup. If push comes to shove, I'm f**king this chick over. It was in push comes to shove. When I have the ability to shove, she's going off a mountain. That was exactly. And you know what? For those of you who don't know the background, just briefly, she screwed me over on a previous season when we were working together in an alliance. We weren't on a team or partners together, which is what a lot of people like to say. Well, you weren't partners then. Well, if we're in an alliance and we work together all season and we make it to the end, then we're on a team. Sure. Of course, I agree that all bets are off. You get to a final knowledge. May the best man win. But if we have worked all season together and I've stuck my neck out multiple times and the only reason you're in the position you are one of the main reasons you're in the position you are is because of me. Then I expect a little loyalty. And if the first opportunity you get once that happens, once I'm no longer needed is basically throw me to the wolves, I'm going to f**king remember that if you get one over on me come hell or high water, I will find my revenge even if it affects my life, even if it is a detriment to me just out of principle alone, I will get you back, bro. Who you talking? I'm Patti LaBelle over here. I'm a grudge holder from like the way back in the day, you know, like Rob Kardashian and. OK, so then we come on a few seasons later and this is rivals three. We're rivals for a reason. This is what a lot of people like to remember what I did to her, but nobody remembers what led us to that point. And again, I think one of the things that's made me as successful as I've been on TV is I'm not just talent. I like to consider myself like an embedded producer as well. So when we went into rivals, this was before we even started. My thought was, we're going to go in. Even if she wants to be friends, I'm not gonna allow it to happen. I'm going to hate her. I'm going to not forgive her. I'm going to be like, you know, I'm screwed over. And then as the season progresses, we're going to this story arc where it goes from. We hate each other. OK, things are starting to kind of warm up right now. We're almost there, and then we have this magical breakthrough. We make it to a final together. We win the final and it's like the most incredible story arc ever. And we basically played that to a T. Until we got to the final. And for the first time ever, the twist in the final was you're competing as pairs, but you're also competing against your partner. So when T.J. and I think to this day, the only reason they threw the twist and there was because we were partners, sure, like if this happens, either way would have worked for them. They were like either he gets his revenge or she f**ks him over again. It's a win win. Yeah, that's what production. Yeah, production. They were like it. So it doesn't matter how this happens because neither one is going to split it. No, they don't want that. A person doesn't want these two to like, split the money and like, have a f**king like candlelight dinner and like, come by. And neither did him. Erica, as much as people want it to be like, how could you do that? I'm like, I did this for because we're still talking about it. This is five years ago, maybe longer had I split the money. I mean, you would not be talking to me now. And not only that, but she would've done the exact same thing to you. You said it. Yeah. You look at the moment and people, you can look this up online when T.J. announces the stakes and he goes, All right for this final are going to be competing against them. If you look at the other two couples, Devin and Cheyenne and my cousin Vinny and Jenna, they all just start laughing. Like they're like, Yeah, right now, whatever happened. You look at me and Sarah, our reaction is exactly the same. We both look at him like Denny. I am. Neither one of us look at each other and we just stare at the ground. Yeah, because both of us in that moment were like, I'm going to do it, how I'm going to do it. I don't know, but I knew, right? Then I'm like, Dude, there is no way. Take my vengeful nature out of the equation. OK, say I'm not vengeful. I'm still thinking from a production standpoint, like they put this twist in here for a reason. I need to take advantage of it. And the fact that nobody else did it made it even better for me because it made it that much more impactful. And you know, I think of all, all of my moments on reality TV that is still, you know, the most stand out, most, most talked about one. And yes, I would do it again. No, I would not have changed anything about it. Did I ever pay her off? Yes. I sent her an Applebee's gift card for $5. Five Bucks, Starbucks Card, Starbucks card. Have we talked since? No. Do I harbor any resentment? No. I mean, dude, it had to happen. You know what I've joked about before? It's true. It's the fans fault that I did that OK, because the fans, whether they wanted to happen or they didn't. It was a moment. It was it was a moment. And I did it for the people now. Did it pad my bank account? A little bit? Absolutely. But I would do it all over again for no money, just to appease my fans. This is how legends in reality TV are born is because the producers, like he said, set this up. They're not stupid. These are seasoned MTV producers who've done this for a f**king thousand years. They know exactly what they're doing and they're thinking, Wait a second, we have three groups here. But if that middle group wins, this is going to hit so hard and you did exactly what you were supposed to do. Here's a f**king underhand pitch. We want you to smash it out of the park. Exactly. I'm not looking at it. If someone's pitching me like in baseball underhand, I'm not looking for a walk. All right, I'm looking to to put it into the bleachers. Yeah, and that's what I feel like I did, and I will say, was one of the most loneliest experience of my entire life. Being on top of a mountain in Argentina and literally production wanted me to do it, but I don't think any one of them thought it actually would. Oh no. And I'll never forget seeing their 70, all the production. They're all the finals over Ti just announced the stakes. I remember one of the guys had a pen in his mouth and I'm like, I'm going to take the money and run. And it was like the pen fell out of the one producer's mouth. Yeah. You could hear a pin drop. TJ looked at me like a disappointed father only person on the mountain. That was my cousin. He kind of gave me like an attaboy. Yeah, but dude, you want to talk about a lonely bus ride back production was like, we knew he was capable of something like this, but we never thought he'd do it. They made me love you, man, before I even knew you like this. I love this guy. So that's my only challenge question, because it's the most iconic thing that gets talked about over and over again to quickly get to the end of the episode, because this has been an incredible episode to have you here. I do want to quickly just touch on first look because I think this is pretty spectacular. You've done something that I think a lot of people in reality TV aspired to do, but is very hard to do, which is you've changed mediums. Yeah, and really changed mediums. And you actually said this. I'm going to quote something you said about first look, which is you were like on the challenge. I am the entertainment on. First look, I'm back seat to the entertainment. Yeah, that must have been a pretty tough thing for you. You have no idea, dude. So I've always, you know, I've been able to over the years, over the decade and a half that I've been on reality television. I've been able to craft my character, Johnny Bananas. I knew who that was. I'm going to absorb all the oxygen in the room. Everything I'm going to say is going to be a sarcastic soundbite. Got to speak in soundbites. Got to be the center of attention. We're going to be in a scene together. We are going to get cut down in 30 seconds. I'm going to make sure 90 percent of that time is me talking and you listening or whatever going over to hosting, going over the first look, I only knew one way to act on TV and that was Johnny Bananas. And I'll never forget, like the first few segments that I filmed, I would not let the interviewee literally get a word in edgewise. I'd ask a question in mid-sentence. I just start steamrolling them and they had to keep stop and they're like, Listen, your job here is to be interested. Not interesting, right? The other thing is, I felt like everything had to be a sound bite and I had to have a witty retort for every single thing that they said. I've never been more exhausted after a day of shooting. First look when I first started because the amount of energy it takes to sit there and listening to what someone's talking and try and keep coming up with something funny or something sarcastic or something where you say after you're fried and one of the best pieces of ice is my one of my producers gave me was You don't have to be funny or tap those funny soundbites. They'll occur naturally. A joke every few minutes makes the information go. And I found myself to watching especially, you know, shows where there's a host, whether it's Anthony Bourdain, the guy I really like from Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe, oh sure. Mike Rose always been like, I'm like, That's who I want to like, emulate. And the thing with him is he's so intelligent, and every once in a while, he'll drop a little joke or a little nugget right there. And it really does because you want to learn and you want to be educated. That's what first looks about, dude. First look is about people living vicariously through me, doing jobs, going to locations. This season premiere just came out this past Saturday after SNL, and it was called extraordinary abilities. And so for one of the segments, I was a hot dog eater. I'd eat with Nathan's famous hotdog eaters. I will tell you where there was on this premiere or not, but if you only want to watch be entertained, go on to YouTube and watched Johnny try to capture an iguana because that was some legit s**t, bro. I would be terrified. Do that hail in the battle what I call my about TALENs talent, man. Like, f**k you up there. Like, it's massive. I mean, the things that they've had me do over the last few years, dude. It's like, not only do we go to these amazing France, South Korea, Scotland, Alaska, Curacao, we've been to these amazing destinations. But then it's like on top of that, you're going to be making jelly bellies, the jelly belly factory. You're going to be a cannabis Somalia. You're going to try out for the L.A. Rams cheerleading squad. You're going to sumo wrestlers, six hundred pound sumo man. And I think that's where my ability to adapt and to adjust to new environments. I think that's why it's been so helpful with first look is because every day I'm shooting something totally different. I'm going to Ohio next week and we're going to be doing forest management and we're going to be doing owl watching. It's been the perfect transition for me because I knew that I'm not going to be able do the challenge forever, you know what I mean? Nor do I want to with anything you do in life. There has to be some sort of evolution, and I think while I cut my teeth on reality television and on the challenge, I feel like it really has given me the tools and given me the platform and give me the ability to really fine tune and tweak who I am as a person. And like, you know, from being on television, we have an opportunity that most people never have, and that is the opportunity to see ourselves from that third person perspective that other people see that we don't after 15 years that I've and going through all my different growth stages, going from a 23 year old immature idiot to a 38 year old, somewhat immature idiot. I've really been able to like tweak who I am. This is the first time in my life when it really is like, it's clear to me that it's like, you know, there's a transition in the works. I absolutely love hosting. I love traveling. I love meeting new people. I love experiencing new things. When I first started doing the challenge, I was like, Dude, this is I could not have created a better career, a better job for me. First look came along and I'm like, It's everything that I like. It's everything that I'm good at. It's everything that I've ever wanted to do is pretty awesome. And I love that because you've earned your spot on first. Look, anybody who is in media or anything you do, there's always a natural evolution. This is your natural evolution. And so it's going to be I think it makes sense that you may go back to the challenge. You may not. That's kind of your choice at that time. But like right now, this is sort of feels like a perfect fit for you. It is, and it's a very good stepping stone. It's proven not just to me, but I think it's proven also to a lot of naysayers out there that I'm multifaceted, sure. And while, yeah, I can do the reality television thing, and while I can be this immature, you know, pot stirring idiot, I've always been someone. And I think like a lot of guys who are afraid to be vulnerable, especially on reality television and on the challenge you put on a protective armor when you go there and you keep everyone at a distance and you never let emotion get involved, you never, you know, get vulnerable because then the second you let your guard down, you're gone. So coming on first look, I had a very difficult time really being who I really was and letting my guard down. What's more, it's probably more John coming out. Exactly, you know what I mean, which is probably pretty refreshing for you to be able to have that. It was. It was scary, for sure, because this is like a side of me because you know what it was. If you reject Johnny bananas, that's not me, right? I don't care. You're not rejecting me, right? You're rejecting a persona that I play on television. This larger than life, in-your-face, sarcastic idiot persona. You reject that call. What if I am who I really am? And if I let my guard down and I'm the vulnerable me, I'm John, and you reject that. That's hitting a little closer. That's when the Haagen-Dazs comes out. Yeah, I know. I know eating your emotions. That's right. But listen, I mean, that's not happening. So you should be very proud of yourself because you're doing this also at NBC, which is at the highest level. So this has been amazing, man. Like, you're so transparent, honest and real, and I love that about you. I will say before we go into the off brand segment here that the one medium that you will probably not see Johnny in, thanks to Morgan, is I don't think we're ever going to get a bachelor. You know what I mean? I thought you were going to say Tik Tok. I was like, What do you mean? Thanks to her. She wanted me. I'm like, I'm not joining Tik Tok. If I can. You hold a gun to my head? Yeah. The Bachelor, that was that was something that I think was was in the works there for a bit. It's off the table now, right? I think it was. I think I've aged out of that anyway, so it doesn't really matter. OK, guys. So for everyone who listens to our podcast, you know, we end every segment with our guest who has an opportunity to go off brand for 30 to 60 seconds. I will shut up. Can be anything you want to talk. About serious, not serious, you name it, Johnny Bananas is about to go off, brand. We already hit it. This was actually when we were talking about off brand, like what what I was going to kind of do. And I think a lot of people, like you said, they mistake me for who they see on TV. They think that's who I really am. And I think with a lot of people, they knew who I really was. They would be shocked and in a good way. It's like, I'm not this larger than life idiot personality that's run around stern pots and get in people's faces and and push and buttons. I'm the guy that literally like spends majority my time. I'm a homebody. I don't live this luxurious lifestyle, hang on the backyard, water my succulents and play the lizards do. That's my happy spot, dude. You know, I mean, very, very, very family oriented. And I always say that the person that you're sitting to talking to right now doing this podcast with, if he went on the challenge, he die tomorrow. So you really do have to kind of like figure out how to put on this. You know, this go to is a lot more to me than than meets the eye. You know what I mean? So so if you're an internet troll and try to come at this guy, listen to what he just said and take a step back and understand that there's behind Johnny Bananas. There is John who's very endearing and kind and welcomed me into his home without ever having met me. He's not wearing a shirt, which is a little weird, but or pants. But outside of that super normal working people, I know people already know where they can find you. But just in case you're living under rock, where can people find you? Yeah, but listen, even though he said all those very nice things about me, don't test me because I will come for your family. Yeah, we're both petty and we hold grudges. Don't forget. Oh my god, yeah, I'll ruin your life and everyone, you know, where can they find me? I have my own YouTube channel Instagram Real, Johnny Bananas, Twitter, Johnny Bananas, and Facebook. Same thing, my fan page. So yeah, man, hit me up. And one place you will not find me, like we discussed earlier, is on Tik Tok. And of course, the one thing he didn't mention his first look on NBC right after Saturday Night Live. So Saturday nights when 1:00 am as I would come Saturday nights right after SNL. Unless you're in New York, it actually comes on at about 7:00 prime time. It is highly entertaining. I highly suggest that you are highly entertaining. You are a legend in MTV for a reason. Again, thank you for coming on, man. Honestly, such a great episode at any moment on Instagram. All of the podcast clips will be on. We're going to cut some clips of this today for Instagram as well. Johnny Man with a s**t. Thanks for coming on, bro. Crescendo. Thanks for having me. Yup.