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Offline puddin

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Brandon: Fight And Never Give Up
« on: November 04, 2005, 12:02:53 PM »
Brandon: Fight And Never Give Up


NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2005
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Brandon Bellinger on "The Early Show."  (CBS/The Early Show)


Quote

"I almost just want to quit. I want to lay down and die, I guess. Part of me does, but the other part of me says 'fight on and never give up.' "

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Brandon Bellinger
 
 
(CBS) On "Survivor: Guatemala," the newly merged tribe got off to a rough start. It was even rougher for Kansas farmer Brandon Bellinger, who couldn't overcome the numbers game and was the first to be put out to pasture.

It was not a surprise.

"I knew a long time ago," Brandon tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "I mean, back when Amy (O'Hara) got voted off, like when we had the puzzle challenge, I was like, we've got to win this, otherwise Amy might go off and, god, I don't know. Then I was like, dude, I'm going off right after that. I played too strong of a game."

The only surprise came after the game, watching the show on TV and seeing Bobby Jon Drinkard making deals with Stephenie LaGrossa.

"I was somewhat surprised. Bobby Jon, he's a good buddy of mine and everything. And you see him kind of cut that deal with Stephenie," Brandon says. "Sometimes he is talking like 'I can't stand Stephenie' and all that stuff. 'I can't stand to be around her.' But the next thing you know he's hugging her. But Bobby Jon was trying to further himself in the game. I can't blame him for that."

Brandon's doom was evident, but he still tried to pump himself up to continue in the game. "You're always running out of gas. But you got a little extra petroleum, like, kick it into gear, go after it, man. Trying to work yourself up a little bit, psych yourself out a little bit."

In an exclusive scene for The Early Show, he is seen by himself, reflecting on the game:
"Things are starting to get a little bit tough. Don't have a lot of hope, to tell you the truth, of getting any further in this game. This is the end and I can feel it coming up on me. And I almost just want to quit. I want to lay down and die, I guess. Part of me does, but the other part of me says 'fight on and never give up.' "

"It was a great moment," Brandon says about the dramatic intensity of his monologue. "I was trying to prepare myself for the whole deal."

His only chance for survival was to get immunity, and there were two opportunities for it.

One was finding the immunity idol hidden in the jungle.

"That dirty sucker," Brandon says. "That's your one last chance, find this immunity idol hidden somewhere on this 10 acres of jungle, six-inch figure. And you're wandering all over the place looking up, down, all around, looking for this dang thing."

Like the others, he worked hard to find it to no avail. "They all set out right at once hoping to find it under the first rock and I realized, dude, it's going to be like a needle in the haystack and hard to find this sucker."

The other opportunity to keep playing was to get the immunity necklace. The challenge was to get to the top of Mayan pyramid first balancing a clay pot on his head.

"It was do or die at that point," Brandon says. "Gary (Hogeboom) beat me. It's as simple as that. That's all right, you know. At least I never got voted off by my own tribe mates, you know. I had my friends sticking by me, and I got voted off by the other guys. I was the victim of a minority. And that's all right. I can walk away with some good from that."
After that challenge, Bobby Jon convinced Brandon, a former Nakum member, that he was fed up with Jamie Newton's big mouth, making the six members of Nakum look like the evil tribe.

"I was really thinking like, this is 'Survivor,' things change just like that, man," Brandon says. "But deep down inside, I knew it was me. They had all their ducks in a row and I didn't have enough time to work my way into whatever. "

Since the merge, it was clear it was going to be a numbers game. Gone were the fun times for Yaxha.

"We go there, back in the Nakum camp. They were kind of down and depressed," Brandon explains. "They were complaining about quite a bit. And life was really good. I keep thinking back, like when it was me, Gary, Bobby Jon, Danni and Amy. We had such a good time. It was so great. Then we'd go to the merge, and you are just a little bit down."

The highlight for him was winning the pool for his tribe.

"When we won the pool after I chopped through that rope, that was the best feeling," he says. What was his secret to cutting that rope so fast? "When we were cutting the rope earlier in camp while setting up the tarp, I just realized it cut a lot faster when you use all your body weight."

Looking back he regrets not having voted off Bobby Jon when he had a chance. Both Bobby Jon and Stephenie had had their chance.



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/04/earlyshow/series/survivor/main1010709.shtml

Offline Texan

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Re: Brandon: Fight And Never Give Up
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2005, 01:40:27 PM »
good interview...I was wondering when someone would regret not voting off By or Steph


Offline cinni

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Re: Brandon: Fight And Never Give Up
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2005, 02:11:03 PM »
mmmmm yummy, he cleans up real nice!   {|
always remember....when life hands you lemons, ask for tequila and salt and call me over!

Offline puddin

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Re: Brandon: Fight And Never Give Up
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2005, 06:56:06 PM »
He's single girls  {| , what a great guy  }bH{

Survivor Farmer Put Out to Pasture
by Angel Cohn
 
Brandon Bellinger
 
On last Thursday's Survivor: Guatemala, the Nakum and Yaxha tribes merged to form Xhakum. But the merge was really in name only, since the Nakum members, outnumbering the Yaxha six to four, remained loyal to their tribal alliances and sent home Brandon Bellinger. The 22-year-old farmer was given a bit of fair warning and made it his mission to find his one saving grace: a 6-inch-tall immunity idol hidden in the jungle. Though he has some experience with haystacks, that didn't help him find what was basically the equivalent of a needle in one. TVGuide.com caught up with Brandon after his torch got snuffed to ask how he managed to stay calm, cool and collected even in the face of losing.

TVGuide.com: How did you maintain your laid-back demeanor during the game? It amazes me!
Brandon Bellinger: Oh, really? That's just the kind of the person I am. Heck, I don't know.

TVGuide.com: Everything Jamie said got on Bobby Jon's nerves, and you just shrugged it all off.
Brandon: For some reason, Jamie and Bobby Jon didn't get along too well. I guess their personalities clashed or whatever. It looked like maybe Jamie was talking bad to me around the campfire, but really he was just leveling with me. He was actually trying to help me out with the whole deal. He helped me look for the immunity idol because he wanted me to stay or something, which was really weird. We had a respect between each other.

TVGuide.com: Why was it you who got sent home instead of Bobby Jon?
Brandon: I don't know, I guess I was just a bigger physical threat. Stephenie was running the show, because she felt like she "owed" Bobby Jon. She was going to keep Bobby Jon around and have everybody get rid of me.

TVGuide.com: Were you happy with how far you made it?
Brandon: Yeah, I suppose. I was shooting for the million dollars. I made it a good ways, at least I made it to the merge. Didn't make it to the jury, though. I guess I get to be that guy.

TVGuide.com: Before the switch-up, you were in the Nakum tribe with Lydia and Cindy. Why didn't you try to work something out with them?
Brandon: I thought about that and kind of talked to them, but I never made alliances with them in the beginning. That may have led to my demise. Maybe I should have aligned with them from the start. I had other alliances they weren't part of, and they knew it. They weren't going to give me their help, so... whatever.

TVGuide.com: Do you think they took advantage of you after the merge?
Brandon: Of course. You knew they would.

TVGuide.com: The very first day you were the only guy who wasn't sick. Do you have some magical powers?
Brandon: I sabotaged everyone, actually. [Laughs] No, not really. It was weird, out of all the guys I felt pretty good. I was cramping up a little bit — I wasn't 100 percent — but I wasn't feeling as bad as some of the other guys.

TVGuide.com: Why did you go on the show? Were you a big Survivor fan?
Brandon: It was kind of a weird deal. My grandma was going to the casino to do some gambling and they had an open casting call there. Grandma called and asked if I wanted to go and I said "Sure, I ain't got anything better to do." Before I knew it, it blew up to all of this.

 
TVGuide.com: Your grandma's cute. I liked her Febreze family commercial.
Brandon: Yeah, she did look good on TV. She's a nice lady.

TVGuide.com: And you didn't have to lie about her dying to make it to the merge!
Brandon: [Laughs] Yup. That thought had crossed my mind, but I knew it had been done already.

TVGuide.com: Did you have a strategy going in?
Brandon: My main strategy was to make a lot of alliances [with] people who aren't going to flip on you. The second part of my idea was to win immunity and go into the merge with more numbers, with my strong alliances. Then I bet I could have made it to the bitter end.

TVGuide.com: So... are you dating anyone now, or is there someone special?
Brandon: Nope, I'm a lone wolf.

TVGuide.com: Was there a particular tribe mate you were hoping to cuddle up with on the show?
Brandon: Oh, you know, all of them. I don't know. You're open to that, but there's nothing going on. There wasn't any chemistry out there this season for some reason.

TVGuide.com: You called Danni your "little sister."...
Brandon: Danni's way out of my league.

TVGuide.com: How long do you think you spent searching for that immunity idol in the woods?
Brandon: I'd say about three hours.

TVGuide.com: And it was hot, mosquito-ey and gross?
Brandon: Oh man, you get away from camp and mosquitoes would come from all directions and practically rip you apart. It was nasty.

TVGuide.com: You had all those scars on your shoulders.
Brandon: I know. It looked real attractive, huh? But now if somebody asks me, "Oh, is Survivor real?" I'm like, "Did you see the scars or those festering sores? Yeah, it's real."

TVGuide.com: Was it what you expected, or way harder?
Brandon: It was what I expected, maybe a little tougher. One of the things I didn't expect was to form such strong bonds with these people. You're out there and you go through hell with these people, just hell, and it sucks out there. These are the only people you socialize with, so you make good relationships with them and then you have to vote them off. [That part] shows how ugly the game really is.

TVGuide.com: Would you ever do anything like this again?
Brandon: Oh, yeah — in a heartbeat. It may have been bad out there, but I have never felt more alive in my life.

TVGuide.com: What are you up to now?
Brandon: I'm back to work on the farm pretty much. I want to get out and do some more traveling. I think I got the travel bug after going to Guatemala and seeing all that stuff.

TVGuide.com: Do you have a dream place to visit?
Brandon: Not yet.

TVGuide.com: Are you taking Grandma?
Brandon: I don't know, she might be getting a little too old to be traveling the world and trying to conquer countries!


http://www.tvguide.com/News/Insider/default.htm?cmsGuid={855332BD-8CDE-45E9-9844-943A47BB4939}

Offline MrsKutz

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Re: Brandon: Fight And Never Give Up
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2005, 07:06:23 PM »
Forgot to tell you guys.... My five year old daughter said,

"At least he can go home now and wash out those Boo-boos" :kuss:

she also thinks that Survivors should have to wear "protective head gears"  (  In Her own words..I guess bicycle helmet safety rubs off).


Offline puddin

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Re: Brandon: Fight And Never Give Up
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2005, 07:44:49 PM »
To precious MrsKutz   ]**]