Topic: The Amazing Race 7: Interview With Brian And Greg: B And G Over The Andes

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The Amazing Race 7: Interview With Brian And Greg: B And G Over The Andes - PART ONE
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 09:41 AM

I had just spoken with one of the most popular teams to have ever run in The Amazing Race. Yet, it almost didn't happen: there were some crisscrossed emails and some mixed signals and then one day Brian Thomas Smith clicked the send button on his reply message and apologized for slippin' up. That was cool, dude. Just like you'd expect. Especially from a guy who strode up in his Pit Stop farewell to Phil Keoghan wearing nothing but swim trunks, a fur lined Arctic hat and sunglasses. Especially from a guy that can also shed a tear or two.

By David W. Taylor (Email Me)
Reality Reel Media
06.15.05





And after speaking with both him and his little brother Greg, both still flying high off the fumes of Amazing Race 7, the good brothers — these two bounding wiseacres! — that we saw skateboarding on the Santa Monica promenade and telling bedazzled African orphans, "Don't do drugs!" and hightailing it through an "American style" shoeshine in Peru and bonding ipso facto with a dual flaming hand pop — and, yes, immersing us in two of the most incredibly electric Pit Stop races in seven seasons — this pair of solid gold brothers-in-arms are the real deal.

It has to tell you something that when I asked both Brian & Greg what their most memorable experience was on The Amazing Race, they each spoke in reverential, subdued tones about the same magical fancy. Mind you, these are the same guys we saw roughhousing and tugging at each other's cargo shorts during the opening cast introductions (not to mention that Pit Stop strip). It just goes to show you that you can't zip it up too quickly, on anybody.

Brian & Greg's thoughts move back to a lolling pause in the Racing lunacy: a mind-expansive car ride through the Andes Mountains. This just before a Detour and a split mountain bike tire and helplessly watching others fan past them on river rafts. "I really enjoyed the ride from Chile to Argentina," says Greg, with what sounds like a dreamy stare. "It was eight hours of just beautiful scenery, and I mean... to see the most beautiful mountain ranges and experience something I would never do in a million years — I would never drive eight hours in South America, you know. And it was great because we weren't racing. We were all going the same speed limit, we were all... it was kind of a downtime."

Brian seconded all of it: "There was like four or five cars following each other, so there was no passing or racing and we just kind of soaked it in. We were driving these switchbacks and you got to see the mountains for so far and they were snowcapped. And it was like, 'Wow, I'm in the Andes Mountains!' It was crazy. I loved it. We couldn't believe we were here doing this."

Greg jumps in, a bit anxious to add a fitting capper to this atavistic odyssey — I'm nearly ready myself, after typing this thing, to get some plane tickets down Lima way. To drive that zig-zagging mountain road to the soul. "Yeah definitely, it was great. And we were also pretty confident. If we were doing it by ourselves it would have been a little more stressful... not knowing where the other teams might be. But we had three or four teams with us so we knew we were in a pack of people and we thought we were in first. It was definitely a nice un-stressful moment."

Brian & Greg Smith are both from St. Louis. Brian made his way out to L.A. four years ago. Greg followed two years later after attending Auburn University in Alabama. Both are Christians. "Yeah we go to church and stuff," says Brian. "We're not super religious where we push our beliefs off on other people and stuff like that. But we're both Christians and were raised in a Mormon home." I wasn't surprised, I tell them; I could sense an undertow of love and compassion — as brothers, as human beings — in almost everything these two goofballs did on the Race. Millions of others did too. It just oozed out. "We owe it to our parents," added Greg. "Our parents raised us to be kind and to help others, and to have fun."

Both brothers are actors in a local sketch comedy group. Brian just recently finished a completely sold-out six week run of "Vladimir and the Exploding Pajamas" in Hollywood. It was a free-form composite of eight comedic actors doing original sketches. Brian has also done Fear Factor and numerous television commercials. His web site — brianthomassmith.com — lists his many acting gigs and also has a link (under 'television') to his and Greg's Amazing Race audition video. It's definitely something to see.

The Amazing Race started its spell with the brothers during the fifth season. Brian & Greg and their roommates would catch it every week, though auditioning for it rarely crossed their minds. Then one musical night, as Brian recalls, "We went to a Dave Matthews concert. There was a group of thirty of us, and one of the guys was a recruiter for The Amazing Race. He met Greg and I. (Greg: "He was with the group and we didn't really know who he was. He was a friend of a friend or whatever.") We were clowning around and making everyone laugh and he was like, 'Man, why don't you guys audition for this reality show I work on.' And when he said it was The Amazing Race we were like, 'Holy cow! Yeah!'"

"So, we sent a tape in (the one linked on Brian's web site) and they loved our tape," says Greg. "They had us come in for more interviews and we did even better. They liked us a lot but they were worried about Brian's acting career." Brian adds, "She's like, 'You're not going to want to do this because you've got to sign a big contract,' and all this stuff."

"She thought it would get in the way," continues Greg. "But it didn't. So I guess it just gradually snowballed... we just had more interviews... and we got to the finals. It was a grueling process." Somewhat odd, I thought, Brian mentions that potential contestants have to pay for their own medical exams. Ouch.

I wonder aloud between them how cool it must have been to get that final selection phone call. And then: 'Dude! We're ON the AMAZING RACE!!!' Dancing on the balcony and stuff! Screaming at neighbors. At a neighbor's dog. But also to realize that the starting line would be in your adopted hometown. A few miles from the crash pad! "We had no clue," laughs Brian. "We were at a hotel in L.A. — had been there for a week — and we didn't know what day we were leaving. One evening, they said that we were leaving tomorrow morning.

"So, the next morning we get in a van and we can't look out of the windows or anything... they've got them all covered up. We weren't allowed to talk to anybody (until they said 'Go!') but you could size them up by just looking at them.

"And then they drove us down to Long Beach and put us out there. Then we had to shoot the intro to the show, which took a little while, and then the next thing you know it was crazy. It was like, 'All right, are you guys ready?' Then you're off! There's no 'let's redo that' or anything. It's just 'Go!'"

Greg: "It was great! We felt really confident. We didn't know if any of the other teams were from L.A., and actually we talked to teams afterwards and they kind of thought we were from L.A., just from looking at us. So people started following us when we got on the road because it looked like we knew where we were going. Actually, some of the people, like Uchenna & Joyce, they grew, well... he grew up in L.A., or at least in Orange County, where he was born." Then Greg's voice drops, "But I thought it was great. But it turns out we missed the exit."

Huh? Missed an exit? I thought that came later... with water towers and stuff. Brian promptly enlightens me, after all he was driving at the time. "I knew exactly where the airport was, and we got in our car and we actually passed everybody on the highway. We were in first and headed right towards Century Blvd, where the airport is, and the cameraman points the camera at me and says, 'So Brian, tell me about being from L.A.', and then he started kind of questioning me. So I started answering the questions and then the next thing you know we passed Century Blvd. We were in first place and the next thing you know we had to turn around and take the next exit. I wasn't used to talking to a camera like that. And I was so nervous about also driving, and I couldn't pay attention."

After finally arriving at the airport and grabbing the last set of tickets on the United flight to Peru, Greg & Brian make there way to the gate departure area and stumble in last in the boarding line, just behind Lynn & Alex. "Bringing up the rear," jokes Brian on the show. "Making sure we didn't leave anyone behind!" Brian remembers the airport as a quick first moment for some welcome tension release and to say hello to a whole ripe bunch of total strangers.

"Everybody was really, really nice to everybody," he thinks back. "When we got to the airport we could finally say, 'Hey, I'm so and so,' and we introduced ourselves. Everybody was really friendly. Everyone was like, 'Wow, I can't believe we're really doing this.' It was that kind of attitude. We were all in disbelief that we were actually running a race right now for a million bucks." I ask him quickly about Rob & Amber. Friendly? Mean? "As the Race went on people were friendly but Rob & Amber were the team that just didn't want to get to know anybody...

"I didn't even know who Rob & Amber were actually. I never watched Survivor. I'm not a big fan of the show so I definitely did not know who they were. But, of course, the media — before we left we had to do a media day — and everybody asked about Rob & Amber. So that's when I found out they were the Survivor team."

I mention the first big Rob & Amber dust-up during the Race — over bus schedules and tight-lipped security guards and so-called lying — at the rainy bus terminal in Cusco, Peru. I noticed the brothers were not among those teams wagging their fingers at Boston Rob. "Greg and I were sitting there," recalls Brian. "We saw it go down but we were just watching from afar.

"I mean there were ten teams and everyone was trying to figure out the earliest bus and the fastest bus. Greg and I were like, 'Everyone's going to get on the same bus. We'll just get on whatever bus everyone gets on.' And we went around and we asked everybody what the earliest bus was and we did our own research and stuff... we'll just see what everyone else does and we'll make a decision. I didn't even get into the name calling."

Greg: "It was pointless. Arguing and all that confrontation was pointless. We decided that we were not going to make enemies on this trip. I mean, that's just one thing you don't want to do because you're going to need help along the way from these people eventually, no matter what it is. If they're not someone on your side in a situation then you're screwed. We didn't do it due to not wanting to cause problems with the other teams and argue and make fools out of ourselves. It helps nothing, you know."

Brian: "That doesn't get you farther in the race so we just avoided that." Greg ends the topic masterfully, coyly adding, "I was playing cards while they were arguing."

Greg also harkens back to LAX airport and the first wisps of coming to know the other faceless Racers: "It was great because I really didn't know what to expect. Neither of us had even been out of the country. The experience had been just ours so far. And then we got to talk to the other teams and see how their process of being on the show was and learn how they got on the show. It was just kind of like the beginning — the start of a bunch of new relationships... and just a journey.

"We definitely hit it off with Megan & Heidi. They're more around our age and they're kind of into the same stuff and they were both from L.A. We got along with them pretty well. They're attractive, which helps. I loved hanging out with Uchenna & Joyce. They were probably one of the nicer couples. Later, we didn't get to hang out that much because of the way the Race went on, but when we had downtime we were all hanging out and having a good time. But the team that probably helped us out the most in the Race and were actually with us most, because of the way things worked out, was Ron & Kelly. We were for some reason always following Ron & Kelly. They were always in front of us, and Ron is probably the best navigator. He's got the skills. We kind of gravitated towards them a lot in the middle of the Race."

My ears perk up when I hear the names Megan & Heidi. Now, that was a Moment. On the bus ride from Cusco to Arequipa we see Brian & Greg schmoozing with Heidi & Megan across a row of bus seats and the smiles and laughs are swimmingly light and casual. It's almost awkwardly nice, which means: sparks. Then there is a quick clip of Megan looking up at Brian; she is twirling her hair with one finger and casting her laser-like gaze upon Brian like a love-struck schoolgirl. I almost get embarrassed, like I've just witnessed the actual first tender swooning flicker of true love. I want to avert my eyes.

"It was kind of weird," says Brian, averting his eyes (which is weird — on the phone?). "We had an attraction for each other and I didn't think I was going to meet any cuties on the Race... and we hit it off. On the ten hour bus ride we sat next to each other and got to talk to one another. And then on the beach (first leg) we slept kind of on the sand around each other and stuff. It happened kind of fast. She's a pretty cool girl. We're not dating or anything like that. We're still really good friends. She lives out here, so I see her every once in a while."

One massive hiccup in Amazing Race 7 that was edited out of the show, according to Brian & Greg, was during the plane rides to Santiago, Chile from Arequipa, Peru. This was after the shoeshine caper. There were two flights scheduled out and they were to pass through the connecting cities of Lima and Buenos Aires. "They left out a whole day of traveling," says Brian. "The five teams that were second in the shoeshine got on the second flight... but the second flight was delayed about three hours. Megan & Heidi and I & Greg, we went out to the airport and got earlier flights than the other teams that had our connecting flight in Buenos Aires. So, when we went out to the airport our flight was delayed! We got into Buenos Aires and missed our flight by like five minutes. So we had to take another flight after that. When we were flying on the plane we knew we were an hour behind everybody and we looked at each other and we're like, 'When we land may the best team win!'

"So really when it showed all five teams running out — the second group of five teams — it was three teams going out and then Megan & Heidi and I & Greg were about an hour behind everyone else. It was crazy. We had no clue where they were and they had no clue where we were, and it was a stressful situation. And when we saw them in the cab right behind us — right in the other side of the pit stop — they were freaking out."

Greg: "It's funny because... we went through customs and they left the airport before us and they had like a twenty minute lead. And then we got to the Statue of Mary on the hill and we were going down after getting our clue and they were going up. So we beat them. We had a better taxi driver. He got us there quicker even though we left the airport later."

This explains some things. Like Brian & Greg, on that rumbling, ascending Santiago funicular, chattering about if not for all the stress they could be taking-in the majestic Chilean scenery... yeah, hello!, if YOU knew you were one of two teams one hour behind the pack, and knowing you had just left the airport in dead last, that may cause some stress. On the flip side, it also shed some small light on the explosive celebration between the boys when they passed Megan & Heidi on their slow funicular descent. That flying hand slap takes on a new urgency.

Of course, as it happened, these last two frazzled teams did actually arrive at the Santiago Pit Stop within seconds of each other. It was to be the first of two incredible, surreal foot races Greg & Brian would indulge us with on The Amazing Race. It was a heartbreaker. They outran their pals.

"We were sitting there with our cab driver and he brought us to the back of the place," sighs Greg. "And we were like, 'We need to go to the front' but we couldn't explain it to him because he didn't speak English and we don't speak Spanish. So it was like, 'Come on, MOVE! Move, Move!' We were so much in a hurry and then all of a sudden Megan & Heidi show up in the same place.

"So we saw them get out it was like, 'Dude, move on and get out! Move, move, move!' Once we started running I knew we were going to win because we were faster. But, it was definitely another tough situation.

"For the first time we were like, 'What are we doing? We shouldn't be back here.' This was the second leg and after talking about it we were like, 'Man, we've got to step it up here. No more lollygagging. Let's pick this game up!'"

END OF PART ONE

PART TWO: Eating Four Pounds Of Meat, The Accident, The Pit Stop Race With Ray & Deana, Lost Among The Water Towers, Taxis And Goats, Elimination And Beyond, Greg's Beard and Much More...


http://www.realityreel.com/unscripted_reality_television_episode_summaries_modload-News-article-1248.htm

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The Amazing Race: The Brian & Greg Interview, PART TWO: Chewing To The Top
Last Updated: Monday, June 20, 2005 - 02:07 PM


I know, you were all waiting to hear about Greg's beard. But... what beard? Well, if you happened to watch The Early Show the morning after brothers Brian & Greg were zinged off The Amazing Race 7, you caught them sitting in stools before host Rene Syler and you noticed Greg was sporting a huge, bushy black beard. This wasn't a finely grained manly facial stubble like, say, Tom Cruise would sport during some Red Carpet haunt (you know, a little testosterone attitude). No. This was a bird's nest. He was, I thought, either just finishing-off his log cabin survivalist retreat in the Appalachian Mountains or well underway in his off-broadway role as Tevye in The Fiddler On The Roof or he had just joined al-Qaida.

By David W. Taylor (Email Me)
Reality Reel Media
06.20.05





"Yeah, I had a beard," murmured Greg, with rising annoyance. He stopped right there. Abruptly. I asked him if he still had it on. "No, I shaved the beard off... I actually had a mustache for about two weeks and then I went straight to nothing. Now I've got a little growth..." Whew! I'm glad I cleared that up. There you have it. No more Gitmo chic. Greg's back to attitude.

I had strayed off the farm. Back to the Race. I had a question that had always burned inside me. It was one of those Amazing Race behind the scene queries: in general, how do taxi drivers — the main mode of team transport, it seems — react when seeing two, clearly, crazy Americans run up to their vehicle with a camera crew (camera & mike) in tow?

"The taxi drivers never really asked, 'What are you guys doing?'," inserts Brian. "And if they did we just told them we're shooting an American television show. So, they never really asked. They were kind of freaked out though, like: OK! We're cramming all these people in there and the camera's on them too. Sometimes you'd get some taxi drivers who loved it. They'd eat it up! We'd be talking the whole time and they'd be driving real fast and stuff.

"The camera guys would be outside... and they'd shoot us getting in and shutting the doors and then the taxi guy drives a little bit and then stops, and then lets the crew in. Or, sometimes, we would just shut the doors and then the crew gets in. And then anytime we're getting out: we stop, the crew gets out first and then we get out. It takes like ten seconds." Brian's summary makes it sound like all these taxi shots are quick and routine; and, of course, all teams were conscripted into participating — so, no one team benefited from another's miniscule production delay. My mystery solved.

Now, thanks to the first pangs of hunger in my own stomach, I want to get to Greg's huge effort at the Argentine Barbeque Roadblock, where teams had to down four pounds of grilled meat (and assorted bovine innards) in order to receive their next clue. This is where three teams bailed, unable to fathom completing this monumental task; the most notable intestinal weakling being Rob Mariano — to universal scorn — who opted to take a four-hour penalty in lieu of chewing. And chewing. And the teams that did stick with it, it was a barfingly incredible endurance.

"It was pretty tough," says Brian... and he didn't even have to nibble a single morsel of a blasted cow udder. He just watched and became Greg's number one cheerleader. "I was like... I can't believe that they picked this to do! I mean, it was impossible to do. Teams did it but they were throwing up. Alex threw up after every bite almost, but he finished it. Greg threw up probably ten times. Even Uchenna, who looked like he was flying through it... he threw-up a couple of times!" Ah, this was Uchenna's Hindu Good Fortune Ritual! Me? Go with a head shave.

Greg, proud cow consumer, chronicles his unfolding nightmare: "Going into it I was like, I can do this... I didn't know what I was going to eat and then I saw what I was going to eat and I was just like, 'Ah, SHOOT!' Just the mass of meat on that plate was, ah... it was so much food that I knew that I was going to have to throw up because I know I can't hold four pounds of meat in.

"And just the texture and everything, and the taste... the taste really wasn't that bad but the texture would make you gag. So, I'd be gagging and throwing up all at the same time. And then all of a sudden your body can't hold all that food and then there's just a huge release..." Oh god... instantly, I lose all my hunger pangs. "Friggin' udders and saliva glands and, gosh, what else was there?" STOP! "They didn't tell us what it was until after," continues Greg. "I didn't know what it was until after I ate it. They just stood in front of you and said, 'Here.' Some of it was pretty good. Some of it was like a roast... a roast beef. It was nice." Maybe it was roast beef, maybe it wasn't. Yummy.

I ask how long the torture went on. "It was about two hours," says Brian. "And it made Rob look like this strategical genius... but, really, it was luck because he had no clue how far Patrick & Susan and Debbie & Bianca were. If they would have shown up right away then all the other teams would have started their four-hour penalty — because you start when the next team shows up. So Rob got a big lead because the other teams showed up so far behind."

Greg: "It was definitely a separation of teams. There was definitely people who did it faster than others. It was just a matter of, like, if you didn't think about quitting you would be there for hours. Others couldn't do it. And it had a big deal to decide who was going to win that leg. Uchenna... he just chowed that stuff down... won that leg. Or, they didn't win but they left first." Yeah, Uchenna & Joyce left first and then got bad directions in Mendoza from a Mendoza municipal city worker. That's weird, huh.

Did he ever harbor an inkling to quit himself? "No. There was no way I would. I didn't care," Greg insists. "And plus, seeing other people quit just pissed me off more. It was like, 'These guys aren't going to do it? That's lame. I'm going to sit here and struggle through this and get it done.' And Brian was behind me, always cheering me on and laughing — he thought it was funny, or whatever...

"But... it was a good time. It was funny. I had a good time doing it. I didn't feel great but it wasn't that bad. It wasn't like intolerable during it. But when I got to the Pit Stop I felt okay. I had to go to the bathroom and I felt better."

At the Pit Stop, just before Greg's restroom dash, he & Brian jump on the Mat with pals Ron & Kelly and place third. This was a huge leap from almost being eliminated the previous leg. The past miscues, regrets; and inevitable gut-check ("At the time we're like, 'No more... that was crazy.' We almost were eliminated. We're so much better than this") seemed to be paying off. But early in the next leg — departing from Mendoza, Argentina — the first of a small trickle of greater mishaps and near tragedies would chip away at the brother's solid constitution and foreshadow their ultimate end.

After receiving their first clue the next morning (at the same time as Ron & Kelly), which directs them to a Gaucho Challenge Roadblock at the Cabana La Guatana, Brian & Greg head out in their utility vehicle and seem to be following Ron & Kelly. "No more mistakes!" is the brother's battle cry. The next thing we see is Ron & Kelly hanging a right off a highway, taking the off-ramp that will lead them to the delightful Gaucho horse ranch. Brian & Greg are shown driving past the off-ramp and continuing south on the highway. Ron & Kelly arrive at the Cabana La Guatana and complete the Challenge while, it appears, the brothers flee south to Bolivia. When Ron & Kelly are about to depart La Guatana, Brian & Greg drive up. Kelly notes, "Brian & Greg weren't angry. They probably were just disappointed that we were all right here together and then missed it." They were all "here together"... but it didn't go down as edited.

"Ron & Kelly were actually following us," says Greg. "They edited that so weird." Brian joins the fracas: "We drove all morning there and we were following them, and they got us kind of around there but we couldn't find the place.

"Then I asked this guy at a gas station and I understood him and I said, 'Follow me guys.' So we drove right in front of this ranch (Cabana La Guatana) and this guy on a bike was right down there and Ron & Kelly were behind us. We ask this guy on the bike where this place was and he pointed back the other way. I guess he didn't understand our question; he didn't speak English. So we turned around and Ron & Kelly turned around with us, and as we're driving back the guy on the bike stopped Ron & Kelly and was like, 'No, no. Sorry it's right here,' and we didn't get that. We kept on going. We were like, 'What are Ron & Kelly doing?' They're not following us. So we stopped and waited for them and thought that maybe they wanted to do their own thing. So we got back on the highway and started looking for this place. We drove around for thirty minutes. That totally threw us off. I mean, we were fifty feet away from that place! The sign was right there and we didn't even see it!"

Of course, the next big turning point for Brian & Greg was when their off-road vehicle crashed in the African desert. It was one of the most explicitly harrowing moments of the season, if not the entire Amazing Race series. Luckily, the only injuries were relatively minor ones to camera crew members. The event also further eroded Race baddies Rob & Amber's tenuous grasp on goodwill among certain team members and the viewing public in general (at least among those who were already quite fixed in their loathing). Rob & Amber were the second team to pass the crash scene — the first being Lynn & Alex — and while remarking on how they would regret it if anyone got hurt, they simply drove on without stopping. At that leg's Pit Stop, even the likes of Phil Keoghan — in his Mat banter with Rob & Amber — dropped a slight doubt on the veracity of their singular integrity.

Brian was driving the jeep when it careened off a rut-cut sand berm. I went to Greg, though, to start the subject rolling: "We were pumped. We were in second place and we were just jamming. We were going the speed limit — we weren't doing anything crazy on the road — but we were behind Ron & Kelly. They were pushing up a lot to us, so we backed off them for awhile. All of a sudden, there's grooves in the road and there's like little ridges on the side and Brian bumped over one of them and got out of the rut in the road and tried to pull it back and over corrected.

"He was slowing down so it didn't flip really; it just landed on one side. But it was scary. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know if we were going to get a new car. We had two guys that were injured. One guy was really injured so we had to help him out and get support."

"We waited there forty-five minutes for this new jeep," adds Brian. "And the whole time we're like... I mean, the producers showed up and the crew and there were all these trucks around helping out, because our camera guy couldn't get up. We were worried about him but, at the time, I'm like, 'Greg, we really need to get out of here. We're not out of it. We need to get a car.' But we're like, 'Hey, are we getting a car?' And they're like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' But they really weren't too worried about getting us going, they were worried about the injuries.

"So we were worried about them and then we were worried about getting out car. And finally a new one showed up and we drove out of there. It was crazy."

"And all of a sudden, here come Lynn & Alex," backtracks Greg. "And they've got a guy in their car so they come out and help us. They were doing things and helping. If Lynn & Alex wouldn't have stopped, it would have been a different Race." Really?! I say to Greg. Their help was that, well, meaningful? "I mean, they helped us out. If that car wouldn't have stopped we wouldn't have gotten to help our camera man and get him support and get him help. That was absolutely the first thing we had to do, before we got back in the Race, was to make sure everyone was safe and all right. Once we did that, then we got our car and then they sent us on our way. If they wouldn't have stopped we definitely would have been hurting.

"Once we flipped that car it just took us back," says Greg, with a hint of melancholy. A vague gray tone grips his voice. "It was really tough trying to get back into that mode of Racing. We were in second place. We probably would've won that leg... and we probably would have won the next leg, if we had left first instead of last. And once we got lost, there was nobody to ask for directions out there in the middle of Africa." Ah, the 'what ifs.' Yet who can blame him. And I, for one, wish Greg's wishful meanderings had, in some magical way, come true. And for an upcoming few seconds in the upcoming hours... it almost looked like they just might.

Next Monday - June 27 - The Conclusion: PART THREE. Racing to the Detour... Racing Ray & Deana... Taking a Left instead of a Right... Lost Among the Water Towers... Bad Goats... Stripping Off Elimination... Sequester City... Brian & Greg: Unplugged... More Rob & Amber... and Much More!


http://www.realityreel.com/news-realitytv-article-1258.htm

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The Amazing Race 7: The Brian & Greg Interview - PART THREE: Dressing Down - Making The Best Of The Worst
Last Updated: Monday, June 27, 2005 - 02:13 PM

When one is in a car accident one is not thinking of one million dollars. One million dollars is suddenly as important as bubble gum. Time, space and the material world slows down to a soupy crawl, and changes. It narrows into a colorless vortex. One thinks of being alive, death, helping, kindness, brotherhood. The sound of a voice. The patch of khaki sand abutting a tiny sliver of jeep. A thin, nervous flower quivering in the bush. Eyes. Light. A hand. My brother. Wishing that the darkness will not fall. This is the passion play Brian & Greg found themselves struggling in — struggling awake in quicksand — in a far-off stretch of the African desert on The Amazing Race 7.
Greg Smith put this eerie mental tableau more succinctly: "We were in a zone." And after pinching themselves and making sure their injured production crew members were attended to — with a huge helping boost from Lynn & Alex who stopped and climbed out of their own vehicle to render whatever aid they and their own camera crew could marshall — Brian & Greg regrouped and asked for a new jeep. The Race beckoned. Within 45 minutes a new vehicle was brought around and the Smith Brothers got it into gear and tore out of there to get back in the Race. The magnetic allure of competing for one million dollars was again making skin pores squeeze shut and dilate.

It was now all catch-up. Going for broke. That sepia vortex only spun faster and narrowed. "We knew what we had to do and we drove out of there," Brian tells me. "It was crazy. We saw that water stunt and we flew through that thing... I mean we slammed that water Detour!"

They drive up to the dusty Detour outpost and see that other jeeps are still on scene. Hearts race. "When we got there we were definitely frazzled from the crash but we saw that there was a chance," says Greg, excitedly. "So we focused and picked the right Detour and we just went gung-ho after it and just kicked butt. Brian was an expert at it! It looked like he had trained for years just blowing eggs, because he was kicking butt and did it like the fastest it could be done. We definitely were nervous... anxious nerves... but I thought we pulled together quite nice."

As Brian & Greg blow and blow into those ostrich eggshells... Ray & Deana are being stymied by their incessant knockabout pole-pounding into a worn bucket of rice. This is the Detour Brian & Greg wisely chose to nix. Deana's right eyebrow has a bloody gash from an aberrant pole knock from Ray. Later, her eye seals shut. The African village's rice judges are not relenting a millimeter — Ray & Deana's rice basket is still not full enough. Ray & Deana seem like they've been pounding for days. Frustration flares. Everyone else is gone. Brian & Greg blow into their last straw and bury their last huge egg. Ray & Deana finally break over their basket's rice red-line and jam. Things fly.

"It was that CLOSE!" yells Greg. "I mean, when we finished the eggs we saw them running to their car and we were two or three yards away from our car. So they got in their car right when we left the eggs. We scooped up our crew and told them to go and we were running. And we got into the car and we couldn't see Ray & Deana, but we knew we weren't that far behind.

"So we split up a little bit and then we started to catch up. We knew we could catch them on the road... they didn't see us leave; they thought we were still doing our eggs! They had no clue that we were that close behind. I guess they never looked behind them.

"And then once they stopped we had to time to spare because they weren't in that big of a hurry! And, plus, Deana's not that fast. And once we got out of the car at the same time... it was all over."

I seem to remember from the Early Show interview with Ray & Deana that one of the factors in not seeing Brian & Greg looming behind their churning jeep was the billowing clouds of road dust that were being kicked-up behind them. The rearview and side mirror perspectives were mostly raging sandstorm. Yet, if Ray & Deana had been able to see the brothers closing in... what could they have done? Gone faster? And Brian & Greg? Faster still? It might have been ugly. As it was, it was incredible. One of the most incredible Amazing Race sights ever.

"I actually heard when we passed Ray & Deana," remembers Greg. "I passed Deana and I heard her just say how sorry she was to Ray and that she felt so bad. She's like, 'I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.'

"I had just won — we just killed them — and these people are just devastated. And to hear her saying that... I don't know. They were very good competitors and they were good sports and everything. We gave each other a big hug and everything and said, 'Good job!' There were no hard feelings. We had no energy left. We were so much emotionally drained that day. We were just thankful that we could keep it going."

Brian adds: "That comeback after flipping the car was just emotionally draining. It was down, up. We were doing so well. I mean, we were coming in second and third for four legs in-a-row, pretty much, and then all of a sudden we flipped our car when we were about to win that leg. And just to be able to make that comeback... it was just the craziest. We were not ready to leave; we are supposed to still be in this!... it was like the best feeling ever. There were 12 people sitting around that night and we were still in it. And it was crazy because we thought we were out. It was like hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth, and that was one of my greatest experiences."

Brian then drops a few more lines, sounding like he'd rather have them go away. Make them disappear. Forget them. "We were so fired up," he intones ruefully. "And then the next day we left last and we took a wrong turn and got lost."

This "next day" was to be Brian & Greg's last day of Racing — cascading from the pinnacle of miraculous triumph to the bitter sting of a luckless downfall. And, in between, a nightmare of hazards that would only further break their slowly depleting spirits: a left turn, water towers, goats. And, in the end, a thrust towards flagging their singular presence on The Race with their own sunny, upbeat exit. The first ruinous misstep — their stumble into the portal of doom — ironically enough, involved Rob & Amber.

"Well, what happened was," says Greg. "We were being taken down to the Clue Box in a car by the producers and when we were going down there we saw Rob & Amber take a left turn. And we thought, 'Well, everyone's taking a left. That's how you go,' without even thinking to ourselves which direction is right. So when we left we took a left turn instead of a right. And so once we did that we went the wrong way for, maybe, I would say, 45 minutes. It also took 45 minutes back, so we were an hour and a half behind. So we started the Race about an hour and 40 minutes behind Meredith & Gretchen, and we knew that."

"What stinks was," Brian asserts morbidly. (It's like listening to a train wreck). "They were driving out as we were walking down to get ready to get mike'd up and put our packs on and do an interview and go. We saw Rob & Amber take the left turn and we're like, 'Well, we've got to go left. That's great.'

"Well, they must have went for about two minutes and realized that it wasn't right and turned around. Greg and I get in the car and thought it was left, got on there and drove for awhile. And then there's all these different turns, a couple of different roads, and we just got lost out there. And there was no one to ask for directions. It was very frustrating. Then we had to make our way to the very beginning of the leg and make that right turn. By then we were so far behind... and then it didn't help when we were climbing the wrong water tower and chasing goats around..."

"That was retarded," chimes in Greg. "That was just stupid. I didn't know which town we were in. The Clue said, 'Go to this town,' and didn't say how far away it was. So we get to this town — we had been driving for about 45 minutes — and I thought, 'Hey, maybe this is the town we need to be in.' Here's a water tower... and there was actually a little ribbon with colors on it. But, I guess, it was just a directional marker.

"We were there for like 15 or 20 minutes. But that's not really what made us lose. We got back on the road and we found out it's (Sankyo Village) like 200 miles away. And we're driving for two hours, three hours... we knew we were now, like, two hours behind... and we get to the goats, and that just takes forever."

I butt-in with a burning question about Pit Stops. Are they really "rest" breaks in The Race?... or do they just add to the stress? Do the production aspects make them, say, burdensome? (I wonder, to myself, if last night's "Pit Stop" merely further scrambled the Smith brothers' already wigged-out psyches...?) "Yeah you get stressed and tired," offers Brian. "You're not sleeping a lot and you're not eating very good. I mean, we just had Powerbars most of the time... you get one meal when you're done with the leg...

"You get to the Pit Stop and you do an interview. You have a little dinner and then you go to bed. And then you have to be there 30 minutes before you leave to do another interview. You get only, maybe, six hours of sleep and sometimes it's like at 3:00 in the afternoon when you're going to bed. So, that takes a toll a little bit but Greg and I handled that pretty well, I think. It was just the frustration of getting lost..." OK. My theory destroyed. Brian wants back at those horrible goats...

"I wish they would have shown the goats," says Brian, wistfully. "Elise (Elise Doganieri; Amazing Race co-creator - see the RealityReel interview) she came up to us at the finale party and was like, 'We tried to get that goat scene in but we didn't have time.' It was crazy. Greg and I show up at the goat ranch, or whatever, last, of course, because we got lost forever. And then we tied up our goats and two of our goats escaped from this little thing, and we were calling them 'Houdini the Goats,' and we had names for them, and we chased them around with sticks for about an hour. After we were already last we had to chase these stupid little goats!"

Greg: "They ran like out into the desert."

"We were like hiding behind trees," continues Brian. "And I would scare the goats and then Greg would jump out and grab them and then we tied them up. It was definitely a comedy but it was frustrating because we knew we were last." I asked Brian if they might have been able to snatch some new goats from the ranch pen? To replace the escapees? "We tried. We actually tried to grab some new goats, but they said, 'Once you've chosen a goat, that's it.' We're like, whatever. Our goats were crazy!"

"Then on the way to the 'Remove The Two Trees' Roadblock we didn't see any Route Markers, which is what got us into trouble the first time" recalls Greg. "And we're like, 'Where are those Route Markers? There's supposed to be Route Markers!' We turn around again because our heads are on backwards right now — we're real stressed. None of the decisions we were making were trustworthy because two or three of them had already been wrong. So our heads are all messed-up... so there was no chance of us catching up — like it was edited... showing Meredith & Gretchen just beating us after they had to go back for a Clue. We never saw one team the whole time."

Yeah, this was an awful, painful chapter to watch, as I remember... Meredith & Gretchen reach Phil at the Pit Stop and are told they missed the Clue Envelope — Phil even asks them, "How did you get here?"! M & G have to go back out into the bush. Back to the Roadblock. Lynn & Alex are delayed with car trouble — one vehicle sputters to a dead stop; one gets a flat tire — and then Alex has to drive a stick-shift off-road behemoth for the first time in his life. Lynn gives him on-the-spot lessons. Time is ticking off. Uchenna & Joyce reach Phil and forget to bring the flagged marking post from the Roadblock. They, too, have to go back out into the bush. Time draining... and, STILL... Brian & Greg shimmy in last. I was crestfallen.

Brian adds: "Getting lost was probably really... that was the only time I really lost my cool with Greg, was when we were lost. I'm like, 'Greg, where do we go?' We were both clueless. We didn't know where we were or how to get back on track... so we really got at each other's throats a little bit."

Greg starts to hint at the end. The very end. When you can Race no more. When Phil tells you you're toast. "When we get to the end of the Roadblock we're like, 'You know what? We know we're done. Let's do something fun. Let's have a good time here.' We actually thought about putting all of our clothes on, like every piece. And then we're like, 'Let's do the opposite. Let's go out — if it's non-elimination — and have a good time trying to get clothes and then it'll be fun and we'll have a good time.' I'm really glad we went out that way."

"We had these shorts and we never got to wear them," Brian explains. "And we said we'd wear them the rest of the Race. We actually had a long sleeve shirt tucked-in behind our shorts in the back, just in case... and we added the hats and some shades."

"We had all day to think about it, knowing that we were eliminated, so it was easier to swallow. But when Phil said, 'You're eliminated!' and stuff and he asked me, 'What do you think about your brother here,' and then... I just lost it. They didn't show any of that but I just started crying again and it was just so emotional. I was like, man, this is the best time of my life. I got to do this because of my brother. We're going to have this experience for the rest of our lives. And Greg looks up to me so much and he's always laughing at me and everything. I'm like his biggest role model."

Greg: "When we got up there and Phil started asking us about how you feel about this guy next to you and stuff... and Brian was saying stuff about how much he loves me and everything, and he started crying and I broke down crying. I mean, they edited it pretty quick but they showed B kind of getting emotional and stuff. I enjoyed that as well. I mean, just to be able to express how you feel about your bro on national television, it just made us closer. It was great."

Brian: "And that night we got to go sit in the hut because it was a really nice safari ranch where we stayed, and Greg and I got to go out in the back and have a good meal. We just sat out there and talked about how we've got to be appreciative of what we did.

"We didn't even see a team at the Pit Stop. They were already done doing their interviews and put away, so we didn't get to say goodbye to any of them or anything." So, in essence, I thought... Brian & Greg hadn't seen any teams the whole day, the whole last leg. The last team they saw were, oddly, Rob & Amber... getting into a car, driving off and making that fateful left turn. After that, it was the lonely road to extinction.

Brian picked-up the trail the next morning. "The next day we left and had to drive all the way to the city of Maun. Ray & Deana were there waiting because they had been eliminated just before us. And we felt so bad. We're like, 'Wow! We sprinted past you guys just to blow it the next leg!'

"So we traveled with them and it took us three days to get to the sequestered city. I mean we flew from Gaborone to Johannesburg to Amsterdam, all the way over to L.A. and down south."

"Once we get eliminated we can't go home because people will know we got eliminated," explains Greg. "They sent us to a city to hang out and just to relax until the Finale in Miami. We stayed in Cancun. We stayed at a great hotel right on the beach. They paid us a good stipend each week to survive and eat. They paid us pretty well.

"Megan & Heidi... all four of us would hang out and stuff. Brian & Megan hit it off a little more than me and Heidi. They'd go down to the beach and lay out and have a good time. We really couldn't do anything. We had chaperones wherever we went.

"Once the show was done then we got to go home. And we got home for Christmas."

I ask each brother what they would have done with their share of the one million dollar prize... let's just say if, maybe, they had turned right instead of left... and had surmounted all the unfolding legs, like champs, to wind up on top in Miami? What whims would have been answered?

Brian: "I would've styled my dad out with the sweetest RV. Of course, I would be able to borrow it. The rest of the money I would have hooked up with my other siblings, bought some nice duds, and then invested the rest."

And Greg? "I probably wouldn't have gone crazy and started buying all kinds of things for myself. I would've helped out my family with whatever they needed and then thrown a big party for all my friends. I would like to say that I would've also made some good investments."

"I'm very happy with what CBS did," admits Greg. "I mean we ran The Race to have a good time and it was really fun watching myself on the TV. I had never been on anything; I'm not used to that. But CBS did a good job of portraying how we ran The Race and it was pretty honest. So I was really happy with that and it was really cool. We've got them all TiVo'd and recorded, and I can't wait to look back and see me and my bro on television. It's really cool.

"And I'm really proud of myself for eating the meat. Half the people didn't do it, and it's just fun to say that I did it and people quit and didn't do it."

"It's great watching the show when you're in it and stuff," Brian nods happily. "It's like, 'Wow! This is so cool!' And then when you're not in it, it's like, 'Man! I didn't get to go to India... SHOOT! Oh! They're golfing...' and Greg and I are good golfers. And it's like, "Aargh! That would have been awesome to do that.'

"And you figure out the game and you know how you could have done better. Greg's more level headed about it than I am, because I'm like, 'Gosh, we could have done better.' But Greg's like, 'Hey man, we did good, we had fun.' And we had so many people say, 'We don't watch it now because you guys were eliminated. You guys brought a sense of humor and life to the show that it's never had. I'm the biggest fan of the show and it's not the same show anymore when you guys aren't on it.' So those comments are always kind of nice to hear."

"Nothing but love come our way," reflects Greg. "We've had no backlash whatsoever. Everything we said was never contrived. We never thought, 'Yeah, we're going to say these lines here.' That's just how he and I interact. We just make light of things and joke around and that's just who we are...

"Before The Race I made it a point to let Brian lead because you need somebody on the team that's going to be leading, and if both people want to lead you're going to have arguments and you're not going to be able to get through certain tasks because you're going to be on different pages. So I kind of... he's my older brother. I trusted him my whole life. I don't think I had any bad moments because of that."

The Smith brothers. Brian & Greg. A team of soulful brothers who lifted The Amazing Race 7 to a better place on so many levels. They helped make it what it became... the most popular season ever. They were also our good ambassadors to the rest of the world. Laughs and Tears. A thankful hand pop. Congratulations on a Race well run.

Web Site: www.brianthomassmith.com
http://www.realityreel.com/news-realitytv-article-1266.htm