early show 12 episode 5

Bobby Mason's Early Show Interview

Video:

Transcript by James Barber for SurvivorFever.net  3.03.06 

RENE: There were fireworks last night on Survivor: Exile Island. The dysfunctional Casaya tribe returned to Tribal Council, where an alliance of four cut lawyer Bobby Mason loose, using the last bottle of wine as evidence to convict him.

(video package)

RENE: Time for you to go and now you're here. Bobby Mason, good morning.

BOBBY: Good morning. It's good to be here.

RENE: I'm going to get to the wine in just a minute, young man. But first I want to ask you - last night at Tribal Council, the wheels just about fell off. It just exposed you guys do not like each other very much.

BOBBY: Yeah. This game...

RENE: What was up?

BOBBY: This game was not exactly being played at a Survivor strategy clinic here. That last day basically condensed two weeks of lack of strategy and lack of gameplay, all at once. People running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Nobody knew what was going on. But I saw it coming. Danielle spilled the beans on day three, before they voted out Melinda, that I was supposed to go. So for ten days I knew I was gone. 

RENE: What was the deal with you and Courtney? You said she was one of the most irritating people in the history of the world. My gosh, that's pretty bad.

BOBBY: I counted, I counted.

RENE (laughs): You counted.

BOBBY: I counted.

RENE: Why? What was the problem with her? Why didn't you like her? 

BOBBY: I think it's - well, one of her personalities was cool, it was the other three or four (Rene laughs) personalities that she's got tucked - every now and then the nice one will come out and you'll make a deal with her and then the next day that nice one won't wake up so...you know, she's a lunatic. I think it's good they're increasing the diversity, the first bunch of crazies we've had out here. It's good to see.

RENE: What about Shane? And we all know now Shane is trying to pick this pack-a-day or two-pack-a-day cigarette habit. You didn't like him much either. You guys looked like you got along and then he's talking about you behind your back, or what?

BOBBY: Shane's a smart guy. He knows that if he's gonna talk about me, he'd better do it behind this back, if he doesn't wanna end up smashed somewhere in the ocean. Acid-wash jeans and that mullet. (Rene laughs) I saw that stuff coming a long time ago. Aras told me he'd said some pretty wicked, pretty nasty things about me, but every time I stared at him, he buckled, as he should have. With those jailhouse tattoos he's got, I think I would have folded as well. Shane wasn't a problem. Actually, I stayed away from him on purpose because I knew at some point I was gonna need him not to vote for me.

RENE: And he didn't. He ended up not...but let's talk about last night's challenge, cause you guys did great in the reward challenge. You were awesome there, cutting the fish. I'm surprised that you're here today because you were very valuable to your team in the challenges. And then of course one of the things you guys got, rice, beans, fish, and wine. I want to take a look at the Survivor secret scene and then come back and talk to you. This was when the wine was flowing and all was good.

[

BOBBY (solo): After we won the reward challenge, as soon as we touched down on the island back at camp, someone decided to break out a bottle of wine. I was hitting my poses in the middle of celebration, and I said, "Yeah, West Wise Casaya Gangsta Tribe, woo woo", cause I'm from LA and we have a tendency to do that. Assign fantabulous names to things that aren't fantabulous. I think Courtney dug the way it sounded, so I might officially dub our team the Westside Casaya Gangsta Tribe.

BOBBY (to tribe): Eastside, westside, nationwide, we're riding-ass, Casaya Gangsta Tribe. On 3, we'll give a big, 'woo woo.' 1, 2, 3...

(everyone goes, "WOO WOO")

]

RENE: So you guys were about 30 seconds away from singing Kumbaya and having a big group hug and kiss, and then all of a sudden...what happened?

BOBBY: This is...

RENE: You had a bottle of wine, you went into the outhouse...

BOBBY: This is how it went down. We actually won four bottles of wine, and as soon as we got there, Danielle and Courtney started acting like they were first week freshmen in college, and they started guzzling it. So I said hold up a minute, let's get Bruce and Cirie, they're also part of the team, remember. So I brought Bruce and Cirie in. By this time a bottle had already been killed, the five of us with our drinking. Aras and Shane don't drink at all, so we were basically drinking the wine. At some point we got here, we were having a pow-wow and everything, and I was like the center of attention, and apparently I wasn't that evil, I wasn't that ungentlemanly guy.

RENE: But do you not think that that was wrong to take the bottle of wine? You and Bruce polished off a bottle of wine yourself in the outhouse and deprived the others.

BOBBY: You have to ask yourself why two grown men - two grown straight men, would go voluntarily hang out in an outhouse together. The answer is it wasn't voluntary - we did get booted out of that shelter. Bruce is deadly, I don't know why you'd do that to two guys who could take you apart with his bare hands. We got booted out of there. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, but we're supposed to be a team, and they should feel bad about us having this misunderstanding, and they didn't.

RENE: Bruce may be deadly, and you're strong, but you're here. Unfortunately.

BOBBY: Indeed.

RENE: Bobby Mason, good to chat with you. Take care.