“I Was the First Person They Didn’t Really Blindside” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Samoa’s Dave

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Dave, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline!

Dave: My pleasure.

RNO: We saw you say on the show that you’re used to getting up at 4:30 am, so I guess the fact that I’m talking to you now is proof of this!

Dave: I’ve been up for about 45 minutes already.

RNO: Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming in to Survivor?

Dave: Play challenges hard, don’t let on that I’m smart, really focus on the social game because that’s my natural weak spot I think. Pay attention, keep my mouth shut – that was a big one – I was only moderately successful at that, what are you going to do?

RNO: You said your social game was your weak spot – what do you mean?

Dave: I’m much better at doing puzzle type things than relating to people as a group, as a whole. I’m much better as a leader trying to figure out how to solve an issue and telling people to fix it and solve the problem as opposed to a more feminine group-centered style such as, “How do you feel about that?” and I knew that would be a proper tack for getting along with a group.

RNO: Jumping from the beginning to the end, heading into your final Tribal Council, what did you think your chances really were of sticking around?

Dave: I was 75 to 90 percent sure I was going home. It was probably closer to the 90 percent. I was the first person they didn’t really blindside. Mick said, “You’re a tough competitor. I want to shake your hand.” I knew I was going home.

During the final episode, Russell was making noises that he could flip on Shambo. Yeah right, you’re not giving away your crazy ace in the hole. That would be stupid to leave me here – I’m the biggest threat in the game. I can’t believe Mick and Jaison didn’t flip, but oh well.

RNO: Speaking of flipping on people, why did you turn on Erik at the merge, rather than stand by the guys’ alliance?

Dave: I felt like Erik played a shady game. I’d been planning that burn for three days. He’d been in and out of the circle for a while and didn’t seem trustworthy. But it turns out that was John.

Erik was listening to John regarding strategy and John doesn’t know how to play the game. He was constantly running around saying, “Monica’s after me!” I saw his press last week where he was like, “Dave was constantly scared,” but I was constantly talking him down.

In my alliance scheme, Brett was my number one and I fully planned on taking him, but I had to have a third person to do my bidding. That was John, but he was a nightmare to control because he’d be constantly saying, “Monica’s after me!” That’d be like being afraid of the tooth fairy! Does she seem like a potent, vicious player to you? Whatever.

RNO: I’ve been following you on Twitter, so I may know a bit more about you than most people reading this. Can you fill them in by telling us more about yourself?

Dave: I like sunsets and ponies and flowers and nice warm baths. (All said in jest, of course.)

Go to my website, dangerdaveball.com. You’ll know more about Danger Dave Ball than you ever wanted to know – not in a creepy way but in a strange, why-is-this-person-behaving-this-way-towards-me way. I teach boot camp, I was a music major in college, I studied guitar, I studied improv comedy. I am very funny, especially to the ladies – “Hey baby, you want to go on a date?” “Ha ha ha ha.”

I’m thinking of starting an adventure games company where we do things similar to the challenges but in an urban setting. Puzzles were good to me, I was the best-fed Survivor out there – I went to every reward. Me and puzzles get along pretty good as long as I don’t have to deal with any people.

RNO: You mentioned your nickname, “Danger Dave Ball” – where and how did you get that?

Dave: Honestly, I don’t know. [I’ve had it] for over 10 years, I don’t know where I got that. Not a great story, but at least I’m honest. I have no clue where it came from.

RNO: Do you feel your personality showed fully on TV?

Dave: I got a pretty good edit. I feel like I did pretty well on the show. I would hate to meet somebody who was even more like that than was shown on TV! That would be obnoxious. Dial it back a little bit, buddy.

RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on TV that you didn’t know about while you were there?

Dave: I didn’t know how they would cut and paste things together to make something that didn’t happen appear to have happened.

RNO: Such as?

Dave: Laura didn’t tell Shambo [on the recap episode] to get out of her light when she was weeping on the beach. That was bogus. Laura was never anything but kind to Shambo.

RNO: When I watched it, I thought Laura was talking about Shambo’s personality, like to bring out the sunshine in herself.

Dave: No, she was talking about sun. There was a point where we hadn’t seen the sun for almost a week. It was just raining, it was wet, skin was peeling off our fingers and toes. At that point, we were both starving and starved for light. If you had offered us a coconut, we’d have said keep that and bring on the sun. Laura got burned.

RNO: Was there anything else you saw on TV that you didn’t know about until that point?

Dave: I didn’t know Russell was the player he was. I didn’t know he was pouring out people’s canteens. It was pretty funny that he was wearing the hidden immunity idol next to me in the dark and trying to make me look stupid. That was when there was a new moon so there was literally no light. You’ll forgive me if my rods and cones didn’t pick up on that – it’s not like I’m an idiot, it’s pitch black.

RNO: With the benefit of hindsight, what would you do differently?

Dave: That’s an easy one – there was a couple things. I would have voted of Jaison instead of Erik for sure. And I would have – as I understand, Sergeant York during World War I did well by picking off German soldiers the way he used to hunt turkeys. The Germans would be running at him and he would shoot the ones from behind instead of the ones in front so they coulnd’t see it. So instead of voting off Erik, I would have picked off Jaison first, then Natalie, Mick – I would have played around a lot more so Russell didn’t see it coming. I’m told I played a pretty good game so I’ll try to reside in that.

RNO: We just got our two-minute warning before you have to head off, so do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Dave: It was a great time. Everybody I worked with was really fantastic. It was a heck of an adventure and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

RNO: Thanks again, Dave! See you on Twitter!

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