“I Have Gotten Over It” – An Interview with Survivor: Fiji’s Yau-Man

Yau-Man was easily the most popular player on Survivor: Fiji, and everybody will remember him as the nice guy who got screwed. But what does Yau-Man think of all of this? Did he expect to be so popular or to win so many challenges? What does he have to say about Dreamz? Read on to find out!

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Yau-Man. I have to tell you, I was rooting for you all the way.

Yau-Man: Thank you.

RNO: What did you do to prepare for being on Survivor?

Yau-Man: I didn’t do that much. The only thing is that I know I’m not a very strong swimmer, so I took swimming lessons to learn how to swim properly. The other thing I did was to look through some websites that talk about the past Survivor series and about the strategies.

RNO: Was RealityNewsOnline one of them?

Yau-Man: Yes, that’s when I first learned about you guys.

RNO: I’m glad we could help! So, what was your strategy going into the game?

Yau-Man: Going into the game, I thought my strategy would be to try and win as many immunity challenges as possible, to make sure I find the immunity idol, and to keep a very good alliance throughout the whole season. And not bounce from one alliance to another and be useful.

RNO: Did you expect to win so many challenges?

Yau-Man: No, I did not. I thought I would do well in the ones that are a lot more mental. I did not expect to do well in the physical. It turned out the other way, which really surprised me and gave me a moral boost. The one that really stands out was the javelin throw and bow and arrow when I pretty much won that for my tribe.

And the previous one, I pushed Stacy off and did well. Sure she’s a girl, but she was well-fed and weighed as much as I did. [Looking back, there was] the one where I did the beam over the water, Michelle and I were the only ones who crossed it. And the fireball when I hit the target. And the next one to row the boat, I pretty much again aced it for my team. I thought, “I’m doing fine here,” and that really surprised me.

RNO: Did you ever expect to become one of the most popular people on television?

Yau-Man: No, I did not. I really expected to be one of those forgettable figures who you say, “Who?” I just checked the poll numbers and I couldn’t believe it is at 65.5%.

RNO: When Jeff Probst asked the jurors at the reunion if they would have voted for you to win, and they indicated they would have, how did you keep yourself from strangling Dreamz right on the spot for taking the million dollars from you?

Yau-Man: I have gotten over it. I’m glad it happened six months ago. If he had asked the question the day after, I probably would have jumped him. I’ve come to terms with it.

I pretty much have to own up to the problem that it was not Dreamz, it was me. I decided to trust him. After the challenge, I asked Cassandra and she said he’d give it to me and Earl said the same thing. I took that advice and decided to trust him. It was the wrong thing to do and I have to own up to it. To be blunt, he outplayed me. As long as I come to terms with it, I can say, “Dreamz, you outplayed me. What can I say?”

RNO: You’re a better man than I.

Yau-Man: I don’t want to have to live with this for the rest of my life. Life is too short, you have to move on. I’d like to see how he lives with it. He made a decision with 20 million people watching. He’s going to live the rest of his life trying to fix that one.

RNO: Do you believe Dreamz’ claim that he was playing you all along, or do you think he intended to keep his word and then changed his mind?

Yau-Man: I think he intended to keep his word but when he made that promise, he had not thought through the whole thing. When he had time to think about it, he decided that was not what he really wanted to do. He changed his mind. I don’t think he’s capable of such organized thought at the time he accepted my deal.

RNO: So what do you think of the way he’s rationalizing it now?

Yau-Man: I think he’s trying to make excuses for himself and they are pretty lame excuses, but you have to rationalize it.

RNO: That seems to be unanimous.

Yau-Man: The last thing he told a few of us was he is going to sell the truck and donate the money to the homeless shelter that helped him. We all rolled our eyes and said we’ll believe it when we see it – make sure you have TV coverage when you do that.

RNO: I actually asked him what he was going to do with the truck.

Yau-Man: What did he tell you, what he told us?

RNO: No. He said he hadn’t decided yet.

Yau-Man: He told us he’d sell it and donate the proceeds to the homeless shelter or to help kids. We all said make sure you have good press coverage.

RNO: Did you consider making the deal a conditional one, such that he would only get the truck if and when he gave you immunity at final four?

Yau-Man: No, I never thought of it that way. It crossed my mind, but when I decided to make the deal, I put in a generosity clause. You accept the deal, I’ll make the assumption you’re a man of honor. Either way, it wouldn’t work. I don’t know what deal I could make with him to split him and Cassandra apart. they wouldn’t vote for each other. So it was a really bad final four for me.