“What I Contributed … No One Else Could Do” – An Interview with Survivor: China’s Dave

Dave appeared to be two different people – Crazy Dave and Dictator Dave. But was he, or was that all one part of him that was received or edited differently? Dave talks about that, how he tried to change, and much more right here.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Dave, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?

Dave: Coming into the game, I hoped was to be very strong at camp and to be liked by everybody. Only half my strategy seemed to work (laughs). I didn’t anticipate the generational Y factor.

RNO: What is that?

Dave: Generation why am I so entitled to not have to do any work and to have everything done for me.

RNO: How did that strategy change once you got into the game?

Dave: My strategy changed because of how my tribe reacted to me. What wasn’t really noticeable in the four episodes was how much I did change and try to bend and be flexible towards my tribemates. Too much was just not enough for them. I had to check my balls at the door towards then and lose ten years of my life to be with them.

RNO: From what we saw, it seemed like you were two people – Crazy Dave while at the Fei Long camp, and Dictator Dave at Zhan Hu. Why the big difference?

Dave: There was no difference. I was the same person, it was just how it was received. There was absolutely no difference, it’s just that Fei Long accepted me and Zhan Hu for some reason just did not want to have me be palatable at all.

That’s very apparent when I was kidnapped because I left my own tribe with a pot full of snails and mussels and a big wad of firewood and they didn’t have to do a whole lot while I was gone. All that hard work they had to do was a scratch because all the hard work was already done (laughs). Bunch of pussies (laughs again). How can I be faulted for being a camper extraordinaire because they didn’t know anything?

RNO: Did your tribemates ever bring anything up to you about how friendly you seemed towards the other tribe when they kidnapped you?

Dave: No. That was news to me last night. No kidding I was happy to go to the other side – when you get treated like $#*t! (Laughs.) I bent over backwards to help my tribe. To me it’s two different games. There’s one where you are two tribes and help each other on your own tribe. Then there is the merge [when it’s every man for himself]. I was trying to angle my best and put minor differences aside to make my tribe strong regardless of personalities. But unfortunately, the egos won out.

RNO: Once Ashley was voted off, did you feel like you were in a more solid position in your tribe?

Dave: Absolutely. Ashley was a hindrance not because of her being sick, which is what it looked like, but because of how much she contributed to the tribe in terms of work ethic and how much she contributed due to flapping her gums. There was a lot being said and there wasn’t a lot of action, and I lost patience for all of it.

RNO: At Tribal Council, you said you didn’t really like the role of leader. So why did you take it on, especially in such a confrontational manner?

Dave: I had already been doing it for three days regardless of title. I have a lot to bring to the table in terms of experience and work ethic. And whether you do it without a title or with a title, it was really a minor factor – I’d already been doing it. Instead of denying or refusing that factor, the circumstances were so extreme without any other input from other tribe members that I decided to embrace it and run with it for whatever it was worth, knowing it was the kiss of death.

RNO: In your final words, you said you thought you were humble and listened. Now that you’ve watched the show, do you still think that?

Dave: Editing has left out a huge chunk. I believe I still did listen and altered my game plan on a daily basis. That just wasn’t apparent in the show, how they edited it. I could have grown a third arm and it wouldn’t have mattered because they were intimidated by my experience.

RNO: You also said there are pieces of you that are worth a lot, perhaps priceless. What did you mean?

Dave: That is everything that I contributed. What I contributed to Zhan Hu, even to the entire game in this season, no one else could do. I collected rainwater for my tribe and the other tribe was thirsty – that says everything right there.

RNO: Why did you strip naked during the reward challenge last week?

Dave: Unless it’s your orientation, having a crazy naked guy running at you is definitely going to make you think twice. And it did. Through editing, you didn’t get to see the other guys going, “Holy $#!t, what the hell is he doing?” If you have a naked guy running at you, you’re going to be that much less ready. Hence the skipping to make things jiggle. James is Hercules and anybody needs any kind of advantage they can get.

RNO: Were there any alliances that you knew of in your tribe?

Dave: I felt that there were, but I was not a part of them. I had asked Peih-Gee to be aligned to me and she refused. And that’s when I knew I was in trouble.

RNO: If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?

Dave: Nothing. The situation was so extreme that it required action and there was no action from my tribe.

RNO: Do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Dave: I enjoyed it a thousand percent and would do it over in a heartbeat.

RNO: Thanks again, Dave!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: China articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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