“This Was All for Her and the Kids” – An Interview With ‘The Mole 5’ Winner Mark Lambrecht

One of the most enjoyable parts of writing a column about reality TV is when you correspond with a reader on a regular basis, exchanging viewpoints and possible strategies. Recently, that went a step beyond for me.

When participants of the 2008 version of The Mole were announced, included in the list was a name that was very familiar to me. You see, Mark Lambrecht is an RNO reader who has chatted with me about Survivor many times over the last several seasons! So this season, I suffered through the Mole executions as though I were part of Mark’s family.

Now that the game is over, I’ve done an extensive interview with the winner of The Mole 5. Enjoy!

RNO: First off, Mark, I want to congratulate you on winning the game. It was a popular victory in most circles!

Mark: Thanks, Brian.

Besides our own correspondences, I remember that you’ve had an earlier brush with the world of reality TV. Can you tell the readers about the Survivor Soccer event you put on a few years back?

Mark: I created and ran a three day event in Milwaukee in 2006 to raise money for an African AIDS charity called Grassroot Soccer, co-founded by Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn. We flew in fourteen past Survivor contestants, Jeff Probst, and U.S. women’s national team star Leslie Osborne for a dinner, auction, and autograph session at Miller Brewing Company’s headquarters, and then a soccer match with Milwaukee Wave legends. We raised $57,000 during the three days.

RNO: Very nice ! But let’s talk about The Mole. How did you get cast on the show?

Mark: I had auditioned for a different adventure show that was going to be called The Trek, but the production of that show fell through. Fortunately, the casting producer for that show remembered me several months down the road when she was given the task of casting The Mole. I went and auditioned for The Mole in Chicago and then L.A. and was cast from those auditions.

RNO: How long in real time did it take for the season to unfold? And, how long was it between the time you left home and the show began? Were you sequestered from each other in this timeframe?

Mark: I left home on March 28th and came home May 2nd. I didn’t get to meet any of the other players until we all met for the first time outside the small cabin in Los Angeles, Chile, on April 2nd.

RNO: At this point, I want to ask a question or two about each task.

Episode 1

RNO: Before “Over The Falls,” did you vote for Marcie as “most probable Mole?”

Mark: My game was very social, so I actually looked around and just circled what I saw the majority of people circling, which was Marcie. I thought that they were going to say who each person voted for out loud, and I didn’t want to stand out.

RNO: Was the “Robinson Crusoe” task your first indication that people trying to act Mole-ish were going to keep too much money out of the pot? I know you caught flak in some circles for the choices you made when trying to select the right artifacts, notably the jeans, but the things people were bringing you made the task impossible to win anyway. Did you feel people were stupid, just not trying, or what?

Mark: I absolutely felt that there was “Mole” activity going on in that task. I DO also think it’s odd that people have blasted me for putting jeans on the table though, because anyone who actually watched the show would have seen that there was nothing else to put up. We separated things into obviously not from the time period and possibly a “representation” from the time period. By the end, the ONLY things that we had that could even be “representations” of something from the period were the pants, the pistol and a parachute, which we felt COULD represent a sail. I knew everyone was really trying, but I also felt that the mission had absolutely been sabotaged.

Episode 2

RNO:In “Race To The Summit,” the bike you had seemed to have a wonky chain. How much did you have to carry the bike?

Mark: That bike… I hope to never see that bike again! The second we got on that bike, the chain fell off. And it continued to fall off every hundred yards or so. And then, the handlebars came loose… and they would just flop down at random times... usually, once we had a pretty good head of steam going. It was hot that day, upper eighties, and that hill is STEEP. The total climb was a little more than five kilometers. I would say I had to push the bike about two-thirds of the way.

RNO:I think “When Pigs Fly” was one of the few tasks you didn’t have a featured role. Was this a conscious decision of yours to step back and be an observer?

Mark: No, not really (laughing) it just played out that way. We really did get lost and came in well behind the other teams. BUT, when we got back, because there was so much wrangling going on between the others, they had only shot like ten pigs into the pen. And Alex was not letting anyone in there to help. So I had to just pace back and forth and keep reminding everyone that every pig just sitting there at the end was a completely wasted thousand dollars, that even a pig broken IN the pen was better than one sitting there because at least we gave it a shot. Eventually they got it and picked up the pace and did a great job securing over half the stash.

Episode 3

RNO:In “Fruit Of The Luge,” I note how everyone raced down the course at high speed. Was there a time limit? Otherwise, why not go slowly and be very sure of what the correct list was?

Mark: There WAS a time limit. I don’t recall how long, but you couldn’t just mosey along. That luge was pretty slick and it moved at a good clip. It was fun!

RNO:In this challenge, you worked with Kristen for a second time with great success. It became apparent that you two were most earnest in your attempts to play the game to build up the pot, and that you both brought strong physical assets to the mix. Was there ever an attempt to form an alliance with her?