IGN: How did you come to be on the show?
Erik: I was met by a woman outside a restaurant in LA. She said, "Do you like Survivor?" I was like, "Yeah!" She said, "Is that something you'd be interested
in?" And I was like, "Lady, you have no idea who you are talking to right now! You found the guy!" Because everything I've done in my life,
skill set wise, resume wise, personality wise, it all adds up. If you'd put it in a computer and randomly generated the actual perfect occupation for my
skill set, it would say, "Contestant on Survivor" Not in the sense that I'd be good on the show, but if you want someone who ought to be
there, it's going to be me.
And so I had to try and really dance through a lot of hoops, through different tests and being sequestered and psychological tests and personality tests.
Interviews… It's tough to get on this show. And even still, they only credited me with being an alternate, so I flew down there and had to wiggle my way on
the show and do my best to impress, before the game even started, the upper big wigs of the show, to [get them] to say, "We're going to go with this
guy. We're going to add him to the roster. We're going to take a chance on him." Which they did, and I'm forever grateful for that. Because
how often in life do people stand up for you? And there were some good people who stood up for me and gave me a dream shot and I did my best to take advantage
of it.
Erik: Well, the biggest thing I thought in this game, after studying tapes and being a fan of the show, is tribal alliance. You have to make sure you have numbers, because that puts you in the driver's seat. After that, I think the next, most powerful alliance in the game is the gender alliance. So to be in the spot where I was at, where it felt like we were in control of the tribal alliance and the gender alliance within our own tribe, that was a very, very good spot. If I had to design it on paper and say, "This is where I want to be at this moment," I was there. So I was very happy about it and confident about it, but I was very humble, despite what they showed on TV, within my own camp. Because I knew that the minute you start thinking things are too good to be true, that's when they aren't.
I was very low to the ground and even though we were dominating, I knew we weren't winning by that much. We weren't that great of a time. Foa Foa was just really bad and their spirits were down, and it almost got to the point where it wasn't competitive anymore, because their heads were checked out. But a lot of that had to do with our getting in their heads, telling them they're not going to win and then backing it up. Then they're extremely defeated and they're malnourished, and we keep awards away from them and food away from them. That's how you play the game. So it comes off that I'm very cocky and arrogant, but it's not in the game, it's just towards their tribe. Every cocky thing I said in this game, I think was directed toward Foa Foa and was directed with a purpose - to be like, "There's no way you can beat us and I'm going to keep telling you that until you believe it." So yeah, I'm in a good spot and I feel good about it and I trust the guys around me… and they let me down.
IGN: When Russell had to leave the game, how much of a shock to the system was that?
Erik: You know what, it was one of those things where it was very much Russell first and then me and this game second. Some things take priority to the game, and his condition took absolute priority. So I was bummed to see him leave, because he generally was a really great dude. He was loyal, he was trustworthy and he had so much respect for the game and so much passion and admiration for the game that I respected that to the fullest. And to see him get pulled like that, I was sad and bummed out for that.
In addition, I lost one of the most loyal supporters and allies that would have helped me out and I would have helped him out. So strategically, that was a couple steps backwards. But we still had enough guys and numbers on the tribe where I should have still been able to be okay. But it was a much more difficult road without Russell. And I guarantee you, and I will say this until I was blue in the face, even though I was wrong about the other guys, if my name comes up, Russell's gonna make a stink about it. And he's going to maybe not stop it or put the kibosh on it, but at least he'll tell me. At least he'll give me a head's up, at which point I could have played my idol and stayed in the game… but he was gone.
IGN: Did you show the idol to anyone? Did anyone know you had it?
Erik: I didn't show it to anybody, because I was able to find
it without actual clues. The clues that I got were designed for Foa Foa's idol, so maybe they were the same clues, maybe they weren't. And it turns out
that they weren't, because the idol was above the tree, not in the ground. But since no clues had ever been given to our camp, it was possible that there
was a hidden idol there with no clue there, or that the idol didn't even exist to begin with. So since nobody had ever gotten clues, looked for it or
searched for it, nobody knew it existed. So why tell people about something that they think doesn't exist? That way, I can hold it in my pocket and use it
as I needed to.
But to tell you the truth, I never planned on using it for myself. It's a crazy game and if you're going to get blindsided, you're not going to
know about it. It's such a tricky thing and I know that they played with the idol in different seasons, and they've done it differently, but sometimes
having the idol doesn't really mean a lot, because the only time you would play it, you would have to have some kind of a head's up, and people fall in
love with blindsides, so it's a very, very tricky thing to use.
Now how can you use it in a positive way? By giving it to someone who's on the outs, who you might be able to protect, to sneak in to the final four. And
that would have been what I would have done with Shambo in this situation. Because
the guys were like, "Cool, we'll just ride Shambo." Dave didn't like her at all. And so he was just like, "We'll burn her, no
problem. Bros before hos." So ideally we get down to the final four and there's Dave who wants to burn her. Everyone votes for her. I vote for her
too, but I give her the idol and tell her to play it and act like she found it herself. She plays it, stays in the game and then whoever she wants to go home
goes -- hopefully it wouldn't be me! -- and I would have her undying affection and loyalty for the rest of the game, which would only help me get to the
end - and her as well. And honestly, I'm not one of those guys who wanted to stand there with a weaker, inferior opponent that people hated. I wanted to
take people who I respected, people who were loyal and people who respected the game. If I had my choice, I would have taken Shambo, I would have taken Brett
and I would have taken Russell Swan. And maybe even Mick, if it had come down to a situation where he was still alive, because I thought that he was a pretty
standup dude. But I was very Galu first.
Erik: That's the tough part. Galu's totally wrong, and that's why I felt like, "It wasn't me! It was the one-armed bandit!" I felt like Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. Like, "You guys are wrong!" But when you make a decision and you come up with the idea and you enact the plan within five minutes, you don't really think it through. And I went from zero to supervillain… they actually had said, "Erik's the one who's trying to pull you into this tribe!" What? What? Are you kidding me? It just went from this idea, all from Natalie, of, "Hey, what do you think about writing Erik's name down?" to "Really? Erik's a snake? Erik's the one who's trying to poison us? Oh my god, we need to get him out of here!" It went from zero to sixty in five minutes, and the funny thing is he wants Monica gone… and if you watch the tape, when John tells me, "Oh no, it has to be Monica," I'm like, "I don't know about that, bro." But I went with it, because I was loyal to my guy alliance, and if that was the direction that we needed to go, that was the direction that we needed to go.
The only thing for me though was, "Don't jeopardize Galu to take out someone like Monica." If that's going to jeopardize Galu, then I'm not on it. But Monica did nothing. She was worthless to our camp. John knew it, I knew it, Russell Swan knew it. Everybody knew it. So you don't help yourself out in that situation because it's not like I would say, "Whoa, whoa, Monica? Are you serious? We can't do that to her!" Now the effort I put it I hoped would have elicited that kind of response, but it didn't either. So what are you going to do? The thing was, at that point it was more important to stay loyal and stay true to John and help him enact his plan and then somehow the target got painted on my back. And I think that there was some sort of confusion between whose plan it was, or whatever. But the thing was, Natalie couldn't get John, because he had the immunity idol. So when she walked into the shelter, if him and I are both on the same page, she's going to throw my name out there, because why not? And kudos to her for that. I didn't know that she said that and I still think it's bulls**t that my tribe bought into it. Listen, you're being sold something by a Foa Foa member! This is like the enemy walking up to your door and saying, "You should totally eat this candy apple. It's not poison! Trust me!" They go, "Oh, really? Delicious!" and just chomp it down and I'm gone. So kudos to her for coming up with the idea, but it's bulls**t that they would buy into it. If someone in Galu came up with the idea, then I could understand it, but when the enemy walks over and says, "Hey, what do you think about this?" and you sign those papers, what is wrong with you?
I didn't want the focus to be individual immunity. I wanted to remind people that we're still going after Foa Foa like that was the
plan. So I had no problem being arrogant and cocky against those guys, that was the plan. So when I saw four votes, I was like, "Those little bastards.
Okay, all right, do what you do. I like that." Then that fifth one comes up and I'm like, "What?" And then six and seven. I think around the
twenty eighth vote, I was like, "Oh, shit! This is really going down." And the poor thing, Shambo, sat next to me and she's going, "Oh no!
Oh no! Oh no!" the whole time, which was funny because she knew it was coming. But it still affected her as if she couldn't believe it. You got to
love her and her loyalty.
People who have the idols are more threats and are therefore more likely to be blindsided. So it's got to be a real pain in the ass for
CBS and the producers to figure out a way to use them better. If anything, I thought if I could continue to keep it invisible and make people think that it
never existed, nobody would look for it or have any clues for it, then nobody would suspect it. Also, I thought that I could just choose who I give it to and
help better my position by giving it to the proper person at the proper time, which at this point would've been Shambo. If we got to the final five, I
would've given her the idol so she'd be in the final four and make things good for her for the rest of the show.
So out of respect for the game and the way I wanted to play the game, and also, most importantly, out of respect for Russell Swan, I was like,
"No, we're putting the right foot on the pedal and we're putting it down to the metal and we're kicking your ass." It wasn't
personal. It was just the situation of the game that was called for and so I went after them like a bloodhound and I was like, "Let's go. Let's
go, get on my shoulders. I know Russell is gone but I will carry you. Lean on me, let's kick their ass." And I was focused.
I think he
was Ty Cobb of Survivor. It's like he steals second base. He didn't do it because he had a great jump or he's really fast, it was because the
pitcher made a bad throw or the catcher didn't throw down there. He stole second base because he went from first and stabbed the shortstop in the throat
[laughs]. The shortstop falls over, and he's bleeding from the throat and the ball rolls out, and this guy stands up on second base, bows his head, and
proclaims that he's the best second base stealer ever in the history of the game. Come on, that is bush league. Total bush league. He's the Ty Cobb of
Survivor. I don't respect the way he plays.
