Post by Cruise meerkat Youssy on Feb 21, 2018 19:18:41 GMT -5
Bryan: What are you doing and where are you living now?
Connor: I’m an actor, educator, and cosplayer based in Chicago. I travel around a lot performing and teaching classes for the military and various colleges, but when I’m in Chicago, I perform with my cosplay collective GeekHaus. I do a lot of costuming, makeup, and comedy writing.
Bryan: Throwing it back - what was the Endurance audition process like? How did you find out about the show?
Connor: I found out about the show through watching Season 1 with my sister. I think we knew Sabrina or had met her at some point because she was from the Houston area, which is where I grew up. My sister, Abbey, then auditioned to be on Season 2 and was cast. I got to go with her to La Paz when she was filming, but obviously we all know how that went.
After Season 2 I auditioned pretty consistently until I was cast on Season 6. I was really into video editing and film making at the time (as much as a 15 year old can be) and fancied myself quite the auteur, so each year I really put a lot of time in my tape. I guess the whole family did actually. It was a fun project to work on and if it went well we all ended up with a free vacation—really a win win situation. I remember being pretty jaded about my Season 6 tape because I was pretty convinced they weren’t interested in having me on the show. I decided to just do whatever the hell I wanted to and sent them kind of a strange tape. I remember the final shot was me standing under an umbrella in the front yard of my house on a sunny day. My dad was up in a tree out of frame and he dumped a big bag of McDonald’s ball-pit balls on top of me. I played it in slow motion with my contact information superimposed thinking I was the Queen of Art. I wonder if I still have a copy somewhere…
I think there was a phone interview or two after that but I’m old now and can’t really remember what that was like or if it actually happened. The hardest part was after I’d been cast. You can’t tell anyone what’s going on and then you disappear for two weeks—which happened to be the first two weeks of my Sophomore year of high school. There was a rumor that I got cast in the next High School Musical movie which was way cooler than what I was actually doing.
Bryan: Was being on a televised competition more difficult or different than you expected?
Connor: Yeah totally. I didn’t expect to get so emotional on TV and I remember being really nervous about that as a 15 year old kid. Everyone on a reality show is always like IM NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w536Alnon24) but I think I really was. The way I saw it, I just got cast on a TV show and got a free vacation to Fiji who gives a s--- about winning! Other people, obviously, felt differently. It was definitely surprising to me how people were reacting to the competition.
Bryan: Who were you closest to while on the show? Who did you keep in contact with most after the show?
Connor: On the show I was closest to Ben and Jordyn for sure. Hannah and Leslie as well. I actually met Leslie when Season 2 was being filmed in Mexico—we were both the random little siblings just there to snorkel and eat our weight in beans and cheese (speaking for myself). I kept in good contact with them all for a couple years after the show but it kinda dwindled later on.
Bryan: Do you STILL keep in contact with anyone? Lastly, is there anyone you WISH you still kept in touch with?
Connor: Occasionally I’ll message Ben and Hannah about silly things that happen in life (like being asked to do an Endurance-related interview!!), and I think I’m friends with everyone online. There’s the occasional Facebook stuff that happens, but other than that not really. Sure, I wish that I’d kept in better contact with the people I got close too but it’s not like I’m over here pining. I think if we met up in a bar someday we’d all be still able to have a really killer night.
Bryan: How has Endurance affected you and/or your life? What is the most important lesson you learned from Endurance?
Connor: I think it’s all been a really humbling experience. When we first showed up in Fiji, we had a group meeting with our parents and the producers and everybody. JD gave this big overblown speech about how this was the pivotal moment in our young lives—“your life will now be ‘Before Endurance’ and ‘After Endurance.’’ And I really bought into that in many ways, thinking that this was really going to be it for me. I thought that people were going to care more than they did. I remember being disappointed when I realized that not many people that I knew really watched the show or really gave a s---. My friends and family were all very supportive, but at this point I had some really big dreams about being a professional actor and Endurance served to both inflate those dreams and then pop them like a big nasty zit. It’s funny to look back and think that this show was somehow supposed to change my life when it’s now essentially my default for two truths and a lie.
Most important lessons from the show:
Don’t get caught up in your own fake hype.
Hot Human s--- is one of the most vile smells on the planet.
I hate rock paper scissors.
Bryan: If you could do Endurance again, would you? Is there anything you would change if you did it again?
Connor: Yes duh I would do it again. Who wouldn’t go disturb a sacred native island for the chance to live in a tree house and drink boxed milk?! I think if we were presented the same situation I would play a bolder game, and get a few more good confessional one-liners in. I was so afraid of rocking the boat because I didn’t want to make myself a target, but in the end that feels like what sent us home.
And also I’d take off that stupid bandana necklace that I thought was the height of fashion.
Bryan: How did you feel about the way you were portrayed on the show? Was it accurate or not?
Connor: LOL. Yes I thought it was very accurate, in a painful way. I feel like it shows me as a jovial, sensitive, and naïve 15 year old who has clearly been watching too much reality TV. A couple of years ago a friend of mine sent me a clip from the show that I had completely forgotten about. In the clip I’m pretty clearly dissatisfied with how Brianna is dealing with the whole partner situation. I turn to camera and say “I thought Brianna was being shallow and inconsiderate and I thought she needed to know” which is like the most high school thing that anyone can say ever, besides “can I borrow your cap eraser” and “I love Good Charlotte.” It's fun to see how much I was living for the drama and how much I loved sharing my opinion and how much that maybe hasn’t changed.
Bryan: Were you a fan of Endurance before being on the show?
Connor: Yeah, not a religious zealot of a fan, but I definitely watched the show. Especially with the whole sister thing, the show really was a pretty prominent part of my childhood.
Bryan: Though it's been a long time since the show, are there any moments from your Endurance experience that stand out in your mind? What was your best memory or experience from the show? Do you have a worst one?
Connor: One of my favorite memories from the experience was a couple days before filming started. All the contestants and families were staying on a resort island before we shipped off to the actual island. It was really clear who was a contestant, but we weren’t allowed to talk to each other. We all kept trying to devise secret ways of communicating without the producers catching us. We’d be standing in the ocean 10 feet away from each other trying to whisper a greeting without being seen by the producers, who in all reality were off drunk somewhere drinking out a coconut.
Oh! Also there was one day off during filming and our New Zealander triathlete chaparones could not be bothered to care, so Ben and Jordyn and I went exploring on the island. We ended up getting chased by mountain goats and almost falling off a few cliffs. Pretty fun day.
Worst moment is probably elimination. I hated being in the temple with the blue team, who were clearly the coolest people on the island. And to make matters worse, after we were eliminated some of the producers pulled me aside and told me I made great TV and that they wish thing had gone the other way. The were of course trying to cheer me up, but to an egomaniac like myself it really just made things worse.
Bryan: Are there any non-invasive ways for fans of the show to contact you?
Connor: If you say my name into a dark mirror and spin around I’m pretty good about showing up. If that doesn’t work, all my social media is public. You’re welcome to shoot me a message but I’m not really here to make friends. JK, hit me up and I’ll do my best to respond. Also on Tindr.
Thanks Connor for the awesome interview! We love the detail and personality he put into his responses! If you'd like to get in touch with Connor, you can contact him through his Facebook (link) or follow him on Twitter or Instagram, but please be respectful as always. Thanks again, Connor!
Connor: I’m an actor, educator, and cosplayer based in Chicago. I travel around a lot performing and teaching classes for the military and various colleges, but when I’m in Chicago, I perform with my cosplay collective GeekHaus. I do a lot of costuming, makeup, and comedy writing.
Bryan: Throwing it back - what was the Endurance audition process like? How did you find out about the show?
Connor: I found out about the show through watching Season 1 with my sister. I think we knew Sabrina or had met her at some point because she was from the Houston area, which is where I grew up. My sister, Abbey, then auditioned to be on Season 2 and was cast. I got to go with her to La Paz when she was filming, but obviously we all know how that went.
After Season 2 I auditioned pretty consistently until I was cast on Season 6. I was really into video editing and film making at the time (as much as a 15 year old can be) and fancied myself quite the auteur, so each year I really put a lot of time in my tape. I guess the whole family did actually. It was a fun project to work on and if it went well we all ended up with a free vacation—really a win win situation. I remember being pretty jaded about my Season 6 tape because I was pretty convinced they weren’t interested in having me on the show. I decided to just do whatever the hell I wanted to and sent them kind of a strange tape. I remember the final shot was me standing under an umbrella in the front yard of my house on a sunny day. My dad was up in a tree out of frame and he dumped a big bag of McDonald’s ball-pit balls on top of me. I played it in slow motion with my contact information superimposed thinking I was the Queen of Art. I wonder if I still have a copy somewhere…
I think there was a phone interview or two after that but I’m old now and can’t really remember what that was like or if it actually happened. The hardest part was after I’d been cast. You can’t tell anyone what’s going on and then you disappear for two weeks—which happened to be the first two weeks of my Sophomore year of high school. There was a rumor that I got cast in the next High School Musical movie which was way cooler than what I was actually doing.
Bryan: Was being on a televised competition more difficult or different than you expected?
Connor: Yeah totally. I didn’t expect to get so emotional on TV and I remember being really nervous about that as a 15 year old kid. Everyone on a reality show is always like IM NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w536Alnon24) but I think I really was. The way I saw it, I just got cast on a TV show and got a free vacation to Fiji who gives a s--- about winning! Other people, obviously, felt differently. It was definitely surprising to me how people were reacting to the competition.
Bryan: Who were you closest to while on the show? Who did you keep in contact with most after the show?
Connor: On the show I was closest to Ben and Jordyn for sure. Hannah and Leslie as well. I actually met Leslie when Season 2 was being filmed in Mexico—we were both the random little siblings just there to snorkel and eat our weight in beans and cheese (speaking for myself). I kept in good contact with them all for a couple years after the show but it kinda dwindled later on.
Bryan: Do you STILL keep in contact with anyone? Lastly, is there anyone you WISH you still kept in touch with?
Connor: Occasionally I’ll message Ben and Hannah about silly things that happen in life (like being asked to do an Endurance-related interview!!), and I think I’m friends with everyone online. There’s the occasional Facebook stuff that happens, but other than that not really. Sure, I wish that I’d kept in better contact with the people I got close too but it’s not like I’m over here pining. I think if we met up in a bar someday we’d all be still able to have a really killer night.
Bryan: How has Endurance affected you and/or your life? What is the most important lesson you learned from Endurance?
Connor: I think it’s all been a really humbling experience. When we first showed up in Fiji, we had a group meeting with our parents and the producers and everybody. JD gave this big overblown speech about how this was the pivotal moment in our young lives—“your life will now be ‘Before Endurance’ and ‘After Endurance.’’ And I really bought into that in many ways, thinking that this was really going to be it for me. I thought that people were going to care more than they did. I remember being disappointed when I realized that not many people that I knew really watched the show or really gave a s---. My friends and family were all very supportive, but at this point I had some really big dreams about being a professional actor and Endurance served to both inflate those dreams and then pop them like a big nasty zit. It’s funny to look back and think that this show was somehow supposed to change my life when it’s now essentially my default for two truths and a lie.
Most important lessons from the show:
Don’t get caught up in your own fake hype.
Hot Human s--- is one of the most vile smells on the planet.
I hate rock paper scissors.
Bryan: If you could do Endurance again, would you? Is there anything you would change if you did it again?
Connor: Yes duh I would do it again. Who wouldn’t go disturb a sacred native island for the chance to live in a tree house and drink boxed milk?! I think if we were presented the same situation I would play a bolder game, and get a few more good confessional one-liners in. I was so afraid of rocking the boat because I didn’t want to make myself a target, but in the end that feels like what sent us home.
And also I’d take off that stupid bandana necklace that I thought was the height of fashion.
Bryan: How did you feel about the way you were portrayed on the show? Was it accurate or not?
Connor: LOL. Yes I thought it was very accurate, in a painful way. I feel like it shows me as a jovial, sensitive, and naïve 15 year old who has clearly been watching too much reality TV. A couple of years ago a friend of mine sent me a clip from the show that I had completely forgotten about. In the clip I’m pretty clearly dissatisfied with how Brianna is dealing with the whole partner situation. I turn to camera and say “I thought Brianna was being shallow and inconsiderate and I thought she needed to know” which is like the most high school thing that anyone can say ever, besides “can I borrow your cap eraser” and “I love Good Charlotte.” It's fun to see how much I was living for the drama and how much I loved sharing my opinion and how much that maybe hasn’t changed.
Bryan: Were you a fan of Endurance before being on the show?
Connor: Yeah, not a religious zealot of a fan, but I definitely watched the show. Especially with the whole sister thing, the show really was a pretty prominent part of my childhood.
Bryan: Though it's been a long time since the show, are there any moments from your Endurance experience that stand out in your mind? What was your best memory or experience from the show? Do you have a worst one?
Connor: One of my favorite memories from the experience was a couple days before filming started. All the contestants and families were staying on a resort island before we shipped off to the actual island. It was really clear who was a contestant, but we weren’t allowed to talk to each other. We all kept trying to devise secret ways of communicating without the producers catching us. We’d be standing in the ocean 10 feet away from each other trying to whisper a greeting without being seen by the producers, who in all reality were off drunk somewhere drinking out a coconut.
Oh! Also there was one day off during filming and our New Zealander triathlete chaparones could not be bothered to care, so Ben and Jordyn and I went exploring on the island. We ended up getting chased by mountain goats and almost falling off a few cliffs. Pretty fun day.
Worst moment is probably elimination. I hated being in the temple with the blue team, who were clearly the coolest people on the island. And to make matters worse, after we were eliminated some of the producers pulled me aside and told me I made great TV and that they wish thing had gone the other way. The were of course trying to cheer me up, but to an egomaniac like myself it really just made things worse.
Bryan: Are there any non-invasive ways for fans of the show to contact you?
Connor: If you say my name into a dark mirror and spin around I’m pretty good about showing up. If that doesn’t work, all my social media is public. You’re welcome to shoot me a message but I’m not really here to make friends. JK, hit me up and I’ll do my best to respond. Also on Tindr.
Thanks Connor for the awesome interview! We love the detail and personality he put into his responses! If you'd like to get in touch with Connor, you can contact him through his Facebook (link) or follow him on Twitter or Instagram, but please be respectful as always. Thanks again, Connor!
