Fear Factor Live

Monica and I went to Orlando, FL on vacation with my family this year. It was tons of fun! We hit up Daytona Beach, did A LOT of swimming and chilling by the pool, some shopping, and went to Universal Studios. While we were at Universal we noticed they have a Fear Factor Live show where people in the park are the contestants. Of course, right away I said to myself "I gotta do that!" So we showed up for the auditions and I got in! There were 9 of us that auditioned and they picked 5 of us to compete. I honestly didn't think I was gonna make it. Four of the guys that were auditioning obviously worked out, and I figured they'd get on. Two of them did, along with myself, a teacher, and a girl. They took us backstage, to get ready an hour before the show was going to start. We had to record our intro statement. Mine went as follows: "My name is Jeremy. I'm from St. Louis, MO. I'm going to win Fear Factor today because I have my best friend and biggest fan in the audience today, my wife. Gotta take it home for her. Love you babe!" Then they had to fit us for our spandex outfits and have us sign all the "I won't sue you if I die" forms. An interesting note: They informed us that underneath our spandex clothes, we could not wear our own underwear. They told us we would for sure be getting wet. Soooo, they gave us some awesome black paper tighty whitey style underwear to wear! It was hilarious! Those things were so ridiculous! lol!

After we had on our spandex shorts and shirt, and had our elbow pads, knee pads, and shoes (that I only know to describe as wet suit shoes because of the material) they took us to staging to go over the stunts again, for about the 4th time. They're very thorough! Then the show began! Whoo buddy was I nervous! Never been that nervous in my life, and I've been skydiving and all kinds of other crazy stuff! They brought us out and introduced us to the crowd. As they were harnessing us in for the first stunt they played our intro videos. The producers put the clips on a backdrop from the real Fear Factor show with the same music and everything! It was official buddy! The first stunt was an endurance stunt. We had to hang 40 feet in the air from a bent pull up bar with high speed wind blowing in our faces. I won!

The second stunt was a team stunt, 2 vs. 2. My teammate had to grab beanbags out of a tank full of eels and toss them to me while I was suspended 10 feet off the ground with a bucket to catch them in. We won that, but it didn't count. The 3rd stunt had me suspended 40 feet up again with 4 dead octopus. On go, they would release me and I would swing back and forth and my teammate had to catch the octopus in a bucket while he was strapped to the wall. He only had a 5 foot traveling radius. We won that stunt, which meant we would face each other in the final stunt! Yea buddy!!

The final stunt was the real deal legit fear factor stuff! We had to start by hopping onto crates and climbing the face of a building pulling 4 flags off of windows. Then at the top there was a flag with a key attached to it at the top of a fireman's pole. We had to grab the flag, slide down the fireman's pole and run to a yellow Fear Factor car. We had to jump in the back, climb to the front seat and put the key in the ignition and turn it. The car then would raise up 40 feet in the air and we had to climb out onto the hood to retrieve 3 flags on the cars bumper. Mind you, the car was hanging on roughly a 30 degree angle towards the front! After we pulled the flags we had to climb back in grab a fake rocket launcher from the backseat and shoot a target in the middle triggering a huge explosion! Oh and while we were climbing the side of the building, they were dumping ice cold water on us!

I know you're probably wondering by now, what place I came in. Well................I finished First Runner Up!!! Haha! Yea the other guy beat me. He was quick and had an FEV1 of way over 100%! It made me feel good to make it to the finals secretly knowing that my FEV1 was at 59% and I have CF. Of course I didn't tell anyone that, A) for fear the producers would freak out and not let me compete, and B) because I don't want or need a crutch to lean on, or special treatment. Living proof CF doesn't have to affect things you do, even when your PFT's aren't the best! If you're a CFer or even someone who tells themselves "I can't do that" a lot, get out of your own head and get out there and DO IT! Live life and enjoy it!

I put together a video of some pics and video clips Monica was able to get! My iPhone was all she had to use and the memory filled up right away, so she was trying to delete other stuff and video. Poor Monica! She didn't get my intro video, but got quite a bit! Enjoy!