Kel and his parents at Fredericton Airport
Back in the mid 80's while attending Fredericton High School I recall hanging out with Kel a few times and always remembered him as a very nice guy. I had not spoken to or seen him in over fifteen years, so it came as quite a shock to me when he popped up on the Survivor show. On a recent trip back home to Fredericton to address the FHS graduation class, I was one of the many people, included family, friends, fans and journalists who was present at the airport to welcome him home that day. Here is the interview that was conducted by myself and other members of the media.
Q - Have you gotten used to all the attention yet?
A- Well this would be my 458th interview that I have done. (laughs) Ya I've gotten used to the interview part, that's fine. What I'm not used to is people going through my garbage or camping out on my front lawn or getting crank phone calls at night. That's the weird part of it. I don't think anyone can get used to that, no matter how many times I change my phone number or what, people are going to be able to find out somehow. I've gotten used to it. It has gotten better. When I first started this whole thing, I was averaging one thousand letters and email's a day from all over the world, because the show's all over the world. Sometimes I can't even understand what I am reading cause it's in Chinese or Hebrew or a different languages. It's crazy for me. I got a room in my house where I just keep the mail. I haven't opened it. Right now I'm working on the email from March 29th. I'm still way behind in answering it. If someone took the time to write to me I'm going to try to take the time to write back to them. It's a long process. I don't know if I can do it all.
Q- Has coming home made you feel more grounded?
A- Yea it has. It is very good for me to come to Fredericton. It tells you where you come from and I need that, to see my roots. Seeing yourself on TV is a very humbling experience. I am very proud to be from Fredericton. This city has been very good to me and it's good to be back home.
Q- What are you going to tell the students at Fredericton High School?
A- I know that when I was eighteen I was very confused. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I had a lot of questions and a lot of ideas and I know that not all those kids have their lives planned out, and I want to tell them it's ok to have questions. It's ok to make mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've had a lot of setbacks and a lot of hard times. Whether it be in the military or on Survivor or in college. It took me a log time to get through college. I think sometimes when kids see all these interviews and see me on TV, everything seems so easy and it's always been a success story for this guy. I've had hard times. I've been in Bosnia for seven months with the military and that tore me apart. The way things when on Survivor was hard too. A good thing for me was that I had a lot of people supporting me, and that meant a lot to me. I was amazed at how smart the American public was in saying, I don't believe the aspiring actress as there is no way that could have happened. It would be really hard for me to go through life knowing the public believes the aspiring actress and they don't believe me. I don't know if I could have dealt with that. I guess that's one of the drawbacks to reality television, as your whole life becomes on display. There is so much stuff on the Internet about me. I get on the Internet and see some ex-girlfriend has gone on there and they talk about me. My whole life has been on display.
Q - How does that effect your career?
A- Well I'll no longer be doing covert op's. (laughs) Those days of me meeting people in the bars and developing contacts and relationships and trying to cooperate them to give me information are over with. And I knew that right from day one from the moment my face was on that TV it was game over for me, because I'd never be able to do it again. But there are other things you can do besides doing human intelligence. and that's what I was doing before. Developing contacts. Now what we can do is imagery intelligence. We track people and vehicles by Satellites. Or we can do signal intelligence, where we tap into the communications of the enemy so my face doesn't have to be seen. I can still do my job, but not as glamorous as it used to be before. I'm behind a computer now.
Q - Yes, but you still have the glamor?
A - (laughs) What is glamor? I don't know what that is, what is it? It's hard for me, because one day I was a normal person and all of a sudden... When I was walking the streets of Puerto Rico when I was judging the Miss Universe Pageant it's just like a mob scene. I don't understand walking in different airports and people knowing more about me than I know about them. It's weird for an intelligence officer. I led a very private life before I ever did this. It's strange because I'm still getting used to it. It's odd, people phoning me in the middle of the night around the clock and asking questing about me.
Q - Do you like the attention?
A- Yes because it has been positive. If it had been negative like say everyone believed Jerry that would have been my worst nightmare. People are smart enough to know when they see BS and when they see the truth and it's been really good. I'm really thankful for that and the media has been really helpful, cause the media can see though that as well.
Q- Will surviving survivor be the hard part?
A - Marilyn always said that surviving Survivor might be one of the harder things to do. Look at Debbie Eaton, she has been really torn apart by the media. She has had a really hard time with the National Enquirer and all the other tabloids as they really tore her apart. They've gone after Colby, Tina and after a lot of the Survivors. It doesn't matter when you get voted off. No matter where Deb goes she will be know for what the National Enquirer put in the paper about her and that's wrong.
Q- If you had to do it over again would you do it?
A - Yes I would do it over again. Would I play it any differently, I don't know if I could. It was really had for me to step out of being that military guy, as the military ingrained me so hard no to lie cheat or backstab, so it would be really hard for me to play that game any differently. I wouldn't feel natural. I felt like I was a representative for the United States Army and I was. Part of the reason why the army let me do it is because they want to see you go out there and play the game but they don't want to see you lying, cheating or backstabbing. That's not what the army is about, and we don't want you representing the army like that. I'm very appreciative that, because the army let me do this. Once they heard I was doing Survivor, they said go for it, do it, we want you to have fun and a good time, but remember who you are and where you come from.
Q - Have you had many movie or commercial offers?
A - I have had a lot of offers to do a lot of different stuff. Right now I am tied up with the Military and I enjoy it but I plan on getting out in mid September and moving on to Toronto. I was going to go to LA as that is where my publicist and my agent want me to go but my heart is in Canada. I don't want to go to LA. I've been to LA. It's a nice city but it's not me. I love Toronto. It's a great city and lots of opportunities for me to do so I'm going to go after them.
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