« Interview with Contestants from The Voice! | Home | America’s Next Top Model: Kasia Talks About Being A Plus-Sized Model »
The Amazing Race: Kent And Vyxsin Address The Fight With The Globetrotters
May 04, 2011 04:00 PM by Allyson Wells
Dating goth couple Kent and Vyxsin were eliminated from The Amazing Race for failing to properly read a clue. The goths were a controversial team this season, as they only incurred a thirty minute penalty for missing a mandatory flight that only left once a day. They also got into a fight with popular Harlem Globetrotter Team, Flight Time and Big Easy over a stolen chocolate mold. Kent and Vyxsin address their version of the fight in Switzerland, and all that bickering they did.
Question: Why did you decide to return to the race for a second time?
Kent: Actually there was a bunch of other reasons than the million dollars. My big motivation was to pay tribute to my dad, who passed away shortly before we left for this. That was a far more motivating factor for me than the money because I thought the longer I could stay on the race, the more chances I would have to talk about him. Sadly, not a lot of that made the edit of the show – I guess there is only so much time – but there are some moments when they show me reflecting on him in the CBS Insider videos.
Question: What did you learn from the first race that you brought with you this time around?
Kent: The first time we learned not to overpack. We way overpacked for the first race! Far too many outfits, too much make-up! Our backpacks were just ridiculous! Going into this for a second time, we both felt more stressed than the first. The first time, I felt like we – and many other teams – went into it with a blissful naivety. Everyone thinks they will win and think, ‘Hey, I’ve seen it on TV. I can do that. I know how to book a flight’. But once you’ve done it, you know how rigorous and brutal it can be and you know how bad the sting of elimination feels. So I felt more pressure this time.
Question: What happened at the Roadblock? We were never conclusively shown what happened.
Vysxin: All I know is I didn’t take Flight Time’s mold. Either he forgot where he put his or somebody else took it. I don’t know. Honestly, those guys — Flight Time, Big Easy, Jen, Kisha, Gary and Mallory — are kind of a trifecta. Obviously, you don’t want to think your friends made a mistake. It’s easier to think the weird girl with pink hair made a mistake. What happened happened, but I know I didn’t do anything wrong. We don’t play minds games. We don’t actually try to hurt other people or mess with other people. We just do the task.
Question: Flight Time seemed to get over it, but Big Easy made a bigger deal out of it.
Kent: They were very appalling. That showed me a lot about their true colors. They’re the “kick you when you’re down” kind of guys. To harp on her over and over again — let’s face the facts here: This is the second race where the Globetrotters have only advanced by bullying a woman. In their own season, they bullied Mika at the slide challenge, bringing her to tears. Now, they’re bullying Vyxsin relentlessly. You saw in the episode — she never shot back at them and they kept going. That’s pretty disgusting for a couple guys running around in jerseys like they’re all-American heroes.
Vyxsin: That task took almost three hours. It wasn’t one comment. It was hours of just deep voice “Hey Vxysin, how’s it going?” and hollering at me. By the end of it, I was so bombarded with negativity and hostility and I just didn’t know what to do with it. It’s like, that’s high school — athletes are picking on me! Having said that, it’s fair to psyche someone out. There’s nothing in the rules of the Race that says you can’t psyche someone out. Unfortunately for me and our team, I was psyche-out-able that day.
Question: Were you friendly with them? Before this episode, we never saw you guys fighting.
Vyxsin: Honestly, my experience of racing with them was really positive up until then. They’re the kind of guys where when you have to sleep on the streets of India, they’re like, “Cool! Let’s make it fun! We’ll play basketball!” I think that was part of what was so disturbing because it was so out of the blue. I didn’t think of them as villainous. I thought they were cool and funny.
Kent: On our very first flight, I went up to the Globetrotters and told them stories of my dad taking me to Globetrotter games when I was a kid and how much I liked them. We really tried to reach out to them. I noticed that they were still kind of cold to us. They weren’t directly mean until the end, but I always felt kind of a cold shoulder for whatever reason. I looked up to them like real-life heroes, but to see the way they’ll throw you under the bus is disconcerting, especially when you’ve been a fan of theirs.
Question 
id they have any effect on you misreading the Pit Stop clue?
Kent: At the end of the day, it was our mistake misreading the clue. We have to own up to that. It’s my fault; it’s Vyxsin’s fault. But being harassed by the Globetrotters did put us at a moment of mental duress. Everything felt like it was spinning at we left the Roadblock. Those guys are big, loud and intimidating. … For the record, I have nothing but respect for the Globetrotters organization. I think they’re great. But I think Flight Sleazy and Big Temper are two very bad examples of what a Globetrotter should be. You don’t intimidate and harass girls. I’m sorry. That’s not cool.
Question:What were you thinking when you were assessed the penalty?
Vyxsin: It was really weird because in the taxi, I just had a bad feeling. Poor Kent is like, “Be positive.” I had enough intuition to know something was wrong, but not enough brain power to know what exactly it was. Phil had this look in his eye that wasn’t congratulatory and I was like, “Aww, man. What did we do?” Obviously we weren’t trying to cheat. It took us 45 minutes to get a cab! [Laughs] We worked really hard to get that cab. It was a very deep and sinking and horrible feeling.
Question: Did you not notice the other teams weren’t getting into taxis?
Vyxsin: That’s a good question. We saw them running towards taxis but they were being smart and doing it to ask for directions. We were running at the taxi to get into it.
Kent: A couple of other teams, if you saw, almost made the same error but the other partner noticed and said, ‘Let’s not do that’. We were just so used to that. Time to get to the pitstop? Grab a cab. It was like an Amazing Race standard, but we have no-one to blame but ourselves.
Question: How much time was left when Zev and Justin arrived?
Vyxsin: Less than 10 minutes. Even without the penalty, they were close. I’ll tell you, other teams throughout the Race tended to not be very celebratory of Zev’s abilities. There was a lot of “Justin’s doing all the Roadblocks,” “Justin’s carrying the team,” “Justin’s so smart.” Zev is a strong racer. People thought, “Oh, he’s got to do the chocolate challenge, he won’t be that great.” Zev is a very cool guy. He was the last one done, but he was the last one done by minutes. They were right on our tails. I have to compliment them as Racers. I think they get the short end of the stick. I think people don’t understand how good they are and strong they are.
Question: Kent, why did you need Vyxsin to pull you in the cart last week?
Kent: During Leg 5 in Kumming, China, I fell off the ladder during the dinosaur-building task and cracked my third rib on my right side. It was a slight crack; it wasn’t broken, but it’s still a painful injury to have when you’re expected to lift couches. I intentionally hid my injury from everyone — from the teams, Race medics, from Vyxsin. I just taped up and we almost always did well. The comedic moment of Vyxsin pulling me in the cart epitomizes why our team works. Yeah, we fought and argued, but so do other teams. Being a great team isn’t about both people being 100 percent perfect and invincible at all times. Being a great team is about taking care of one another. When one person is down, help them get back up. Vyxsin had a bad moment with the scuba gear. I took her to the side and told her to keep calm. She took care of me here.
Question: Did you guys really bicker constantly like it seemed on the race?
Vyxsin: Kent and I are best friends and soul mates and we’ve known each other for a long time. We, unfortunately, can turn into a brotherly/sisterly relationship when we aren’t feeling good. So for Kent that’s when he hasn’t slept or if he’s hurt, for me it’s when I haven’t eaten. Our MO and way of living is about being positive and loving and happy and joyful. We can only do that to a certain point and when the exhaustion starts setting in, we’re not perfect. Sorry!
Kent: We did have our moments during the heat of the race when we were bickering. But it’s not personal, it was always like, ‘Vyxsin you get the luggage. No, you get it’. ‘You climb up the ladder. No, you climb up the ladder’. When we made it to the mat we were always hugging each other and congratulating each other.
Question: What are you up to now?
Kent: We’re still in Los Angeles. We’re working in modeling assistance. I always like to say that the Pink and Black Attack will never stop racing. … The Amazing Race is amazing therapy. Afterwards, you learn a lot about yourself. There are moments, I’ll watch and I’m super proud of myself. And there are moments where I’m thinking, “Oh, gosh, why am I doing that?” That’s good to self-critique. We’re all not perfect.
Vyxsin: People say, “Oh, you didn’t win the million.” Sorry, we got to be part of something so incredible, so inspiring and so challenging and we got to do it twice. Our passports are full of all kinds of cool locations and stamps that they never would’ve had if not were The Amazing Race. It’s opened doors for us. It’s given us lifelong experiences. We’re super-duper grateful to have been part of it. We have a priceless life experience.
What did you think of their comments? Do you think the Globetrotters were bullies or do you think the goths overreacted? I think the best line of this season was when Zev saw all of the snow in Switzerland and remarked, “I wonder if all the snow will melt the goths’ eyebrows off.” I do think it was interesting that Kent hid his injuries-now I can understand why he was cranky.
Want more? Follow our tweets on Twitter and “like” us on Facebook! For other great The Amazing Race news, please feel free to check out SirLinksALot: Amazing Race and then come and discuss the show on our reality TV message boards.
For more breaking news about celebrities and entertainment visit our sister site SheKnows.com!
Photo Credit: CBS
Topics: Amazing Race, CBS Reality TV Shows |
« Interview with Contestants from The Voice! | Home | America’s Next Top Model: Kasia Talks About Being A Plus-Sized Model »
