Few players are met with the kind of pre-game hype that Max was. Many couldn't wait for him to fail, since there would be nothing more enticing to an internet troll than to jump on a "Survivor Professor" who failed at the game. There were many of us though on the other side of the spectrum, those of us who expected to see great things from a so-called "expert" of the game. Max definitely knows Survivor, although he was not shown to really know the game, if you catch my meaning.
Max immediately was portrayed as more aloof and eccentric than he was maniacal or calculating. He swam naked in the ocean as an homage to Richard Hatch and often made references to the fact that he was living out his life-long dream of being on Survivor. In some ways, it seems like he was overwhelmed and distracted by the fact that he was on the show, instead of actually taking this incredible opportunity to play the game. Even still, Max appeared to start off in a somewhat good position, playing a part in voting out So Kim and being aligned with the right people.
But along the way, he ended up aligning himself way too closely to Shirin, who increasingly became seen as completely annoying. He didn't seem to mind, or if he did, he wasn't shown doing so. Carolyn had set her sights on him even before the tribal shake-up, and she became the devil in disguise for Max's game when she was placed on Max and Shirin's tribe post shake-up. Max surprisingly didn't have the awareness to consider that Carolyn may flip, or that Shirin was rubbing people the wrong way, or to pretty much catch anything that was working against him in the game. He was shown only as wanting to swim, and it didn't help him with his tribe when he got stung by stingrays and had to use the tribe's clean water pot to soak his feet.
Carolyn eventually did flip on Max, and he was voted out of the game pre-merge. I spoke with Max today about his time in the game, the hype surrounding his performance and what the reaction has been from the Survivor community.
Max Dawson: Hey Tom, what's going on man?
Tom Santilli, Survivor Examiner: Max! Good to talk to you. So not many people come into the game of Survivor with the level of pre-game hype and high expectation as you did. There was a lot made about your Survivor knowledge, you being big in the Survivor online community, and the fact that you taught a college class on Survivor. So people obviously expected you to do great things. Did you feel this abnormal, additional amount of pressure coming into the game, that the other players maybe didn't have to deal with?
Max: Definitely. I felt like I had high expectations and the sort of expectations that are typical reserved for returning players. Simply on account of the fact that a number of them knew who I was. New players when they play Survivor, unless I guess they've been on The Amazing Race, typically do so from a standpoint of relative anonymity. They have no past history with the show and nothing but the opportunity to prove to the world why they deserve to be there. I had the opportunity on the other hand, to prove to everybody why I didn't deserve to be there. So I did feel like it was a tough position to be in. Also, in the past with the quote-unquote "stunt" casting with like Jeff Kent or Lisa Welchel, they managed to maintain their anonymity within the game, for a pretty significant period of time in the game. I was recognized immediately. Within five minutes of the game starting, So Kim came up to me while we were alone and said I know who you are, I know what you know and I know what you're capable of. So that was kind of a tough place to start out the game from. Not only knowing the expectations that would be placed on me back home, but on the island I had people who had essentially thought that I was some sort of Survivor genius, and they were going to play the game with me or against me accordingly.
Tom Santilli: Tell me about who you were prior to playing Survivor. Would you have described yourself as a "Survivor Genius"? Did you have a cockiness that some have (who have never played the game) that you would do awesome if ever given the chance?
Max: No not at all. I went in the game totally cognizant of the fact that many of the assets that have made me successful in my life could potentially factor against me in the game. The Type A, driven personality that is a necessity for being successful in the world of Acadamia and the world of business, often translates poorly when you're out on the island. You're seen as being pushy, bossy, domineering, an asshole, and get voted out for it. I also knew that the passion I had for Survivor wouldn't be shared by all of my fellow contestants. There would be people out there who couldn't care less about my love for the game. They're just going to say hey, this guy knows more than me, he's a threat. I came into this game with the idea that I was either going to be the first boot, or that I was going to be the last boot before the Final Three. Because either people were going to see me as dangerous on account of my Survivor knowledge, or I was going to slip by and not be much of a physical threat, and a big enough goofball to be seen as someone who wasn't a real social threat. Then people would get to the end and realize that the last thing they want to do is to give any sort of speech before or after a guy with a PhD, and a guy who has a career in talking, not just about Survivor, but about things I'm passionate about.
Tom Santilli: And I'm sure that because of how passionate you are about Survivor, there was no chance that you could have come into the game with the strategy that you were going to somehow downplay your Survivor smarts.
Max: Well there was no chance after So basically came up to me and held it up against me like a gun that she would fire if I didn't vote her way. In terms of why So went home first, it wasn't because she was an unpleasant person. So Kim was a very, very adept Survivor contestant. She was someone who know how to play this game, and who is someone that I thought would be my biggest rival as far as creating multiple alliances within my tribe. At one point I had a relationship with everyone in the tribe and So did too. And I didn't like that. But given that So had essentially said I know who you are and I'm going to use this against you if you don't come along with me, I felt like, well, why hide it? Why conceal who I am? Why not embrace it? Why not try to get people enthusiastic? But never during the 11 days I was with the white collar tribe, do I feel like my Survivor fandom or my background worked against me. There were other things that worked against me. Like the fact that Carolyn didn't understand how me and Shirin had used her as a decoy to blindside So. After that vote, Carolyn was very disturbed that her name had been written down twice. And she went to Joaquin and asked why did you write my name down? And Joaquin said, because Max told me to. After that moment on, Carolyn had it in her head that not only was I untrustworthy, but that I was some sort of Jimmy Jones-like master-manipulator, who had an endless supply of Kool-Aid that I was using to pull fast ones on the slower-witted members of our tribe. Add to that that Carolyn had some personal issues with Shirin, that pretty much destroyed what I had thought would have been a 39 day alliance.
Tom Santilli: We have all heard you taught a course on Survivor, but not many of us know much more than that. Can you tell me about this class and what you teach?
Max: The funny thing is that people thought the class was about how to make a fire using flint, or how to orchestrate the greatest blindside, or what you can eat out in the wild. The class was just a history of Reality Television and its impact on American popular culture, told through the lens of a case study on Survivor. I was passionate about the show and looking for a way to spice up a class I had taught every year, so I just said here's how we're going to do it! We're going to learn about Reality TV by studying Survivor, by studying its history, the impact it had on American TV and American pop culture. And to make it a little bit more fun for me, we are going to play Survivor in the classroom. I divided up the class into four tribes, they competed against each other in our weekly quizzes. The outcome of those quizzes would determine which tribe was immune from the mid-term exam, and if your tribe did the best on the weekly quizzes, you'd get an automatic A on the mid-term. And we would have past Survivor contestants come in and talk about what it's like to be on a Reality TV show. So how will this experience impact my teaching? My left my professorship two years ago to accept a position as a consultant and researcher in the television industry. Right now I work with major cable networks and devise Reality TV programming strategies. Pretty much every major network is currently on my client list. In terms of how my time on Survivor may impact my current job, it just gives us something fun to talk about, when we kick off a meeting and I tell them about new programming research we've done for them.
Tom Santilli: And these clients are probably extremely happy to know that you are wearing clothes at these meetings, I'd imagine...
Max: Well hey listen. Some people have actually started requesting that I come to these meetings in my Survivor garb, with just a pair of yellow sneakers and a buff around my neck and nothing else. What can I say, I have to give the people what they want.
Tom Santilli: (Laughs) Fantastic. So forgive me for saying this, but I feel like you were portrayed as a super-fan on the show, who was just awe-struck and happy to be on the show, as opposed to a super-fan who came in ready to apply their knowledge and win the game. Do you feel that your love of Survivor may have gotten in the way of your ability to actually play Survivor?
Max: I think it might have. Had I not had in Shirin this amazing kindred-spirit, I would have had nowhere to vent that excitement and the awe that I was experiencing, and as a result I might have been a little more low-key and less on the radar than people who get annoyed by people who are really excited to be playing Survivor. In all honesty, I knew that in-depth Survivor knowledge was something that could identify you as being a threat. I never thought that extreme passion for Survivor would elicit disdain from other people who have self-identified as life-long Survivor fans. To me, being out there on Survivor, yes, it's important to keep in check your excitement when you see Jeff Probst or walking into Tribal Council. And I think I did a decent job of doing that. But when you are spending tedious hours around the campfire and all the work has been done, Idols have been searched for, what do you do? You sit around and talk. And what do I have in common with these people? The fact that I'm playing Survivor with them. What's your favorite season? Who is your favorite player? When is the first time you watched? Having Shirin there, we were able to vibe on that shared interest.
Tom Santilli: Speaking of Shirin, Jeff Probst and many others always talk about "self-awareness" as a vital attribute one must have in order to do well in Survivor. Shirin was your closest ally, so were you unaware how others were perceiving her, or did you just not care that you would be associated with someone that was getting on the nerves of everyone else?
Max: Well I knew that Shirin was considered annoying on both tribes we were on. Tyler and Joaquin had their fill of Shirin I think by the end of the first day. Jenn within a few hours of the swap came to me, rolled her eyes and asked, does she ever shut up? I knew Shirin was having a difficult time fitting in with everyone but me. All my life I've been surrounded by people like Shirin. By that I don't mean annoying people, I mean smart, quirky, original, driven, brilliant, high-achievers. Those are the types of people I want to be around. Whether or not they have the social graces enough to navigate Survivor is another question. Part of the reason why I wanted Shirin around was that I planned on doing some nasty stuff out there, I planned on getting my hands dirty, on blindsiding some people. I knew that Shirin would have absolutely no qualms in doing any of that. I knew that she would absolutely relish the opportunity to play the game. I also knew that given the inherent sexism that exists on Survivor, that if I was sitting at the end with Shirin and if we had equally soiled our hands, that she would be seen by the jury as being a bitch, and in Joaquin's words, a paranoid woman. Where I would stand a better chance of winning and being seen as a master-mind or a cult leader. It was strategy. I liked Shirin and wanted to be around her, but I also wanted to be around her because in the end, I could beat her.
Tom Santilli: In your CBS.com day after interview, you said that at the end of the day, you just wanted to bring honor to the game that you love. Do you feel like you accomplished that?
Max: Yes. I feel like I honored Survivor in every single moment that I played the game. I played as hard as I could, I left nothing out there. As was evident by the fact that as soon as I came out of the game, I fell into a deep sickness in which I was quarantined for a week. I had absolutely nothing left in my tank. I lost a tremendous amount of weight, I suffered a tremendous amount of injuries and illnesses, all in the spirit of giving Survivor everything that I had. Given the fact that there was a lot that I didn't get to do out there that I wanted, like win a million dollars for example, make the merge, having Jeff put the necklace on after a challenge win. I got to play Survivor. I got to live a dream. And that's something that I'm going to cherish for the rest of my life.
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