The Buried Life's Ben Nemtin and Dave Lingwood
Last week's second season premiere of MTV's the Buried Life saw Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, Jonnie Penn and Duncan Penn attempt to streak a soccer game and get away with it. (They achieved at least half of that goal).
That's just the beginning for for the four friends from B.C., as they continue to pursue their list of 100 things to do before they die.
This season will see the boys attempt to make a million dollars, survive on a deserted island, and capture a fugitive.
In tonight's episode, airing at 10:30 p.m., Duncan tries to ask out the girl of his dreams -- Taylor Swift.
I spoke with Ben and Dave in Toronto last week about the new season, meeting Obama and Oprah, and how one goes about asking out a teenage country superstar.
What can we expect from season two of the Buried Life?
Ben: We basically just go bigger this year. So everything we do is more difficult, more intense and tests us in different ways. More personal ways. So next week Duncan goes after the girl of his dreams, Taylor Swift. He goes and asks her out. And actually Dave ends up asking out Carrie Underwood right next to her fiancé. And we just do [bigger] things . . . we capture a fugitive, try to make a million dollars.
Dave: Get married in Vegas in 48 hours, compete in an MMA fight.
Ben: Yeah, Dave just competed in a cage fight with only a month training and against a real fighter who had fought before. It was the most intense thing I think Buried Life has ever done.
How much planning goes into achieving some of the more elaborate tasks?
Ben: It depends. Usually we're up against the clock. But for streak we got there two days before. So it depends. Dave was training for about a month before.
Dave: And then with the Taylor Swift episode . . . we figured out that she was going to be at the CMTs so a couple weeks before we were like "Okay this is where we’re going to do it. We’re going to come up with some kind of plan." And then we came to Nashville two days before the awards and kind of formulated the plan and how we’re actually going to do it.
Ben: But we had an idea. We decided we were going to make Duncan into this country music star that no one had heard of and try to rush him into the red carpet at the awards. He goes by the name Boone McCaw. And we tweeted and Facebooked and asked people to come down, so that when Boone came down with his carriage –- we had a horse and carriage –- all these Buried Life fans were along the red carpet, chanting Boone's name and they had 'I heart Boone' shirts. So that was our plan to get inside, it's pretty elaborate.
Having been on TV for a season and gaining exposure, does it become easier or more challenging to complete the items on your list?
Ben: It’s a little more challenging because a lot of the time we’re doing things that we’re trying to be low pro. So for instance, trying to get into the CMTs , people recognized us. And people working at the CMTs knew that we were up to something. So that actually made it more difficult. But this sesason we just tried to choose things that it doesn’t matter who you are, it’s going to be challenging. Because the one thing that was the hardest to stress last year when we were doing all our press and stuff –- a lot of people didn’t realize that this is real and we're not cast and MTV doesn’t help us with anything. The four of us are just doing what we can do to make this stuff happen.
With one season under your belt are you also able to step up how you’re helping other people achieve their goals?
Dave: Yeah, it’s been cool because of the first season going on the air, we’ve really built up a large Facebook community and we have like almost 500,000 fans now and they write into us all the time and we get these amazing stories of people that want to cross something off their lists or something they need help with. And this season we’re able to get these letters and just show up at their doorstep and say "Hey, we appreciate getting your letter and we want to help you do this.”
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left to right: Lingwood, Nemtin, Duncan Penn, Jonnie Penn
Tell me about the day you played basketball with Obama.
Ben: We didn’t really even know it was going to happen. Because if you ever meet the president, you never know you’re going to meet him. So they invited us to the White House . . . [Obama's special assistant] Reggie Love was like, “Come down and I’ll show you the courts.” And we didn’t even think Obama was in town because it was right before the healthcare bill and he was supposed to be overseas.
So we were elated that we were going to be going to the courts. We rented suits. And Jonnie’s calling his friend and he’s like, "You’ll never guess where I am, I’m shooting hoops with Reggie Love on the White House courts.” And then you see Jonnie go, “Oh my god, oh my god, it’s the President." And Dave was filming, he flips around and Obama walks in the court. He’s like, "Hey guys, heard about your show. Heard you’re in town." And he actually ended up seeing the [season one] Obama episode and then asking Reggie to have us in, so it was totally surreal.
Any aspirations to play any sports with Stephen Harper?
Ben: Shufflepuck?
Dave: Maybe some shufflepuck, yeah.
You also appeared on Oprah between seasons. How was the Big O?
Dave: She was great. I was on the phone with her late last night.
Ben: The best thing about Oprah is we sat down on the couch. And she’s like “Nice to meet you guys -- okay so Ben, Duncan, Jonnie, Dave, right?” And Dave’s like “And you’re name is . . . ?” It was a pretty big deal for us, it was pretty cool.
When I watch your show I feel incredibly lazy about my life. How do you stay motivated?
Dave: I think it’s just contagious when you're going after things you’re really passionate about and you have some sort success it just drives you. Because it makes you realize that anything really is possible. And when you have that kind of mind frame that anything’s possible, you figure out that you want to do a lot of stuff.
What would you say is one of the biggest tasks you've managed to cross of your list?
Ben: I really liked personally, the escape form a desserted island. Because I camped when I was younger with my family and friends but I’ve always wanted to just go into the woods and see if I could make it and basically that’s what we did. We went to the Cooke Islands. And there’s this one island that’s a third of a mile long in the middle of nowhere and it's totally deserted, and we got put in a boat, blindfolded and pushed of the side of the boat a half hour later. A mile outside the island. We swam in. We all could bring one thing but it couldn’t be firew, ater or food. And for four of five days we had to survive and make fire and kill a bird and ate it. It was like Lord of the Flies.
Dave: This season’s been really crazy. Fight was something special just because it took so much training and the training was so hard. It was really the hardest thing I’ve ever done and so much more intense than I ever thought it would be. It’s really easy to say "Oh what a great episode it would be to get in a cage fight." And then you go and start training and realize just how hard it really is.