DC SocialPulse Extra: Countdown to War of the Worlds & Ex On The Beach EP7

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language and objectionable content. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BACKTRACKED EDITION
BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

If 2018 was the busiest year ever for DCBLOG in covering the all-encompassing spectrum of MTV Reality, then this very moment is the pickup joint to the busiest time yet to be a viewer... perhaps as busy as it was last fall when, for the first time, this MTV fan had something of interest to watch from Monday to Thursday. And as it was then when we had Cheyenne & Cory join Teen Mom to go along with Final Reckoning, Are You The One and Jersey Shore last October, we now have something to look forward to during those four days of the week in a new season of The Challenge, the ongoing drama of Ex On The Beach and the season finale of Floribama Shore -- all of which we'll be covering here ahead along with Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club to follow shortly here. Plus, there are familiar names in and outside these shows coming to a new series which we'll delve into shortly, and Siesta Key for those fond of Laguna Beach and The Hills.

After the jump, the final countdown to Challenge 33: War of the Worlds, and to Week 7 of Ex On The Beach Season 2 and the return of the Bad Girl to town.

DC ExtraTime: An American Comedian in London

From during The Challenge: Vendettas

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

So far, we have seen the British Invasion make quite an impact in their U.S. debuts, and for Jemmye she has been added to her queen status in her second season back after taking time off after Exes 2. Obviously, most of that was tending to the untimely Thanksgiving Day 2014 death of her ex-boyfriend Ryan Knight, whom they fell in love on Real World Back to New Orleans. And on the topic of that and the jolly people in Britain, it offers the segue way to the whereabouts of one of her former roommates.

Someone who also lived with Knight and Jemmye in that house in the Big Easy was someone who brought some comic relief to the group: those who watched that season eight years ago also met Eric Patrick from Arlington, VA. During a brief period where there was an eight roommate in the Real World house, he didn't have as much screen time as his other roommates, though he did have a memorable kiss with fellow roommate Sahar early on. His MTV bio wrote:

"It's not often that you meet a Real World roommate who's a stand-up comic AND holds a job at the State Department, traveling the globe briefing foreign service personnel on American policy. Far from Mr. Serious, Eric's true passion is comedy, and he's already made significant progress in his career, performing regularly and winning several competitions. Eric, known for his dreamy eyes is a handsome ladies' man and has perfected the art of juggling various girls at one time. We're pretty sure Eric will be getting into a bit more than just Hurricane Katrina relief."

While Knight, Jemmye and Preston would do multiple Challenges as did the only one of their cast to now have a wedding ring in McKenzie who joined them for their debuts on Battle of the Seasons II, Eric has already been to more countries than any of his former castmates, and it doesn't have to do with competing with TJ and friends. Before he went onto Real World and after he left NOLA, Eric's passport has seen him travel all over the world, often for much longer periods of time and very little time back home in the District.

It's fitting that his Instagram name is @EpatTheExPat, and a glance at those photos he's posted there gives you an idea that he's seen this world more often than even that guy who's done 18 of these Challenges and the one who's been hosting these for the past baker's dozen years. Besides his former NOLA castmates, he's even fortunate to have two very notable Instagram followers in Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris of the U.S. Women's National Team.

Besides Washington, West Virginia (where he went to college) and other places in the U.S., Eric has been to the following countries - and this will be a mouthful: Dominican Republic, Canada, South Africa, Swaziland, Panama, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Romania, Japan and South Korea. Yes: 16 foreign countries Eric has posted pictures from in places as diverse as the 2,700-ft high Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a picture of the President holding a waffle in his hand in Brussels.

Those countries don't include the 17th where he calls his home -- at least right now: it's been exactly a full year since Eric settled into new digs in London, England, the capital city of the United Kingdom, which where Joss, Kyle, Melissa, Kayleigh and Rogan of this Challenge Vendettas season come to us from. And last week, Eric released a video on YouTube documenting his full year living in the United Kingdom, and doing his stand-up comedy across the country. When that video dropped he tweeted @TheEricPatrick, "I'm proud of it. It's a cool 33min break from whatever you're doing... I don't know what you're doing but you could use a break. Check it out!"

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG

A DCBLOG Update: 2/12/19 - Why Things Are Not In Sync...

A Word From The Editor
BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Hey there folks, hope your week is going fine... mine is too. You might have been noticing that things around here have been somewhat off sync in the course of the past couple weeks... below, an explanation of why.

Putting together every post that DCBLOG offers in covering MTV Reality and everything else of interest is an extraneous and time-consuming process. Like any good journalist -- those who work in newsrooms spanning print, broadcast and online every day, as well as freelancers and those who do this as a hobby on the side like I do, there are many hours spent every day to put together content that takes anywhere from a few minutes for short stories posts on this site to an hour for a documentary program such as PBS' Frontline or an ESPN 30 for 30. Plus, for someone who treats this as important as anything I have every day, there's also time for everything else, such as a second job that goes concurrent with what I have outside this world, family and other matters... trying to balance these things is a tedious process.
   It's with this in mind that, for the past few weeks, our DCBLOG schedule has not been running in sync with the MTV schedule, as we usually do around here. Those of you who have been anticipating all the upcoming 'Pulse posts for what is now last week's packed week of episodes in the MTV world have not been posted as of yet. There, last week saw Kailah come to Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club, Angela's return to Ex On The Beach, the season 2 finale of Floribama Shore and the premiere of The Challenge: War of the Worlds. We sincerely apologize to all of you for having to keep you hanging for most of the last month, but before you go off on us... there are a few factors relating to this.

In the two to three weeks proceeding The Challenge 33 premiere, I devoted much of my blogging time to my preview post on War of the Worlds, as well as researching on sixteen newcomers to the new season (sans Chase and Morgan), which contributed to two extended "Who Are These Newbies" posts. Plus, there was me traveling to my relatives' house for a night which set back my schedule by a day, but it feels almost like an eternity because things which have been scheduled to be posted may not get posted in time, or sometimes being put on the backburner.
   Second, there's the time factor: because I now have more time to my actual work in working three days instead of two, I don't have as much max time as I have to try and get everything all up in a speedy manner than it was to begin with. Plus, there's covering four shows in this coming week's blog wave, which has slowed down the process of getting things up as soon as possible, especially when it comes to compiling the Pulse diaries, which takes hours for it to be put together in chronological form as it happened on Twitter. Sometimes, the ExtraTime stories take days to put together, too.
   And to add on to this, my desktop computer crashed not once, but twice this past month... but luckily, everything that I download and those files that contain the precious data for these posts are always stored on one of a many flash drives & portable drives as a precaution. Ask our friends at Relevant.TV what this has been like of having to endure this process the past month with their portable hard drive and footage of their New Year's Eve soiree crashing and it being saved by technicians for episodes to finally be posted this week.
   So, those are the reasons why things have not been in sync in the course of the two to three weeks on this site. But luckily, I have been taking advantage of any spare time I have to work on this site, and doing whatever I can to get everything up for all of you up on here. So, here's what's to come...

With some exceptions, all of DCBLOG's episode Pulse posts are posted chronologically in order as they aired on TV... and are posted at least 2 to 3 days after they are air with respect to the streaming and catch-up audiences. Though we would be able to do stand-alone recaps and power rankings like every other site does, this site tends to be a supplement: one that offers complementary content to what you get from your favorite website or podcast with social media buzz, storytelling and more. Us being able to have as much time as possible to compile, research and compose the high level content we offer is partially the reason for our high standing in this business in covering these shows.
   With that in mind, we plan to begin this week's Pulse posts with a series of four backtracked posts, first covering Kailah's arrival to the Beach Club as part of a Pulse Extra at the earliest tomorrow night after this week's Challenge episode airs out west. We'll then cover the season premiere of Challenge 33 from last week, Angela's return to Ex On The Beach and the Floribama finale... and we'll then shift to covering this week's episodes as usual with Pulse posts for the three remaining shows to come after. And although it is not a guarantee, should things go on schedule it is our hope that by the end of this coming extended holiday weekend - or before next week's Challenge episode airs, we will finally be up to date on the Pulse of all the episodes. But as always, things may change a bit with the ever-evolving news cycle and anything that might come up out of nowhere.

So to all of you, thank you for staying patient & your continued loyalty. And we'll see you here then... and enjoy this week's episodes.

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG

DC SocialPulse: Floribama Shore S2 - The First to Go (Backtracked)

*** Advisory: DC SocialPulse contains adult language, objectionable content & spoilers for some readers. Viewer Discretion is Advised. Due to its length, take frequent eye breaks if you're reading this top to bottom. ***

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Glance over at the calendar and you'll spot that it's February, and it's summer down under in Australia and in the Southern Hemisphere. And in MTV land, summer is nearing its end for our friends down by the Floribama Shore, with not that much time left to soak in the sun for our group to enjoy, though for one of them the endless summer will go on for at least a little bit thanks to him being on the new season of The Challenge.

Last time out as this post goes on air here -- Tuesday in DCBLOG time, Codi's parents made a visit to the house and encouraged to once again ask Candace on a date after he didn't follow through during the first half of Season 2... and they got to enjoy each other's company along with a classical musical number. Outside their world though, the rest of the group had to endure a rough night on the town as Aimee's swipe at a bystander led to her being arrested, which then led to her being put on local news for the wrong reasons when word of her arrest became public.

As we join our friends there in Panama City Beach, the summer is nearing its end, but it is at its end for one of the roommates, as a member of Candace's family is preparing for the biggest day ever in graduating high school in her hometown of Memphis. But once she leaves town before the rest of the house say their parting shots to each other for the summer, another person is about to invade the house for the final few days in the panhandle... and that will also bring back memories of what happened last summer for one of them.

After the jump, the Pulse of the penultimate episode of Season 2 of Floribama Shore.

DC ExtraTime: Catching Up with... Jacinda Barrett

From during Real World Bad Blood; updated to include new media not included in original post

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Me and fellow insider & webcast host Ali Lasher seem to agree on one thing: unlike many of you the both of us actually like Real World Bad Blood (more on the Debrief). But from seeing the tweets of some others, including one from Jemmye from RW Back to NOLA last week, there's those of you who feel fond of when this MTV icon was just a pure & simple docu-soap that predated everything in reality TV. Well, this 'Pulse ExtraTime is just for you old school fans... and for this, you gotta go all the way back some 20 years to find our subject when this current cast were still in their diapers.

   In the aftermath of the single most significant season in the history of the Trifecta, those who would be on the season after The Real World San Francisco no doubt would find themselves with the uneasy task of following up that monumental season in the City by the Bay. Of course, we all remember the poignant story of Pedro Zamora and his valiant fight against AIDS, the house drama ignited by that ultimate Real World rebel Puck, the love story of a cartoonist and nurse in Judd & Pam Winick, and the flirtation Puck had with Rachel Campos, now wife of Congressman, RW Boston alum and one-time lumberjack, Rep. Sean Duffy.

In 1995, this reality TV original made its way for the first time outside of the United States and to that most vibrant city and yet one with such old-school values and landmarks as London. Inspired by MTV's wide international reach as a worldwide network with a presence on all six continents, Season 4 of Real World boasted its only hybrid cast of international and U.S.-born roommates. Young adults from Australia, Germany and England joined Americans from the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest in what the Brits refer to as a "flat" -- their term for what we stateside refer to as an apartment.
   There wasn't as much drama on that season as the first three as the Americans didn't have work permits to get employed there and just spent overnights watching TV's back when there were those in the house. But like several other seasons, cameras documented the roommates' personal passions: Mike and Kat pursued their loves for motor sports and that Olympic sport of fencing, while Jay pursued one of the Brits' great pastimes of playwriting, and DJ Lars played at the clubs much like Robbie of this season. But no doubt, the most memorable moment of RW London was when he was performing for his band, Englishman Neil got too close to one of his fans, and that fan who supposedly was a hater of his pulled a Mike Tyson: he bit off a portion of Neil's tongue, which sent him to the hospital and would have impaired speech after surgery was done to repair his tongue.

One of the international four who made their way to jolly old England was Jacinda Barrett, who flew all the way to London from Brisbane, Queensland -- Australia's third largest city -- and she came to the right place to pursue her career aspiration. There, she built up her resume of modeling in one of the world's capitals of her profession and host to one of the year's annual Fashion Weeks. She had a passion for posing for the camera and strutting down the runway since winning a cover girl contest in her teenage years and began to model across Europe afterwards.
   Just as we've seen with several other aspiring models over the years on Real World and before there was America's Next Top Model, cameras captured her many moves in London as she made her way through the cutthroat world of fashion. It would eventually catch the attention of People Magazine with her being named to their list of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World that year, and later brought her into the pages of Maxim Magazine. And for some time, she was engaged to Singled Out alum and Walking Dead after show host Chris Hardwick before becoming wife to Suits star Gabriel Macht.
   After Real World, the attention of this firefighter's daughter turned from posing for the cameras to acting in front of them. In her acting debut in 1997, Jacinda joined a young James Marsden for the horror flick Campfire Tales, and appeared in several other films with the likes of Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Anthony Hopkins. In 2004, she landed her first major lead role in Ladder 49, playing the wife of key character Joaquin Phoenix and joining the many who have starred alongside that enduring icon John Travolta.

   Two years later, Jacinda played a supporting role in Poseidon with Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss and Emmy Rossum; and later in 2006 she was female lead alongside Zach Braff, Casey Affleck and Rachel Bilson in The Last Kiss. Then came School for Scoundrels with Billy Bob Thronton, Jon Heder, Michael Clarke Duncan, Sarah Silverman and Ben Stiller; and another movie with Luke Wilson. And this doesn't even include TV roles on the likes of Hercules, Millennium, main roles on D.C. and Citizen Baines, and a recurring spot along her husband on Suits.

   The past few years have seen her on the drama Zero Hour and The Following before landing her latest gig: Last year, Jacinda added lead role plant nursery worker Diana Rayburn, wife of policeman John - played by Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler, on the Netflix series Bloodline, which debuted last year and will have its 3rd and final season coming up in the new year for those like you who love to binge watch. She has another movie coming next year with more TV roles headed her way too, just as many saw her RW season for the first time recently when it aired on MTV Classic.

Yes, it's one thing to be on The Challenge with some of the biggest names in this ecosystem of the MTV reality TV world. But, it's certainly another to have a deep acting resume and to share the set with some of the silver screen's biggest names. Jacinda Barrett has certainly carved her name as one of Real World's most successful alums, and while her season is largely forgotten it helped her get on the path to make her mark both as a model and now as a leading actress. She's proven that you don't have to do other reality shows for the sake of face time like most people in the Trifecta today: she has those beautiful looks and has developed a strong following with the showbiz world that now she's one of the best in her field. Maybe an Oscar, Emmy or Golden Globe next? It might come sooner.

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG

DC ExtraTime: The Chosen One

From during The Challenge XXX

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Last week in that Challenge house, we saw Bananas go into his playbook and dust off something he hasn't done in quite a while: apply Super Glue to a bunch of feathers and stick them to the face of the first person to snore in his room. This was the same prank he pulled on Derrick and got a rather hot reception from what was his teammate on this week's mission, and this time he pulled it on Tony, though the reception was heated but didn't escalate into what happened on The Ruins. That latest trick by Johnny offers the bridge to this week's first piece of ExtraTime, and for this story we have to go back a bit to the year of his first Challenge win and a cast who we last saw on MTV a long time ago.

In 2008, The Challenge/Real World franchise followed the lead of one of my mom's favorite cable channels Bravo and expanded its main reality TV franchise (and ultimately its entire reality slate) to one hour. This meant a reduction of episodes from over 20 half-hour episodes to about 13 hours, and in the case of The Challenge that meant seeing all of the competition and drama jam-packed into weekly appointment TV, as does Are You The One. In the case of Real World and other docuseries like Teen Mom and Siesta Key, it has allowed for more time to focus on the roommates and deeper into their storylines over those 60 minutes, sometimes featuring more of them too.
   After The Gauntlet III became the first MTV reality series to expand to one hour nine years ago, Hollywood hosted that first hour-long Real World season - Season 20 afterwards, which saw the show return to Los Angeles and to its roots of following those with aspirations on the entertainment & media world. We saw Joey Kovar deal with alcohol which he would succumb to a few years later, a romance between a Detroit music producer and a Real World alum, and racism even invade the house for a time too. And who can forget being able to head to MTV.com each day for those juicy dailies clips seeing all of that uncensored footage from the house too?

However, the most controversial and talked about castmate of that season and one of the most of any season was someone who earned his way into the house in a different manner than any other castmate before him. Greg Halstead from Daytona Beach, FL was chosen to join the seven strangers not in the traditional way of going to an open casting call or mailing in an audition tape, but just by the mere vote of an online popularity contest when MTV.com opened a spot in the Hollywood house for the winner of that contest, with help from friends, family and his nickname of "PretyBoy." He had a fairly unorthodox outlook on people in referring to women as "associates" and others as "peasants"... and came to Cali with aspirations on being a high-end fashion model.
   With him being the last to arrive in the house (CBS' former West Coast headquarters and where the LA operations of Viacom are now located in), that position put him in a precarious position that the rest of his roommates knew what he was thanks to having seen him on the web, but he had no idea about them either. Once he moved in, the man who called himself "The Chosen One" found himself as the odd man out in a group that had already clicked and stated no ambitions to get close to Briana, Kim or Sarah - the three female roommates in Stage 20, though he did give the guys a tutorial on doing wall flips.
   However, there came a mystery in the house of who left a bloody napkin and a trail of rocks in the room of roommates Dave and Will, and who left $100 bills on Greg's bed? It was a strategy by him to try and get a laugh from the roommates for pranks that he himself pulled off, but unfortunately it backfired. And a few weeks in, the roommates had gotten tired of his antics, and several of them got into verbal jarring with Greg over his arrogance -- and in one instance before Joey returned to the house after his stint in rehab, Will and Dave got in a heated verbal fight with Greg that almost got them sent home in almost the same manner that we saw Tony and Camila get the heave-ho from Rivals III for similar reasons with no punches being thrown.
   Along with that, Season 20's group assignment was doing improvisation comedy at a local club in Hollywood, which was memorably invaded by the always entertaining Andy Dick. At first, Greg was excited about getting out of that comfort zone and trying something new, but then he realized that it was impeding on his fashion ambitions, and he didn't go to either the first show the roommates attended when they began, showed up late for a second session for just getting a haircut without letting his teacher know about it, and third he didn't make it to the group's first performance in front of a live audience. For this instance, it was three strikes and out for Greg, which saw him being fired from his task, and also meant that he was kicked out of the house. And the experience ended so badly for him he wasn't present for the season-ending reunion to perhaps get into fights with his castmates.
   Just like those who have had to endure a lot of hate, Greg has been left in hiding for some time after that Real World season ended, but thanks to Instagram he has emerged from that exile and has been posting stuff on there too. And it was just recently that a fan of The Real World and The Challenge, Drew Scott, tracked him down for an exclusive interview which you can listen at The Drew Scott Show site.  Some of the stuff we've found out about him is that for the ladder half of last year, he went across to Russia (no word on whether it relates to what's been happening in the past year), did stuff for Comedy Central's Tosh.O, and pay attention to his last two IG posts with that low voice.

View this post on Instagram

~#mood#vocals#soyouthinkyoucansing#singer#music#night#itry#oneday#trifling#bitch#bitches#triflingbitches

A post shared by Gregory Halstead (@gregoryallenhalstead) on Sep 4, 2017 at 8:52pm PDT

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG

DC ExtraTime: Catching Up with... Theo Von

From during The Challenge Invasion, post updated to include video not included in original post

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Last week on Challenge ExtraTime, we caught up with a Real World original in Syrus Yarbrough - the series' first ladies man who, twenty years after doing RW Boston, remains a proud representative of the RW/Challenge franchise to the many people he's met over the years - both on five Challenges and in the streets from Santa Monica Pier to Spring Break in South Padre, TX. Well, as Shane and Darrell appear on our screens now once again for this Challenge, it brings us to their original show and what was, for a time, the third jewel of the MTV Trifecta - Road Rules.
   Seventeen years ago - and right as reality TV was starting to grab everyone's attention outside MTV land thanks to the enormously successful first season of Survivor, Road Rules went big time for its ninth season on the Maximum Velocity Tour. That season saw the show return to the U.S. after trips overseas, and saw that cast encounter a man by the name of "Roadmaster," who gave them clues on their weekly missions. It saw them - among others - tackle their Winter Olympic dreams, became fugitives on the run, partied in New Orleans, synchro swam with Playboy playmates, rode in planes and monster trucks, sea dove in Key West, went underwater with sharks, faced Team Real World New Orleans in South Africa and boy band O-Town in SoCal, spent 48 hours alone in the wilderness, and finally got married in Las Vegas, earning them the handsome reward.
   The show itself was also shortlisted for the first-ever Emmy nominations for Outstanding Reality Program, and of course other reality competition shows including The Challenge, Are You The One? and Stranded with a Million Dollars, among others, have followed the path set by Road Rules. And the cast of Season 9 comprised of rugby player James, business major Kathryn (not the Kathryn of the current AYTO season), ladies man Laterrian, snowboarder Holly, tap dancer Msadda, and our latest "Catching Up with..." subject.

When we first met Theo Von on that RV back in the summer of 2000, he was a 17 year-old from just north of New Orleans and who had the actual longer name of Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski on his birth certificate...makes you glad he shortened his name to just two syllables to make it easier for everyone to pronounce his name instead of voicing that mouthful. His original MTV.com bio went something like this...

"This 19-year-old guy is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. He is studying at the University of Louisiana and dreams of being a children's author/magazine editor. Raised in Louisiana all his life, Theo is an adorable southerner who speaks his own language, "Theoisms." Theo has the curiosity and imagination of a two-year-old with the cunning of a natural instigator. He loves to make people laugh or make them irritated. He says he hates to be alone. Theo is a self-professed slob. His roommates call him "the dirty bird." He has a girlfriend, Mandy, who he has been seeing for a few months. He cares about her, but it does not seem to be serious right now. "If I'm wise, I'll make things work. But knowing me, I'll find a way to completely screw it up." Mr. Charming will be pursued on this road trip, no doubt."

Theo would go on to do four Challenges: partnering with Holly on the first Battle of the Seasons a year later, then notching two wins with Team Road Rules on The Gauntlet and with the Guys' team on Battle of the Sexes II, and most recently partnering with Chanda on Fresh Meat, losing in elimination to eventual runners-up Kenny and Tina.

It was after that stay in Australia that an opportunity came calling for Theo to shift gears from competition to comedy, appearing later that year in 2006 on the fourth season of NBC's Last Comic Standing. In his initial interview, he came to that summer comedy showcase to reintroduce himself as a guy who could make everyone laugh along with being a reality TV pioneer: "I was on Road Rules years ago. I feel like a lot of times people don’t take me seriously as a comedian because I’ve been on television before. Let’s put it up on the stage, let’s see what’s going on."
   With a joke making reference to Britney Spears' one-time husband Kevin Federline advancing him past the show's first round, that night at the comedy club opened many doors for Theo. In 2008, Comedy Central casted him, as well as fellow LCS alum Amy Schumer and many others for Reality Bites Back, hosted by Michael Ian Black. Then after two other shows, the next year Theo helped to create the art of "crank texting," where a user would send a text message to random phone numbers on the hope that they can incite conversations, which after launching a blog devoted to crank texting caught the attention of CollegeHumor and was picked up as a column on that site later on.
   Those folks at Yahoo! would then come calling by taking over one of the web's most-watched daily shows, "Primetime in No Time," offering recaps of the previous night's TV shows, followed by a half-hour stand-up special on Comedy Central and his first film, InAPPropiate Comedy in spring 2013. And that summer came his most-notable gig: hosting TBS' hidden camera show Deal With It, which aired for three seasons and was executive produced by Howie Mandel. And last year, Theo had his first hour-long comedy special when Theo Von: No Offense premiered on that binge-worthy platform of Netflix.
   Along with appearing on a few late night talk shows, two years ago Theo added the title of "podcast host" to his resume when he joined with filmmaker & journalist Matthew Cole Weiss to co-host "Allegedly," which sees the guys talk to high-profile celebrities and share their stories of making it in Hollywood. Christina Milian, David Spade, Mandel, Jamie Kennedy, Spice Girl Mel B, Kato Kaelin, Dr. Drew, Teen Mom's Farrah Abraham, Bravo's Andy Cohen and, as we mentioned in the past, The Miz, among others, have all talked to Theo and Matt. And the Allegedly podcast remains one of the industry's highest-rated celebrity podcasts.

We have discussed a few times here before of the hilarity and humor of comedy being prevalent in the Trifecta, from Are You The One? Original JJ to hilarious videos by a few others. In this day & age when anything that takes place in Washington, on the Oscars stage or viral videos become fodder for jokes by comedians, late night hosts and podcasts, in his post-MTV phase, Theo Von has surely chosen the right occupation in making us laugh.

- I AM DC
#DCBLOG

DC ExtraTime: Catching Up with... The "Danimal"

From during The Challenge XXX

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

Often in ExtraTime, we like to help liven the mood a bit after our episode coverage with something that'll make you want to laugh. Our first subject this week made his MTV debut ten years ago, and now in his post-MTV life makes a living in a field where all that's necessary is to have a mic, a mic stand and a knack for telling the right jokes. Yes, we're talking about being a comedian.

We first met Dan Walsh in 2007, where he was just adjusting to life back home in St. Louis after a tour of duty on the home front with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq during Operation Enduring Freedom. Knowing that so many servicemen & servicewomen were in need of a morale boost in this ultimate of demanding occupations being far away from home, during down time Dan took to the stage to perform comedy and help bring laughs to his fellow compatriots. And before he went abroad to defend our country, Dan also earned his stripes as an independent pro wrestler, spending a decade & a half on regional circuits in the Midwest and Great Lakes.
   One day, an opportunity came calling for him to take a break from the stage, the ring and performing in front of crowds to do television and to take his talents to a larger audience than he had before. And in 2007, he joined Road Rules: Viewers Revenge, where he got to become a member of the Pit Crew: him and seven other castmates -- including a relatively unknown Kentucky pageant queen named Tori Hall -- who were chosen to be on the cast. They joined six alums of the RV: all-time Challenge legend Abram, Adam of The Quest, Kina of Derrick's X-Treme season, Ruins champ Susie, Invasion breakout star Shane and Veronica who we just saw up above.
   After his time in the RV, Dan then was invited to his first Challenge: The Island in 2008, where as a rookie he almost made it to the end, and him falling into the water and getting eliminated in the same Water Bound mission -- a Purge-like mission -- that saw Evelyn prove why she was one of the best girls ever on this show. Then, he went to Prague for Cutthroat in 2010, where again he made it past the halfway point and eventually succumbed in his only elimination to eventual champion Dunbar.
   But along the way, Dan also had his own challenge: battling his own demons, and it was there that his alter-ego the Danimal was born. On the Panamanian coast, he was described as a hot mess: someone who was stumbling around the beach drunk. He would then find himself in a dark place, that was a wake-up call to change his ways. Going into Cutthroat, Dan explained his life-changing experience: "I went into recovery for my alcoholism. I quit drinking and got real healthy, and fixed my life. I got my head into the game and decided to come back and win one one of these."
   Though he would up come short, him becoming sober and changing his ways towards a positive direction allowed him to establish a better name for himself in his post-MTV career: being by day a self-confessed "gym rat" and expert on health supplements, and by night and weekend accomplishing that lifelong goal of conquering the world of comedy.

As this is being posted this Friday the 13th, tonight Dan is taking the stage at The World Famous Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. This is the same comedy club where the likes of Joe Rogan, Jeffrey Ross, Dane Cook, Judd Apatow, Greg Fitzsimmons and so many other comedians do what they do best... and just two nights ago, fellow Road Rules alum (and someone who we featured here a little while back) Theo Von also did stand-up in this very nightclub.
   Dan has held the mic several times at The Comedy Store this year, which is where any big name and rising comedian wants to take the stage at, and its list of those who've taken the stage is a who's who. Given where he's come from when he rode in that RV, it's been a long and winding road that's brought him to this world of laughter... perhaps he might follow in Theo's footsteps and become the next great comedian. Below is Dan's standup last year at Flapper's in beautiful Burbank.

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