Exclusive: Rowan Joseph and Shane Partlow talk 'The Amazing Race' (Part 1)

The Amazing Race eliminated Rowan Joseph and Shane Partlow during Sunday night's second broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 23rd season.
 
The "Theater Performers" became the second team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's second Pit Stop at the Cascada De Las Animas -- a natural paradise in the Andes mountains -- in Santiago, Chile in last place.


In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Rowan and Shane talked about their The Amazing Race experience and early ouster from the competition.

Below is the first half of the pair's interview. Check back with Reality TV World on Tuesday for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: How far behind Nicole "Nicky" Getz and Kim DeJesus do you think you finally arrived at the Pit Stop? The show's editing made it look like it was a tight race to the finish between you guys and the two girls.

Shane Partlow: It was tight.


Rowan Joseph: It was pretty tight, yeah. It was pretty tight.

Shane Partlow: If our cab driver wouldn't have run out of gas...

Rowan Joseph: Yeah, it would've been a foot race then.

Reality TV World: So it was just a matter of minutes then, it sounds like.

Shane Partlow: We think so, yeah.


Reality TV World: When you guys arrived at the Pit Stop, were you certain you were in last place?

Rowan Joseph: Well we knew, I knew, we were in last place. And I guess they knew, but I definitely knew we were in last place because I was with Nicky the whole way and she had left just a couple of minutes before us.

But I saw her get her final notice and go, and then I was still putting my stuff completely together, and then I got the approval. But she definitely had a good, I'd say, three minutes. But it's hard with time, but I would say it's still probably about three or four minutes that she had ahead of us.

Shane Partlow: We were hoping that her cab could've gotten lost...

Rowan Joseph: Or maybe that they didn't get a cab as quickly. We didn't know when or where they got a cab. We got the cab pretty quickly...


Shane Partlow: But it was on empty. (Laughs) We were going to walk. We didn't care that we ran out of gas. We were going to get out there and walk. It was a 20-minute ride or something like that and we were halfway in.

Rowan Joseph: Oh yeah, it was a long ride.

Shane Partlow: Yeah.

Reality TV World: The look on both of your faces when you met The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan at the Pit Stop seemed to give away the fact you were anticipating or at least optimistic about a potential non-elimination leg. Is that accurate to say? What was going through your minds in that moment when Phil was welcoming you?

Shane Partlow: We, at that point, we were like, "If we are last, let's hope it is a non-elimination round." (Laughs) Where there's light, there's hope. That's what I always say.


Rowan Joseph: And it did say, that particular clue said, "may be eliminated," so we were really hoping that we would duck the bullet. We certainly had the -- and we were probably a little more optimistic because of the fact that we had that entire day.

I mean, we were constantly shot and getting back up, shot and getting up, shot and getting up. Sometimes it was a bullet, sometimes it was an arrow, once it was a cannonball...

Shane Partlow: But it didn't matter! We got back up. It's like the song ["Titanium"]. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Your two fatal flaws in this leg of the Race were apparently the late bus ride you took into Santiago and Rowan, you having to do the Roadblock task again. Starting with the bus, there was clearly a misunderstanding about when a bus left the station and its arrival time. Would you attribute that to a language barrier, a mistake on the workers' part behind the ticket counter, or would you say you simply weren't listening as attentively as you could've been?

Rowan Joseph: No, it was definitely the worker behind the counter. And it wasn't even so much a language barrier because he spoke fairly good English. And I don't speak fluent Spanish, but I speak somewhat functional Spanish, which you could hear throughout the episode. So we were -- I was certainly clear, you know, that it was going to be a ride in cuatro ahora [four now] and he was clear.


And somehow, one of the things we learned several times, and that was another instance of it, that we forget -- first and foremost, we're performers so we're used of being on cameras, but when you turn a camera on someone else and they realize they're on-camera, it affects, I don't know, something in their brain.

It was definitely something -- the miscommunication was such that we repeated several times -- and we were very, very clear -- "It gets there. It arrives," you know what I mean? "In Santiago or here?" So, you know, we were very clear. He was very clear back...

Shane Partlow: And we didn't let the bus go until we were sure.

Rowan Joseph: Right, until we were absolutely sure. Because we even said, "Are you sure? Certain?" Absolutely sure. So it was one of those, and then it was nice in terms of his boss who came after the woman, who you sort of saw in the corner, she overheard all of this and I think she realized what had happened. Because we then went, "Well, wait a minute. You just sunk us."

It was, I mean, literally, we were being told, "Yes, yes, yes."

"Well are you sure?"


"Absolutely certain, cuatro ahora, si."

Everything was absolutely certain and so we let the bus go, and then literally when we came back for the tickets, that's when he said, "It will be here..." And I was like, "Wait a minute, what? Huh?" Wait."

So what she did, clearly what they did, is there really wasn't another bus scheduled for four hours. They pulled another bus off of the road, and that's how we ended up getting on another bus within an hour, and it didn't make as many stops because we were about 15 minutes behind the other teams when we did arrive in Santiago.

Shane Partlow: And it was a much more comfortable bus and we got front seats! We had a great view. (Laughs) We always try to find the positive even when we're down. We kept our heads up.

Reality TV World: So since you two actually arrived in Santiago really only 20 minutes behind all the teams who came in on the bus you had missed. Putting into perspective how the rest of that leg finished up for you guys, do you think that 20 minute-gap still ultimately cost you the Race or would you attribute it more to the Roadblock?

Rowan Joseph: Yes, I cost us the Race. I cost us the Race by not going to the designated shoe-sign stand.


Reality TV World: I wanted to ask you about that Rowan, when did you first figure out the guy who's shoeshine stand you borrowed and used wasn't an official part of the Race? Did you have any inkling things weren't right before you brought your stand to the storage room?

Rowan Joseph: No! Because he was wonderfully gracious and kind. The clue said you have to watch a demonstration and then you have to find a customer yourself, you have to do the shoeshine, it has to be approved by the gentleman -- you know, that it was okay -- the customer has to pay you the 500 pesos, you have to give the 500 pesos to the operator and then put all of the kit together.

I did all of that with his blessing. So, you know, he was extremely kind and it was (laughs) extremely unfortunate that he was extremely kind. So he didn't make me go to the next gentleman.

He was the shoeshine person I came to and he gave me the demonstration and all of the things that were required went exactly as they were. And even loading everything up, he was kind of -- I was like, "I need to pack all of this up," and he was like, "Okay." I mean, God bless him! (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Looking back on it now, do you have any idea why the shoeshine guy went along with your request to use his shoeshine cart and materials? It must've seemed weird to the shoeshine guy that a stranger approached him asking to use his stuff, especially since he couldn't speak English to communicate with you directly.

Rowan Joseph: I think again, the one thing -- I mean, we watch the show and we're fans. The one thing we didn't factor in, again, I think it's when a camera is on someone who isn't used to being on-camera. The crew is there. You forget it has an affect on their thinking. I think he was just thinking, "Alright, I'm on TV!"


And it was funny because you'd get in a cab, and that part we learned early on, that no matter what cab driver you asked, no matter where you were going, it could've been Timbuktu. They knew exactly where it was, because they wanted you in their cab, I guess, with the camera!

And they'd always pick up their cell phone and call someone. And you'd think, "Oh great, they're calling for directions." And then you realize, no, they're calling their wife to tell them they're on-camera and they're going to be on TV. So that's a lot, I think, of what happened, the gentleman was like, "Oh, I'm on TV! American television!" And he just went along with it.

And that just never crossed my mind until after the fact. I went, "Yeah, okay, I think" -- because he was very nice about it. I mean, he really was considering I was walking off with his livelihood. He was quite amendable to it.

Reality TV World: Did you actually have an easy time finding a cart that was truly part of the Race or did you wander around looking for awhile after the incident?

Rowan Joseph: No, truthfully after that happened, I went to another one and I finally found the one. And then the way it was set up -- the clue didn't read that way -- there was one place where you went for a demonstration and then you went over to a separate cart to do the shoeshine.

So when I was getting the demonstration, I then did everything the same. "Alright, I'll do it." And then the guy wouldn't give me the stuff. And I was like, "Okay, wait a minute. I just did it," and then he just kind of tilted his head truthfully.


He gave me a little bit of a hint, because he tilted his head and I looked over and I went, "Okay, there's another shoeshine stand and there's a guy sitting there waiting for a shine. I guess I go over there." So I went over there, and that happened to be the right one.

Reality TV World: Any idea how much time you wasted having to do that Roadblock all over again?

Rowan Joseph: Enough that it cost us the leg, that's for sure.

Above is the concluding portion of Rowan and Shane's exclusive interview with Reality TV World. Check back with us on Tuesday for the concluding portion.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski