Exclusive: 'Survivor: Worlds Apart' castoff Vince Sly talks (Part 1)

Survivor: Worlds Apart eliminated Vince Sly during the second episode of the CBS reality competition's 30th season on Wednesday night.  
 
Vince, a 32-year-old coconut vendor from Santa Monica, CA, was voted out of his No Collar tribe, called the "Nargarote" tribe, on Day 6 at the season's second Tribal Council session.


Vince tried to work with Nina Poersch and Will Sims II, however, Will ended up turning on him to join the other alliance -- which featured Jenn Brown, Hali Ford and Joe Anglim. Will served as the swing vote and decided to get rid of Will once he began questioning the coconut vendor's trustworthiness.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Will talked about his Survivor experience. Below is the first half. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: Did you go into Tribal Council thinking Jenn was going to be voted off and therefore you got blindsided?

Vince Sly: I think "thinking" and "hoping" are a little bit different. Let me just clarify, because I hoped, but I had already been made privy to the fact that Nina told Will that I was a little concerned for his well-being, his health, his capacity for continuing this game. So, I feel like I walked into Tribal really walking on eggshells -- cautiously walking around eggshells, not even walking on them.


Reality TV World: It appeared that Joe's alliance initially planned to split their votes between yourself and Nina with the intention of getting out Nina. So is it safe to say Will pulled a fast one on Joe's alliance once he joined them by casting his vote to oust you? I thought he was supposed to vote Nina with Joe.

Vince Sly: Oh no, not at all. I didn't even see that being an option. There was a distinct preparation between Joe, Jenn, Hali and Will, Nina and I. Will was kind of floating in the middle, much more so than I was. The fact is, I had already positioned myself as kind of the head of the other side -- of what I call "The Barbie Box" and the other side.

So, from Day 2, I started to prep Jenn with the idea that there was an idol, that Nina's being neglected and so she's out there searching for it. And then I got them to the point, right before Tribal, like, "She's got. She's bringing it! We're going to have to split the vote." So playing them, knowing that they wanted to vote me out, I got them to actually split their votes.

Had Will gone with me, that's really the only way to have a three out of six. The only way to not have a tie is if you get somebody to split it. So I had to create this whole "fake idol" campaign.

Reality TV World: Do you think Nina telling Will you were worried about his health was the major -- if not the only -- factor in Will's decision to flip on you? Did will have any other reason not to trust you?


Vince Sly: I really, really thought Will was onboard until Nina dropped that bomb. It seemed like that might have been -- but you never really know, because all it takes is a look, a smirk, a strange situation. I mean, something could throw somebody off their game so quickly that you never really know what it was.

Because every moment of every day that you're out there -- because you don't really sleep that much -- just thinking about what everyone else is thinking about. And who knows what Will was really thinking about, but it seems to me that he was going to -- there was no real other way to go than with us. Otherwise, you're on the bottom of a four and that's not a whole lot of fun.

Reality TV World: So you say he's definitely on the bottom of that alliance now, but do you think there's any chance Will could get one of the other castaways to join him and Nina? Is that possible at all?

Vince Sly: Oh, no. From my perspective -- and it really is just my perspective because everyone out there is kind of the center of their own universe -- there is no way, no way to break up that pact.

We had, again, the portrait they had kind of made for me in Episode 1, I found it to be in some ways humorous and in some ways kind of sad. I personally don't feel it was an accurate depiction. But it was a little bit more so for the other people involved.


Jenn had some warm feelings for Joe. I wouldn't necessarily say a crush, but some warm feelings for Joe. Joe is amazing and has a great capacity to do a lot of stuff. So, I feel like she and I created an initial kind of bond with each other but realized we're both two hardcore players.

We really know what's up and she immediately got Hali onboard with her. Hali, at first, didn't have a lot of strategy involved. I'm not sure where she went with her gameplay, but she wasn't strategic. She was more of a socialist or a socialite.

But when Hali got into it with Jenn, it seemed like there was absolutely no way to break them up. So I started to work on her a little bit.

I was like, "Look at what's happening between Jenn and Joe. They are always running off together. They're always talking. I mean, you can't have a couple on Survivor," which [made it] really funny for me to watch the first episode because they made this whole thing out of me having a crush on Jenn. When in fact, it was those two running off together.

The whole jealousy between Joe and I, again, my perspective, never happened! However, I guess it was a fun narrative. People really enjoyed that. So, when you watch it, it is completely different from what happened out there.


And when you're out there, you realize you can't break these guys up. It's just not going to happen. I had to think of another scenario, because you can't break them up. When you're watching, you're like, "Oh, you could've done this! You could've done that!"

But when you're out there, you watch everything and you're seeing how they're interacting and laughing and cuddling with each other. You realize, like, something else has to happen. I've got to fake an idol. I've got to trick Will. I've got to get Nina onboard. I mean, that was really the only thing I could think of.

Reality TV World: So it sounds like you wanted to go after Joe at one point because you did see him as a threat and it wasn't anything personal -- like because of his relationship with Jenn, right?

Vince Sly: Yeah. I mean, again, this is my perspective. And it's different from what was shown. As a huge fan of the show, it's a show. I mean, you get pulled in. We give them so much content all day everyday, that there's a variety of narratives they can go with. They can't show you having a two-hour conversation.

Jenn and I talked for a good hour-and-a-half, and if you're a keen viewer, you see us going out into the beach with kind of white faces and coming back sunburned. I mean, you don't get that in a three-minute conversation. You know what I mean?


So those kinds of things, like, you see us getting really close and stuff -- because we were. If you talked for an hour-and-a-half having just met somebody, you talk world travel, your father, your siblings, lovers, you know? You get close to a person and you're out there sharing this experience, something you've both wanted to do since you were young. So you form a bond. Did I have a crush on her? No.

Reality TV World: So how was your relationship with Joe different from what was portrayed on TV then?

Vince Sly: Did I really like Joe and want to work with him? I was like, "Here's a guy who has some great potential -- huge capacity to be an ally." But there are some things for young men, like, bravado got in the way. That's my perspective. My perspective is that I had no jealousy towards Joe. In fact, it was a power issue.

Now that, most certainly, was depicted [accurately]. Joe was dominating in control of numbers and controlled the power. He had more people on his side. I had Nina. He had two -- Hali and Jenn. I needed somebody else, you know? It can't be two against four, and it can't be two against three and one single. So, I had to convince Will to come onboard and it was evidently ineffective.

Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion of Vince Sly's exclusive interview.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski