Exclusive: 'Survivor: Worlds Apart' castoff Vince Sly talks (Part 2)

Survivor: Worlds Apart eliminated Vince Sly during the second episode of the CBS reality competition's 30th season.


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 concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: Had you been a little more laid back in the beginning of the game, do you think there would've been less of a target on you? Do you regret trying to emerge as somewhat of a leader so early on?


Vince Sly: Yeah, look, I mean, you can always go back with eight months of sleep and a belly full of food and think, "I could have played so differently!" I would've been so chill and I wouldn't have reacted like that. And then you get back out there, I'm sure, on a single crab leg and five nights of no sleep, you probably have a completely different reaction.

And, you know, it's like these are real reactions that people have. I mean, we're not acting out there. It's not fake. And so, would I do something differently? If you could teleport me through time and put me back into that body and be like, "Now you know everything so play it out."

Sure, maybe in that one moment I'd have the capacity to withhold a statement or not express myself, but I feel like everyone was out there playing themselves. And no, I don't think I would've changed anything in regards to my intensity. I would've changed, maybe, where that intensity was focused.

Reality TV World: You and Jenn started out as allies until Joe came into the picture. We saw you confront her and question her loyalty. And you both pretty much pretended like everything was fine and dandy between you, but you went off and said you thought she was fake and she went off and accused you of being crazy. At what point exactly did you and Jenn drop the act?

Vince Sly: I think that was Night 1 for me. There were a couple things said around the fire and it just -- it was just the moment of like, "Ahh. I'm going to have to watch this one."


Reality TV World: But when did you both stop putting on a good face for each other? You finally got to a point where it was obvious you weren't working together, that she had chosen to be with the other side of the tribe.

Vince Sly: I think it was probably Day 5 right before Tribal. It was just like, "Alright, here's what's up!" We all kind of had our differences Day 3. Day 2, we started to go our separate ways, Day 3, I think there was a distinct alliance.

And then, a couple days later, we went to Tribal. So, by Day 3, we all had a pretty clear understanding of who should be talking to who. And if you do break up and have a conversation with that person, what's that all about?

Reality TV World: Do you think Nina telling Will about your fears in regards to Will's health and how he might perform in challenges served any purpose for her whatsoever? Do you believe that was just a bad move on her part?

Vince Sly: Yeah, I think that was a total slip-up. And again, you're really nervous. You're having a conversation with somebody that, I mean, maybe Will was penetrating her, trying to get some things -- like, he was fearful that -- who knows what kind of conversation it was.


It could've been Jenn and Joe getting inside his ear, like, "Hey, you know, the truth is, Vince wants YOU gone." And then he goes to Nina -- who he knows he can trust -- and she says, "Well, he is concerned about your health." Who knows if that was a slip-up.

Nina and I were, I mean, I was the only alliance Nina had out there. And so, there was no reason for her to go against me at all. But I think it was entirely just one of those moments where, looking back upon it, it's like, "I can't believe I said that! Oh my God, why?! Why did I say that? Why did I say that?" I feel like that's definitely what's happening right now.

Reality TV World: To what extent did you actually trust Will going into that Tribal Council? It sounds like you were fairly confident he'd stick with you, but did anything in his behavior change to make you worry?

Vince Sly: Yeah, I mean, after that statement, he told me -- I approached him and he didn't really look me in the eyes. Before, we'd have conversations. We'd talk about kids, family, connection, life experience, whatever. We'd have these big conversations, really touching each other, and then afterwards, you could see his emotions had shifted.

I did as much clean-up as I possibly could, but I went into Tribal just hoping. I was just hoping that there would be something in a conversation that would open me up to reinforce things that Will was on my side, and it never really came about. I just remained as reticent as possible so as to not stir the pot anymore. And what happened, happened.


Reality TV World: If you had stayed in the game, would you have tried to target Will at one of the next Tribal Council sessions or would you have stayed loyal to him? How much of an issue was his physical capability to you?

Vince Sly: The really hard thing was this: Will is the reason, the main reason I didn't get to sleep. But the way it unfolded was -- and this was my doing -- I already had Will go with this campaign and I thought it was a lot of fun to mix it up and not do something so boring as every other season in 30 seasons of Survivor.

I'm an eccentric player. I wanted to play an eccentric game and I wanted to do something different. I wanted to get "The Barbie pack" out right away.

"Let's try it. Let's break it up. Let's take control of this game in a way that you don't see done very often from the beginning" rather than just sitting back and pretending like I was part of "The Barbie Pack," which was definitely talked about -- a lot. They were like, "Why don't we go with us four, like the young people, let's stay together."

Obviously we'd be so strong if it was just us, but I didn't want to play like that. So I put into action some things that, you know, I had confidence going into it. Yeah, I played the game that I wanted to play.


Reality TV World: You seemed to get offended when the girls were making snarky remarks about Nina and choosing to exclude her at times. How did you view that situation? Do you think Nina was just oversensitive -- as Jenn had suggested -- or the other girls were being insensitive and behaving poorly?

Vince Sly: That's another thing. You have a difference of age and experience here. Reactions, understanding how people are, when your hormones change at 28 or 30-years-old, you just tend to be less bitchy, less confrontational. I don't know.

It just seemed like there was some element of their personalities that was a bit excessive. Maybe I just have more experience holding space for those who have excessive emotions, and maybe they don't have the patience for it. Maybe it's a difference in generations.

The truth is, I really like these girls. There's a lot of love and compassion for them, especially outside the game. It's just that when you're there, you're under a lot of stress, and here's the only person that I can truly trust -- and they're treating her poorly?! Of course I'm going to have to say something about it.

Reality TV World: How were you cast on Survivor? How'd you end up on the show?

Vince Sly: I was scouted. I was at the beach at my cart and a police officer pulls up and wanted to write me a ticket. I jump up and I start this whole thing about how we give a coconut to him in uniform, which is true.


But, you know, it was kind of an embellished explanation. And [a casting director] happened to be right there. She heard, approached me, and then I got on the show after going through the whole process they're after.

To read the first half of Vince's exclusive Survivor interview with Reality TV World, click here.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski