‘Big Brother Canada 2’ full interview: Adel Elseri on alliances, strategy, and fun
There are some “Big Brother Canada” players that we really could sit down and chat with for hours at a time about the game and beyond, and Adel Elseri is one of them. He’s a very fascinating guy in that there are a lot of levels there. We saw a part of him during his post-show interview Friday that was very fun-loving and enthusiastic, but there’s also a reflective, driven guy underneath the catchphrases and the big personality that came out during this chat. He loves his life, his job, and definitely his country. He is also extremely self-aware, which suited him well in the game.
We had a shorter interview with Adel right after the finale here, just in case you want to get the cumulative experience of our time with him over the past few days.
CarterMatt – So what has it been like for you since you got out of the house?
Adel Elseri – The game is finally over, so it’s time to let loose, love your fellow houseguests. The game is done, and it’s just now all love, happiness, and good times moving forward.
Did you have a good time meeting some of the other past houseguests?
I was ecstatic. I got to meet a lot of the season 1 houseguests and they were great, and then I got to meet some of the US houseguests. Wake up USA! Wake up!
Did you expect to see all these people there when you showed up during the finale?
I was blown away. I sat in my seat in the jury, and I was just like ‘these are all celebrities of Big Brother.’ My buddy Arlie would say that they were royalty of ‘Big Brother,’ and they were there to cheer us on.
We got a lot to get in here, so let’s just start from the beginning. You have such a big personality, so was it difficult just being in the house and confined? It’s so much smaller in here than it looks on TV.
Honestly my man, I loved every second, every hour, every week, every month! I would relive it over and over and over. I never felt trapped, I never felt alone. We had a Reiki princess [in Anick] doing magic for us at the start, we had the Outsiders after that, I had Ika-fied after that, and then I had the Sloppy Seconds. I had the time of my life; I would relive it over and over again.
I don’t know how much you’ve gotten to hear about things, but what did you think about the ‘Adel curse,’ where basically anyone who got close to you early in the game went home?
You know what it was? It was pretty straightforward. I was loyal to my crew, but my crew would go a little bit Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs a day or two before eviction. They sealed their own fate! But I wasn’t going to let them go high and dry, so decided ‘I’ll roll with you guys, and if I get screwed over the following week, it is what it is.’
Can you try to reign in a guy like Paul?
I lost hair on my 28-year old head because of Paul. He was making me go bald in the house. Love the guy, but not cut out for ‘Big Brother,’ that’s for sure.
I’m trying to remember everything you were around for. You saw the whole Poppin’ Paul and then his little prank with mustard in the water bottle right?
I didn’t see the water bottle, but I sure heard the ruckus going on in the house. I don’t know if you guys caught when he had a piece of muffin on a fork. I egged him on for at least two hours. I called him every name in the book, ‘you’re a bleep bleep bleep.’ But he didn’t eat it.
You know what. I would’ve loved to just have him sink his own ship even further.
Is it just fun to embrace the entertainment aspect of the game like you did? I know it’s easy to get wrapped up in strategy, but you really seemed to just love the experience of it all.
You have to have a good time. If you’re not going to have a good time being all strategic, you might miss out on the experience. I wasn’t going to miss out on that. I wasn’t willing to miss out on the experience.
Let’s talk one of the emotional Adel moments: You getting those messages and that love for winning the Buzzworthy challenge. When you saw all of the tweets that were coming in, what was going through your head?
This game was about strategy as well, and there are 15 houseguests but really there are 16. The 16th houseguest was my alliance: Canada. I felt so much better in every scenario. I knew that it was going to be a season of twists and turns, and Canada had something to do with most of it. So anytime Canada had to do something, I was just riding my pride all day. I didn’t worry about nothing! I had my flag and I was just doing my thing.
Let’s talk about the jury portion of the game, since the time that I think a lot of people were really nervous for you was when it was you against Arlie. How nervous were you?
That was the first week where I really felt I was going home. The Gremlins were pretty strategic and they had to do the move to stay in the game; but, big Jon and Neda pulled through, and they just saved me!
(Note: There was a funny moment in here, where Neda overheard our interview and thought Adel was talking about something different about the Sloppy Seconds. I told her he was complimenting her, and Adel added “I’m complimenting you, you buttplug!”)
Okay, let’s just talk about the fact that you just tried to turn ‘buttplug’ into a term of endearment. Is this the byproduct of being in a house with people for three months, but having it feel like three years?
Yeah. You know what, any term in the house was found. We had a lot of joke names, we had a lot of nicknames. We have nothing better to do but lose our minds! We were losing our vocabulary and we were using a lot of weird slang. We just had with fun with it.
So what are you going to do from here? Are you going to go back and try to adjust to normal life again? Is it going to be hard?
You know what man, it’s time to get back to the trades. I’m a tradesman, I’m a simple guy, I can’t wait to get back to my 22-man crew, to get back to the bush and back on my horse. Burn some rod and work.
And you’ve done inventing. People took notice of that.
Yeah, I invented a product called Tongue 2 Teeth. It’s a tongue-mounted toothbrush, disposable after one use. Realistically, people don’t know the aspects of it. We got a lot of media for it, it went viral, and it’s going to help a lot of people with mobility issues. When you really look into it, it’s going to help people with MS, newly injured people, vets, etc.
Are you going to do more inventing now? Are you going to invent something that turns ordinary slips of paper into things with ridiculous powers?
For the game, it was just all strategy when it came to card. Ika helped me with it, we rolled with it, we had a good time with it. I literally felt like I was sticking up the house with a piece of paper and it was so fun.
How do you feel about the whole social-media stuff? Everyone’s got fans, people who aren’t fans. Are you ready for that?
You know what, I’m not really worried about it. I’m not that great at social media. I’ll try my best to be good at it. I’ll try my best to reply and follow people. I’ll just call people and video stuff.
Is there a chance we could see Adel come back in the game? What would you change if you did come back?
Of course there’s a chance! Maybe we’ll have to do like a Canada vs. US. I’m the flag-bearer! Nobody can carry the flag like me.
Are you still going to be able to play to Canada, or are people going to be afraid of you?
Every season is a different season. Season 2 the theme was Canada. I don’t know what the theme for season 3 is going to be. If you figure it out and you’re a houseguest, play to the theme, guys.
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As for the rest of our finale interviews, be sure to visit the link here! We’ve got full chat sup already with all of the final three houseguests, and we’ll be posting the rest daily until they are all over.
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Photo: Slice