‘Survivor: Cagayan’ interview: Winner Tony Vlachos on spy shacks, llamas, and great gameplay

We’ve admitted many times over to being a big Tony Vlachos supporter on “Survivor: Cagayan,” and for many reasons. Not only did he make an effort to make the game entertaining, but he legitimately played his heart out while on the island. If he wasn’t bald already, all the paranoia and stress that he put himself through would have probably caused him to be.

So to say that we were stoked to get Tony’s thoughts on this season and the game would be an understatement, to say the least. Despite a crazy day of post-finale interviews, he was insightful and at times funny while explaining his game, how this show has changed his job with the police, and how exactly his famed “Spy Shack” really played into his game beyond being a great hashtag for the show to use.

CarterMatt – Let’s start here, since I think this is one of the reasons why I found myself pulling for you. Were you really having as much fun out there as it seemed?

Tony Vlachos – Everything about ‘Survivor,’ the elements, getting my nails dirty, the not brushing my teeth, being with people I don’t know, sweating, all that. I hated all of that stuff! But I went in there and I became a part of that environment. And I just had fun with it. That’s all I could do with it. I was playing the game 24/7. If I slowed down, I would’ve lost the game.

I remember back during the pre-game watching some of your videos thinking ‘oh, this guy could be a villain.’ Was that something you worried about in the early episodes?

Yeah, but you know what? I really didn’t want to be a villain because it’s not who I am. I did have to do what I had to do out there, but I made a point to say that I was not making any malicious moves out there, it’s nothing personal or emotional. The moves that I made were strictly strategic. So for the 41 minutes that you see me deceiving people or lying to people, there was 71 hours of footage where I was a sweetheart to people and I was genuine to me, and it showed with the outcome last night. This guy here stabbed everyone in the back, lied to everybody, manipulated everybody, and was sitting next to somebody who was extremely likable that never hurt anybody. But, we’re still giving him the votes. That speaks volumes of who I am!

I wanted to get your thoughts on that just because of jury management. Obviously, people aren’t going to want to vote for someone who they don’t like. So even though you were backstabbing people, how were you able to bring them back in and win them over and say ‘hey, this is a game? I’m not trying to do anything personal here.’

I didn’t have to do much. It was pretty simple thanks to he people I was playing with. All this swearing that I did on family … They knew that my heart was in the right place at that moment. That was my heart being in the right place at the wrong time. At nighttime I would think about ‘what did I just do?’ and that I couldn’t keep that promise because it’s not going to be beneficial for my game.

So what was good for moment 1 was not good for moment 5. People knew that, and people believed in me because I was genuine. They knew that I had to do what I had to do. With the LJ blindside, I had to create a story around that so that it was like ‘Tony didn’t betray this guy. He was nervous, he was paranoid that LJ was going to flip on us.’ That was part of the jury management. I tried to make sure that everyone knew that I wasn’t just being a sneak; I was trying to protect myself and my alliance at the same time.

Since you mention being a sneak, let’s bring up something that was such a fun part of the season in the Spy Shack. Was that something you had in your head going out there?

All the strategies that I had on paper went out minute 1 in the game. There’s nothing textbook about ‘Survivor.’ You can’t go in there with a pre-planned strategy. Everything has to be situational.

At first on the island, it was myself, Cliff, and Woo who said ‘guys, it’s going to be us three to the end. We’re going to wipe out these girls, we’re going to wipe out everybody.’ Two days later, I see Cliff with Lindsey walking on the beach all day long. So I go over to Cliff and ask ‘what are you talking about with Lindsey?’ He’s like ‘oh, nothing. We’re just BSing.’ Okay, that doesn’t make sense. [I tell myself to not] be paranoid and just relax, but I needed to figure out what these guys were talking about. That’s when I figured out my Spy Shack.

I’m going to give some big, big props to production. I was in my Spy Shack sometimes two hours a day listening to conversations, and production sacrificed their footage so that it wouldn’t sacrifice my game. That’s why you don’t see a lot of footage of the Spy Shack, but I put it to use every single day. As a matter of fact, me and Trish were working on the Spy Shack together. [Trish would go in] and start a conversation [with people] about who we would need to get rid of next, and then she would walk away to the side of where I was. I would try to listen in and see what was said.

That is why I knew Cliff replaced me with Lindsey. It was the Spy Shack that did all that.

Was it ever hard to keep track of who you were lying to? For example, there were some people who knew you were a cop, and some who thought you were a construction worker.

I was well aware of my lies. All my lies were controlled. I knew what I could get away with, and I knew what I could get myself out of.

With the lie about the construction worker, I told myself at the get-go that I wouldn’t tell people i was a cop in case there’s somebody who doesn’t like cops, or somebody who likes cops and knows how strategic cops are. It was a little of a double-edged sword for me … So I told Trish, I told Woo, and I told Cliff that I was a construction worker. So when Sarah approaches me and asks ‘are you a cop?’, I couldn’t tell her I was a cop so I had to lie and tell her I was a construction worker. Later on I told Sarah I was a cop, as you saw.

… During the tribe swap I went to the Solana Tribe I told them I was a cop because if Sarah flipped on me and told everyone [on Appari] i was a cop, I knew my alliance was not going to believe in me because she threw me under the bus. So I decided to come clean to them because that lie could come back to me. If I knew a lie could come back to me, I made sure I was the first to say ‘guys, I’m going to come clean and be honest.’ That way if the lie comes back, they can say ‘Tony already told us.’

Now when we went to tribal council after the merge, Spencer did not know I was a cop, Kass did not know I was a cop, Jeremiah did not know I was a cop, and Tasha did not know I was a cop. So when Jeff asked ‘what do you do for a living,’ I’m not going to sit there and tell him that I’m a cop while these people think I’m a construction worker. Tribal Council is not a place for me to get into an argument about what I do for a living, and what lies I’m saying.

So when I got back after tribal council, I came clean to them and told them that I was a cop.

So where did you become such an expert at speaking llama?

(Laughs) Like everything else, this was something situational. Kass apparently didn’t understand ‘hey, I’m going to take you to the end, and you said you’re going to take me to the end, so it made no strategic sense for you to go tell Woo that I told you all of this. So, you know what? Apparently you don’t understand English, so I’m going to have to speak to you in llama.’ She told us that she was an animal handler, and that was definitely believable because if she had said she was a lawyer, nobody would have believed that.

So if she’s an animal handler and that’s what she deals with, she doesn’t deal with people; but after I talked to her in llama, I think she understood me!

Yeah I wished they had shown more of Kass talking about that on the show, because I don’t think that [people who were watching the show and not the pre-game videos knew that she was hiding her job].

She told us she [raised] llamas, alpacas, and she was raising reindeer. Llama was what came to mind, and that was the language I chose to speak to her.

About how much time in the day did you spend looking for idols?

You know what it was? I would walk around [cam] kicking sand and kicking dirt and looking bored, and then I would walk around the corner where they can’t see me, and then like you would see in the footage, I would dart 100 miles an hour to where I needed to go. I would canvas out the whole campsite, so I would say on day 1 I was going to clear this site, and on day 2 I was going to clear this site … It was non-stop looking for idols. Every opportunity that I got to look for an idol, that is what I did.

The same thing goes for the clues. Do you know how many clues I found that were not aired? I found a clue in the coffee [reward] when I was on the Solana tribe with Cliff. [It was after LJ found it], so it was irrelevant. Then I found a clue in the robes when we went to the massage spa with Spencer and Jeremiah. There were three robes there. I tried the first one on, checked in the pockets, and said ‘hey, this one is too big for me.’ Then, I did it with the second one and said ‘this one’s too tight.’ Then, I tried the third one and the clue was in the pocket!

That’s like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but with robes!

But once again, it was irrelevant because it was a clue to the idol that Spencer had. But I didn’t know that, so I was back in the water for three or four hours looking for that.

Prior to the final three when Woo decided to keep you, what was when you were the most worried out there?

The scariest part of that was the Morgan vote-off, where Kass had a chance to go back to her original alliance. I was unprotected, and if she decided to vote with them, I would’ve been gone. When I saw those four votes for me, that was the most nervous that I was in the game.

I know you said last night that you were upset that you didn’t win individual immunity, but are you thrilled that you managed to win even without winning a single one?

That’s a beautiful feeling. I won the biggest challenge of the game, and I’m very happy with it. It wasn’t a necklace, but it was a check for a million dollars.

So you’ve already got the million, but did you still want to go back and play again?

I’d love to play again. Now this time, I would have to take it up a few more notches … I got to play a little harder and a little faster.

Can you actually play a little harder and a little faster?

Well, we’ll have to wait and see!

So what do you make of this whole experience now? It’s obviously changed your life, but how has it changed your work now that you are recognizable as a TV star?

That’s been tough because I like being out in the streets and I like action. Since the show aired they’ve buried me in the office doing office work. I don’t really like that; it’s like caging an animal. I want to be free, and I want to be wild. I want to run out there and play.

But I’m taking out of the game some friendships. I’m friends with everybody, even Sarah. I know we had some words because she had a few negative comments about me and my badge, and I said ‘listen Sarah, everyday I wear this uniform and put this badge on. I risk my life to honor this badge. That’s how I honor my badge. So don’t tell me I’m not honoring my badge because on Survivor, nothing means anything besides keeping your torch lit at the end of every tribal council.’ That’s what I did.

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What is your take on this season, and on Tony as a winner? Share your thoughts below.