Bobby Hlad was best known as being the resident goofball in the Big Brother house. The rock-climbing instructor from Oakville, Ontario, was undoubtedly the most loyal member of the Chop Shop and is best known for trying to advance in the game by using a fake veto that he wasn’t able to actually use.
I caught up with the third jury member to discuss what happened, why he targeted Sindy in the HOH competition after he worked with her to evict JP and the evolution of the Chop Shop. We also discussed what he thinks about all of the twists this season and if he feels that this season’s winner will be the best player or simply the luckiest.
Bobby Hlad: Hi Murtz!
Murtz Jaffer: Hey, how are you?
BH: Good, and yourself?
MJ: Good! If you’re ready to get started, I’ll jump right into it…
BH: Fire away, buddy!
MJ: Can you outline your Big Brother strategy before you went in the house and how it evolved when you were in there?
BH: Pretty hard question. I knew coming into the house, there was no way that I was going to hide that I was a physical threat. I definitely was not going to throw the physical parts of the competition. However, I did want to be seen like a big dummy so I didn’t paint too much of a target on my back. So I was going to try to throw the mental comps. That was my strategy going into the house. More or less, I was sticking to that. Even in V For Veto, I looked an idiot on the puzzle. I wanted people to think I wasn’t smart but I still wanted people to be able to work with me in an alliance. So I had to show that I was a very strong physical threat at least. Having both, the full package, is a never good idea.
MJ: You immediately gravitated toward Bruno and on the surface, on Big Brother, all-guy alliances either do really well or really poorly. Were you ever concerned that your association with him would result in you being targets (which is ultimately what happened?)
BH: Yeah. I know all guy alliances are… sometimes people like to gang up on them. However, they’re a strong physical threat too and that’s kind of the only way I saw me not having such a big target on my back (is being aligned with other guys that hopefully would be ahead of me as far as target-wise went). So I thought it was kind of helping my game, but it didn’t really work at the same time because I was still seen as a bigger threat.
After Zach left, it kind of left me and Bruno really isolated (especially because we’re older than the other houseguests). It was a really a weird situation because I really couldn’t relate to young people as much. That kind of ultimately isolated myself and kind of led to me being on my own so I needed Bruno really badly, and that’s kind of why we took Godfrey under our wings as well. It was a really rough situation to be in. I felt like my back was against the wall at the beginning.
MJ: I was fascinated by the explanation you gave the other jury members about why you threw Sindy under the bus and that it was apparently because you wanted to keep up the lie about the fake veto. Can you elaborate on this and the method behind your madness?
BH: Sure. I heard that I was going to get backdoored on Zach’s HOH. That terrified me. I kind of needed to come up with a plan that… I felt like I was a huge target, so I really needed to come up with a plan to at least buy myself a couple weeks. I tried to create this fake veto thing in the vault out of absolutely thin air. I think it kind of worked. All I had to do was piss off a person who was a blabbermouth to the entire house. After I got that first question right in the HOH, I thought of it on my feet kind of in the moment.
I thought this was the perfect idea and the perfect chance to kind of piss off Sindy enough to spread the lie that I have this veto throughout the entire house like wildfire. I told the Chop Shop to try to gain some respect and trust from the Chop Shop. I just needed the other side of the house to know. So that’s where I kind of used Sindy (that hopefully she’d tell the entire other side of the house that I had this veto). I don’t know if she believed it or not.
There were probably a couple of days where the entire house thought I had this veto thing. It was kind of working to my favor because no one want to take a stab at me and get blood on there hands if I was just going to be there the next week as a huge physical threat.
MJ: When Bruno decided to join Sarah, Brittnee and Sindy to flip the house against JP, he seemed to have to convince you to do this. What were your reservations about striking against JP and do you regret that move now?
BH: I don’t regret the move at all. Like I said, I was scared to do big moves early in the game, but it seemed like the right amount time to finally make this move. Bruno did convince me, and it took some convincing because I head heard (well Zach told me) that first of all, Godfrey threw my name off as a replacement nominee for himself. That scared me. That really pissed me off with Godfrey because I knew he’d do whatever he could if my back was against the wall. That terrified me. That really made me want Godfrey out more. However, I was so scared of JP. It just took a little bit of convincing from Bruno to take kind of take the stab at JP. I knew he was super close to Zach. I just had to figure out the damage control because I knew, after we did this, we’d be disobeying “Zach’s will.” We would just have to somehow mend these bridges because this was a huge move and we knew that we were going to piss off Zach so much. It definitely required a little bit more thinking. We had to really plan out how the next couple of days were going to go after we took out his close buddy on his own HOH.
MJ: And I think you touched on this earlier Bobby. In the HOH competition after JP left, you immediately knocked out Sindy and this ultimately led to Sindy being evicted. Can you elaborate on why you chose her (despite after having just voted with her to send out JP?)
BH: First of all, I’d like to say no one talked about an alliance. It’s sounded like a one-and-done vote thing, which scared me in the first place (because I feel like when you make a big move like this, you almost have to have an alliance). It wasn’t going to be me who suggested about this alliance but no one else was talking about doing an alliance by sending out JP.
That kind of scared me… it kind of seemed like there were two sides of the house. One side that just voted out JP and the other side was obviously the Diaper Alliance and the showmance side. I absolutely did not want to pick one of those sides because I knew I was probably going to be the big physical threat or threat on either side and I was probably going to go home the next week.
BH: The only way I saw me escaping this was to throw the comp. I could not pick a side. If I did, I think I would have been screwed. I ended up getting the question right (like I said before). The only thing I could have done was pick a target. Set out coming after Sindy because she was new to the house and she wasn’t really seen on either side. That was the only thing I had to go off of. I had to think on my feet. It kind of worked out in my favor with the whole veto lie thing too so it kind of fell together quite nicely. I think it bought me a week or two.
MJ: It’s clear that your strategy was to appear non-threatening and to always be happy and cheerful in the house. Do you think that this plan worked and were you able to hide how much of a physical threat you were?
BH: I definitely wasn’t able to hide how much of a physical threat I was. Since Day 1, people wanted me out. They wanted the rock climbing guy out. As far as non-threatening, I tried to. I tried to say I didn’t talk much game. At the beginning, I actually didn’t talk much game. My lies weren’t that transparent. I was true. I didn’t want to talk much game too early. That was my whole thing is I didn’t want to be seen talking to too much people by themselves. I wanted to be seen as the happy guy who floats around a little bit, cheerful. You could use me whenever you want. Almost as a free agent when really I wanted to work with the Chop Shop and I really wanted that thing to work out so much. I was hoping that it would work a little bit better and the non-threatening thing, but once I started throwing Kevin’s name out (and how I really wanted Kevin out), I think I overplayed that too much. That kind of made me seem like all my stuff was bull crap.
MJ: Can you discuss the evolution of the Chop Shop and why it seemed to dissolve?
BH: Chop Shop was such a great thing for a couple days. I know this now that JP and Zach had an alliance from the first few days. Maybe even Day 1. That ultimately kind of screwed over the Chop Shop. Zach could have pulled in JP and could have decided to keep him separated from it. Chop Shop was never really a thing. It’s kind of Zach’s fault. If he didn’t say anything to JP, I think it could have been a real great thing. We had plans. Like how everyone had one [extra] person to kind of get close to and we could take them out. It could have been great but it seemed like it was a lie from the beginning. It was all because of Zach and JP’s close relationship. That’s pretty much the entire thing.
MJ: While there were so many Big Brother superfans in the house this season like Jordan, Sarah, Johnny and Naeha, you appeared to only be a casual viewer. Do you think that it is an advantage or a disadvantage to be a Big Brother fan before entering the house?
BH: It’s definitely good to have some knowledge of the Big Brother game. I think if you start being too much of a super fan, you really overthink sometimes. Sometimes a simple game is sometimes the best game or at least best for your gameplay that week. The people who tend to overthink things kind of try to cover too [many] of their bases and make themselves the target. They kind of paint the target on themselves. When you feel the most comfortable in the house, that’s normally when you go, and I think that’s what happened to JP. He had a million different alliances. He felt comfortable. Zach felt comfortable and that ultimately is what sent JP home. JP [tried] to cover too many bases and it got out. Then he became a target, and he left.
MJ: There are so many twists this season. Do you think that is impacting the game. Will the best player still win or will it be the luckiest person who ends up taking home the $100,000 prize?
BH: The twists have been absolutely crazy. Of course they are impacting the game. One twist absolutely screwed over Willow. She wasn’t on anyone’s radar and now she has been in the jury house with me, and I feel so bad for the girl. She was playing such a great game. Same thing with Bruno. You can’t plan for a twist like that. There’s no guard against that. He wasn’t even the first or second replacement nominee. He ended up coming on after the veto and after the supposed ‘Coup D’Etat’ was used. It’s crazy! It’s starting to sound like the luckiest player is going to win the $100,000 because I think the best players are sitting in the [jury] house right now.
MJ: How would you like Bobby in the Big Brother Canada house to be remembered?
BH: Hopefully as a nice guy because I think that’s what I was to everyone. I may not have had one-on-one conversations with a lot of people because it felt safe being in the house, but hopefully remembered as someone who just absolutely loves the game, who would have gave up $10,000 just to spend another day in the house or another week in the house. Like the whole vault situation… I don’t regret not taking it because I loved every single minute in that house. I love the game so much. If I was ever told to get put back in, I would instantly do it, but that’s not to take away how much I love jury! I want to be remembered as someone who just absolutely loves the game, loves everyone, and life. Just the experience and the journey was amazing. At the end of the day, it’s about the journey.
MJ: That’s amazing. Bobby, thank you so much.
BH: Thank you so much Matt it was awesome talking to you, buddy.
MJ: All right. Take care. Bye-bye.
BH: One love, brother.
