[NEWS] Reality Check For Mississauga Mall

Shows

MISSISSAUGA – Shoppers at the Erin Mills Town Centre got a taste of reality on Saturday afternoon.

The Mississauga mall’s Claim UR Domain @ EMTC’s BCK 2 SKOOL promotion featured a question and answer session with Survivor‘s Yau Man Chan Michelle Yi & Mitchell Olsen, The Amazing Race‘s Erwin & Godwin Cho, and The Mole‘s Bill McDaniel. The event also featured an autograph session with the reality show contestants.

The event ran from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and took place in the mall’s upper level centre court. Survivor Australia‘s Mitchell Olsen served as the emcee as fans were invited to ask their favorite reality contestants any burning questions that they had when they watched each respective show.

The event began with each star addressing the crowd. Bill McDaniel said that he was “tickled to be involved” and plugged his upcoming book. Erwin and Godwin Cho thanked the organizers for their hospitality. Michelle Yi updated attendees on what she has been doing since the show ended (job-hunting) and Yau Man Chan joked that he would answer any questions “except about the truck.”

One of the first questions posed to the panel asked about the “reality of reality TV” and how much actually happened.

McDaniel said that nothing seen on reality TV was “reversed.”

Chan echoed the same sentiment and said that nobody on Survivor Fiji was prompted to say anything.

“What you see is editing,” Chan mused. “For Survivor, think of it as the producers trying to tell a story with no script.”

Mitchell offered evidence to back-up his Survivor friend. He told a story about how he said that the water was dirty on Survivor: The Australian Outback and how the producers made it seem like he said that fellow contestant Kimmi Kappenberg was dirty.

The Erin Mills Town Centre experience was one of the reality-themed occasions put together by Project Cool. Organized by Jessica Matson, Magee Walker and Liam Giles-Hayes, Project Cool is an event designed to help raise money for charity, with the receiving charitable organization changing every year.


(From left to right): Magee Walker, Liam Giles-Hayes & Jessica Matson

“We like to focus Project Cool on smaller children’s charities that are either underfunded or that you don’t hear a lot about in the media and that maybe we haven’t heard about, because it’s a learning experience for us as well,” Matson said. “We raise money through ticket sales and merchandise sales.”

The proceeds from this weekend benefited “Give Kids The World.” The non-profit organization allows children with life-threatening diseases and their parents the chance to visit Central Florida attractions like Disney World and the Give The Kids The World village at no cost.

Magee Walker said that the stars who appear at the event are chosen carefully and are almost always invited back.

“We look for people who are responsible because we don’t want people missing out on our events,” she said. “Essentially, the role here is that we want people who will interact with the fans. We want somebody who, no matter who they are going to talk with, they are going to have a really good conversation.”

The girls said that support from the Erin Mills Town Centre was invaluable.

“We were having some trouble because everything was really booked up, but Erin Mills really pulled through with us, and it’s a really great facility,” Walker said. “It turned out to be a perfect day because it’s a rainy Saturday so everybody’s here.”

Project Cool said each event takes about a year to set-up and plans are already underway for next year.

Photo credit: Richard Mauntah
Project Cool staff photo courtesy of Project Cool

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.