The fourth person to get eliminated from Survivor: Micronesia was Michael “Mikey B” Bortone. Mikey B. had a plan from the beginning to get rid of the weak players in the “Fans” tribe. Too bad that he lost his closest ally, Mary, in the first elimination from the “fans” tribe. That proved costly as he didn’t have enough people on his side to keep his plan, and himself, in the game.
In a conference call with members of the media, Mikey B. discussed all of that along with many other things. Here are the highlights of what Mikey B. said in this conference call for Survivor: Micronesia…
How did you get involved in this? Did you apply?
Michael “Mikey B” Bortone: I applied once, during the Australia season, so I guess that would be for Amazon. I applied once. Never heard back from them. A friend of mine, here, over the Summer, was friends with someone who was in production. They were requesting a “Mikey B” type. He referred me. I went in for a meeting and the rest is history.
What were your thoughts when Mary got voted out at TC?
MB: My thoughts were that it was a terrible move by Joel and anyone who followed him. Now the tribe is distraught. It’s even more in disaray when it was 7 vs. 3. We got weaker as a tribe. To me, bad things were about to come.
What did you think about the dynamic of being an outspoken leader and that putting a target on you. Did you consider that?
MB: Yeah. I don’t think that I was an outspoken leader. It was a simple plan to protect the 7 of us against the possibility of Kathy getting the idol. Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have come up with the plan, but I didn’t boss people around. I wasn’t vocal. I was smiling. I was having a good time. I wasn’t bothering anybody. It was just a simple plan that if everybody had half a brain, they could have realized that adn it would have been said in about a minute or two. But people didn’t understand if for some reason, so therefore I had to keep on repeating it. That made it look like I was more of a leader, but I did not take that leadership role.
Was that just an editting job by the producers?
MB: I beleive so, because we were sitting around, kind of laughing about it and I don’t doubt for one second that Joel used it to his benefit, to get people on his side and to start the negative thoughts, but I didn’t have any wars with anybody and I didn’t demand anything. That was the only thing that I was vocal about, aside from the fact that I wanted Chet gone when he deserved to go.
What’s your assesment of Joel? What kind of a guy is he?
MB: Egotistical, self-centered, jealous…I could go on and on if you want.
What are your descriptions of Kathy, Chet and Tracy? What do you think of Kathy. Mary said that she didn’t have an edit button. What did you think?
MB: That’s very true. I mean, she was a geniune fan and definitely out of her element. She was in compelte awe of the Favorites. So she enjoyed playing the game with the favorites and would have turned in a heartbeat. She even said last night, “I wish I was part of the Favorites tribe.” I think she was just overwhelmed with the whole thing. I think she missed her familiy. I think she physically was not able to compete at a high level, emotionally. I think she was just in a little bit over her head. But, she’s a great lady. I actually had some nice conversations with her. She made me laugh more than bothered me. Even without her edit button, it didn’t bother me. It didn’t affect me.
Tracy on the other hand, she decided to hold it a secret that she builds houses, until about day 3, when we attempted our about 13th shelter that failed, then she decides to bark some orders about what we are doing wrong. From that moment on I was like “You just decided to hold that information while we stumbled over ourselves for 3 days?”. I’m like “You’re an idiot”. So, I didn’t have any type of repore with her.
Chet – I didn’t mind Chet. I mean he was just going about his business. The only thing about Chet is that he just didn’t deserve to be a part of the tribe, once he failed. The thing about that first challenge, the water challenge, is that we sat around for an hour, and we discussed our strengths and weaknesses. Chat said adaomantly said that if there’s anything to do with water, you gotta put me in. I’m a great swimmer. I can hold my breath for 5 mintues. I can go down to the bottom, about 20-30 feet. I mean it’s one thing if you’re not able to perform in a challenge, but it’s another thing if you volunteering your strength as one thing and being the complete opposite, and being, by far, the weakest swimmer of the entire game, of all 20 players. He deserved to go.
How bad were the conditions there?
MB: It was pretty bad. It rained almost every night. We didn’t have proper shelter, so we were getting pelted with rain continuously. We didn’t have fire until day 4 which means that we were eatting coconuts, limes and raw clams up until that point, even up until last night, when I got voted off, the only food that I had aside from those 3 were, we caught the 2 eel, that Jason caught, and maybe about 3 crabs. We were pretty malnurished and struggling a bit, but I was more in dire need for water more than food.
Is that why you were losing challenges? Was it physical strength or was it the group dynamics?
MB: I think it was the whole group dynamic. I mean, their ability to assess a challenge and bring their knowledge of past seasaons into it, was able to put them at an advantage over us. I mean, last night with the cocunuts. They had done a similar challenge that they had done before. We had 2 coconuts back in our bin before we even knew what they were doing. It was a genius move by a great athelete in Ozzy, to not only bring cocnuts to the forefront of the cage, but to flip all of theirs up and all of ours down which made it more difficult, so they won that challenge on Ozzy’s first trip out.
Do you have any thoughts after watching the show last night? Anything that you didn’t know while you were there?
MB: I didn’t know that Joel had doubt about voting me off and I didn’t know how easy it was for him to be convinced by Tracy, who was obviously put in a corner and had no other option but to attempt that move. For it to work that easily on Joel just shows more mental weakness on his part.
Are you friends with people after the show? Do you hang out and are part of the Survivor community now?
MB: Yeah, absolutely. I mean I’ve had some lunch and had some drinks and hung out with quite a few of them It’s great to be a part of the family. I enjoy it and appreciate everything that’s come of it.
After Tracy told Joel “are you going to let everyone boss you around and let Mikey bark out orders” he flipped in a heartbeat. That seemed like a bad move. What are your thoughts?
MB: It was a horrible move. It’s one thing about Chet, if he was “not good” at the challenges, and maybe not completely holding his weight around camp, that is a differnet story. But for him to be 100% useless at the challenges and 100% useless at camp, that is just like, come on people. What are you thinking? I did not have any respect of anyone who did not vote for Chet that TC.
You weren’t surprised watching last night when Chet said “I’m done. My body’s done”.
MB: Yeah. You saw me, I was staring at him every day. I’m working and everybody’s working while he’s just in the water, like bathing himself. That’s why I made that comment “Oh, it’s 2 o’clock. TIme for bed for Chet!” He goes from his bath to his bed. The only thing that he was missing was a bathrobe.
Obviously it was a fight to keep Tracy and Kathy and Chet there, but mentally Tracy seemed to be making some pretty good moves. What are your thoughts about that?
MB: Tracy was put in a corner and she wiggled her way out of it. She wanted to keep Kathy and Chet, so there was only one play and that was to get either Joel or myself to turn on the other. I think she had a pretty clear understanding of my thoughts of her, based on the shelter ordeal, and the fact that I was so adament about getting Chet off, so she picked Joel and worked him like a drum.
Going into the Immunity Challenge, it was hard to know what was happening. What went wrong?
MB: To be honest, it was not a very thrilling challenge to watch or participate in. On every challenge, nobody took a leadership role. At no point during the game did anyone voice strategy on how to better ourselves for a certain challenge. Everytime that Jason or myself did, it would bite us in the ass because because Joel would use that as ammo to convince everyone else that we were negative people. From the beggining, the whole team was just distraught and on different pages, different agendas. There was no communication adn that’s why you see what you are seeing.
The “favorites” seemed to let people do well. They didn’t penalize them for doing well…
MB: …And not only that, they allowed talks to happen. It is the game of Survivor. People are going to talk behind your back. People are going tell you lies of what they want you to hear, so you can not believe everything you hear. I respect that game that the favorites played. They’re on the beach talking about each other, right in front of each other. If somebody over hears it, then great. If you want to come in on the conversation, that’s what we’re talking about.
Like when James was talking to Eliza?
MB: Yeah, and then again when Parvati with Jonathan walking behind and with Cirie telling Jonathan, “come on over. You want to hear it, hear it.” So with ours, Tracy gives a couple words of “Mike’s going to go after you.” and he’s like “What are you hearing?” “Oh, I’m just intuitive!” and all of sudden the paranoia strikes. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Maybe it’s me now! Maybe Mike’s going to go after me now, so let’s get him!” I mean, absurd, to be honest with you.
So what is going on with the “fans”? Too many sheep or just Joel being weird?
MB: It’s a little of both. Nobody will take a leadership role. Jason didn’t get along with the older folks bacause Jason was very good at the outdoors, but he didn’t know how to explain to people what they were doing right or wrong without it being a condesending remark to his elders. That opened the door for disaster from the beginning and just the fact that Joel was just paraniod. He was just paranoid from the beginning.
He got people somehow, which I don’t understand. He told them a million stories about his family and about his boys. I did a Joel imitation every time I went to my confessional. Joel just saying “My boys. My boys. My boys. My boys.” He sucked the girls right into it. They were all like “ahhh. You’re such a good daddy. I’ll beleive anything you say. What do you want me to do. Lead the way!” He like mezmerised them. I kept on saying “What is going on here. How are these people falling for this?” The favorites are not going to fall for this crap.
Maybe it was the hair length. I was wondering if there was a hair length requirement for the fans team?
MB: Tell me about it. Joel, I think he’s been bald his whole life, or shaved anyway, and all of a sudden he had a decision to bring back his youth and grow his hair. It looked terrible. He was scary looking. He was a neandrethal. He bossed people around. I people allowed it! I just don’t get it. He yells at someone every episode, but I’m the one that’s considered the leader and agressive? and the one who’s disrupting camp life? Come on! Give me a break.
Did you ever consider teaming up with the older people to jump Joel the way that you and Mary both got dumped?
MB: Not for a second. That still wouldn’t have gotten me any where. If I had gotten rid of Joel by teaming up with Chet, Tracy, and Kathy, then, if they kept the teams together, then we would have zero chance of winning any challenge, and then if they did the mix, then what is my use? No body needs me any more. They can keep Chet, Tracy and Kathy around as long as they want and dump them at any moment. I thought of the possibility, but confidently denied that option and decided to tell Joel my reasoning of why I won’t do that and I explained that to him and he didn’t believe me. I wasn’t threatened by Joel. I don’t even know if he can swim. I wasn’t afraid to play him on any immunity challenge.
You had a lot of strategies the week that Mary was voted off. Do you think that scared people off a little?
MB: Evidently, but it was a simple concept. They just didn’t have the brains to soak it in and acknowledge what the plan was. For some reason, it was difficult for them, so I had to keep on explaining it and at that point, that’s when it kind of became annoying. It was only annoying to Joel becasue Joel had the whole plan in the beginning not to align with me. He said it in his pregame interview. He said exactly the physical people that he was going to align with were the people that needed his strength, which doesn’t include me.
Joel had it from the beginning, from the first time that we looked at each other and knew each other were in the game, Joel knew that he was going to turn on me at some point. He didn’t allow anything, any type of comraderie or obstacles to steer him away from that. He stuck to it and I hope it bites him in the ass.
Who do you think the sneakiest player is?
MB: The sneakiest? I think Erik is the sneakiest. At least Joel, I knew what Joel was doing, even afterwards. It was my job, which I failed, but it was my job to convince him that “Look, we don’t have to be best friends out here. The fact that people think that we don’t like each other makes us even stronger of an alliance. I want to compete against you in all of these challenges, because, again, I don’t think you can swim.”
But Erik was the one showing remorse after the Mary vote, coming up to me, saying that I just want to let you know that I regret it. I do consider myself a competitor and leaving Chet on here was a mistake. I was like “I appreciate that. Let’s get the strength back and continue to grow as a tribe.” I gave him the assuance that I’m not going to do anything with the older folks, because I didn’t want any type of alliance with them. I did not want to go to war with them. So Erik not only lied to me before the Mary vote. He came up to me and softly lied to me again, so he was the snake.
He voted to evict you too, right?
MB: That’s what I’m saying, that he was sneaky when he told me that he was with me, that he regreted voting Mary, then he told me that he wanted to vote Chet off because he couldn’t physically help us. Then he voted me out. And Alexis too, who I thought was on my side, but she went with Joel too. Joel had these people mezmerized. I don’t get it.
There’s a rumor that there was a couple forming on the Fans team?
MB: In the game? They made it seem like Mary and I were becoming an item on the island, but it was the furthest thing from the truth. That again, was Joel’s plan to steer Natilie and Alexis away from me, telling them that I have a strong bond with Mary and I’m not going to break my alliance with her. But I didn’t have any stronger alliance with Mary than I did with Alexis for sure.
When Mary got voted off, did it ever cross your mind to try to get to Exile Island?
MB: Oh my God, yeah. Jason and I actually shot coconuts to see who was going to go to Exile Island if the opportunity came. Jsaon won. He hit his shot and I missed mine, so if we had won, he was going to Exile Island. He and I were also the only two that wanted to go to Exile Island.
Is the collective thing to keep sending Kathy everytime?
MB: That was Malakals plan to keep on sending Kathy.
Why though? If she’s the weakest player, she’s going to find that thing eventually.
MB: That’s their plan. If somebody’s going to find it, let it be Kathy. Keep her in the game.
What do you think of Ozzy’s trick of substituting the immunity idol?
MB: I think it’s hilarious. Yau-Man did it first. You’re aware of that, right? It’s a good move though. I mean, why not? Pretend that you don’t have the idol. If somebody else has the idol, then it changes the game in your favor dramatically. Everybody should do it. Why not?
Would you do Survivor again?
MB: Absolutely! I’m ready to go right now. Give me about a week to train and I’m there. I’d love to play again. That’s the one thing that I wish I could have. Yeah, I did get to experience the island and I got to experience the game, but I really didn’t get to experience the the full aspect of the game adn I feel a little cheated because I didn’t get to experience it.
– Survivor: Micronesia airs on CBS in the U.S. on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
– Survivor: Micronesia airs on the GLOBAL network in Canada on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Sir Linksalot: Survivor: Micronesia
