During last weeks episode of Exile Island
Bruce Kanegai made a return to Survivor as a member of the jury after living through the ordeal that resulted from him not going to go the loo for forever.
I caught up with him on Friday to chat about his bowel movements, find out why he didn't badmouth Casaya more and see what he'd have done if he'd still been in the game:
Tashi: The fact that we're chatting obviously means that you've fully survived your ordeal?
Bruce: Yes I was playing the game really hard and my body just shut down. I never thought it would happen to me. The worst part was the urninary bladder infection - it was so painful I thought I had an anurism. It was more painful than when I got bit by a rattlesnack.
Tashi: So you've had other fierce brushes with death?
Bruce: I should have died about a dozen times. I've been to the paramedics and emergency care forty times. If you called my wife right now and said: "Nancy, I'm calling about your husband Bruce," she'd say: "Which hospital is he at?"
Tashi: What's up with that? Are you jinxed?
Bruce: No, I always remember a quote by Helen Keler where she says: "If life is not adventure, it's nothing at all."
Since I was young boy I would go on great adventures. As a teenager I would hitchhike to the mountains and backpack by myself. I trained in the martial arts, ski'd and I want to pick up surfing again. I like taking a chance like crossing a river or jumping off a waterfall. I like to push myself to another level.
Tashi: Men are much more upfront about constipation and so on don't you think? If I'd been there I would have died - I wouldn't have wanted everyone to know what the problem was.
Bruce: That's true. The tribe would discuss things amongst themselves like whether you've been to the bathroom or if your foot or stomach hurt but I didn't want to tell them how bad it was in case they voted me off. For 12 days I battled with pain but it really escalated at the end.
Tashi: South Africa's very pro-active in celebrating our cultural diversity and being a fully unified culturally dynamic society and the first thing I thought when no-one chose you to be in a tribe at the start of the show was that it was because you're Japanese American. Did you think the same thing?
Bruce: I think it was lot things. One, because I was the oldest guy. Second I was the smallest guy. I put into mind that because I was Asian there was no identification with anybody there and I'm used to being last picked.
I was always the smallest one and youngest one in my grade and I was never a super-athlete. I was okay but I was always the last one in the game to picked. That's why I started changing to doing individual things like surfing and sking and karate and golfing now.
When they didn't choose me I was able to accept it and when Jeff Probst said: "Bruce, you've got the first Immunity from being voted off and you'll join whatever tribe first votes someone off," - it was a blessing in disguise.
Tashi: Ja, plus it meant you didn't have to spend time with them. Your trips to Exile Island were very hectic. How did you keep your spirits up?
Bruce: There was no shelter, a 60 mile storm hit and I was trying to hide under a piece of bark. I just did karate exercises 'til about 4am and then when I came back from the Island my tribe were totally out of control.
Tashi: That skull thing on Exile island - it looks like you could climb into the eyes to get shelter. Why hasn't anyone done this?
Bruce: We were prohibited from using it as shelter. It was made out driftwood and huge.
Tashi: Why did you consistently have so many good things to say about Casaya when all of them (except for Cirie) are so nasty and mad?
Bruce: I always look for good things in people. You had to walk around them like you were walking on eggshells. Shane smoked 60 cigarettes and drank 30 shots of expresso a day and when he went cold turkey he really went out of his mind. He was just crazy. I dunno why, Courtney, from the moment I met her, she didn't like me.
I really respected Danielle - I kinda watched over her and she kinda watched over me. Cirie, she's playing a shrewd game. She melts your heart, she was very shrewd. She was gonna get voted off at the first Tribal Council and then the second one - that's how well she's played the game.
Tashi: So you're basically saying that you just said nice things about them to keep them happy?
Bruce: Yes, you just had to go along with them.
Tashi: Was your and Bobby's booze-up in the Cada del Charmin your way of rebelling against them?
Bruce: What happened was - when we got back from the Reward Challenge we got the fish and I ended up chopping it up for the first hour. Courtney and Danielle popped open the first bottle of wine and drank it while I was cutting the fish.
People have to remember - what happened to the three bottles of wine that got drunk before. They didn't show all that. They shared the third bottle with me and then went to sleep and didn't say they were saving the fourth bottle.
It was raining, I had to wait for the lightning to flash to see if there was any place to sleep but there wasn't any so I went to sleep in the outhouse. About an hour later Bobby arrived with it and we drank it.
Shane, Aras, Courtney and Cirie made an alliance when I was on Exile Island and when they had discussions to vote somebody off they never included me in their strategy or discussions.
Tashi: You obviously knew that finishing the wine would cause problems?
Bruce: I said to Bobby: "If we're gonna get voted off, let's have the wine."
Tashi: If you'd stayed in the game - what would your strategy have been?
Bruce: Before I left I was sure I was in the final four guaranteed. After that Reward Challenge that Cirie won when I returned to camp in such pain - Courtney just flipped about everyone saying she was most annoying and Shane was convinced that Cirie was gonna vote him out so I could see the whole tribe was falling apart.
I was gonna flip to Terry's side, Danielle would have come with me, and Cirie - maybe we could have convinced her to vote Aras off. That way it would have been Terry, me, Cirie and Danielle in the final four.
Ends