Today, Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) is joined by Tiffany Nicole Ervin (@TiffyCrazyCool) to discuss her time in Fiji! Learn more about her strategic choices, alliances, relationships and much much more![00:00:00] In der Vorlesung oder dem Meeting nicht aufgepasst und schon den Faden verloren? Kein Problem! Mit dem neuen faltbaren Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 mit Galaxy AI. Mit Galaxy AI verwandelst du Sprachaufnahmen easy in Text und kannst sie dir mit dem Notizenassistent in wenigen Stichpunkten zusammenfassen oder gliedern lassen.
[00:00:19] Super praktisch, wenn du später mit übersichtlichen Notizen glänzen willst. Galaxy AI ist hier. Erfahre jetzt mehr über das neue Galaxy Z Fold 6 auf Samsung.de. Wünschst du dir jemanden, der dich versteht wie kein anderer?
[00:00:33] Jemand, der deine Wünsche wahr werden lässt und mit dir das schönste Abenteuer deines Lebens erleben möchte? Die Commerce-Plattform Shopify revolutioniert Millionen von Unternehmen weltweit. Mit Shopify richtest du im Nu deinen Online-Shop ein. Ganz ohne Programmier- oder Designkenntnisse.
[00:00:52] Dank der effizienten Einrichtung und intuitiven Social Media und Online Marketplace Integration kannst du über Instagram, eBay und Co werben und verkaufen. Neue Zielgruppen zu erreichen war noch nie so einfach. Shopify bietet auf einer einzigen sicheren Plattform alle Tools um dein Online-Business aufzubauen.
[00:01:10] Kostenlos testen und dein Business der Welt präsentieren. Shopify.de//try besuchen. Einfach Shopify.de//try eingeben und loslegen. Made for Germany. Powered by Shopify. Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Sestrinino back with a Survivor Medium Deep Dive.
[00:01:34] Here as we are going to bring in Tiffany Nicole Irvin who was I thought a very interesting player here in Survivor 46. She's a player that I had with my draft. I thought that she had it at different points over the course of the season.
[00:01:55] Certainly had a wild ride. We'll talk about that all here with Tiffany. If you've missed any of our previous interviews we got it all started with Charlie. We talked to Liz. We just talked with Q and with Ben and here we have our interview with Tiffany.
[00:02:15] You can find those other interviews in the Survivor section of our website at robhasawebsite.com and make sure you check out the video of this interview as well at robhasawebsite.com. So without further ado let me bring in my interview with Tiffany.
[00:02:32] Hey Tiffany, what's going on? Thanks for making some time to talk Survivor 46. How are you? Hey I'm good. I'm excited to talk to you. It's been a while. How's it going? It's going great for me. How about for you?
[00:02:46] It's going great for me. You know the game is starting to wash off me. The Fiji is completely washed off of me. People on the internet are being nice so I have nothing to complain about. Were people giving you a hard time on the internet?
[00:03:02] You know what, not for real. The only time people gave me a really hard time was like after the final tribal council. I say hard time like very loosely because some people are like, oh my god she's being so mean with this timer
[00:03:17] and she's cutting people off and she's steering the way the tribal is going. And it's like first of all that's the edited version that you guys saw so relax. Second of all the 30 second timer was not even my idea. That was Soda's question.
[00:03:31] She literally just asked me to step in and Oprah asked me. And Tiffany you could say here on God your time, your 30 seconds was accurate for everybody? It was. I was counting Mississippi's in my head. If it's not accurate blame the editors, not me.
[00:03:50] Because I counted an accurate 30 Mississippi's. Even Kenzie got the same 30 Mississippi's? Even Kenzie was given 30 Mississippi's seconds. I promise you. Okay. I believe you. I can't control what you do with your seconds. Also again, I saw somebody else say like, oh well because she's counting
[00:04:10] that's not... You can tell she's not listening to their answers. I mean I was listening to the answers but also that's not the question that I needed to hear to cast my vote.
[00:04:21] It was Soda's question. So it was more important that she was listening than me. I was just a timer. Why couldn't Charlie talk about Taylor Swift and why couldn't Ben talk about Van Halen or any rock references?
[00:04:38] So at that particular point in time, first of all I had about nothing. I was tired of hearing about it on the island.
[00:04:45] That's all they talked about. At one point they went on and had like an hour long battle and I'm just like child I'm tired of it. Not the one that they had at Sega. They had a different one that you were there for?
[00:04:56] Yes. You know what? I don't even think they showed it. The one that they had, it wasn't Ben vs. Charlie. It was Charlie vs. Tevin and it was Whitney Houston vs. Taylor Swift. Oh okay. Battle of the Divas.
[00:05:11] It was crazy. It was crazy. But more than anything I wanted to set the tone for them and I wanted to let them know this isn't a time for jokes because we're literally about to change somebody's life.
[00:05:27] And more than anything I wanted them to know how seriously we were taking this. You guys can get up there and joke. We can get up there and joke. But if we're about to hand one of y'all a million dollars,
[00:05:37] I want y'all to know that we're taking this as serious as y'all are. So let's all be dope. Journey's gotta be serious. You gotta sit there and fold your arms like, alright you two, you three.
[00:05:49] It might have been a couple of sniggles and giggles that came out eventually. But more than anything we just wanted to let them know we're taking this serious and we want you guys to take it serious too.
[00:06:00] Yes. Okay. Well Tiffany, I'm so excited that you were up for doing this because I would love to talk with you more because I really feel like that upon further review, you were the person that I took with my first draft pick.
[00:06:13] I felt so good about you all season long and I know it didn't work out but really in hindsight, in reflection, in talking to some of the other players, I really do feel like that you were the person to beat through a lot of this season.
[00:06:27] And I think that the other players felt that. Well, first of all, thank you because that is like an amazing compliment. And you know what? I'm not going to disagree with you because I do feel like, especially after watching it back,
[00:06:42] I was definitely making some pretty good moves. I had some really good strategy. I also made some mistakes. But I think that up until the point that Q kind of blew everything up,
[00:06:55] I felt like I was doing a really good job managing my threat level and keeping it low. And it wasn't until he kind of blew the lid off everything that everybody was just like, Ooh, big threat, big threat, get her out.
[00:07:08] But I felt like I did a good job of not playing emotionally until I did. And of course, I said in the very beginning when I first started playing the game, I'm like, I'm a person that can get blinded by emotions when I'm passionate about something.
[00:07:24] And that was like the thing that kind of set me on the tailspin because once I got into that mode of like, OK, Q did me wrong. Q blew up both of our games for no reason.
[00:07:40] I stopped focusing on just the strategy and I was focused on just getting out somebody that was getting on my nerves. And that was the thing that blinded me to what was right in front of me the day that I left.
[00:07:55] Going back to the preseason interviews that you did, I love to listen to what everybody was talking about before the game. I listened to what you were talking about with Mike. You talked a lot about how you that you are a lucky person.
[00:08:08] Things go your way and that's just like you're God's favorite and that that's just how things are. And what's interesting is that in the beginning of the game, nothing went your way. How hard was that for you to deal with?
[00:08:24] Oh my God, it was devastating. I'm like, what is... You know what? What? It was devastating, but I'll say this. In hindsight, things didn't go Yanu's way, but things did go my way in the beginning of the game.
[00:08:42] And I say all this to say, I was a power player in the beginning of the game. Yeah, Yanu was like on the struggle bus, but at no point in time during like the first half of the game was I devastatingly scared to go home. Right.
[00:08:56] It sucked because we were in a bad position, but it put me in a better position because I'm like, okay, I'm one of the stronger members of the tribe. I have two strong allies that both stand to fare better if they keep me here.
[00:09:10] And ultimately, if it comes down to us three, I'm the deciding vote. So I don't know if it didn't go my way. I feel like it did go my way until it didn't.
[00:09:20] Things started to tip after the merge when Q started trying to steer the ship and he and I started bumping heads about who was going to call like the shots.
[00:09:32] And I think it was like, you know, when Q realized that like he couldn't control me as much as he thought he could or he wasn't steering the ship as much as he thought he was.
[00:09:41] That's when things kind of went downhill. But in the beginning of the game, it was bad, but it was good. So maybe it was good luck that Yanu was trashed. Okay. Well, I want to talk a little bit of that through.
[00:09:51] And of course, you found the hidden immunity idol very early on and then waited to lose the challenge. And then you were able to piece it together before you went to tribal council. Could you tell us a little bit more about what that was like?
[00:10:07] Absolutely. It was exhilarating, first of all. It was definitely one of the things on my survivor bucket list. I'm like, you know what? I want to find an idol. Obviously, not everybody finds an idol now. Would have been better if I would have played it.
[00:10:21] But I found it and it was just so crazy because the way as quickly as it went on TV was as quickly as it felt that it was moving in real time. And sometimes it doesn't always go like that. But literally.
[00:10:39] Bad luck, good luck. We lost the challenge, but I didn't have to do any extra work to go get my idol when I found it. I don't know if I've ever told anybody this in an interview before, but that alien language that I saw, it was a cryptogram.
[00:10:54] And I can remember before going on Survivor, I had this puzzle book, right? One of those random New York Times puzzle books or something like that. And I was just flipping through pages and I saw a cryptogram for the first time.
[00:11:08] I had never seen one of these puzzles, but I got so fixated on it. And I'm like, that was all I practiced for like weeks.
[00:11:17] Now, granted, it didn't look anything like that Survivor one, but I think I kind of trained my mind to be able to crack those type of things quickly because what are the odds that the puzzle that I'm given is a cryptogram?
[00:11:29] And I just saw one for the first time weeks before I went on Survivor and I decided to just practice it. So again, bad luck, good luck, right? Things work out my way. It was some random puzzle book and that's the type of puzzle I get on Survivor.
[00:11:42] Nobody knew that except me. And I solved that thing in under 10 minutes. And I was racing across the island. The cameramen were falling all over themselves trying to keep up with me, but I got it. I got the idol.
[00:11:56] And then maybe five minutes later, they're like, all right, time to go to the tribal council. I'm like, woo, just in time. Yeah, it was certainly a close call on the TV show.
[00:12:09] But you told Mike that your hot take was that you were going to that you don't know why people can't shut the F up about when they have the idol. And you broke your own rule. I sure did.
[00:12:23] And that's what bit me in the butt and sent me home. So you know how they say it's so easy in theory, but harder in practice. Sure. That's exactly what the case was for me because that was my number one survival rule.
[00:12:38] Don't tell anybody if something... Alexa, stop. Sorry, I have like a mental health tip that happens every evening for my Alexa. Fitness tips is so random. It happens at a random time? No, it's usually around 6, between 6 and 7. Yeah.
[00:12:58] But for me, I think that scenario was a little bit different because one, when I found the idol, Kenzie was like two feet away from me. So she was always going to know that I found it.
[00:13:08] And then when it came time for me to crack the code and I had that 10 minute span of time to go and find the idol and come back.
[00:13:17] Banu and Q were walking around like the band and I was huddled up like in the dirt trying to solve the puzzle.
[00:13:25] And Banu saw me and he started walking towards me and I'm like, oh shoot, like either I'm going to have to tell Q about this and get him to go and distract everybody or the whole tribe is about to know what I'm doing.
[00:13:38] Because you already know Banu was not keeping that secret. So I like kind of stealthily ask you, I'm like, yo, like I need you to help me out. Make a distraction. This is what I'm working on. He's like, bet. I got you.
[00:13:50] He takes everybody, Banu, I think Jess, whoever was on the island. He took them to the well. Mind you, I don't know why people are listening to Q at this point. He took them all to the well.
[00:14:02] It's like, all right, everybody pitch your case for who you want to go home and why. And they're all distracted by this conversation at the well while I'm going to find the idol. So, yeah, it would have been lovely to be able to keep it to myself.
[00:14:15] But in that moment, I realized that it would have served me better to work with people to get the job done and just hope that those people could see the benefit of me having the idol for them too.
[00:14:28] Okay. You had so much going on with Banu in the first couple days of the game. Could you talk a little bit about what it was like living through that experience? Sweet, sweet Banu.
[00:14:41] You know, just like sometimes I wonder if Banu really knew what he was getting himself into coming out there because I'm going to say that is one of the sweetest men I have ever met in my life.
[00:14:56] But he just was not prepared for the hardships that was going on out there. And I could tell he was really struggling internally, but also it's extremely difficult to teach somebody the game and play it at the same time.
[00:15:11] So I think that's where a lot of the frustration and friction came in between Banu and everybody else.
[00:15:18] And again, this is me being a person who's like trying to balance keeping their emotions in check while also trying to teach somebody else how to do that and still be strategic.
[00:15:29] Which is another reason why like in that episode where they're talking about, well Q and Banu were trying to get me to send Kenzie home.
[00:15:39] I never was going to send Kenzie home because I knew for a fact that if it was ever a situation where it was just me, Q and Banu, I was going to go home.
[00:15:48] Because Q's not going to keep another power player over somebody who he can literally tell how to play the game. So that's why like that episode I watch it back and I'm like, yeah, that ain't how it was going. My girl was not going home that episode.
[00:16:04] Absolutely not. Yeah. Okay. Good to know. Good to know. Because that's like the show really, especially when you look back that Kenzie was a winner. Like, oh my God, she almost went home. Can you believe it? She did not.
[00:16:18] I mean granted like there were conversations and that's the nature of survivor, right? When somebody brings you a conversation, you have to hear it out. You have to talk to them. You can't shut people down right away because then that makes you look like you're not flexible.
[00:16:31] You're not malleable. You're somebody that's difficult to work with. So then maybe the target shifts from them to you. So obviously when Q brought me that, I'm going to hear you out. All right, what's your pros? What's your cons?
[00:16:42] But in my brain, in my mind, that was not the best move for me. So I was not writing Kenzie's name down at that point. Tiffany, going back and watching the episodes, something that I had forgotten about was that
[00:16:58] it's in the second Tribal Council or the second episode that you, after the challenge, have a low moment. And you get, and you're very upset.
[00:17:07] And then you talk to the camera about how you're very upset about how you are worried about how you're going to be portrayed on the show. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. Okay. So as somebody who's like my whole life, I've been like a competitor.
[00:17:26] I've been an athlete. I've played like a lot of sports growing up. So I'm very passionate and I don't like to lose. And you guys didn't see it much just because of the edit and the pacing of the episode. But I was kind of wowing during that challenge.
[00:17:43] I was getting so frustrated. And I was kind of like screaming. And you're like, no, no, move here. But I don't know if you've ever played sports, but sometimes when you're in the heat of the moment, you just like, you got to get it out.
[00:17:57] You got to get that energy out. That frustration sometimes comes out with it. I watch a lot of sports, Tiffany. And I can tell you that happens. Yeah. So I was kind of wowing out a little bit.
[00:18:09] But then on the boat ride back to camp, I'm just like, oh, man, you said that you were going to come out here. You control your emotions. And that was a moment where my emotions kind of got the best of me.
[00:18:23] Obviously, we're in the heat of a competition that we about to lose and we already been on a losing streak. So I was scared that I was just going to automatically take on that angry black girl, frustrated narrative.
[00:18:38] Because a lot of times like that term aggressive gets thrown around. That term angry gets thrown around, especially when it comes to black women who are expressing themselves passionately. And that's just not something that I wanted to.
[00:18:53] That's not a stereotype that I wanted to be attached to me because it's not fair. Because, you know, sometimes when people of like other races and other experiences, they express their frustrations and it's not always seen the same way. Yeah.
[00:19:07] And I mean, I made it a point to apologize to everybody when we got back to camp. But also it's just sometimes it's a little difficult to play a game. But then also realize, OK, I'm representing an entire community of people out here at the same time.
[00:19:21] So it's like there's a weight on me that may not necessarily be on everybody else. So I'm thinking about things from a 360 perspective and it was kind of difficult in that moment.
[00:19:30] Tiffany, when I got to Survivor, I just got to be an idiot and I wasn't worried about... I didn't have to worry about people going to think other people are like this. No, no. Just only I had the luxury of it.
[00:19:41] Only people think only I was an idiot. Yeah. Unfortunately, that's not something that I got to wear with me. And, you know, that moment was actually really well received with a lot of people. I got a lot of DMs from other Black women online.
[00:19:57] They're like, you know what? Like, I feel like you represented us so well. Like, I'm so grateful for you for being able to be vulnerable and still be yourself. But then also I got a couple of other people online that was really nasty.
[00:20:09] They're like, oh, you are an angry Black girl and you're so mean. Yeah, you showed your colors on TV. And I'm just like, exactly the thing that I was thinking about. But you know what? Some people are just going to be nasty regardless.
[00:20:24] And I'm proud of the way I represented myself and my community on TV. And that's all I got to say about that. Yeah. All right, Tiffany. So other than, you're not going to vote out Kenzie, Banu finally goes home.
[00:20:40] I mean, Banu got down on his knees and he begged you. You said, listen, you got to get up. I'm not going to talk to you if you're like this right now. No. I was not about to play with Banu in that moment just because...
[00:20:56] Gameified, I see you are in a very vulnerable state. I see that you're super emotional. And also it felt really weird talking to this man on his knees. Just because of not only the optics, first of all, just in the grand scheme of things,
[00:21:13] you shouldn't be begging me for anything. I'm not better than you. You're not better than me. As far as I'm concerned right now, we are on an equal playing field. We are human beings. We are equal players. Stand up and talk to me like a man.
[00:21:26] Second of all, Banu, I'm not going to try to manipulate you in this moment where you're already down. You already feel like you're going home. And I didn't want to kind of throw salt in the wound by giving him a false hope,
[00:21:40] knowing for sure I was writing his name down. So I'm like... And it was like there was nothing he could do in that moment. Like I knew I had the idol. He didn't have any advantages. He didn't have a vote.
[00:21:50] So it's like there's literally no reason to even try to manipulate this moment. And it just felt weird. Yeah. And when you found out that he had told people that you and Q were a pair, there was no coming back for Banu from that, right? No.
[00:22:07] Because he did exactly what I thought he was going to do. I promise you. He got on the boat. The boat wasn't even five feet from the island. And I turned to Q and KD and I said,
[00:22:16] I bet you he's going to go there and give it up. As soon as he got to the other island, all they did was pat him on the back and then the secrets came spilling out.
[00:22:26] And I said, this is the type of player that I cannot work with. And for whatever reason, he decided that it was a better idea to tell us all that information that he just gave up and divorced.
[00:22:36] And for me, it's like, okay, you for me have sealed your fate. I'm not playing with you no more. I'm not giving you no fake hope. You're out of here, buddy. Yeah. Okay. We could talk more about that, but we got so much other things to talk about.
[00:22:50] All right. So finally, you all won a challenge. You ended up going to the Mergatory and you're part of the group. This really was looking pretty good for Yanu. The three of you end up being part of the group that ends up getting to make a
[00:23:07] decision. How were you feeling going into the merge? So there was a little nerves there, right? Because in my head, I'm like, this could play out many ways. We are kind of like the underdogs right now. But then also somebody has a fan of Survivor.
[00:23:24] I know that nothing is ever that cut and dry. And usually when there's two bigger tribes, they always try to get that little tribe and pull them over to their side so that they can have extra numbers and then knock down the other side a little
[00:23:36] bit, which is exactly what was happening at first. And so Q blew it all up, but I was a little nervous at first. Not about the things I should have been nervous about. When Q came back from the journey,
[00:23:50] did he tell you about the six and how you were part of it? He did. And if I'm being totally honest with you, I did not take that six serious like ever from the beginning. No, we got that. I think we got that.
[00:24:03] Yeah, I did take it serious because I'm like, dude, how can you just come back here and just tell me what we're doing? Like, you don't know who I've been talking to, what relationships I've been building, what we're working on.
[00:24:15] And to just be so rigid with like, this is it. This is the plan. It almost immediately just made me want to be like, okay, now I'm definitely not doing that. And I'm pretty sure everybody else felt the same way too.
[00:24:27] Did you tell anybody else who wasn't in the six about the six? Yeah, I told Kenzie. She knew. But she also knew that I was like, girl, you know that this is a joke, right? Yeah.
[00:24:42] So there was never a point in time where like Kenzie and I weren't in lockstep and like she was in the dark and like she was out. Kenzie knew. Now, I don't know who else knew from my mouth, but Kenzie's the only person who I told.
[00:24:55] Okay. So you all have to decide, okay, it's going to be Mariah. Is it going to be Venus? That it seemed like that you were in the Mariah camp because they were trying so hard to protect her. Yeah. I think what I saw immediately,
[00:25:15] and I don't even think that this was really shown on any of the episodes, but Venus came up to me right away when I was on the island. Venus came up to me right away. She started talking to me. She said she wanted to work with me.
[00:25:28] And I'm like, okay, cool. Like this girl's cool. Not that I didn't have conversations with Mariah, but she also was kind of like spilling a little tea about Nami, letting me know who was cool with who, why relationships weren't as tight.
[00:25:38] And I'm like, okay, this is a girl who's flexible, who's trying to make moves and who's not going to be rigid. As far as what I could see, Segal was trying to stay like a tight knit group. And I'm like, if this isn't a flexible group,
[00:25:53] if this isn't something that I could penetrate, what is the benefit of me keeping somebody like that here? So for me, it was, it was an easy decision, especially after they started trying to like protect her and stuff. I'm like, oh yeah, she got to go. Yeah. Okay.
[00:26:06] So Mariah goes and you all have to go to the split tribal council. And so this came up at the final tribal council again, of how did the decision get made of whether it was going to be Ben or Tim? Honestly, that day was such a mess.
[00:26:26] Like we went back and forth so much, but ultimately what it came down to was me kind of conceding a little bit. Cause I didn't want Tim to go. Like I wanted Tim to stay and you guys saw it a little bit.
[00:26:43] There was friction, like me and Q were going at it. I also feel like that was kind of the tipping point in me and Q's relationship because we were butting heads and I'm like, dude, like you are not the captain of this ship right now.
[00:26:56] This is supposed to be like an equal thing. And I was trying to fight for Tim in that moment. But I, I realized quickly because Kenzie also wanted Tim to go. Like more than Ben that I might've done a disservice to myself
[00:27:13] by fighting so hard for somebody against people who I was with on day one. So I'm like, okay, at the end of the day, neither Ben or Tim is like in my solid core group of people that I trust at this particular moment.
[00:27:28] So like, am I, am I fighting too hard to keep him here? Maybe I should just like give in and let my alliance members take over this time. And then we talk about it after camp. Obviously things started to unravel after that,
[00:27:41] but that was kind of the tipping point in me and Q's relationship back then. Do you think that the game would have been different if you would have kept Tim instead of Ben? Absolutely. Absolutely. It would have been different. What would have changed?
[00:27:57] Well, for starters, and like later on in the game, via conversations that were had, I realized that Kenzie and Q wanted Tim out because they could tell how bad Tim wanted to work with me. And I think that, well, just personality wise,
[00:28:14] Tim and I got along really well. Like we were super cool on the island. We would talk. Like we talked a lot in that short amount of time that we were together. So I think that I would have had a little bit more support on my end
[00:28:27] when the relationship between Q and I started to break down and Kenzie wouldn't have had that Ben to lean on. She wouldn't have had that Ben life raft when me and Q started to have our meltdown.
[00:28:39] So I would have had a little bit more buoyancy in the game had I chose to keep Tim over Ben. And trust me, that's something that I have lost sleep over many nights. I think about it so much. Yeah. That's such an interesting decision
[00:28:52] that you have to make there of like, do I give back to the people that I'm with or do I really fight for what I want? And I'm sure there are survivor players that lose the game of pushing too hard for what they want to do.
[00:29:05] It's such a fine line to walk. Yeah. Because at the same time, I also didn't want to like show my cards like, oh, why does Tiffany want to keep Tim so bad? Is she choosing him over us? Like we're supposed to be her day one.
[00:29:19] So like I was definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm like, okay, this might be a losing battle. If anything, Tim had just done the same thing trying to save Mariah. Exactly. And then people were like, oh, he's fighting so hard to do whatever.
[00:29:29] So I'm like, you know what? Let me just, this might be one of those situations where it's a double-edged sword and I got to choose the lesser of two evils. I mean, there's survivors and algorithms. There's a million different ways things can play out.
[00:29:41] This is just me guessing how things would work. You come back and you see that Soda got voted out from the other tribe. How surprised were you? I was shocked. I was shocked. I just knew that Soda was going to be voted out.
[00:29:57] I just knew Venus was going home. And this is only because I knew that there was friction between Venus and Tevin at the time and that there was also like some weird Nami stuff going on there and they had the majority,
[00:30:08] but then also like Mariah and Charlie were there. So in my mind, I thought it was Venus because there was already like shaky stuff going on there. And I'm like, that would be the easy vote. I didn't know that Tevin was interested in Blondside
[00:30:25] and Soda because they seemed cool in the hours that we were all together talking. So that was a shock to me. Okay, well, this is where now things are really going to, everything's been pretty calm up until this point.
[00:30:38] But then we know that Q had said to Tevin, okay, get out Venus. And then they didn't do that. And he wanted to still vote out Venus and you didn't want to do that. And I feel when we did our exit interview,
[00:30:56] I tried to talk about this and I ended up saying the wrong name between Venus and Maria and I beat myself up over that. You wanted to vote out Maria and you said to Tevin about that and Tevin snitched on you. Was it Maria?
[00:31:14] I think I wanted to vote Maria out exactly. Okay, and you were there. No, because listen, no, listen, I have a very trash memory. So I'm trying to think about it like in days. And that's in the episode. Yes. So I probably,
[00:31:32] because I never said Maria's name to Tevin. Or you said maybe not Venus. The only thing I said to Tevin was maybe not Venus. Maybe we can go with somebody else because at that point, Tevin and I hadn't really locked things in yet
[00:31:46] and I was still being cautious. I didn't want to give him a name. The only person who I said Maria's name to, I think was Q and I was Q and maybe Kenzie. I was like loosely saying it, but I also was going down a list of possibilities
[00:31:59] with my two closest allies. Like what can we as a group do? I didn't think he was going to run and use that against me like my A1, day one. But I didn't say Maria's name to Tevin. I only said maybe not Venus.
[00:32:13] Maybe we can keep her around. But Tevin didn't like that because at that point, I didn't realize how bad Tevin wanted to get rid of Venus. And he also went back and had a conversation with Q that I found out watching the game
[00:32:28] and was like, oh, Tiffany said she wanted to keep Venus so she's not in the six and she protected people not in the six. And I'm like, wow, this got blown way out of proportion. You are skewing this so bad. And then that's when Q just took off.
[00:32:41] Like, oh, she trying to go against the six? All right. Yeah. Well, this is really where all hell is breaking loose now because then Q tells Charlie Maria about your idol also. Foolishness. Foolish! Like, oh my God. Everything broke down so bad
[00:33:03] at that particular point in the game. And I think it was a product of a lot of things, right? Tevin and I hadn't like really had like a really solid conversation to solidify our relationship. So he was trusting me about this much.
[00:33:18] I was trusting him about this much. And I guess because I didn't go right along with the, oh yeah, let's get right away. He started to be a little skeptical of me. But I'm like, at that point, I didn't know.
[00:33:31] And I'm also like not trying to be gung ho about Venus to somebody else who was on her tribe because then I'm like, am I getting played? I got to be cautious. So. Okay, so let's bring Liz into this.
[00:33:44] And here comes Liz and Liz, she didn't like how Tevin, at least in the episodes, she didn't like how Tevin was like, oh, taking all the credit for the soda blind side. And so she says, okay, well my big move is going to be
[00:33:57] I'm going to vote out Tevin and brings you in on this idea. Yeah, yeah. So Liz actually came to me that day with the idea to take out Tevin too. And this was like shortly after our conversation too. And it's funny because Liz came to me
[00:34:12] and she said, let's take out Tevin or Q. And in my mind, the Tevin vote was like, okay, anybody but Q, let's steer it that way. So I didn't want to directly say, no, we definitely can't take out Q to Liz because I wanted her to still think
[00:34:29] I was flexible enough to work with her. But also I was like, let's go with this other person that you want to get out. And I don't even know if they showed that conversation between me and Liz where she brings up Q or Tevin's name.
[00:34:38] But she brought both their names up. I went with Tevin and I was like, yeah, let's do it as a way to just get her focused off of Q. And it ended up being Tevin, but not before like everything else had a total meltdown.
[00:34:52] And you told Q what was going on, right? Yeah. I told him everything. I'm like, you know, Liz came to me, she's doing this. Little did I know Q had a whole plan for this. He's been working, trying to get me out
[00:35:06] while I'm trying to keep him in the game. Okay. So then and then all hell is breaking loose when then. So Q tells Hunter and then Hunter is trying to change up the votes. And ultimately there's a lot of drama on the beach.
[00:35:24] But then you get to tribal council and it's tribal council. Q announces that the person should go home tonight should be him. And this is news to you. You haven't heard this before, right? No, I was just like gagged and gooped. Like, what are you talking about?
[00:35:42] We just had a conversation. I thought everything was fine. I thought we're going to vote Tevin. Why are you trying to, because this was Q trying to escape like, I guess whatever bomb he just set off on the beach by kind of diverting things to himself.
[00:35:59] I don't know. I was completely stunned, obviously, as you saw in the episode. And did you feel like that he really wanted to go home or you felt like that he was doing? Yes. If we would have went along with that plan,
[00:36:17] Q would have happily went to the bench and been the hero. Because first of all, Q volunteered to go home mad times before that moment. So I'm like, Q, can you please like at that point, I'm like, is this another one of your like you
[00:36:31] trying to get us to, I don't know what's going on at that man's head half the time. But I'm like, again, me protecting him in that moment. I'm like, absolutely not. You're not going home. I still didn't know what he was talking about.
[00:36:47] I thought he was talking about Liz. I thought he was talking about blowing up Liz's plan or game or whatever the case may be. I didn't know that that had anything to do with me still in that moment. So I'm trying to protect him.
[00:36:59] If you were my one ally, why would I send you home? Right. So you find out also that night. Yeah. That Charlie mentions to you about how that Q said you had the idol. Yes. And I again, gooped and gagged because I was like,
[00:37:18] what? Are you kidding me? And in that moment, I was like a duck. I was furiously just like pedaling for my life underwater. But on the surface, I'm just like, OK, we're just going to keep it cool. Like so.
[00:37:35] I knew that still Liz wanted to have to go home. There were people that were on board with that plan and it was just too unpredictable, too chaotic in that moment for me to try to switch things up, get Q out.
[00:37:50] I'm like, I need to keep it cool, calm and collected because now I know that people know that I have an idol and I could potentially be a target for anybody in this moment. So let me just keep it cute until we get back to the beach
[00:38:04] and I can figure things out. Obviously, things got even more crazy at the beach, but it worked out for me in that moment. OK, yeah. So you get through that night. Tevin ends up going home and then, OK, now there's there's fallout.
[00:38:18] So what was Q saying to you when you all got back to the beach? Oh, my God. Me and Q had like such an atomic bomb blow up argument on the beach. Like you guys saw like the Disney Channel version of our argument. But he was essentially trying.
[00:38:35] First of all, he still wasn't completely honest with me about him trying to get me out and like trying to turn like essentially Charlie and Maria on me and flip the votes and all that stuff. He was trying to frame it to me like,
[00:38:50] oh, I'm out here trying to play both of our games. I'm trying to keep you safe because they were trying to come for you. Dude, you're trying to keep me safe because you're trying to come for me. Like you're trying to reverse something that you put
[00:39:03] in motion to get me out when you realize that it was stupid. Like it was a mess. So like even at the end of me and Q's argument, I didn't know the full scope of what had happened that day.
[00:39:15] I just knew it was enough that our tower was about to come crashing down. Yeah. And I was pissed. Okay. By the time you all get to the tribal council, do things get any better in between? Between when you got back to the beach and when
[00:39:33] you go to the tribal council where Hunter is going to get voted out? No, I mean, no, no. Because Q and I didn't even speak. We didn't speak like we were completely engaged and ignoring each other on the beach. Q kind of like ostracized himself.
[00:39:49] He was like on a boat, like on the little boat out in front of the camp, like kind of pouting all day. Maria went out there to talk to him for a little bit. But he was kind of being a little bit of a dark cloud.
[00:40:00] And people were just like, you know, let him have his moment, whatever. But I mean, me and Hunter talked a little bit the day that he was going to go home. But it was kind of weird because me and Hunter
[00:40:11] had this moment where it was like we kind of realized that Q was like kind of trying to pit us against each other a little bit. And at that point, it was still a little bit too late for us to kind of come together and do anything
[00:40:24] because everybody had already decided that Hunter was going home. So I was like, you know, it is what it is. I still took a gamble even at that tribal council, not playing my idol. But it was just, it was still very much chaotic.
[00:40:39] Me and Q didn't even speak until like the next challenge. And we didn't even speak at the challenge. It was just like a moment where we were at the Applebee's reward challenge. Q and I were like kind of going head to head
[00:40:51] the whole challenge. When it came down to it, it was like me and Q really like battling for that final spot. Q won. But then there was a point in time, like right before the challenge started, me and Q locked eyes and we kind of did
[00:41:04] like a little fist bump moment, like, all right, you good? You good? Cool. Then we did the challenge. Then he picked me up and we did the Applebee's challenge. And we did and we made up, but obviously, you know, the relationship was ruptured.
[00:41:17] There was no going back from there. Yeah. All right. Well, I want to go back to coming out of the Tevin vote. And I think this is always like one of the things that's interesting to look at, especially in the new era, because
[00:41:29] the Tevin tribal council, and if the Survivor Wiki is right, then the Tevin tribal council happens on day 16 and the Hunter tribal council is on day 17. And there's so much for you all to be going through in the course of like just 24 hours. I mean, it's amazing. Yeah.
[00:41:47] And that should be three days, Tiffany. I would definitely be lying to you. That should be 72 hours. I don't know what days anything happened because it's just all like one big long ass day for me. But yes, in the course of 24 hours, I felt like the game completely
[00:42:03] flipped on its head. It's like there are arguments, there's blow ups, there's people not talking. New alliances is formed. Old alliances is broke. The biggest threat in the game. Everybody like shifts their target from me to him because Hunter finally lost. And it was just so much chaos,
[00:42:22] which is why I think a lot of things slipped through the cracks. And personally, I've done a lot of thinking and I feel like if so much of that chaos had not been condensed to that 24 hour span, there might have been more room for
[00:42:39] me and Q to repair things. Yeah. But because it happened so quick, it was like there was really no room to kind of like sit, decompress. Like, OK, what is our path forward? Lay it out. It was just so fast. You don't have time to breathe.
[00:42:57] Yeah. It's such an interesting point. And I don't know if you're a Big Brother person, but a lot of times these alliances in Big Brother, like I remember, like even like in BB 23, like, you know, there are a lot of times like, oh,
[00:43:10] the cookout, are they going to break up this week? And then like by the time we got to Thursday, they figured it all out. They smoothed it all over. And you'll have like Waffle Wednesday. Like if the vote was today, it's this. But by the time they get,
[00:43:24] OK, everybody calm down. But 24 hours is crazy. Yes. So I'm a huge Big Brother fan. Love Big Brother. And I think that's the key difference between new survivor and old survivor. You don't have time. You don't have time to sit and think about things.
[00:43:43] You don't have time to like go over things. It's like just one continuous loop of foolishness, like always happening. Now, I promise you, we just had a couple more days. We might have had that moment. Like, OK, let's sit down. Like, this is stupid.
[00:43:59] Right. Like we both understand that this is dumb. Let's figure this out. But, you know, 24 hours ain't enough time to repair the chaos that was done. OK, so when you saw the episodes, you saw that Kenzie was thinking about wanting to blindside you and then and then
[00:44:15] called it off and then ultimately was not in when you got when you got voted through. But did you and she ever talk about this and be like, Kenzie, what? What the frickin' hell? Not until after the game. Yeah. After after when you watch it.
[00:44:30] So funny enough, that was one of the first things she said to me when she got off. She's like, Tim, I just have to tell you this will happen. No, she came clean immediately. Like as soon as the game was over and then that was just kind
[00:44:42] of like another reason why I was like happy with my vote for her. And I know people are like, oh, she tried to backstab you. You should have been happy to vote for her. Like, first of all, I was with her since day one.
[00:44:55] That's the game of Survivor. But also I was really proud of her jury management skills because I didn't find out that she was trying to do that until after the game was over. So like, kudos to her because that's that's how it should be.
[00:45:09] It was kind of like not so good on other players because y'all sat up there and watch this girl come back to tribal council the day after I was voted out and talk about how she cried and she was sad that her her girl left and
[00:45:24] she wasn't part of it. And basically, you know, managed me on a jury to let me know like it wasn't me, girl. I'm still whatever. Like so I felt like anybody else who was sitting next to her, that would have been a perfect and opportune time for
[00:45:39] y'all to pull her card. And y'all did. So points to her. Good jury management, good gameplay. Yeah. Yeah. And it was close. Like right at right after, you know, in talking in talking with a couple of you know, with Ben and Q and
[00:45:55] Charlie, like it could have been it could have been Kenzie instead of Venus that night. It could have, I guess. I mean, I wasn't there, but like that's how close it is. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So when I talked to Hunter, he said that the biggest thing why
[00:46:10] he did not play the idol was because it was because of you, because you and Q got into it so, so much that he in his calculations, he could not believe that you were going to be in the back of the theater. He could not believe
[00:46:25] that you would go up there and then not write Q's name down to vote that was any part of that with Q, the back and forth. Was any of that theater? No. OK, let me tell you something. I think that me and Q's tumultuous relationship was a
[00:46:43] safety net for a lot of people out there. And I say this because a lot of the arguments, a lot of the arguments that we had were just genuinely just us bumping heads and our personalities just kind of, you know, being explosive in the moment because of the
[00:47:01] basically the pressure cooker that we were putting. And a lot of people were able to hide behind it. Charlie was able to hide behind it. Maria was able to hide behind it. Hunter was able to hide behind it for a while. And in that moment at
[00:47:12] Tribal Council, that wasn't planned. That was a stage. That was just me and Q being like, we had a natural and normal exchange based on the events of the day. I didn't go into Tribal Council thinking me and Q were going to go
[00:47:25] back and forth. But also I was like, I'm the type of person that's going to speak my mind no matter what. And so is he. So you never know what you're going to get when you put us two in a room together. Well, we never know what you're
[00:47:35] going to get. OK, never. Now, like. I didn't know that that was going to affect the people around us so much, including Hunter. But no, we didn't plan that. That was just us being us. But how are you and Q now after the season is over?
[00:47:52] Me and Q are good. And by the way, congratulations to new dad Q. Baby Ace is here. Baby Ace is perfect. One of the most beautiful babies I've ever seen. Are you the godmother? I'm not the godmother. Not that good. Yeah. No, no, no. I'm just Auntie Tiff.
[00:48:14] But no, me and Q are good. The funny thing about me and Q, our relationship is very much sibling like. And I say sibling like in the way like when you argue with your siblings, it's like you are not holding back.
[00:48:28] It's like I'm about to give you all I got at full speed. I'm going to win or you're going to lose. That's the only outcome that I'm looking for. And I told myself as soon as I left the island, what Q included, I'm like, whatever
[00:48:40] mess happened out there, I'm going to leave it. So as soon as Q came back to Ponderosa for me, it was like, you know, you know, it is what it is. That's what happened. That's the game we signed up for. Now, what we can't control is our personalities.
[00:48:56] I'll be lying to you. I say that me and Q haven't got into it since this postgame. Even us hanging out like at the final tribal council. You almost got into it. Again, like we were hanging out and we got into it. And we were like, you know,
[00:49:14] we got into it like a blow up argument in his living room over like some random game that we were playing. His wife is like laughing. She's like, you know, Q is just like you, just like with you, how he is with his like actual sister. Yeah.
[00:49:27] So I love Q. We're cool. I cannot tell you that that's the last time we're going to ever argue if you put us back on an island together again. It'll probably go back at this. So that's the scenario that I think is so fascinating because, of course,
[00:49:43] we know the Survivor 50 is coming up and I know Q says he's getting ready. He's, you know, I think there's a good chance that he's going to be there. But I think that the really interesting thing is and Survivor has done this a lot on these
[00:50:00] returning player seasons. You bring back two people that maybe didn't always get along. Oh, God. And see what happens. And here's the thing. I would be lying to you if I sat up here and told you that if they put me and Q in another
[00:50:15] game together, that we were going to be cool just because we like we will probably do the same shit. There's just something about him. It's something about me. It's like I'm not backing down and neither are you. I don't care if we're friends or not.
[00:50:30] You're not about to pump me. So what are we going to do about this? Like you're always going to get the same format. It would be so interesting. Would it work? We are both we are both very stubborn and young people when it comes to
[00:50:45] the things that we are passionate about. So I don't know if it will work. I don't know if it could work. I mean, I guess if Survivor wants to put us back on the island together, we will find out. He's crazy. I'm a little bit crazy.
[00:50:58] He might be a little bit crazier than me, but we're cool. But we probably would still fight. Yeah, I'm not even. OK, so I'm going to ask you this and I'm going to ask you this. I'm not even. OK, so then Hunter
[00:51:13] ends up going home and you talked about Applebee's, you talked about that, you know, you were able to sort of like get things back to where, OK, things were OK with Q, even though that you didn't want to work with him, that he did make an olive branch.
[00:51:29] Hey, let's get the band back together. And you and Kenzie said, no, we don't want to do that. And you know, I'm like, OK, we're going to do that. But you know, I'm like, OK, we're going to do that. But he found a new friend in Maria
[00:51:46] and ultimately Maria is gunning for you, Tiffany. Yeah, crazy, crazy times, I tell you, because you were the person everybody said, hey, that's my big move. Yeah. Everybody is scrapping over who gets to claim my demise. Like, I mean, I guess it's a compliment, but
[00:52:12] silly, silly, silly of Q to believe that he was better off with Maria than me, because I feel like if Q never blew up both of our game, we probably would have been like in lockstep for a majority of probably to the end. Yeah.
[00:52:32] And if you go to the end, I think you probably got this against anybody, right? I think so. Yeah, I feel like I'm able to. Well, I don't know what other people were going to say, but based on my experience out there and my experience pre-merge
[00:52:52] and what I did up until the point where I was out post-merge, I felt like I had a really good footing in how I was to articulate my gameplay and talk about why I could have won or should have won. I wasn't scared of anybody on
[00:53:07] that tried beating me at the end of the game. So maybe that's why everybody was scared of letting me get there with them. I know one of the reasons you didn't play your idol was because you were talking with Charlie about potentially you were going
[00:53:19] to use the idol to get Maria out of the game at the next vote. Did you come close at all to playing the idol that night? No. Yeah, it was a gamble. Like for me, it was definitely a 50-50 gamble. And that's also a night that I go
[00:53:33] over a lot in my head because a lot of people ask me, like, OK, if you go back and play again, what's one thing you would do differently? And that night specifically, I can remember sitting like right before tribal council and going over my next
[00:53:48] four moves to my head. I'm like, OK, when we get back to camp, I'm going to talk to this person. Then we're going to do this. Then we're going to do this. Like I had things lined up to knock them down, but I was missing what
[00:53:58] was right here because I was so busy looking at what's out there. And I thought that, again, my threat level was here when because people knew about my idol was here and Charlie and I, again, we had a really good working relationship. We would talk all the
[00:54:16] time and I thought he was serious about trying to get rid of Maria. Obviously, he wasn't. But I was like, OK, I'm going to play the idol. I'm going to play the idol. I'm going to play the idol. And he was like, yeah, obviously he
[00:54:28] was. It just wasn't the time for him. But no, I wasn't going to play the idol that night. I thought about it like this much. Yeah. But then I'm like the risk right now could be a really big reward later if it
[00:54:41] works out. So I took a gamble and I lost. But now how can you tell what your threat level is when you're in the game, when you're you? Is it much of a threat? People think you are. Obviously, no, because I clearly was more of a threat
[00:54:58] than people with letting on. So I guess I didn't have the best read of that. But up until the point where like everybody started to get frantic and started fighting over who was going to get me out, I felt like it was easy to manage or
[00:55:14] just kind of perceive your threat level just based on like the flow of conversation around you, the flow of conversation and really the ease in which people are willing to throw other names out to you. Like usually when people are afraid of somebody like you're very cautious about
[00:55:33] breadcrumbing them with information or at least from what I've observed. And people were very open, at least the people I was working with, they were very open when it came to information plans, who they wanted to get out. So I'm like, OK, maybe
[00:55:46] I'm not that big of a threat, but apparently I was being played. Yeah. Is there anything else about your game, Tiffany, that you really want people to know? Hmm. I don't know. I felt like I feel like CBS did a really good job
[00:56:08] of kind of telling the story of my game when it came to the edit and when it came to like watching things back. I don't think there was anything that was really like left out. Obviously, like I felt like maybe my relationship with Charlie
[00:56:22] if they would have showed a little bit more of that, my decision to not play my idol would have made a little bit more sense. But I think that as far as me just being a passionate person that came across loud and clear and I'm
[00:56:40] proud of the game I'm playing. I'm proud of how it was shown on TV. So I don't know if there's anything more to be said about. I think you should be, too. I thought that you really brought a lot to the CBS
[00:56:51] season and I thought that, you know, you were strategic. You were good in the competitions. You had a great social game. And so like I think that you were that the players that were gunning for you like that you were a big threat like they were
[00:57:08] they were reading the situation right. I'm honored. I'm honored. And to be honest, like watching it back. I never imagined that I would get out there and be like as tough of a cookie as I was because in real life, girl, I'm a creature
[00:57:27] of comfort. Like I like a C. I like hand sanitizer. I like pillows and, you know, all the frills and thrills. But out there I was like really able to roll with the punches, the bugs, the dirt, the sweat, the scratches.
[00:57:40] Oh my God. I got so many bruises and scratches on me in a way that I never thought I could. So I'm like, OK, you might you might be onto something girl. I'm pro. Yeah. What's next for you, Tiffany? I mean, well, you know, hopefully
[00:57:56] if Survivor will have me back, I would definitely like a chance to redeem myself. But as of right now, until CBS is back on my line asking me to come out there and fight for my life again, I'm really just trying to lean back into my real life.
[00:58:09] I'm trying to lean back into my artwork. I've been doing a lot of traveling since I got home. Just trying to like go to different places. I've been to Pittsburgh. I got to visit the Andy Warhol Museum out there, which was really cool.
[00:58:23] I celebrated the 30th anniversary of the museum out there with like with the team and the staff. I went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and I got to see their art scene in L.A. I'm trying to do like this art girl tour situation.
[00:58:37] So I've been touring different cities, seeing museums and just the artwork and art culture out there in an effort to kind of incentivize people to come out and do their art and to kind of inspire my own work and what I've been doing.
[00:58:49] And I'm looking to like plan an art show really soon. I don't know if it'll be in New York or L.A. or New Jersey or where, but right now I'm being an art girlie and I'm loving it. Okay. Well, Tiffany, thank you for making
[00:59:01] some time to talk about your game. I really appreciated getting to hear your perspective and, you know, congratulations on everything you did on Survivor. Of course. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure talking to you. Yeah. And yeah, don't be a stranger. I won't.
[00:59:16] Listen, anytime you'll have me back, I would love to chat. Hey, Big Brother is, you know, right here. Oh, I'm tapped in. I told you I'm a big, big brother fan. I picture myself being able to play Big Brother, you know, before I end up
[00:59:30] being a Survivor girlie. You'd be good at that too. I feel like I might, you know, and it's like Survivor but with pillows and beds. So I'm like, oh yeah, you get me fat and got some sleep in my system and my brain is actually
[00:59:41] operating at 100 percent capacity. It might be over for y'all. OK. All right. Well, maybe maybe one day when they end up putting the Survivors in the Big Brother house, we'll see it. I guess it'll be an epic season. I'll tell you that. OK, Tiffany, thank you so much.
[00:59:55] OK? Of course. Thank you. Bye Rob. Bye. All right, everybody. There you have it. Tiffany Nicole Irvin. I thought that Tiffany was super fun to talk to. And yeah, she would be a great candidate, I think, to come back for Survivor 50 if especially if they go in
[01:00:13] that second chances idea that so many of us have been talking about. I think that she would be somebody who I think that if she is like, I really think that she fits that profile of the person who ends up coming in and maybe she's
[01:00:30] like not an automatic lock to get onto the season. But then once she's there, watch out. And I really do feel that way about Tiffany, who I think has all the skills that you would need to go on and be a Survivor
[01:00:44] winner, kind of like a Sarah Lucina coming into Survivor Game Changers where that maybe she sort of like sneaks in and then ends up being the winner of the season. So who knows with Tiffany Nicole Irvin. All right. Thank you so much to Tiffany and
[01:00:58] thank you for listening to this podcast. Of course, we appreciate hearing from you when you leave us a review in our Apple podcast page at Robisawebsite.com. Thank you so much for listening. Take care of a good one. Bye.