Butch Lockley from Survivor:Amazon.
Last Wednesday, January 7, 2004, the Champaign, Illinois CBS affiliate, WCIA, hosted an “open casting call” for Survivor 9 at the Decatur Holiday Inn (the casting call was at the Holiday Inn, not Survivor 9, but now that I think about it…). Basically it was just the WCIA cameras giving would-be contestants a chance to film their 3-minute videos in a convenient location with a professional camera.
Anyhoo, amongst the local dignitaries and GM dealers there was a guy wearing a buff who looked vaguely familiar. There was also a line to meet him. I eventually found out that it was Butch Lockley from Survivor: Amazon. If you don’t remember, he was the guy on the men’s team who had the big blue “Believe in Yourself” sign. He made it to the Final Four. Being from Olney, Illinois I guess that made him the nearest “local” Survivor and thus was a celebrity of sorts at the Decatur event.
So I waited in line and met him. I found him to be an extremely gracious and polite fellow who seemed at the same time to be rather embarrassed by all the attention and yet loving every minute of it.
Anyhoo, I asked him if the buff he was wearing was the one he wore on the show and he told me that CBS made him give his original to them. Then he showed me a huge scar on his finger that he said was from a pirhana bite, but then he chuckled and said it was from handling sheet metal a couple weekends ago. Lastly I asked him what he’s doing these days and he said he’s back to work as school principal, and that he suspended three kids just that day.
I found it refreshing to meet a Survivor who actually went back to normal life once the hoo-hah was over, instead of trying to milk his 15 minutes. He seemed to be a normal everyman who lived through a difficult experience and is a better person because of it.
And FTR, I submitted a video. If, come Survivor 9, you see “Aaron: Social Worker, Springfield, Illinois,” you’ll know that it worked!