at universal studios orlando back on 4/12/08. i decided to try and enter the show they do. here's link to the show and the stunts i had to perform. http://themeparks.universalstudios.com/fearfactorlive/

there are six contestants. first up is the endurance hang. basically you hang onto an inverted V painted steel bar as long as you can. first two to fall off loses. this was the worst of it for me. i don't like to fall. as you hang on, after 30 seconds, they turn a fan on to make it harder to hang on. it actually helped me. cooled me off. i held on just over a minute. i thought i was the first to fall. after i let go, i was told to go to the middle of the stage. come to find out, i was the third. so, i got to move to the next round.

the winner of the endurance hang gets the win to break the tie, if there is a tie in the next two events.

the remaining four people pair off into two teams of two. the winner of the endurance hang got to pick his partner. he picked his son. i was paired up with a college kid from new jersey.

first event was a bean bag toss. one person is hoisted into the air with a bucket. the other has to run to a tank of water with eels in it. they are black eels. the bean bags are black as well. you can only get one bean bag at a time. i was the one to grab the bags. we tied with the other team at 4 bags each. this meant we had to win the next round, or we would be eliminated.

next event was an octopus toss. the guy in the air was swinging back and forth and had to toss the octopus to the teammate below, which was hooked to a short rope to limit how far he could move. while this is going on, two audience members got to shoot water cannons at us to make it difficult. jessica, my daughter, got picked to be one of the cannon shooters. the other thing was the other team got 4 octopii (because the team mate won the endurance hang). and we got three. i caught two out of three. on the third toss, the guy swinging got turned backwards to me and couldn't get a clear shot at me to catch it. i looked over and saw the other team had missed one, as i saw it on the ground. thought they had three in their bucket and we were out. come to find out, they missed three on the toss. HELL YEAH!!! i'm moving into the final. now, my team mate is now my competitor. was asked if i had anything to say to him. i said "He's going down, because middle age is where it's at!!"


final round involved climbing the ladder on the wall up two stories. there are four windows on the way up. two on the left/and right. each one had a yellow flag you had to pull off. as you start to climb to the second story, they turn on water that pours down the ladder at you. at the fourth one, you have to skinny across on the fourth window ledge and grab a red flag that had a key to the car attached to it. then, slide down the pole and run to the car. you jump into the car and put the key into the ignition box which is located on the passenger side of the convertible car. when you 'start' the car, it raises into the air about 40 feet. you have to wait until the car gets all the way up, before you can go over the windshield. when it stops, you jump over the windshield and onto the hood to pull off three yellow flags. after that, you jump back into the car and go to the back seat, grab your bazooka and shoot the target on the building to win.

at the go, we jumped on the crates to get onto the ladder. i go up the ladder, get the first two flags, get back on the ladder to climb up to the second story and i start inhaling water. i make it to the top and pull the flags off each window. couldn't see where i could grab above the window to skinny across. finally saw it. wasn't much to grab onto. the gloves had grips on them to help. i got hte red flag and slide down the pole. ran to the car and got in. my goggles were fogged up and couldn't see real well. the key slot was at the 5 o'clock position, not the typical 6 o'clock position. finally, i got the key in. i looked over and the competitor still wasn't in his car. got to the top and jumped over the windshield. i figured this is where i would fall. there was a length of wood across the windshield side of the hood to help hold on. i was able to reach all three yellow flags with ease. jumped over the windshield and into the back seat. i grabbed the bazooka and shot at the target. the building exploded and fell. i look over at my competitor and saw his car wasn't all the way up. I WON!!!

afterwards, i asked jessica how it went. she told me i was about one rung ahead of him on the ladder. as he was going back towards the ladder after getting his second flag, he fell off. this gave the plenty of time.

for winning, i got four tickets to universal (yeah, i've got annual passes), a shirt that says fear factor live champion, and this certificate.

 

good job!

 

thanks

 

Haha, that whole thing just sounds comical. Especially the octopus thing.

 

haha way to go Robert!

 

as i said earlier badass

 

COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great job. I wouldn't have done some of those things.

 

Congrats man, sounds like a good time!

 

I could handle all of the physical stunts, but as soon as they put a scorpion on my face - I'd run away like a little bitch.

 

Sounds like a fun time Robert, good job winning.

 

Pretty cool, congrats!
-Joel

 

hell ya Rob.

 

thanks guys.

 

Hell yea! Awesome job Robert!!!