Another Below Deck Podcast - Did Chef Ryan Starve the Crew? — Interview with Benny Crawley | Below Deck Down Under

Episode Date: June 14, 2022

Dylan, Nick and Pat speak with Below Deck Down Under season 1 deckhand Benny Crawley about having a misogynistic ex-cop as your boss, the transition from yoga retreat to charter yacht, and Chef Ryan attempting to starve him.Our episode by episode coverage of Below Deck Down Under PLUS seasons 1 & 2 of Below Deck Sailing are available at Patreon.com/AnotherPodcastNetwork

And also, like, you know, coming off of a beautiful meditative retreat and then meeting a mall cop with a serious, serious hatred for women. I mean, it's got to be really, really taxing on your psyche. Yeah. And to be fair to you. Hi, hello, and welcome aboard to this lovely podcast called Another Below Deck Sailing Yacht Podcast. There's too many of these shows. This is for the freebies, and I'm honestly, like, I'm at a point with our fans where I don't think they deserve this interview with Benny of Peacock's Dananda. Right. Because they're just so. We'll talk about it on next week's episode.

But shame on anybody who's complaining about hilarious ads in our Patreon episode. Shame on you. But we have more important things to talk about. I'm Dylan. I'm saddled up next to unreal Nicholas Davis. Ahoy mateys. And Pat produces the podcast over there behind my glasses. Permission to come aboard.

Now, before we introduce Benny, I did misspeak. Yeah. Uh, because Nick is in Silver Lake right now because he got, uh, infected with,

I don't know how you can get infected with a psyop but he somehow managed to do it yeah well i think he kind of deserved it after all the mocking he's been doing for the last two and a half years nick how do you feel it's i feel great uh it's clearly the government trying to sabotage me for trying to reveal the truth i'll be back in no time i couldn't in good conscience come and sit next to you guys when Pat has a child, even though my beliefs have not changed. Okay, great. Yeah.

That's astounding. It is a pleasure to welcome a deckie from Peacock's Below Deck, Dan Anda, none other than Benny. Hi, Benny. Thanks for joining us. My pleasure. How are you doing, guys? Doing great. Thanks for joining us. My pleasure. How are you doing, guys? Doing great. Thanks for having me. Good. Nick's not doing good, but we're doing great.

Yeah, Benny, you know, Benny's been a controversial figure, but I feel like we've talked so much shit on Benny. Benny, I don't know if you said we talked off mic for the camera. You said you don't even watch TV or listen to any podcasts. Have you been watching the show? No, I haven't heard anything so like i'm i'm like go go for it i've looked at a bit of twitter it was pretty rough at the beginning but i mean you know what are you

gonna do well you're coming you're coming out shining right now let's see the the benefit that you had is there were evils that truly came to fruition towards the end of the season and you were not among them. But we'll get into that entire thing in due time. We begin usually pretty much every guest interview with a really, really good first question. And Pat usually delivers that one. So Pat, why don't you hit him with the first cue? Benny,

if you couldn't tell by the tone of my cohost, Dylan, he's mocking me right now because I ask what I think is an important question. How'd you end up on the show? Yeah. I got a... Okay, so I'd been in a yoga retreat for three months. I came out of a meditation thing.

I had never done any of this before. And then it was like 10 days after I got back, I got a thing in my inbox on Facebook saying, would you consider being on Below Deck? Because I'd been in yachting two years beforehand. I laughed. I think I physically laughed out loud because I was like,

it was so off par from what I thought this message was going to be. But then the next day I got covered in this excitement that I hadn't felt in a long time. And I was like, look, let's just give it a crack. And then one thing led to another. And next thing you know, I'm walking down that dock with the cameras on me going, what am I about to do? Yeah, so that sensation kind of leads me into what I wanted to ask you. Do you regret it?

Do I regret it? Yeah. No. No. Okay. Not at all. First, I want to say this is going to make me sound like I'm into Benny or I want to bed him. Handsome guy. Look at that guy.

Benny, where was this guy on the show? You look like Brandon Lee, for Christ's sake. Well, he was so scared in that anchor room that we thought he was like a little chicken. But look at him. I mean, he looks like Brandon Lee. Nick has his hands raised. Yeah, guys, I just want to echo your sentiments i've seen a number of interviews with benny uh like this shot we're seeing right here and goddamn again where was this on the show i i'm sure it's picking up now but i mean look it it is what it is you know i i'm i know

i i was that was the state of mind i was at the time and i come out i was just chilling at this yoga retreat and then suddenly i was on television and you know amongst um yeah you know like just different personalities on board and and i'm starting to shine now yeah yes exactly i'm not sure i'm just doing my thing you know you're coming into your own I will say just stay away from guns on set going forward that's a Brandon Lee and or Alec Baldwin joke

I think it's an Alec Baldwin joke that actually happened when we were there I think but the channel of the Brandon Lee channel is dangerous I love Zoom my favorite thing about Zoom shows is how everybody talks over one another and they're so good.

So what goes on at that yoga retreat? Do you guys all take breaks and don't speak and then like fuck each other? Like what happens at those yoga retreats? No, no. I was trying to not do that. Okay. Yeah, that's why I went there. Okay, good.

We were trying. Benny, we have a ton of listener questions for you. And, you know, forgive me for this one because it's probably a heavy question, but it comes from listener Haley Whittle. She wanted to know if you being part of this show was part of the healing process after just a horrible year. Was this part of like, I'll just go on this wild adventure and just take my mind off things? Like, look, I was happy when I got on that boat, right? Like I, when I first got on there, I was like, and then, and then you met Jamie. Yeah.

And what you see on the camera is it was way more intense than that. Like, I'm just like, like what is happening right now? But the camera, it was way more intense than that. I'm just like, like, what is happening right now? But, you know, I came in pretty happy. Obviously, in hindsight, looking back, you know, I thought I was a lot more zen than, you know, but you're getting filmed at those moments when you crack, you know what I mean? Sure.

Look, I was happy, you know. I was a little numb, to be honest, like probably a little emotionally numb because of what had happened. But I was generally excited to get on there, you know, I was a little numb, to be honest, like probably a little emotionally numb because of what had happened, but I was generally excited to get on there, you know, it was beautiful and I was looking forward to that adventure. It definitely was, I wasn't going in being like I need this to heal, but I was like this will be great, you know what I mean? Like this will be a good little kickstarter because it wasn't just that, it was COVID, like everybody had gone through, you know,

a pretty rough time, so the whole thing was exciting yeah and well don't beat yourself up for not keeping that uh zenness after the retreat i mean i think that's a story ages as old as time just people going and when you're surrounded by people constantly reminding you that's easy but if you get on the real world putting into practice is the lifelong journey yeah yeah thank you yogi thank you yogi thank you yogi and also like you know coming off of a beautiful meditative retreat and then meeting a mall cop with a serious serious hatred for women i mean it's got to be really really taxing on your psyche yeah and benny to be fair to you be to be fair to you i know it looked like you were but here's my point i don't think impromptu employee reviews at a restaurant

on your one night out was uh is it was good for you uh from jamie he lost me at the word drill sergeant yeah it's an intense word um all right anymore 12 hours in and like and then obviously you get the residual like i was just look, just try and keep taking it until, obviously you see me cracking episode 11 and 12. I do think I was quite zen to be honest. Yeah. You know, like I, I didn't, I, you know, I just, I just look, I take it as long as you can.

And then like things just kept going. And, and I was like, I just didn't know a lot of the stuff that was happening. I didn't know it was happening, you know, and that's why I went, not to cut too far in advance, but when I wasn't told why I was taking off that shift, like I didn't know any of that was happening. I thought I was like, I worked hard that night, you know.

Obviously, they put on the thing that I'm talking to myself going, that's good enough. But like I was exhausted looking after the guys. The fishing stunk. It was, you know know it was like yeah that's why i'm saying a patini me and patina got along really well in deck so i was rustling her up and she's getting furious at me and and so i had no idea what was happening should we talk about should we talk about benny's most insidious moment well jason dunn asked

was that intentional to tell the guests that this is a great time to fish and it was going to be Britt's shift. Was that to intentionally torture her? A nasty move, Benny. A nasty move. Like, it's Aussie banter. You know, we're all G-ing each other up all the time. Like, it's like, I just want to, like, but that's the funny thing,

because I'm seeing, like, now I look at it, I'm like, oh, my God, what's this poor girl thinking? Because, like, I'm like, go out there and see how tough it is to catch some squid at two in the morning right and then he's like you know getting angry at me and like I got no idea why because I thought you know most of the time we're joking on deck together right so it's just this whole confusion but like you know I love that girl I wouldn't I would only say that because I like you know was so close with her you know what I mean hot captain's got a question and I can see where you're coming from because there was a lot of pranks and stuff in a number of times in the

beginning of season they were spraying you with the hose and you're like oh i'll get back at you by making you work six hours in the middle of the night yeah yeah you're a master of pranks it's all lighthearted stuff yeah I know. Quick PSA. If you see us perspiring and it makes you uncomfortable, that's because we are in a fucking sauna right now. And if Pat does not get a wall unit by next week, we're not doing this show anymore. Quick PSA. Noted.

All right. So Jeremy Vargo, and hopefully this doesn't cross the line. We have a PR person on line with us because it is a little behind the scenes. But as far as the incidents with Jamie kind of intimidating you, was that what was taking place or was it a little bit worse that it perhaps wasn't seen? I just felt like shit. And it's like even just saying, you know,

I'm going to tell you what i used to do like that's like it's there's a you know feeling of like oh god i need to be anyway from my perspective it's not just what's coming at your mouth it's the energy that you feel from somebody you know what i mean so you can say things but it's like that and i i actually didn't really know he was a cop until the end. So, like, it makes sense. And, look, in respect to him, if he's been trained like that, I get it. You know what I mean? Like, it's, they're trained to be like that.

Like, that's what police officers are trained to do. They've got to be out there and enforce, you know, full-on laws in the street and people, you know, criminals and whatnot. But, like, when you bring that onto deck or, like, into a workplace that isn't really, like, you know, one that needs fear instilled in it, it's a lot. It was a lot to handle and a lot to take on. And it was a lot going on all the time that I didn't really feel like I could breathe.

Right. That makes sense. Yeah, to be fair to Jamie, his career before yachting, somebody says, you got to show up somewhere at 10 o'clock. You got to be there at 10 o'clock. And then you have to take your clothes off and you have to dance for a bunch of women. It's a very stressful job. He was a stripper cop.

The mean streets, that's a lot. So can we get to the food? We call Ryan, Chef Ryan, who we think is one of the worst people we've ever seen on this show. We call them pizza rat. Yeah first pr is on the line just to speak to pr for a moment there is no one we've wanted to talk to more in our entire tenure of doing the show than that gigantic piece of shit but we will be cordial with him i don't want to spook you well we want to talk to

that ryan not pos okay so this is what i have to say about ryan and you tell me benny because it seems like you guys were kind of buddies watching the show he is arrogant he's belittling he offers poor service he's got a really bad attitude pretty hateful but still i know guys like him and i could have a beer and go watch a baseball game with him and we could be buddies. I just can't work with him or be his boss. So with that, what was your relationship with Ryan? And what are your thoughts? I guess you haven't watched the show, so you don't know how bad his food was.

No, I've watched the show. Okay. I love the show. I watch it every week. I love it. Was that an accurate depiction of what you were seeing regarding his attitude in the galley and towards guests? Look,

my, when I watched back, when I watched the show back, I'm appalled. Yeah. Like I am. Yeah. I'm in shock.

Yeah. It's not, it's, you get put into, you get put into a boat on a boat with a group of people that you would just never really meet in real life yeah yeah it's like i got i'm just trying to structure how i'd say this the thing is he was he was lovely to me consistently the entire time yeah when we were out in the bottle thing happened that that just that was too much

right i i acknowledged that i was on this show i'm sitting at dinner tables i've got people arguing i've absolutely nothing screaming each other throwing shit over the table talking like this i'm it's not a dinner party that i've ever been to in my life right i'm doing this every single for every three days sure yeah i'm at a dinner party where like there's there's debauchery going on but you know i don't see how he's acting with asisha. We don't see any of that stuff. But I do see how he's behaving at the dinner table and I see how he's behaving after the show.

And, you know, it is what it is. Like I went on the show. I survived. You know, I... Barely. I didn't have a... Barely. Barely. So, Benny, Ryan, so this is this your full statement you never went into the galley and asked ryan what he was making for dinner tonight and he

didn't tell you to go get a fucking squeegee uh and do your fucking job and get it was never rude to me once it's probably because uh you're uh not a woman eliza harper also an aussie she wants to know how was the crew food that he made for you guys uh that there wasn't much oh wow unbelievable unbelievable wait let's drill into that when you say there wasn't much what do you mean and how does it compare to other chefs uh on other yachts that you've worked on well we it was an issue the crew food so um you know i spoke to him a few times about it i said you know just make some veggies and he would make it but the thing is i think he went in and you know obviously like i i got along really well with asia i mean

she's pretty hard not to get along with um and and you know they were i didn't see what they were doing i didn't see them going at that you don't see a lot of the stuff sure you're in your own i had enough of my own shit going on that i just didn't other i didn't want to i didn't see what they were doing i didn't see them going at that you don't see a lot of the stuff sure you're in your own i had enough of my own shit going on that i just didn't other i didn't want to i didn't even want any of my own drama so i didn't see a lot of that stuff but we we were going hungry um and we spoke to him about that and then that's yeah wow so unbelievable that like he was such a such a tuck everlasting kind of spring of awful that they didn't even need to use that storyline that he was starving the rest of the crew to make him come off as a pizza rat. I don't think he's going to make the reunion. Megan Bancroft wants to know, who are you still in touch with that was on the show?

I still speak to Bertini. I still speak to Aisha, Jace, and Captain Jason. Who else? Nate. Nate's actually one of my trading students. So I teach trading and he's doing really well. Oh, wow. So Nate, I speak to regularly um he's just come on taylor i speak to a lot um who else yeah that's about it to me i speak to so pretty much everybody earlier pretty much everybody yeah yeah yeah except for one person yeah i did and i did speak to jamie like i you know i've done a lot of interviews this week after i put that video out but um i spoke to jamie uh well i was in miami with him actually um uh about a month ago and you know everything was fine it was it was lovely you

know we were chilling but then obviously like there was still articles he was releasing about saying i was incompetent constantly and that was after we hung out and then like you know obviously i saw everything on the show and the way he was talking about me behind the scenes. And I just, yeah, I just, I mean, you know, there's only so much you can, you can. Should we, should we get into some tough questions? Well, I just got a couple more softballs and then I'll hand it over to you. Let's do one or two.

Let's do one more softball. Rachel Ann wants to know. Hot Captain Jason raised his hand. He's very sick. So when he raises his hand, I want to go to him because it, it takes a lot of effort for him to get that arm up. Yeah, because of the sigh out.

It also takes a lot of effort to not talk until called on. So thank you for acknowledging when I do do it. And this wasn't worth it. This wasn't worth it. I just wanted to shout out Eliza for that great question that I didn't think was going to go anywhere, but gave us probably the juiciest part of the interview.

Pizza Rat was starving the crew. Unbelievable. Great stuff. Rachel Ann once asked, was Magna, was it noticeable how much she was actually using her devices? I didn't see any of that. And again, it's like, it's full of like, I didn't know that she'd taken a nap during the day, like all those. I didn't, I didn't see any of that and again it's like it's full like i didn't know that you're taking a nap during the day like all those i didn't i didn't see any of that so wow like yeah it's it's it's full on a lot of the stuff you see i'm watching it as it goes like i'm actually

really thoroughly enjoying the show because i'm like what the fuck okay like what like i didn't even know the bitch thing happened i was like oh my word what was the bit oh the bitch yeah well yeah he was just picking on somebody else and i could i was just like like i can dance now yeah that's how it goes i mean my conspiracy theory was that you called him a bitch very early on and the cameras didn't catch it and then from then on it's set to tone not at all anyway any other softballs that i mean i that's pretty much it uh carlos uh keegan i'm sorry caroline keegan's wants to know who's the hardest working person on the boat in your opinion benny hardest working person on the boat yeah um i to me to me or asia to me

100 to me is such a rock all right one last one this is probably an inappropriate question feel free to uh toss this off if you don't want to do it, but Rick Hub's a real pick, but he listens to our show, so he fits in. He says, fuck Mary, kill the girls on the boat. There's two men. Oh, yeah. Don't answer, Benny.

Why? They do it. The girls do it all the time. That's true. Benny, answer, please. Yeah, I'll give you fucking Mary. Okay. Okay. time. That's true. Benny, answer, please. Yeah, I'll give you fucking Mary. Okay. Nice. That's funny.

We can fill in the kill pretty easily, I think. I'd probably, you know, after now, I'd shag Brittany and then marry Taylor. Yeah. Marry Taylor. Oh, come on. You gotta marry Kermit. I mean Aisha. Well, no. It's his game of fuck, marry, kill. So he doesn't have to do anything

right patrick um and then i think he would kill jamie um okay so um i want to ask about benny's incompetency which was on display a couple of times but i feel like it's going so well i don't want to i don't want to get messy well you know he's still listening to us, right? I know, I know. He can go for it. I'm good. The only thing I noticed was I'm nervous. Hot Captain? Yes, Hot Captain?

Benny. Oh, sorry. I forgot. I'm Hot Captain. Yeah. I'll take this one for you. I saw your seven-minute response to Jason. The competency just wasn't there.

On every boat Benny's's worked on the person with the controls in their hand is the one controlling the jet ski he stands by it he wasn't he's not going to go on the chain locker he doesn't care how that means okay the other time you're incompetent uh you weren't well he almost crashed the fucking tender into the side of the dock well that was a big one what happened there dj susan DJ Susan was in town. I have my own views on what happened there, but I definitely didn't say I'm going to go for a joyride and then come in hot. Right, okay.

And there's certain things called collision regulations and you give away to Starboard, but, you know, it's like, I got called to come in. Jason called both of us to come in simultaneously. And I came in and then he was coming at the same time and there was that overshoot. And, you know, I own it. Again, in that situation at that point in time,

I hadn't been on Nintendo for a long time. I hadn't been at Sea for a year and a half. And, you know, I shouldn't have been anywhere near that that situation um but you know it's there's a lot going on and um i you know it's things that you're a daredevil what happened what happened in my eyes was very different but i don't want to sit here and deflect something. Yeah. And that is what it is. And that, and it is what it is.

It was a goddamn accident. Give the guy some, a break. Okay. Brown noser. You fit into your role very well this afternoon. Um, but yeah,

Benny, you don't have to explain. Cause when you said collision regulations, I checked out immediately. I mean, almost instantaneously. Jed Phoenix. You're like, yeah, he knows what he's talking about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Benny, Jed Phoenix wants to know, Jamie made a lot of accusations about Captain James. I don't know if he used the word dangerous, but he basically thought that Captain, yeah, maybe he did. Captain Jason said some of the things that he did while being a captain, he considered to be dangerous or reckless. Do you agree with some of those situations that took place?

Look, the guy's been a captain for like 25 years. Well, he has crashed a boat. Yeah. He has crashed a boat. I felt safe the entire time. You know, it's when we're going, when Jamie asks to slow down, he does slow down.

I haven't seen anybody standing on the aft deck when the line is actually going out. Right. So, you know, that's I think season six or seven when Ashton got done with his feet on the aft deck. Oh, yeah. Everybody's meant to be off the aft deck

when that's happening. I felt safe the entire time. So, yeah, there's nothing reckless that was happening. All right. Well, I got a big one. And this may be breaking the fourth wall and maybe just signal us physically

if you can't answer because of the PR on board. Did they steal my title, Benny and the Jet Ski? That was the first, our first, our recap of the first episode was benny and the jet ski and then like episode 11 fucking peacock yeah yeah no it's really unbelievable the ip well let's ask the pr person who's on the phone i don't i yeah i don't think hayley's in a position i'm pretty sure i just found out about the, like that scene, I think just prior to that, I'd found out that he,

that he'd taken me off the ship without telling me. So there's a lot of, yeah, I was, I was furious. You can pretty much see it on my face. My last question, because we got to let Benny go.

I have one after yours, but that's it. I just want to ask what he's up to now. He's trading in cryptocurrencies. But let him get the plug-in he gave us his time no no no you're you're 100 right okay so um how do we sign up for your grip yes yeah how how do we sign up for your financial cult and also can you give us one coin or something like that. Oh, I don't do crypto. I just trade the S&P 500. But I live in Tulum in Mexico. Oh, okay.

Yeah. And it's hot. Probably hotter where you guys are. And I just do a bit of trading in the morning. On my Instagram, there's a website there. But yeah. Do you ever go to... I have about 10 students at a time.

And we take it very seriously. what's it called uh mindful trading.io mindful trading.io okay www.mindfultrading.io yeah yeah i i you gotta you gotta clean up the bio on the business because i also thought it was crypto i feel yeah i mean no's going to be homeless off the S&P 500. Just say the bio is like you're a younger, more handsome Warren Buffett. So anyways, everybody go to Benny's website. If you want to become wealthy, if you want your portfolio to increase 500% in one week, go to Benny's Instagram. I never said anything. It's a guarantee. Go benny's instagram benny thank

you so much for joining us that's right benny you're great we enjoyed watching on the show i think you came off great good luck with everything good luck man thanks for spending time with us thanks bud bye Thank you.