The Zach Nichols Podcast - Battle of the Eras EP. 6 Review w/ Brad Fiorenza | ZNP EP. 67

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

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What's up guys? It's Brad checking in from Zach Nichols podcast. Looking forward to getting down and into the questions you guys have. And I want to thank you all for watching a show. It's been a big part of my life. All right. Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast, Hangover Edition. This is our fourth podcast in as many days, right? Thursday, Friday show.

Four for four, man. Yeah. So we're here. I'm even drinking. I'm fucking hungover. Burning the midnight oil. We're here with, obviously, pasta pierre. You know what it is.

And the comeback of, Brad. He's here for a second time on the couch. We are back. Thank you for having me, gentlemen. No, thank you for coming. I appreciate the opportunity. It's an absolutely. I'd hang out. Honor. Damn, yeah. For real. So before we hit the, we hit the record button, we were talking about how this house,

let's just start with the house. And we'll go into the episode. I like it. This house looks immaculate on television. Now, we got to see a couple scenes of the kitchen, which is a little frightening. Yeah. Theo had to sit on a chair to make himself eggs. So, what was, what was the house really

Was it cold? Was it drafty? I mean, it can't be too drafty in Vietnam, but. You know, I mean, if it wasn't so warm there, it probably would have been. It was, I mean, it's, the temperature was cool. Was there AC? There was. There was.

And for some, for some reason, it actually worked with all that square footage. I have no idea what the hell that lot up was. But that's one thing that came together very nicely. The one thing I will say is, you know, like you were saying, the house has always looked nice on TV. That first opening shot when you opened the doors and you, you came in and saw that spread, it was amazing. Yeah. I will say, like, I was mind-blown with the whole experience until it was time to figure out

how the bathrooms worked. Yeah, I heard they were a little less than perfect. So, Zach, we're kind of similar in the whole, like, we keep the hygiene on a tight 100% high-level. Yeah, we keep it high, high-level 100, you know what I mean? Yeah, keep it clean. 100%. Like an extra 5-10, get clean, you know.

You're free. And you know my phrase. I can be fat, but I, there's a lot. There's no way I can't be fresh. You got to be fresh all the time. For real. I love it. So I feel.

If you're going to be fat, you got to be fresh. So you're the one that you got to spend your time in the, you know. A hundred percent. And like there was one bathroom downstairs that everybody had to share and then a line of porta potty's with showers in them. So, you know, here's the thing. And I could already tell by your face. A shower potty, huh? A hundred percent, Zach.

It's everything it sounds like in the toilet and the drain are right next to each other. So you already know. Sounds like a recipe for some disease. some disease. So there were people going in there. There were people going in there without shower sandals on. Okay. And this is the part that kind of freaked me out a little bit.

You know, I feel a little sketchy speaking about this, but it's true. So I'll say it. In the beginning, we were waiting on getting soap for those porta potties. Because you could just tell they had a lot of set up, obviously. Right.

40 cast members, a lot of cast members. So the thing is, I'm kind of a germaphobe, man. I'm always taking. notes you know like dinner was right next to the porta potty so like we had this long dining room table that's savory seen but right outside of that was this line of port of potty's and before they had towels to dry your hands with and before they had the soap in there um I noticed people going in using the restroom and coming out and coming straight to dinner oh no this is true story oh yeah my

face would have been lit up well here no soap situation and you see me coming out like this trying to find something. Yeah. On this guy, trying to figure it out. I'm like not really comfortable with it. Right. And then I see a few other cats. I won't put any names out there, but they're just coming out like it's no big deal.

And there's no water on their hands. And then a couple of times I even see people grab food right out of the, you know, right out of the trade. For me personally, so like getting back to like what Mark was saying about the difficulty of some of the conditions, I think the bathrooms for me was the biggest one. Isn't there like a historic phrase? like don't shit where you eat 100%

Like it doesn't just Like that is kind of universal Bro the smell Come up the smell coming out of there That would draft in Yeah They moved the dinner location later on Yeah it's like what's for dinner tonight

I don't you know You already know what it will smell Yeah exactly I mean I've had like luckily I think the worst house I ever had Was exes No rivals too We were in Thailand

And they put us It looks like everyone's got these nice rooms but like every room was just glass sliding doors and so you could look into them and it was an art gallery that's what it was supposed to be that they turned into so they had makeshift showers and stuff and i kid you not i mean not that in thailand it was like essential but there was only one temperature on those showers and that was ice cold oh wow yeah so we didn't have warm showers a whole time we were there so like talk about like trying to get that shower and quick and like The other thing that I noticed about this house is going back to Vietnam now was like the chamber.

Every time they shoot a scene in the chamber, everyone is just pouring sweat. Those are. Yeah, so what was that like? It was hot. Like way underground. Oh, no, it wasn't even underground. It was just hot. Like, there was no AC in there.

There were no AC in that building. Yeah, I can't. You're in Vietnam heat index over 100. And then you're going in there kind of almost like working on your breathing before you get in. trying to slow your heart rate down so you're not that person pour and sweat. Well, that would have been I pour sweat in like, you know, 50 degree weather. Same. So that's why I really had to work on that heart rate just so I wasn't like, you know,

I could at least focus on what people were saying. And I just like pat and sweat off my forehead. Well, the funny part about it too is I knew it was bad when like obviously people were sweating. But like after the time CT in the chamber, as he's walking out, he's like, you know what? He had just gotten out of the shower, obviously, looking nice and fresh. He's like, I'm just going to jump in the pool. So I knew it was pretty. I mean, obviously, you know, Vietnam is hot, but I was thinking that the whole time when people were like, oh, it was an old church.

I'm like, if it's an old church, how the hell do you set up? How would you put air conditioning in an old church? You know, were they units or was it actually coming out of the walls? They had units. They had units. I think they put additional units in. Had to. Yeah, I would guess that's what they did.

And I also heard it was a set for movies. And if you were there, you saw it, there was a lot of other buildings and even street names that were in the English language. So I think they were filming stuff there and I'm not saying they didn't use it as a church But I heard from somebody while I was there that they did film movies there and it looked like kind of like a Yeah, it's set you could almost do like a medieval's times type of a You almost like set up like a A neighborhood. You know what I mean or like yeah pretty much read it was big it was huge yeah Yeah, but being on 40 that had to just be pretty special obviously

Yes 100% yeah it was a it was an honor to be there right it's an honor to be really on anyone especially now that the casting pool has expanded to you know our worldwide shows and we got big brother right survivor so um are you the one all by land yeah already the one is i feel like it's a it's it's it's it was the replacement for the real world kind of like the theater show sure but um it's so great to see i don't know how many more times are going to be able to see that many OGOGs like talking you started season 10 was your first one was that battle the sex is too I have no idea so maybe even earlier than that I think maybe CT's first season was 10 I don't know

or maybe his was eight yeah I think that yeah he said he was eligible for 32 seasons and so he'd done about you know 20 plus that's pretty impressive very you know yeah to think about like most cast members like you like I mean you took time off to be a regular real person and did your own thing raised the family had you know jobs outside of it people like ct that's just been like he says he grew up he feels like he's more at home on the challenge than he is anywhere else and like you can probably speak to that how like you do feel like i always say it too it's like like you land back where you're you know get to the airport and it's like you're all of a sudden 22 again 100% and i can definitely relate to that i do feel like i'm home when i'm on the challenge house and i also understand

that there's something dysfunctional about that definitely yeah there's definitely yeah It's just something's a screw loose, but it feels good. But you know what? It's not something that it's a, I mean, it's a unique feeling, but that's not unique to you. There's so many people who have real lives, but like you just feel so comfortable in that setting. So you're right. There's a screw loose, but it's universal between all you guys. Yeah, I feel the same thing.

Like you go back. It's like you never left. No matter how many seasons is it's like I never left because time is kind of much slower there. And you do, you feel I think it's more of just like a, it's like a. first of all not having a cell phone is kind of cool like just the thought of like it doesn't even matter what's going on i have no idea what's going on in the real world it's like and do nothing about it and not having a cell phone there is a little bit freeing so i think that's part of it too but uh let's talk about too you're the only male really from your era besides mark but even

he said um he wasn't feeling his greatest but you're you mean no major interest you're you mean no major No. Yeah. No. And I, um, I felt like I could. I wish like if life was going a little bit easier beforehand, I feel like I might have been able to train a little bit better and just show up with more sleep and just less distractions. However, when I got there, it's like you said, you, you're, your, your, your home, you're checked in. You feel like, um, you feel that time switch. And I think actually that's one of the most important things you even just mentioned is that the time slows down. I would, I would even say, because I thought this out, one day is about three days. For sure.

Yeah, I think that's about an accurate ratio of what it feels like. And I think that's a huge part of the game that a lot of people might not understand unless you're on it because that's what makes it such a marathon. And that really does kind of switch up your psychological perception on what a day is. Yeah. That concludes the free preview of the Zach Nichols podcast. So go to Patreon and subscribe to see the rest of the shit that we talk. Go do it. Now.