The Amazing Race: Exclusive Interview With Kynt & Vyxsin

Halloween was obviously the perfect day to interview two fun and energetic “Goth kids,” as Kynt & Vyxsin refer to themselves. When I talked to them today it was a real treat and once you read this interview, I hope you’ll be even more interested in watching how well they do on the upcoming season of The Amazing Race. Here’s what we talked about:

crushable.com: So do you two have any fun plans for Halloween?

Kynt: Oh, yes, today is like Goth Christmas.

RE: So do you give gifts? How would you celebrate? Would you go to a party dressed as regular old geeks, or what?

Kynt: To us, everyday is Halloween. But on a night like tonight we usually dress up even more than usual. We have a couple of comic book characters we might try to be. We’re still working out the kinks. We’ll go to some Halloween parties with some friends and maybe do a little Trick or Treat. We’re very excited about tonight.

RE: What made you decide to apply for The Amazing Race? (follow the jump for the rest of this fun interview!)

Kynt: The Amazing Race has been one of our favorite TV shows for a significant amount of time. It’s one of the few shows on TV that can hold my ADD attention. Vyxsin & I thought it was the perfect fit for us. We both love to travel. We’re road-trip junkies. We’re also very adept at traveling on the fly. Because a lot of times I’ll find out about a music festival or a science fiction convention going on in another state and I’ll call Vyxsin and say, “oh my gosh, there’s this great event…” And we’ll hit the road. It’s like, “Let’s leave in ten minutes.” Although we haven’t traveled significantly internationally, we are accustomed to road-tripping.

Vyxsin: It was actually Kynt’s idea to apply. It probably never would have occurred to me to try something like this. But one day we were sitting and watching the show and there was a commercial on that said that they were casting for the next season and Kynt looked at me and asked if I’d ever consider trying to do this. I was rather pessimistic, thinking so many people apply for these and we probably won’t get on, but you know, why not? Let’s give it a shot. Imagine my surprise when we got the phone call months later.

Kynt: I’m always a dreamer. The odds never scare me. So we immediately, like in January, downloaded and filled out the applications and shot off a video tape. Six months later, we had almost forgotten about it, but then the phone rang and they were interested in interviewing us. And the rest is history.

RE: So you didn’t even have to go to the live casting call or anything.

Kynt: No, we do things the old fashioned way. We sent it in.

RE: So you two are Goths. What do you want the viewers to know about that?

Kynt: That’s the great thing about Goth, it’s so many things. On a very superficial basis, it’s a style of clothing. But it’s also a style of make-up; it’s an aesthetic or a style of music. Also, it’s our way of interacting with the world around us. Goth is truly a celebration of art, beauty and individuality. We tend to like things on the darker side. As a kid, I always loved Halloween, spooky movies and things like that. It’s fun to play in the dark. (Laughs.)

Vyxsin: When I was growing up, I always felt a little bit alienated and isolated. My dad was in the Army and we would move all the time. I was perpetually the new kid. For years and years I honestly did try to fit in and be normal and look like everyone else and be like everyone else and for whatever reason, I failed miserably. And finally at one point, I guess around high school, I decided that rather than spend my entire life trying to be something I’m not, I’m going to celebrate the fact that I am different. For whatever reason, that’s just who I am. That’s what I love about the Goth scene; I think a lot of people have a similar story of trying different things, trying to fit in and to find a place for themselves. The Goth scene is sort of like the island of misfit toys. None of us quite make sense, but if you put us all together, we have a wonderful time. There’s a sense of community even though it’s made up of very individual people.

Kynt: There really are a lot of misconceptions out there. People think that Goth people are depressed, socially inept basement dwellers and we’re here to show people that that’s the furthest thing from the truth. You can’t stereotype like that. We want to show that Goth people are intelligent and insightful and just plain fun. That’s what it’s about. It’s just plain fun.

Vyxsin: And the ability to play dress up every single day is obviously fun.

Kynt: Both of us were always into fashion, we’ve always loved clothing. And it gives us a really unique way to express that. We can do a lot of experimenting with fashion, different types of material that the average store doesn’t facilitate.

RE: Well, I’m a Goth wannabe now. You’ve sold me!

Kynt: We’re here to sign you up. Trust me, Lynn, the initiation will be really fun! (Joking, laughing.)

RE: Without giving away anything you can’t discuss, what do you want us to watch for in this season of the show?

Kynt: We definitely think we bring an all new approach to the race, to the game. It’s on its twelfth season now and there’s been a variety of players and a variety of strategies. I think we’re going to play the game like no one else you’ve ever seen. I think a lot of the other teams are going to underestimate us when they see us. They’re going to think, “Man, look at those Goth kids, they’re more concerned with their eyeliner than taking on a roadblock.” But the fact is that they’re not going to realize just how lethal we’re going to be until we’re miles, if not days, ahead of them. We’re kind of like little Gothic Energizer Bunnies. We just don’t stop. We’re stubborn like that, but in a good way. We work very well as a team in real life and we’re going to bring that to the race as well. It’s us against the world, and we’re ready.

Vyxsin: I think that’s definitely something that drew me to this experience. Unlike most reality shows where you’re sort of by yourself, The Amazing Race is teams of two. So the opportunity to have such a special experience as this and to share it with my very favorite person in the whole wide world…I just don’t see how it could get much better than that.

RE: That actually leads into my next question. Did the experience bring you closer together or cause problems?

Kynt: Well, you’re going to have to tune in to find that out. But we foresee it as bringing us closer together as a team, as friends, etc. We’re not looking for The Amazing Race to be our relationship Band-Aid or something. A lot of teams are like, “We’re having trouble in our relationship so let’s go do The Amazing Race.” There’s no trouble here. We’re on the same page, through and through. We’re just looking for the race to perhaps strengthen that bond. So tune in and find out.

Vyxsin: One thing I can say has definitely changed because of this experience is that over the summer before we left, we had a period of time where we were in training. We were trying to get ourselves ready. Especially knowing that historically on the show, a lot of the teams have been athletes. They’re sporty, outdoorsy people and that doesn’t really describe us. But we spent a lot of time running, rock climbing, swimming and just doing all these crazy things we’ve never done. That was really exciting for both of us. Even though we’re together 24/7, we’ve never done some of these things. Like, go for a bike ride together or go jogging in the park. So before the race even started, it was really neat. It added an interesting dynamic to what we already enjoyed doing together.

Kynt: Believe it or not, Lynn, I’m not much of an outdoorsman. (Laughs) I know this comes as a shock. You know, it’s hard to jog on the platform boots. [By this time, I'm laughing out loud with them.] I don’t get to do that very often, but we wanted to make sure we were well prepared and ready for this. We both love this show so much, we really took applying for it seriously.

Vyxsin: We didn’t want to be a joke on the show.

Kynt: Right. We made a point to prepare for a solid month. Vyxsin took me camping for the first time, which was quite traumatic. [They had me laughing again.] It was very difficult applying mascara in the pup tent. Also, her father, as she’s mentioned is a military man and he gave us a week-long boot camp. We went running on obstacle courses and climbing ropes…just a variety of activities that I’d never done before. We wanted to get the pencil as sharp as possible before embarking on the race. So tune in to see if our efforts worked.

RE: Kynt, you have to tell me one thing, did you at least get some platform tennis shoes? (Joking.)

Kynt: (Laughs) Sadly, I had to leave the platforms behind this time. Packing was an ordeal. We’re kind of high maintenance.

Vyxsin: I will say that, to my knowledge, Kynt was the only one on The Amazing Race to bring a flatiron… [I'm laughing so hard by now...]

Kynt: …in the history of the show.

RE: America wants a team to root for. After this conversation, you’re my team; I think you guys are great. But why should the rest of America root for you two?

Vyxsin: Because reality TV has been around for quite some time and there are thing you can expect to see each season, some aspects are a bit formulaic. There really has never been a pair of Goth kids, to my knowledge, on a TV show. Usually, the only time you see people from our subculture, is on a daytime TV show where they are trying to do a makeover to make them not Goth any more. So in an era when you think you’ve seen it all, we really are something different.

RE: Probably the closest I’ve seen is Miami Ink or LA Ink, but that’s not especially Goth, that’s just more the tattoo thing.

Vyxsin: Yeah, that’s the tattoo culture and there’s a lot of overlap there, and we love those guys, but not really so Goth.

Kynt: We really feel like going into this race that we’re going to bring a brand new flavor to it. We’re hoping to get people excited.

RE: What are you planning to do when you watch the show each week?

Kynt: We’re still working that out. We have so many friends we want to enjoy the show with and our families. They’re just so excited for the chance to sit down and watch the show with us and talk about it and everything. But we’re still working the plans out.

RE: Has it been hard to stay quiet about what you went through?

Kynt: Well, we’re kind of private people anyway, so we were never really tempted to spill the beans to our friends. We also, being a team, were able to discuss the race between ourselves. That helped get rid of any temptation to tell other people. It actually became cool, because as we walked around town, we felt like Superman & Wonder Woman and we had this secret identity. We were Amazing Racers, but we couldn’t tell anyone. Then when we got to tell everybody, it was really cool. We just genuinely love the show The Amazing Race. We have so much respect for it. On the one hand, it’s reality TV at its finest. It’s got interpersonal conflict between teams and sometimes within teams. Also, each episode is like National Geographic. You get to see an entirely different nation with its scenery, its landscape, its culture and its people. All right there in your own living room. There’s truly no other show like it. We really have a lot of respect for the creator, Bertram Van Muenster, and the purity of his vision. We love how the show is appropriate literally for all ages. Your children can watch and so can your grandparents and there are not a lot of reality shows like that.

Vyxsin: Yes, the set of the show is the planet. It’s pretty incredible.

Kynt: It’s not just twelve people stuck together in a house; it’s literally a race around the entire globe. I don’t see how they do it. I’m still amazed.

I can’t tell you how much fun these two are. If they are even half as much fun to watch on the show as they are on the phone, they’ll be the stars this season.

If you want to get in touch with Kynt & Vyxsin, they gave me permission to publish their MySpace site addresses. Here they are:

• Kynt’s is http://www.myspace.com/kyntxox
• Their Amazing Race Team site is: http://www.myspace.com/kyntandvyxsin
• Vyxsin’s MySpace is: http://www.myspace.com/vyxsin

And don’t miss the season premiere this Sunday on CBS at 8 pm ET. Then check back here afterwards for the recap.

_{the amazing race, the-amazing-race, Reality TV, reality-tv, Kynt, Vyxsin}