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Today's interview with Charlie marks the halfway point of my Survivor Gabon cast interviews. Re-listening to my conversations and condensing them based upon my notes from June has been a fascinating process. As I mentioned at the start, I'm anxious to see how those translate to the actual game (and it's been difficult enough to stick to my pre-game notes and impressions, since we did see the first episode play out).

While I welcome criticism and it certainly is a healthy part of journalism, and I'm used to the occasional angrily worded message, one message I received about these cast member analysis pieces was particularly interesting, especially since it was sent anonymously from someone in Chicago:

"..first of all why don't you tell the truth about the contestants... you are a guy sitting behind a computer writing SHIT about all these people the game hasn't even started... Dan is the fucking CRAZY one.. Susie.. cant shut the fuck up in her interviews... Matty has way more of a go then anyone else.. and Kelly is a smart beautiful young girl that prolly didn't like you cause you were a asshole..and I heard she had something in her eye the whole time u were interviewing her.. SO WHY DONT U GO tell the fucking truth to America..about urself.. ur white trash.. and Corinne.. on the bottom.. ? and Paloma and charley and susie on top...you like to judge a book by its cover..thats prolly why u picked all the ugly people.. cuZ u could never get a pretty girl.. FAGGOT"

I think that message communicates "the fucking truth to America" better than I could. It's also interesting because I didn't mention Chicagoan Kelly Czarnecki getting something in her eye in my interview with her, and since no one else on the planet would have known that, the message (which had an Illinois-based IP address, which I checked because I was so curious) is either her writing in the third person, or is from a friend she shared that random detail with and who's defending her. I can understand and even sympathize with either possibility. It is odd to me to think that some of the cast members are actually reading and watching themselves be analyzed, whether it's what I'm writing, what Jeff Probst has to say, or what fans are discussing on message boards.

Still, since the eye irritation is getting blamed for Kelly's not-exactly-pleasant disposition and not-exactly-stimulating answers during our interview, and because I believe in transparency, here's that exchange, which actually came at the conclusion of our interview, 11 minutes into the 12 minute and 20 second recording. Judge for yourself whether I was callous and should have called for an ambulance instead of continuing to be an asshole:

Andy Dehnart: "Anything you want people to know sort of about you going into this game? How, you know, besides what you've already mentioned, like, about yourself or the way you're -- how they might perceive you, or anything like that? Can you anticipate someone's reaction to you in advance and say, here's what they should know about me?"

Kelly Czarnecki: "Well, that I'm very independent, I'm competitive by nature. And, um. Hold on, there's something in my eye."

Andy: "Lots of bugs flying around." (chuckle)

Kelly: "Yeah. Um. (pause) I'm creative, like my creative outlook on things. Positive. Very optimistic. (brief crosstalk) Some people, like, portray me as a bitch, but just because I'm, like, honest."

Andy: "And that--do you worry about that, like, your honesty? Are you going to try to..."

Kelly: "I don't take anything personally. If you take things personally you're screwed."

Andy: "So just be yourself?"

Kelly: "Just be yourself. I'm always myself. Successful. Always willing to take a risk, to succeed and push forward."

Andy: "Excellent. Well, good luck pushing forward through the next 39 days in the game."

Kelly: "Thank you. Yeah, don't you wish you were me?"

Andy: "Uh, I don't know! (laughs)"

Kelly: "Oh my god, it's very crazy!"

Andy: "I'm enjoying this part of it."

Kelly: "Chilling in the shade?"

Andy: "Exactly, yeah."

And that's where our conversation ended. Of course, by posting this (the transcript itself makes a clear argument for the necessity of editing), I'm probably asking for more criticism, and that's okay.

That response, however, makes me curious what you non-cast members think so far. Are these pre-season interviews (here and elsewhere) a good way to judge how people will play the game? Or how good the season will be? Or is it unfair, especially when there are insects involved? Share your thoughts on Facebook, whether you're a fan, a hater, or a cast member who doesn't take things personally.

Like Dan Kay, Survivor Gabon cast member Charlie Herschel is a lawyer from the northeast. Unlike Dan, however, Charlie is a student of the game who's watched it since the first season. Because of that and for many other reasons, he actually resembles Survivor China winner Todd Herzog. (I even accidentally typed "Todd" a few times while writing this.)

Charlie's biggest obstacle both in the game and even in getting cast for it seems to involve other people's perception of him, and that includes comparisons to season 15's winner. During our conversation, Charlie asked, "Do you think I look like Todd? That was the casting people's biggest concern. They were like, 'We can't have you, you're Todd.' That was the only question I ever had to answer: Why aren't you Todd?" He said casting even had him put on a vest to see if he looked like Todd, even though Charlie wouldn't ever wear "skinny jeans and a vest."

He pointed out that he's really "a totally different person": "Todd's a Mormon, I don't believe in religion"; Todd is more confident whereas Charlie is more "under the radar"; Charlie is older, a lawyer and not a "stewardess"; and is tall and athletic, whereas "Todd is kind of like a puny midget with a mullet." (That description still cracks me up.)

Still, Charlie acknowledged looking somewhat like Todd, and said, "At the end of the day, I do think Todd and I are very similar. I think he could have gone to Penn, become a lawyer, done everything I've done. So it was really hard trying to convince them that I wasn't Todd when I did think that I was a little bit like him, and only now am I allowed to say that I do like Todd."

Charlie talks ridiculously fast and was full of energy. He didn't conceal his extreme enthusiasm, nor do I think he really could. While he's very friendly and engaging to talk to, it's not hard to imagine that some of his tribemates might find his liveliness and non-stop talking to be insufferable rather than charming. He seemed to recognize that: "My biggest concern is that these people are going to eat me up. I'm so nervous. They walk around with these dagger eyes. No one's smiled at anyone," he said.

Charlie was recruited, and although he's never applied to the show, it's not because he doesn't watch. In fact, he's watched since the first season, and said that "everyone in my life knows that I'm a super, super-duper fan." He just equates applying to the show to playing the lottery, an essentially pointless task, and thus never applied. However, Micronesia and Vanuatu cast member Eliza Orlins was casting at his law school, and people told her to find Charlie.

As a result of being a fan, he clearly gets the fundamentals of Survivor. "I'm not sure if there is a golden rule book for how you should play this game. People who do well go in flexible," he said. "The thing I'll need to do is tone it down and be less paranoid, be less aaah!, and make people perceive that I'm comfortable--but I don't think I'll ever be comfortable in this game." Discussing authenticity, he said, "trust is the only thing you can have in this game, and I think that, it's really important to be yourself to the extent that you can."

However, some of the discussions of strategy were contradictory. "I want to be like the gay, white, athletic, male Cirie," he said, but later he said, "I'm a follower; I'm the furthest thing from a leader." Cirie, of course, was a pretty strong leader. And at various points, he described his strategy as involving possibly disparate things like being "the social butterfly" and "flying under the radar."

Similarly, he told me he was "a whole ball of nerves," in part because production asked the cast members to bring and wear their work clothes, thus upending his strategy of lying about his profession and pretending to be a math teacher instead of a lawyer--even though he also said that "being authentic and being yourself" is important, a contradiction he later acknowledged.

The challenges he identified involve the social game and, again, how other people perceive him. Although he's run seven marathons, becoming a runner as a senior in college when he was "obese," he doesn't appear to be athletic. "I don't know how many guys you've talked to here, but, like, their muscles are gigantic," Charlie said. "In order to compete with that, I think I need to step it up and say, hey, I have endurance, I can compete as well."

Charlie's also worried about how fellow cast members will react to him and others. "I'm not used to being around people who aren't used to being around diversity. So I think that's going to be a big challenge for me," he said. "I might be the first gay person that a lot of people meet ... and I'm really concerned how I'm going to handle that, because I take acceptance for granted."

Listen to him talk about those kinds of challenges, his athleticism, Todd, and his strategy: