Big Brother 14: The Yak Chats with Mike “Boogie” Malin

Last night’s eviction of Mike “Boogie” Malin was one of those evenings on Big Brother where it polarized fans – either you were happy to see him leave or you were upset that he missed his chance to defend his title. There’s usually very little feeling in between about the Season 7 winner. Boogie is aware of the impression that he leaves on the viewers, and took some time to sit down with YakkityYaks today to talk about his thoughts on who’s an idiot, if he regrets taking any money during the competitions and, of course, the mastermind himself, Ian.


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OK, so I must know…now that you’ve had time to process Ian being the one behind your eviction, what are your thoughts?
Mike “Boogie”: I’m impressed. I thought Ian was just a super fan; a young kid who was happy to be there. I gave him very little credit as far as game play, and I was 100% completely fooled. I salute him; I tip my cap to him; I love him still the same. It sent chills down my spine. I had no idea.

Several times, you and Frank had conversations about if there was a chance that Ian was betraying you. You even mentioned that it would be a great play of his. Do you still feel that way?
Mike “Boogie”: I’m glad the way this went down. If I was evicted simply because Joe was too much of an idiot to join us, and I lost [by a vote of] 4-3 because of that, I would have been bitter. This way, I’m super proud of Ian. I loved his Goodbye Message to me. It gave me chills. I’ve been saying it’s like “Primal Fear” – there’s an innocent choir boy accused of murder and then at the end [it shows] he planned the whole thing. He fools Richard Gere. That’s exactly how I felt.

I’m going to be frank with you (no pun intended): I watched past seasons and I was never a Boogie fan. You started changed me around this year. Were you trying to change your style from previous seasons?
Mike “Boogie”: I realized I’m not one of the more popular people. I play an aggressive style. I play a villainous style. When I’m down, I’m down, and I express myself sometimes in negative ways. I can honestly say this time around was a little different for me. I did stay loyal to Frank, and we fought as hard as we could, but everyone thought we knew each other and that was some sort of twist because we were so tight. We were just in trouble pretty much every week. If Frank didn’t win HOH, we were fighting for our lives and I knew that it was going to be really hard for me to go far once the twist happened.

Speaking of the twist, you were the only Coach to not hit the reset button this season.
Mike “Boogie”: Did you say I was the only person not to hit the button? [loud bursts of laughter] That’s even more impressive because I knew that Dan pressed it, I figured Janelle pressed it, but I’ll give it to that little Britney, she’s a good actress. I thought she had enough confidence in Shane and that she did not press it, so I’m kind of surprised that she pressed it, but I was sure the other two did. [Boogie had the most surprising reaction to our question here. He sounded GENUINELY convinced that Britney did not press the reset button, as she claimed.]

What did you think of both Britney’s goodbye message to you and that Dan’s vote to evict were basically as payback for Janelle?
Mike “Boogie”: I loved Britney’s goodbye message, for one thing. I thought that was awesome. When I do the goodbyes, I can expect them in return to come back to me, so I thought it was great TV. I’m a monster player in this game that they all needed to get out. I was going for them. They were going for me. I got Janelle. They got me. Frank is going to get one of them. That’s just the nature of this game. I think it would have been good to play with Dan a bit more, but people were very threatened by Frank and me, so we had to go.

It seems like a lot of the players turned on you when you went for the $10,000 rather then safety or HOH. How do you feel about that? Do you think that was your ultimate mistake in your game plan?
Mike “Boogie”: Absolutely not. I have no regrets for the $10,000 or any other comp that I played. At the time I completely trusted the Silent Six Alliance, which seems so ridiculous to say now, but I’m happy that I took the prizes. With the way things had gone, it would have been an uphill battle for me to win this game. I basically left with 3rd place money. I’ll make more than the person who finishes in 3rd place, so if I can’t sit in the final 2 seats, I’m ecstatic that I took the money.

However, a lot of other players (like Britney and Ian) talked about you going for the money.
Mike “Boogie”: There was always a thing about me having money in my real life and them not. You’re always going to deal with that when you go on these types of shows. I took $16,000 away from the experience. As soon as the twist happened, I knew it would be almost impossible for me to win the $500,000 again, so now I don’t have to sit there all summer. I can go be with my family and friends, and enjoy the rest of my summer and everyone else has to be on the Jury. One person is going to leave happy and eight others are going to leave unhappy.

Focusing on the Coaches, you really did have a tight team together to go against the newbies, but then you broke down after the reset. What was the reason behind that?
Mike “Boogie”: Janelle was playing such a nasty game. One strategy that I learned by playing with rookies again, which I haven’t done in 11 years, was if you got to somebody first and you said that somebody said something about them, they believed it. I kind of forgot that you could do that, and I wasn’t going to stoop to that level. Janelle really bought into that game this year, and she couldn’t be trusted. The person I disliked the most in the House was Joe, and for some reason, Janelle kind of didn’t put much stock in Wil and Ashley, so she sort of used Joe as her Number One guy. They disgusted me so much. That week, no one was willing to put up one of their own players. I told Janelle, “OK, you want to work together? Put up one of your guys,” but she wouldn’t do it.

What was your favorite experience from the whole summer?
Mike “Boogie”: Voting out Janelle.

Was that a personal or strategic decision?
Mike “Boogie”: It would typically be strategic, but because of the way she was badmouthing me, I felt really, really satisfied not only in voting her out, but getting all those people together to get her out. It took a lot of work, it saved Frank, and it got out Janelle, so to me that was the most satisfying.

Who did you have the most trouble reading in the House?
Mike “Boogie”: Ian. [laughs] I was obviously the most wrong about Ian, but as far as the person that I never really knew what was up was Joe. He’s a classic power chaser. For me, last night, I wouldn’t have wasted my speech time on him, but I really thought I had three votes and I just needed his. I played a sympathy card for two days, and I really thought I might be able to pull on his heartstrings a little bit by mentioning his family, but ultimately with what Ian had going on, that clearly didn’t matter. Don’t get it confused; I’m certainly not saying he’s some smart player. He’s basically an idiot.

If Frank and Ian can’t get to the Final 2, who would you like to see make it there?
Mike “Boogie”: I think Dan would totally deserve it. If Dan sits in the Final 2 seats against anyone but Frank, he’ll win. If you want my pick of someone who I think might sneak up, it’s Danielle. She might be a classic 2nd-placer, like a Porsche or an Erica. I do think Danielle might find her way to one of those final 2 seats.

Why were you interested in trading Jenn when you were still a Coach?
Mike “Boogie”: Jenn to me was playing the classic 2nd place game – stay out of the fray, play a decent social game, and float to the end – but you can’t stand up to get the votes. There’s no speech you can give that will talk people into giving you the vote. I didn’t want a player like that, especially in a cast of rookies. Perhaps in an All-star season you can bring someone like that who can talk their way into it, but if a floater is sitting against someone who won 5 competitions, it’s not going to happen.

Did you know that you have a Twitter account now?
Mike “Boogie”: I didn’t realize that.

Before we go, I wanted to tell you that you had a very classy exit last night.
Mike “Boogie”: Thank so much! I appreciate your time!

Big Brother 14: The Yak Chats with Ashley Iocca

As the second casualty of the double eviction, Ashley Iocca was available to answer questions to members of the media before heading off to sequester. Ashley was evicted after Ian won HOH and nominated Frank and Ashley for eviction. Frank was able to save himself with the Power of Veto, but Ashley was left on the block with a silent Joe. The Yak was lucky enough to get to poke at Ashley’s brain before she headed off to the jury house. Did we find more than unicorns and lollipops? Check out our brief interview below. Per protocol, we were only able to submit a few of our questions, but we appreciate all of your suggestions in our forum and on twitter!

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The Yak: Ashley, at what point in the game did you think that going with Boogie and Frank’s side of the house would benefit you? Do you regret that or do you still think that was the move for you?

Ashley: It was last week…I decided that I didn’t want to just be a floater anymore and I wanted to be a part of a Team. I felt like they were just going to pick the floaters off and that’s why I made my decision. I hate to have regrets, but yes.

The Yak: Were you surprised that Ian put you on the block after he made his crush on you very apparent in the house?

Ashley: I was extremely surprised and it hurt me. I think he’s just a puppet for Dan. I hope he’s happy for what he did to me.

The Yak: Was your back injury real or did you use it as a strategy to get a little more time in the house? Same thing with Frank, were your feelings for him real or were you trying to remain in the house?

Ashley: Back pain was very real…not strategy. Very real. In terms of Frank, yes, it was strategy.

The Yak: If you could go back and change just one thing that might have given you a different outcome, what would it be? Would you have rather had a different coach?

Ashley: I would have played my role as a ‘floater’ longer in the game…and hopefully till the end. In terms of the coach…I initially wanted Dan as a coach, but now I don’t. It’s a very tough question. There are a lot of factors to consider.

The Yak:At the end of the day, was Big Brother what you expected it to be? How did it end up being different from your initial impressions?

Ashley: It was all that and more.