TV2'S Emmy-winning reality show, The Amazing Race, has seen
its share of eclectic contestants come and go over the
series' 13 seasons: beauty pageant winners and bickering
married couples, jock siblings and even little people.
But this year's installment marks the first time that a
so-called "Hollywood star" has been included in its
contestant ranks - even if that famous face hardly counts as
a household name.
Enter Mike White, the actor-screenwriter-producer-director
who's best known for writing hit comedies, including Nacho
Libre and School of Rock (in which he also plays a supporting
role).
White, a former producing partner of Jack Black, calls
himself a "scholar" of the multiple Emmy-winning reality show
and a self-professed "weird reality fanatic", who began his
quest to become an Amazing Race contestant during the
Hollywood writers strike in late 2007.
"I couldn't write. I'd been watching for so long, I was just
like, `I want to go on the show!'," White recalled.
"I made a tape with a friend and sent it in. It wasn't like I
tried to pull rank. We just sent in an audition and they
called."
In fact, White places his burning ambition to be on The
Amazing Race right up there with his abiding goals in life.
"It's definitely on the bucket list," White said over a plate
of roasted vegetables.
"Do The Amazing Race, do a few movies, die happy."
But that doesn't quite explain how the whippet-thin Hollywood
hot-shot - whose boyish physical presence and unblinking
demeanour can't help but bring to mind the slightly demented
naif-stalker he portrayed in 2000's oddball dramedy Chuck
& Buck - wound up on the physically arduous,
globe-spanning obstacle course/time trial, which kicks off
its 14th season on Sunday night.
Before White could take his place at the starting line, he
had to persuade producers to cast him despite his
professional pedigree; The Amazing Race largely had resisted
anything resembling "celebreality" stunt casting until White
came along (one exception being the casting of Survivor
alumni Rob and Amber in season seven).
Then, White's original partner, film-maker Jon Kasdan,
dropped out during semifinal call-backs.
And in a turn of events that surprised White as much as
anyone, the show's casting director helped choose Kasdan's
replacement: White's father, Mel, a 69-year-old documentary
film-maker, author and leader in the gay evangelical
Christian movement - one of the oldest contestants to appear
on the show.
"I thought I'd collapse," Mel said of his expectations at the
outset. "I thought when Michael said go, I'd fall down dead."
As well, Mike White had to overcome his own professional
misgivings.
"You feel a little weird as a writer of scripted television
for many years to say you're a fan of reality TV. You feel
like a traitor. But I am a total fan.
"There are life lessons that can be derived from reality
television. It was a . . . blast."
It's hard not to harbour certain suspicions about Mike
White's motivations - namely, that his appearance is some
kind of Andy Kaufman-esque gag - especially if you are at all
familiar with White's view-askew comedy.
Plumbing the aesthetic of discomfort for laughs as well as
pathos, White's well-meaning but often dim-witted characters
tend to find their bliss only after coming through the fire
of ritual humiliation (see: Jack Black as a doofus music
teacher in School of Rock or Molly Shannon as a misguided
animal rights zealot in White's directorial debut, Year of
the Dog).
But to hear him tell it with wide-eyed sincerity, White
didn't do the show for greater fame.
He wanted to go on in large part to shake himself from
complacency.
"No matter what your job is, to be kicked out of that bubble
is a healthy thing. You're asked to do things you'd never do.
And the whole time it's slightly embarrassing, slightly
humiliating. You get over yourself."
When Kasdan suffered what White jokingly refers to as a
"nervous breakdown" during a battery of psychological tests
administered by show producers, White already had won the
admiration of Lynne Spillman, casting director for The
Amazing Race.
She gauged him as someone who "was doing it purely for the
love of the show and not for any kudos or fame".
After the two became chummy, White invited Spillman to a
party at his house, where she met the openly bisexual
film-maker's friends and family members with an eye towards
casting a replacement.
Which is when she met Mel White, a prize-winning documentary
producer and best-selling writer who ghost-wrote the
autobiographies of religious firebrands Billy Graham, Jerry
Falwell and Pat Robertson.
After undergoing three decades of "anti-gay" therapy in
conjunction with the church, Mel White came out of the closet
in 1994 with his autobiography, Stranger at the Gate: To Be
Gay and Christian in America.
"He was fascinating: opinionated, complex, sarcastic,"
Spillman said. "I didn't realise he was Mike's father at
first. I tried to be cool, but I was so excited. Mike said,
`You gotta be kidding! He's the only person I'm not funny
around'."
Added Mike White: "To be perfectly honest, I'm competitive. I
wanted to win. As much as my dad is spry for someone who's
almost 70, he is still 20 years older than the next oldest
person on the show."
Nonetheless, both were convinced that the experience would be
positive and provide for plenty of father-son bonding that
occasional lunches and cross-country visits can't
approximate.
Still, boundaries had to be established upfront.
"Right at the beginning, he told me, `Dad, don't go aggro on
me'. I had to look it up. What's `aggro'?," recalled Mel
White from his home in Virginia.
"I thought it was agriculture. But it's aggro-vated. He knows
I'm a gay Christian activist. I'm aggravated half the time!"
• The Amazing Race screens on Sundays, 7.30pm on TV2.
