Beauty and the Geek

Joe and Tara were sixth couple to be eliminated from this season of Beauty and the Geek.  The pair had many ups and downs throughout their time on the show, fighting often and then making up again afterwards.  Their often contentious relationship crescendoed until their biggest fight at the Big Bear resort, at which Tara constructed an impassable barrier to separate each person's side of the bed.

Unfortunately, we could not reach Tara to hear her side of things, but Joe was able to take some time to talk to BuddyTV.  He shared with us his insight on his relationship with Tara, whom he likes to call "Big Sister," his side of the expectoratory fight he had with Randi, as well as what he's been up to since filming the show.  Below, you will find an audiofile and a complete transcript of the interview.

This is Debbie at BuddyTV, and I'm talking to Joe from Beauty and the Geek.  Hey, Joe, how's it going?

I'm doing really well.  How are you doing today, Debbie?


I'm good.  So, you know, there's so much that we can talk about and I'm not really quite sure where to begin.

The beginning is usually a good spot.  Thank you all today for having me on.  I really appreciate the opportunity.


Oh yeah, no problem.  Well, actually, I guess I wanted to start talking about your partnership with Tara.  It's unfortunate that we couldn't speak with her today.  So, you guys went through a lot of rough patches, it seemed, and then you'd make up.  But every time you made up, it was kind of like one step forward, two steps back.  Was that just editing?

First off, it's really a shame that Tara couldn't be here today.  I know if she were here, she would be just as excited to talk about this.  I know she's doing well right now.  She's working on a couple of other projects, so I'm sure that's kind of keeping her from being here today.  I wish nothing but the best of Big Sister.

As far as our relationship goes, a lot of that, surprisingly enough, was in the editing.  A lot of that was, you know, making us look a certain way towards each other.  Tara really became Big Sister to me in a lot of different ways.  She was the voice of reason in a lot of incidents and situations.  Her and I really took to looking after each other.  We became a lot stronger in our friendship and being more than just a beauty and the geek, as it were.  Her and I were a lot closer, and her and I's personalities were a lot more alike than a lot of people would like to think.  But when you get two strong personalities together that are so similar, fights are naturally going to happen.  There's naturally going to be discussions on certain issues on certain things.  That's going to happen.  That's going to be the situation.  Tara and I's relationship has actually been very strong.  Her and I have been very strong, trying to encourage each other and being there for each other, you know.  And I honestly feel worse for her than I do for myself because she really got a bum job in the editing.  They made her look a lot worse than she really was, and I felt really, really, really guilty about that.  She really wasn't as bad as everyone makes her out to be.  Tara was definitely the best partner I could have asked for.  She's still Big Sister; she always will be, and I'm grateful that she was there.


I was going to ask you about how she was portrayed.  In her individual confessional interviews, she actually looked kind of mean to you.  How did you react when you watched it?

You know, Tara and I have actually had several discussions about that.  I knew that the editing process wasn't going to be generous to either one of us.  Again, strong personalities, you know.  They can take anything they want out of context.  It was kind of brutal in some of those things, but she was also brutal to my face.  If she had something to say to me, then she was going to say it and that was going to be the end of it.  Tara and I, like I said, had several different conversations about these things.  I don't think any less of her because of it.  We were both victims of a very strange situation that was foreign to us.  Animosities can happen.  But there are no animosities now.  Nothing along those lines.  Tara and I are definitely better for it, and, like I said, our friendship has definitely grown stronger.


That's good to hear.  And about your makeover, you really didn't like it.  Do you want to tell us about that process and, you know, what you would have hoped for?

Granted, I hadn't gone out of my way to watch the show before.  You know, it wasn't something that I really, truly went out of my way to watch on a daily basis.  You know, I knew that there was a makeover, but I figured that in the makeover, they'd be a little more respectful of self.  You know, that they would take some of the things that I had built on over the years, and would turn it around and make it into a...and really build my character up from there.  Instead, going into the makeover process, they were very much, "Well, what you've done is nice, and some of the advice your partner gave you was nice, but we're going to break it all down and do what we think is cool anyway, regardless of anything that you may say or think."  I was hoping they'd be a little more respectful, that they'd be a little more conservative with me than they did.  Going through that was--I don't want to say traumatizing because that's not the right word--but it was definitely something.  I would have gone a lot more conservative with it, myself.


What do you mean by conservative?

But then again, as a human being, in my personality, I'm just very resistant to change.  I don't do change well, and to have all that stripped off in one fell swoop and then all of a sudden replacing it with somebody else's idealistic version of hip and trendy, you know, it was very hard to go through.  It was very to go through that night.  As time went on, I learned ways to keep it up and continue it to a certain extent.  You know, I learned ways to build upon it.  But going through it at first was a very difficult process that I wish upon nobody.


So, what have you kept from your makeover after the show?

I've kept a lot of things.  The haircut, I didn't appreciate how they butchered my hair.  Let's be honest about it.  I didn't appreciate the way they butchered it, so I changed it so that it's a little bit more conservative, a little bit more manageable.  The outrageous Western shirts, there's a time and a place for those.  You know, I've toned down quite a lot, you know.  I've changed my wardrobe from outrageous to more, I guess, conservative, if you will.  You know, I've kept the Western attitude, and I've kept the Western style, but I've made it more acceptable in public.  I've made it less outlandish and more respectable.


So, I've always been curious about how you got to become a cowboy aficionado in the first place.

My entire life, I've been infatuated with America's love of Western culture.  Moreover, I've always had a love affair with Nashville and the country music industry.  For as long as I can remember, I've always been in love with and been around country music.  It's always been something that's been a part of my life.  I couldn't go without it for a week, to tell you the truth.  I've always had that.  Plus, I actualized my dream a couple of years ago by working in the country music industry, in radio, and becoming a voting member of the Country Music Association and that's where a lot of the Western style and culture came from.  I've always been a fan of the singing cowboy era, you know, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, everything along those lines.  I've always been big fans of those.


When I interviewed Randi, I was able to get her side of the story of your big fight with her.  And now it's your turn.  What can you tell us about what happened?

What I will say about it is, in a very crucial moment, when I had an opportunity to extend grace to somebody who I wasn't agreeable with at the time, I lost myself.  I lost sight of the bigger picture, and I regret that.  I regret that to this day that in a moment that was so critical, instead of trying to extend grace to somebody, I did a very vile and heinous action against them, and that's something I have to live with for the rest of my life.  It's not very pleasant, it's not something I'm very proud of.  If you want the facts of the circumstances, effectively what happened is, out of boredom, they tried to play practical joke on my partner, but I didn't see anything practical about it.  Tara had already said on quite a few occasions she was worried about ghosts and haunting in the house.  And even though her and I, Tara and I may not have been getting along, but that's between her and I.  Nobody crosses Big Sister without going through me first.  I didn't appreciate what they were doing.  I thought that had it gone through, there was a possibility it could have caused irrevocable harm, not only on her, but on our friendship.  What's worse?  Standing for what you believe in and being wrong, or the indifference of the righteous man?  I tried to stand for what I believed and stand for my partner, you know, and again, in that situation, I got lost in the moment and I lost myself.  It's something that I've been trying to seek forgiveness from myself for.  You know, it was doing something that I still regret to this day.


Have you and Randi since made up?

Randi and I actually, we haven't spoken since the show, which is really a shame because her and I started out on speaking terms.  Her opinion may have been loud, but she was always wanting to share it, and I was always willing to listen.  We haven't spoken since, and I don't blame her.  After everything, I probably wouldn't want to speak to me either.


This season, there were a whole bunch of twists that they threw at you, and what did you think of those twists?

There was a lot of unanticipated twists in this season that we didn't see coming.  Looking back at it, I guess the easiest thing to say about the entire thing was the twists definitely added something to the show.  I think they added a new level of edge and a new level of competition that previous seasons lacked, for that matter.  I think it was good in a way because it forced us to grow at a much more rapid rate.  It forced us to drop everything immediately and come to each other's aid.  It made us grow closer as a group.  Had we not had the twist at the beginning, I probably wouldn't have gotten to know all the guys the way that I do.  I wouldn't have gotten to know the girls in the way that I do either.  So, there were some good things that did come out of it.  I'm not going to say that it was all bad because it wasn't.


What are your plans now after the show?

Well, I just recently got laid off from my job as a weekend managing editor at a local CBS affiliate.  So right now, I'm kind of unemployed.  Kind of doing the unemployment thing, so I'm trying to figure out what I really want to do with my life.  I really taking this time to do a little bit of reevaluation, spend some time reading the Bible, and figuring out what God wants for me in this life.  To be friggin' honest with you, I wouldn't mind doing another television show.  That would be kind of fun.  We'll see what happens.  It's not in my hands at this point.

Something that I am working on right now is, the guys from this season are working on a project called Geeks Giving Back.  What it is, is we're putting several personal items from the show on Ebay.  All the proceeds made from these charity auctions will be donated, 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated directly to several charities, including St. Jude's Children's Hospital, the Humane Society of the United States and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  And my cowboy hat will be going up starting on Tuesday for St. Jude's, and I'm hoping to raise a little bit of money for them, you know, and seeing what we can do.  For more information, people are welcome to check out my MySpace, which will have all the item listings and more information on the charities that we'll be donating the money to.

-Interview conducted by Debbie Chang
(Image courtesy of the CW)