Imagination star of new adventure series
As host of “The Amazing Race,” Phil Keoghan has flown the equivalent of 10 laps around Earth in 2004 alone. But that’s nothing compared to the 4 million miles he’s logged in his life pursuing his own extreme travel quests.
After he nearly drowned in a shipwreck at age 19, Keoghan says he decided he would live to the fullest. This meant thinking up a series of daring if unorthodox challenges and then completing them.
Remember that shot of “Survivor” host Jeff Probst standing on the edge of an active volcano? Keoghan did that years ago — and ate a five-star meal.
“We carried everything up there but the kitchen sink,” recalled Keoghan, 37. “The chef used the heat of the volcano to make the dinner. You cannot buy an experience like that. An experience like that comes from imagination.”
Keoghan likes to say that imagination is currency. And contestants spend that currency like it’s going out of style on the terrific new adventure reality series “No Opportunity Wasted,” airing Sunday nights at 8 on the Discovery channel.
Each week Keoghan ambushes a contestant who has written in describing a self-created challenge that he or she would undertake if given the time and money to do it.
The show’s producers conspire secretly with the contestant’s friends, family and employers to free up 72 hours on that person’s schedule. Then Keoghan shows up, gives the lucky guy or gal a $3,000 budget and starts the clock.
In one show we meet a 32-year-old Michiganer, Shane Platt, whose love for scuba diving is limited to fresh water — he’s terrified of sharks. Platt’s inability to overcome fear seems to be a metaphor for his whole life (dead-end job, low self-esteem). He feels he must swim with the sharks.
Keoghan gets Platt down to the Bahamas, but Platt then has second thoughts.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but you guys get to go to the next thing and you’ll probably forget my name in two weeks,” Platt says. “But I’ve gotta live the rest of my life without a hand … and that’s just the physical aspect. What if this ruins diving for me forever? …
“I don’t know if you’ve done a job you can’t stand every day of your life. That’s what I do … this is my only escape.”
Keoghan turns into Dr. Phil and, in a remarkable moment, gets Platt into the boat.
The day after the Emmy-winning “Amazing Race 5” ended, Keoghan talked about his new show by phone from New York:
Q. How did you select the contestants for “No Opportunity Wasted”?
A. We started advertising on Discovery and got thousands of applications. Unlike other shows, where people’s dreams are handed to them and they literally just have to go out and participate, we came to them with their dreams but then they had to execute them.
Q. Were there any proposals where you looked at it and said, “We can’t do that!”
A. There was one idea I wish we didn’t have to pass on, which was a guy who wanted to climb a Mayan pyramid in high heels dressed in drag.
A lot of people, when they think of fulfilling dreams, they think of the classic ones, like the shark piece you saw. It’s a great piece, but it’s what you would anticipate this show doing. I personally like things that are completely out of the box. There’s one we’ll do about a Jewish rapper who wants to make a music video for his mother.
Q. So you don’t have to have a near-death experience to have a great adventure.
A. Absolutely. With this show I’m saying to people, “Don’t wait for something like that to happen to get out and enjoy life.” There’s a guy (on our show) who wants to play the game of professional ice hockey. He spent months calling around the country, trying to convince a club that he could take part in this challenge.
The real slogan of “NOW” is that “imagination is your currency.” We’re never going to have everything we want or the money we want. But we’re always going to have imagination, and that we can always rely on.