Raul

yeah I don't get it, they make it sound like "their" mom could really use the money, yet this guy has had plenty of acting jobs in the past and the future, so I can't believe he needs the money. It's hilarious that all these friends they visit know him by raul.

Hilarious thing is I know about this guy. He's a pretty seasoned actor that works on pretty much everything shooting up here in San Francisco. He even made a reference to his buddy Carl Marino - who he claims is a private investigator and supposedly owned the mexican restaurant they tried to hide the case at. Carl is actually another actor up here in San Fran - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3450504/. In fact when the cops were waving his picture and file around town, it was just a print out from his imdb resume.

So this is a pretty hilarious show for those of us in the loop.

His acting roles are independent work and extra with maybe 1 line at best. He's clearly not hit it big in acting, if that's what any of you are thinking.

My dad now has 3 films he's got credit for here on IMDb. He's not an actor, he's a million miles from being an actor, he just has a friend who likes making independent films. I turned down 2 roles myself.

Live in California, it's your choice. My friend was in a Bollywood film last year that had a scene in Sacramento. I took a film appreciation class in high school in San Francisco and half the class had been extras in films or TV. Hell my teacher had a line in the film The Longest Day, he wasn't a freaking actor.


Here's my guess how it went down. Raul is trying to get into TV, he'll take what he can get. He found out about applications for the pilot, he jumped on it. A lot of games shows get low level actors to play as contestants when they're getting started, not because it's fake, but because it takes awhile to hammer out the kinks and I think they'd prefer someone they can "handle" a little easier the first time out. Doesn't make the challenge less real.

Shows I know that have done this:

Cash Cab
"whatever number" ways to leave a game show
Million Dollar Money Drop
That Fox show with the lie detector that last half a season, I don't remember the name.
Fear Factor

For those who are new to the whole reality tv genre, there's a name we call these "contestants" and that is "mactors/mactresses" (a portmanteau of model + actor/actress). These reality TV show contestants, especially if they're from California, take these opportunities to get their face out there and try to milk their fifteen minutes of fame. Adrian or Raul is a prime example.

Eventually, like most reality tv show watchers, you tend to no longer take anyone from California on a reality TV show seriously.