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EXCLUSIVE: Paying for Cabs and Penalties with Mark and Michael of The Amazing Race
by Reg Seeton
 Season 14 of The Amazing Race is kicking into overdrive as the global footrace is turning into a dog-eat-dog competition for the million dollar prize. After incurring a four hour penalty in last week's leg of The Amazing Race, their second penalty in the competition, stuntmen brothers, Mike and Mark Munoz, began the next leg to China far behind the Amazing Race pack. Despite the odds against them, Mark and Michael hit the ground running as the other teams took advantage of the head start by touching down in China in a country where Tammy and Victor had the edge over everyone given their fluency in Mandarin and the ability to speak directly to cab drivers.
Although brothers Mark and Michael tried to get the edge on the other teams throughout the race, it was the little things that got them into trouble by hiding tools and bartering for a free cab ride in Thailand, which goes against the rules in The Amazing Race playbook. Although Mark and Michael made it to China behind the other teams, they still had to complete a speed bump challenge as further penalty for their Amazing Race crimes. In fact, Mark and Michael were forced to perform Amazing Race "speed bump" community service when they both had to soap up and wash the hair of two old ladies on the streets of Guilin, China before heading off to wrangle fish with the help of a couple of diving Cormorants. And while they were behind the other teams for the entire race, Mark and Michael never gave up and were "in" the race until they hit the mat in front of show host, Phil Keoghan, where they became the latest team to be eliminated from The Amazing Race.
The next day the dynamic and determined stunt brothers called into The Deadbolt HQ to gives us the lowdown on their time in the race, how they tried to overcome the odds of a four-hour penalty, how easy it is to overlook things, and what they learned while running The Amazing Race.
THE DEADBOLT: Did you guys know you were out of it even before you started the leg?
 MARK MUNOZ: No, I always thought there’s a shot. I’m the ultimate optimist. I always know there’s a chance. You know, I play that game. I’m a professional jockey as well as a stuntman, so I know what it’s all about winning and losing. You always have a chance.
MICHAEL MUNOZ: I’ll tell you, you never know what’s going to happen. We’ve seen in the past that sometimes the first goes to last and out and vice versa.
THE DEADBOLT: So did they tell you before the race that you couldn’t sell things? What was the rule?
MARK: I mean there’s several pages of rules, "dos and don’ts and bylaws," and everything else. I mean it’s not that bad, they just tell you the laws. But when you’re in the heat of the moment, racing for a million dollars around the world, sometimes moral issues or heat of the passion takes over and you just think, instinctively, you’re right for what might give you an advantage.
THE DEADBOLT: What’s the fine line between throwing teams off and getting penalized?
 MARK: [laughs] I don’t know, maybe get arrested.
MICHAEL: I mean, not paying the cabs. There was that thought in my mind. You know, ‘Hey, he’s going to call the police if we don’t take care of our cab, because he’s got no idea we’re doing a TV show.’ And also, of course it’s a matter of doing the right thing.
THE DEADBOLT: How would you guys have played it differently?
MARK: Actually, you know what? Between the money and the cab thing, what people don’t realize that watch these shows, and some of these physical tasks look like, ‘Oh, my God! I could never do that show.’ Believe it or not, the taxi rides and the money management is actually a very important part of the game. And I just want to let anybody in the future who wants to be on the game, you better be a pretty good accountant and have good communication skills in foreign languages.
THE DEADBOLT: How strange was it out there with the Cormorants and catching fish? It looked really weird.
 MICHAEL: I tell you, that was a hoot. I had a ball with that, actually. And I was watching the episode to see how difficult a time everybody was having, and they didn’t kind of show us really doing that, so I mean it was really kind of easy. It was fun watching those things dive for the fish and bring them up without swallowing them all of the way. I had a lot of fun with that, myself.
THE DEADBOLT: How was the speed bump? You guys looked like pros.
MICHAEL: [laughs] Well, our dad’s a hairdresser, so we grew up with our dad cutting our hair and whatnot. So it was easy.
MARK: That kind of challenge was like getting up and brushing your teeth, you just kind of play through it.
THE DEADBOLT: What did you guys make of the situation with Luke and Margie and Jen and Kisha at the end?
MICHAEL: Well, that was just a matter of heat of the moment, the passion, the 'I gotta get there first' kind of thing, and we had no idea that had taken place. But yeah, it’s pretty understandable. You’re racing for a million bucks.
THE DEADBOLT: Did you guys meet up with them afterwards? Was there any tension?
 MARK: We never even knew that existed, that little spat, until I watched it last night. So that was all brand new to us. And like I say, you race for a million dollars, you do whatever you have to to get an advantage.
THE DEADBOLT: Which team was your biggest competitor?
MARK: All of the teams were good competitors. I didn’t see any extremely strong or weaknesses. The only thing that I can say was there were a few teams that just kind of rolled with it and there were other teams who were kind of like leaders that liked to take the helm. Like Tammy and Vic, they really liked to be in charge. The airline stewardesses, they kind of kept to themselves. They never grouped in with the other group. So everybody kind of created their own personality among the teams. So it was kind of a 50-50 - half of the teams were leaders and half of them were followers.
MICHAEL: Mark and I were just kind to everybody, you know? We tried just to be knowledgeable and acknowledgeable to everybody.
THE DEADBOLT: How easy is it to overlook things on the race? It looked like it all started for you guys back in Siberia when you were trying to find that house.
 MARK: You know, they shoot thirty hours of footage probably, a week, and cut it down to forty minutes. So unfortunately the viewers don’t get to see the true deep, dirty, ugly secrets and maps and extra information that we get. On that leg we got a map that was turned inside out at the workshop and the house that needed repair. And that’s why when the other teams grouped up with us, everybody was lost. It wasn’t just us. We were there for three hours. So through the whole game there’s situations that come up. Yes, it’s really easy to overlook or make a [mistake].
When Vic and Tammy got lost in Bran, Romania going up the wrong mountain. There’s an episode when we were in Austria, Tammy and Vic, where we all had to run four miles down the hill or do that paragliding. Kris actually ran two miles out of his way up a mountain and made his way back. I mean he’s in amazing physical fitness guy anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for him. But there are a lot of these things that people don’t see. So all through all of the legs, of all of the pit starts, there are crazy things that are really easy to miss. I mean that’s what the whole game is about. You have to be very sharp and very lucky.
MICHAEL: Yeah, little nuances. It’s really easy to miss a red and yellow striped flag and keep going. And of course there are markers from other races and local people have with other things, like Tammy and Vic experienced in Romania in climbing up the mountain. So it’s really easy to get off track.
THE DEADBOLT: Did it all come down to cab drivers, basically?
MARK: You know what? We got pretty lucky quite a few times. We had these great cab drivers that just loved being part of the action and thankfully most of the time they were pretty keen on where they were at. I mean there were other times where other teams got very keen drivers who were happy to be driving them, but with the wrong directions. So a lucky cab driver was very important to the game.
 MICHAEL: And it’s funny, I mean it’s like anywhere you go, whether it’s in New York, Florida, Siberia, Romania, your local cab driver doesn’t necessarily know his ins and outs of every landmark. So it’s really the luck of the draw with the cabs.
THE DEADBOLT: What was the biggest thing you learned from the race?
MICHAEL: The biggest thing I learned coming away from this race was that, for one - no matter where you go, people are amazing. People are wonderful and it’s an incredible world we live in and I learned just how well and how good my life is.
MARK: This is the first time I ever used this, but I feel like Dorothy clicking my heels saying, ‘There’s no place like home,’ especially in places like Jaipur, India and talking to people in Phuket about tsunamis and seeing some of the devastation and seeing the gypsies in Romania. It’s such an eye opener of what goes on and what a lot of people never see, or realize that's going on in other parts of the world, and how fortunate they should be to be where they are.
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