OtherLevelJ

JB was awesome to work with to be honest. I thought he was a real cool dude that was good at what he did, though I can see why the lightheartedness would put some people off who preferred a more somber Halloween vibe. As far as judges go, can ANYBODY be a more appropriate judge than Elvira Mistress of the Dark? Nobody has nicer legs, that's for sure. I mean I hate to make it seem like that's the most interesting thing there is about Cassandra Peterson because it's so not, but she is a preternaturally attractive woman. The camera does NOT do her justice.

Thanks for the compliments and Yes! you have no idea how vindicated I feel reading Internet comments about the show. While many people are crediting The UnderBAKErs with practically ruining the show, for the most part they are being incredibly kind and consistent with their compliments towards me. I can't say I hate it either. I mean you all saw the crap I put up with. I went into that situation with my eyes wide open expecting SOME sort of fuckery, but I didn't expect two teammates who seemed like they were programmed to ceaselessly and baselessly criticisize and complain about everything I did-even the stuff we would plan out and agree to like the size of the pumpkin-and try to instigate a fight at every turn and overact like anything I said was literally Hitler. It was a bizarre and uncomfortable gas lighting, and if it was all staged then I think the plan backfired when I refused to play the Defend Your Ego game. As to the question of how the teams are assembled, all I got for you is a big nothing burger. I had never met nor heard of either of them. That's not a dig or anything. I just don't know a lot of bakers in Boston or sugar yankers from New York.

I'm sorry but you have to be more specific:) For realsies though every single challenge. Every. Single. Challenge. Not once were they happy with anything I did. Not once did they think their contribution was anything less than perfect. Not once. Every. Single. Challenge. The most egregious example was the Medusa's New Do small scare where they told me the pumpkin was the worst part. I personally didn't agree and judges didn't either.

One thing that HAS surprised me about all this is the number of people who are put off by the uneven math. Yup, it's a little weird. $13333 for each winner, minus taxes (there's another twist:). I find it a little amusing that the uneven numbers throw so many people off (myself included btw). Also, the way they seem to fetishize the amount like its fifty million instead of fifty thousand . . . I get budgetary restrictions but these days if your prize pool isn't ridiculous then you shouldn't lead with it imo. I certainly wasn't there for the money. Clearly I was there for the self-esteem boost and the team building:) As far as the creative decisions go, I got less than 0% creative control. I don't mind the give and take of teamwork at all but there was absolutely no give with those two. If I had an idea it would get shot down and 'out voted'. They would paint my work black if they didn't toss it off the riser when I wasn't looking. And I didn't spend a lot of time looking because apparently carving pumpkins is a lot more time consuming than pulling sugar or cutting cake because for some reason I didn't feel like I had an extra hour to cry and create drama and make executive decisions about things that were not my area of expertise. The amount of my time they spent telling me how much they didn't think I had time to finish was mind-boggling

Congrats to the James and Al and Santosh for winning with an incredible piece. Yeah, they should have been competing against the Crypt Cookers but holy cow you should have seen the stage light they had shining through the window. Absolute gorgeosity! And that pumpkin werewolf! I wish I had been allowed to work on something half as cool as that. Great job all around imo. Well gang, is everybody happy that the Sugar Psychos won? I sure was, because I honestly wouldn't have wanted to win with that team. I didn't feel like there would be honor in it. Feel free to challenge that, but I think it's fair to say. On a side note, I would, however, like to take an opportunity to toot my horn a little. I carved a giant assed centipede in 45 minutes and we won a challenge with it. And this might just be my own bias talking, but I think we may have even won it legitimately (scale, scale, SCALE!). Anyway, please pardon me if it was smug to brag. It wasn't a season of victories for me if you can relate:)

Yup, it's really me. How did I put up with it? Well, it seemed clear from the beginning that the name of the game was Antagonize The Big Dumb Redneck From Podunk Georgia Until He Says Or Does Something Mean That We Can Edit To Make Him Look Like He Was The Jerk. Either that or my so called teammates were completely insane. I mean who acts like that? One of the fundamental tenets in Mike Caro's Book of Poker Tells is that you find out what your opponent wants you to do and then you do the opposite. I was there to carve pumpkins and make art and to maybe get some attention to my work so that I can provide better for my kid. I wasn't there to score points or make myself look smarter that a 24 year old. It wasn't about ego. So I just gritted my teeth and rangered on. Oh yeah and I'm a YUUUGGGEE peace-loving hippy. It's a big thing with me:)

I appreciate you complimenting my writing, especially since there is a missing 'to' in the quote:)